Just curious how the water is around the Huron area?

I do some pheasant hunting around there and the amount of water around that area last fall was ridiculous. Just wondering if things are getting back to normal.

Hey, you can't grow rats without water.

Not any place water can go now the water table is very high the ponds and potholes are full, might be less water this year but not much unless we get a long and very dry summer. This next week looks to be wet from the forecast, I was in the river breaks the other day and water was running in the creeks that usually are done running in the fall.

Expect the same the same next year the way it’s going.

Southeast Minn. is as dry this spring as it has been in years.

Getting to be that every puddle and wet ditch has a rat hut in it around here now, places that you never seen a hut before. The lake I live on is often 4-6 foot deep in the average wet season now it’s around 15 feet the high water bank is past that furthest tree. The 1.5 acre lot line is at the mow line.

Southeast SD so far has been below average for precip this spring but after 2 back-to-back record years. And drier than normal was what was needed. A lot of corn fields planted already. Way different than last year. But still the sloughs are mostly full.

Yup,

But when the Rat population explodes again with all that water,
there won't be hardly anybody in South Dakota that knows how to trap them !!

w

The rat population has exploded again, what are you talking about...? I had some fun last fall, just not motivated to go trap them this psring with seriously falling prices, although could have stocked up on some glands. Walleyed, I'm waiting for my mrats to grade Eastern

PC, what would you average on SD rats?

Sure sounds like some good muskrat trapping coming up in the future.

20 spring rats caught in beaver traps brought me $27.00 last year.

I didn't say the rat population had exploded,

I said WHEN the Rat population explodes again...........

w

Law Dog, are they a smaller rat? I averaged $4.00+ on NYS rats this year. A $1.30+/- average does not give you much to work with.

Not a bad sized rat but red, very red in the sunlight considered a commercial rat is what the buyers call them

OK, thanks. Would the furriers dye them?

No clue just figure less then other places for our area the golden triangle might have nicer rats then we do, we have some ugly beaver in some areas and nice ones not that far away.

Yeah, that's one reason why I didn't go out this spring, the price was dropping, about a buck a size if I remember the quote and even if most of the mediums I had caught in the fall (a young growing pop in this one slough) had gotten to be Large to 1xl in a couple of months, it was only looking like $2 or a little less for an average. The buyer was also taking 75 cents off for slights, so yeah, not real excited. BUT, I could have picked up some glands and that might have brought up the average a bit. Given that a majority of the mrats didn't seem to have moved with FHA's on-line auction, seems like plenty in the pipeline yet for this year. Hope spring eternal, so maybe more into it next fall and then the ice or first open water season.

Just wondering how the water levels are doing around the Huron area?

Also, any feedback on pheasant populations in Huron, Redfield, Miller, Highmore, Polo, Gettysburg, etc. is greatly appreciated.

Redfield to Gettysburg looks good for bird numbers, haven’t been in the other areas much.
Looks like harvest will be early this year so hopefully that will make it a little easier to find birds.

No birds here, stay out

I'd say we had a decent hatch this year, pair that with hardly any hunting of them last year (went from too wet, directly into too much snow).

It's not ever going to be like it was in the early 2000s, but its better this year than its been in the past couple.

Although its been dry lately, there is still a ton of water sitting around, with no where to go. The past winters and springs have been brutal for water.