Our season started Friday November 15. I took my grandsons out and we set 8 rat traps. There have not been many rats around here for years, but the mink died out from distemper a few years ago and the rats have made a slight comeback. Saturday we checked the traps and this was the first one. Took the picture after we pulled the trap out of the culvert pipe. Got a total of 24 out of the 8 traps. That's more than I have caught in one day in a long time. Eric

That's not a trap. That's a sardine can! Nice catch sir

Holy smokes!

Sweet run on rats. This is what I think every colony trap is going to look like when i set them and up to the point in which i check them. Then of course I am brought back to reality with one or zero lol.

Gota keep those knives sharp at that rate of catch.

Holy buckets!

Is that a record? Can anyone top 10 rats in one trap?

Took 18 out of one trap....took a month tho. Lol

Pretty awesome, that would never happen in WI.

I have caught 16 in one of these traps but it was a summertime nuisance job and most of the muskrats were like small house rats. Here is a picture of a catch from the same location in 2013.

Eric,

How long have colony traps been allowed for Muskrat trapping in New Jersey ?

w

I caught 12 In 8x8x30 colony trap ( ND)

Walleyed, We have always been able to use them, at least since I started trapping 60+ years ago. Mink rancher named Charlie Lanza showed me how to make them back in the 50's. I just made them longer and put one or more doors in the middle to give a kill chamber effect to keep the main entrance door from plugging with dead rats. Because of that, otter or small beaver cannot blow out enough doors to escape before they expire. If I do not have an otter/beaver permit (it's a lottery here) then the back door is fastened with a breakaway that will hold mink or rats but not the bigger animals so they can escape.

walleyed. Soon they will be legal in NY. When Jane Fonda becomes POTUS.

Mr. Space when are you going to give another Demo? And where?.......jk

Nice job Eric and with the grand kids!!!

Good population of rats there.

Cool!

Wow a season's worth in one trap!! The most I have ever caught in one was Two!

Bryce

great day on the line for sure ,thanks for sharing

This seems unlikely unless trump makes her his vice president during his THIRD term !!

w

More likely he will appoint her Attorney General. lol

Bryce we can't trap In culverts and that makes a huge difference.

Just checked my diary to be sure: night of Oct. 15/16, 2014 caught 13 in a round funnel trap set in a doorway of a beaver house I trapped the beaver out of the year before.

I am thinking there are guys out there who have gotten more than that though.

Edit: And another time Oc.t 22'84 had the same funnel trap in a break in an old beaver dam and 3 x 120's in grassy runs across the dam. Those traps were soaking for 4 nights. There was 9 in the cage sub trap and one each in the 3 x 120's so I was looking at a dozen 'rats in 50' of old beaver dam.

Most I've gotten was 3 in a 6x6x24" colony in a run leading to a bank den.

Wow, they had to wiggle to find room to die.

We have to trap 15 feet away from a rat hut.....

That is more than I have caught in the past 10 years combined .I know that catching a large number of any animal takes dedication and effort .But I would love to catch several hundred rats in one season. I love trapping rats

nice