Checked the archives and didn’t find what I was looking for.
I read about high success using a foothold under water attached to a stick.
Does anybody have any pics to share of this setup ?
I know baits vary. I want to canoe and stay in the canoe and float along and pull sticks up checking traps

I watched an F&T video in which a trapper used a 1x3 with a nail to put through a hole in the base of a long spring and another toward the top to hold bait. The whole thing was then pushed into the stream bed at a slant. Seemed to work for him

I've seen people use stakes or pvc w/ an adjustable wire prong thing to hold the trap and rubber band a carrot... but honestly floats are king in my book if going that route... and sticks especially green ones will be gathered up by any passing beaver by by stick and trap... my 2 cents.... and bait is something I've never used for rats a good lure is all that needed a pile of vegetation on the float a lil stink catchem rat. I've seen peep get all elaborate w/ apples and carrot etc nonsense wastem time.. eat apple and carrot for snack catch rat w/ stink...

YouTube rat poles. I use hagz brackets on mine. They slide on a fiberglass fence pole. I forget the diameter.

Is it not Actor's book on Muskrats he has a diagram taken from Manitoba Trapping Guide.?
Just don't over-think it when you are doing it.

Under ice set.Made near rathouse.
Easier just to cut the house and set in the house.

Boco true that 20 inch bar on a chainsaw cut a wedge insert #2 coil in cavern plug hole w/ wedge attached to long flagged pole so it doesn't get snowed over, next. I Could almost always tell a live hut from a dead one when the water come spraying out like the blood of the beast... no water meant holes froze most times dead hut waste time... That was fun but geesh lotsa work for a few rats... treking around in chest waders and a life vest for inevitable plunge here and there w/ a otter sled in tow around my waist... I musta been crazy!

Boco look at the location of the individual.......the only ice they know is what goes in the whiskey at the end of the night.
Remember whiskey and water don't mix, so don't drink over water, or you may end up in the water. Play SAFE.

That's why I told him it was an under ice set.
There are tons of other sets for rats in open water.

Check the regulations. Illegal to do that in some states.

I make what was called ramp sets. They catch muskrat in open water and occasionally a coon. Simple as a board shoved in the mud on an angle . The trap is fastened to the board via a staple and a short lenghts of wire the wire is then kinked on the top of the board at the desired lenght to keep the trap from sliding down the board too deep into the water and also a small finish nail through the baseplate hole to further stabilize . An apple on a nail finishes the set. I have skinned a boatload of rats with this set when i was a kid.

Every set is illegal somewhere.

I use these in open water, but no reason they wouldn't work with slight modification under water, probably wire bait to the pole instead of the nail...

The type of set you are talking is used primarily under the ice. Although the one like ADC shows should work fine. In a case of open water baited set, we always either found or made a feed bed along a shore piled a clump of grass on the bottom, set the tarpon it and wedged and ear of corn, turnip, a half and apple or potato against the bank. Along with the fastening stake we used a second stake for the rat to wrap the chain or attached length of wire around in deep water so it would drown.

Garry-

Yep there is a photo of that in the book.

Garry-