do you trap thru the ice later

Yeah I'm gonna be all winter long

Couple more today. Pulled all but a few traps set for a beaver damage job so probably end of it for me till December; maybe.

I only have 4 DPs out right now. With this last wet snow water levels rose a lot again and we have 1-3 inches of slush coming Tuesday and Wednesday. I need to not lift and drag too much, or climb steep banks with a load as my hip replacement done in July is doing well but I can feel it is not ready for a lot of that so I am going to wait until hard water for the most part. One of my small sloughs that for the last 10 years I catch from 10-20 rats each year had one active feed bed while scouting Sunday. Field ruts are deep and all over this year. Standing water in most of them also.

Lot of typically dry spots have a house or two this year. Rats we have seem very scattered which works in their favor. It will be interesting where they go if the ice gets deep.

Bryce

It's been a tough early season for sure this weather hasn't been good for anybody

I usually trap farm ponds for rats. The two ponds I have set have no rats in them. Last year I took 18 rats one night from one pond. I speculate they drowned out sometime this fall as there were rats there this summer.

Strange weather indeed.

I set coon traps out last Thursday and have 38 so far. I've caught some real big ones but the young of the year seem smaller than normal. Maybe breeding season was delayed because of all the snow last winter. I've also caught more skunks than I normally ever catch. LOL. Must be a great year for them. I've been injecting them and saved the essence from 3 today. Close to 2 ounces. I did have one spray yesterday while I was putting the needle in. I've never had that happen before. Didn't bother saving the hide.

I noticed that too Green Bay got three 'rats and a mink on one farm I caught 23 on last year all man made ponds. Not much sign on them either. But the swamp I trap on another has a bunch of new huts this year so should even out hopefully.

101 rats today up to 743 only 2 checks left stupid weather

wtg guys keep on going

Pulled my remaining rat traps today in the wind. Paddling the canoe in 10-15 mph winds wasn't fun, but it sure beats paddling through ice. Season total is a measly 11 after running 15 or so traps for 9 nights. There just was t the sign there was a couple years ago.

I sure wish we would go back to a 3 zone season framework. The majority have voted for it the last couple years in the Conservation Congress spring hearings, but I've heard it wasn't a priority and the earliest it might change would be the 2022 season. So for you folks up north, that means 3 more years of an open water rat trapping season that could last less than a week. That's a great way to get new trappers involved in the sport.

Set some DPs 160s and foot holds and some colony traps for rats yesterday. Today we had warden school and took 20 rats 1 super huge coon and a grinner In the DPs. Tomorrow we pull do to our early freeze up. Actually we pulled some today.

The 20 rats brought me $10.00 each

They can change it back but what I do t want to happen is for the opening date to get pushed back down here there is no need for that

Pushed back as in a later start date?

Yes that's the problem with this stuff it's like there is no need to change the start date down here but they still would if it changes up north I dont understand that why cant one thing stay the same and the other thing change just stupid

I sure wish we would go back to a 3 zone season framework. The majority have voted for it the last couple years in the Conservation Congress spring hearings, but I've heard it wasn't a priority and the earliest it might change would be the 2022 season. So for you folks up north, that means 3 more years of an open water rat trapping season that could last less than a week. That's a great way to get new trappers involved in the sport.

Thank you for the update. Tlguy. Being one of the originators that wrote a resolution, put together my evidence and case and drove to several meetings to be heard, the above is very disappointing to say the very least. One year to put stuff together another to get it on the hearing and then 2 years of 70% votes and now we look to be another 3 years out if at all. I always believed that we should support and use the WCC and the democratic process to make changes, but I can see that Washington is not the only place with a swamp to drain. One could rant some more but it does little good to do so. What I have learned is for me why in the future spend time, energy, resources to try to accomplish a goal and get positive results and then find out that we supported something that is not a high enough priority to be of interest to those that make the rules. No wonder individuals find legislators that will go to bat for them on issues.

Bryce

Like with the spring season if we are gonna try to get time on the back end we have to lose time on the front? Why dose that make sense

What were the start date Bryce? I'm pretty sure south here was latter than it is now right?

Yes I do believe that the current single start date would be the start date for the central of the 3 zones with the north a weekend earlier and the south a weekend later. Maybe that is one of the hangups we have internally now. When this was put together it was all about the north not wanting trappers coming to their region and many south trappers were advocating a later start date as was in the past, but there may be concerned trappers on all fronts.
What one never knows is what issues arise when one enters into these types of season political issues. It appears there was far more disdain for the system we had for nearly 40 years then one would have imagined.

I can see that there are no dates that are liked by some, many or all, but what I find most disappointing is that when one follows the outlined process and get a large majority support the issue gets tossed aside due to being not important enough to be followed through with. Some like me are slow learners I guess at nearly 72 I have finally learned that democracies only work if the powerful allow them to do so.

Bryce

CableAble, here are the mink/muskrat season openers dating back to 2011. For time's sake, I didn't include any of the Mississippi or Winnebago zone dates.

2019 - 10/26
2018 - 10/27
2017 - 10/28
2016 - 10/22
2015 - 10/24
2014 - 10/25 (this was the first year of the single statewide zone)
2013 - North 10/19, South 10/26
2012 - North 10/20, South 10/27
2011 - North 10/15, South 10/29

Now if I remember right, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but rats and mink were worth a lot more in 2011 than they have been the last few years. In that same breath, I could see why guys in the northern zone would fear line jumpers crossing Hwy 64 to get 2 extra weeks of rat trapping before the season opened in the southern zone. I'm not exactly sure what triggers the start date, though I bet it's listed in statute somewhere. But it sure seems like the seasons have trended towards a later start date since the "simplification" of the season structure, effectively chipping away at the beginning of the season for guys in the north.

Makes me wonder if the northern guys that pushed for a single season so they wouldn't get line jumpers are happy now that they lost 2 weeks of open water trapping in the fall.