Good luck to all of those going out tomorrow. Post your pictures to this thread.

Anyone in Wisconsin who sets a fur trap tomorrow, didn’t get the memo.

Doing some prospecting but no setting.

Bryce

Grandpa died in 1981 but I can still see him shaking his head about trapping before the fur is prime.But we did string together 5 days with highs only in the 60s.Gotta love it.

Good luck! I'll wait until next weekend when muskrat opens. A little more prep and scouting until then.
Once again look forward to trapping season and following this thread. Enjoy your time in the woods,fields, streams and marshes as you venture out!

I'm sure hoping to draw a wolf tag.

I'm waiting till Sunday to start trapping coyotes. They won't be worth any more by this time next week.Or the week after that.

I get paid to trap rats so I'll get after them once I'm done trapping some coyotes.

Do you prefer cable restraints over footholds Beav?

Tight chains fellow Sconnies! I'm waiting for first light in a duck boat right now, gonna wait til next week to set just because I'm only going after rats.

Good luck on the ducks today.

Good luck, seasons open! Time to put our skills to the test against the animals we love to chase, hopefully everyone has a safe and productive season and finds their traps full and their hip boots dry.

And the ones you don't catch this week won't be worth anything. Go get em.

good luck guys ,

I would like to use CRs on private land when the coyote season opens. But so far they haven't passed that law. I have some land where there are coyote trails. Some are natural and some are man made and I have to wait till Dec 1st to set them. CRs shine once we have some tracking snow.

I'm waiting for muskrat and mink to open though I won't target mink on purpose until November.

Welcome to tMan

I don't think I will target mink at all this year due to the low prices.

Most of my ground still has standing crops In the feilds.
Burnt a tank of gas today just making contact with my land owners. I always put It off to the last thing I just hate knocking on doors.

Coon be pretty unprime now

Used to live near a mink ranch in Northern WI back in the 70's. Fox were pelted in mid Nov. Mink were always pelted at Thanksgiving. Catching fur before that becomes a waste of the resource.

The argument there is, in today’s market, the extra effort put into harvest as conditions deteriorate outweighs the slight premium received.

I too advocate the harvest of prime skins but will submit to those who choose T shirt trapping and ez pickins. There isn’t enough of us left to get worked up over it.

I plan on targeting everything this year I plan on trying my hand at tanning and trading the fur for finished goods that one of my good friend makes. She is willing as long as the end product is good enough. I don't mind covering my floors with coon rugs and beaver blankets on every piece of furniture. I will trap and enjoy myself doing it. If season is open and you have a plan then get em

I skinned for a fox farmer they kept all their fox In sheds and kept them In the dark. That messed with their biological clock. It's the same with mink. It's the length of the days (day light) that trigger primness. It has nothing to do with cold weather.

By keeping them in the dark it speeds up furring. Pelting earlier saves on feed and labor costs. So technically natural prime would even be later on the calendar. In my experience most of Wisconsin critters are pretty nice in December. Rats and beaver I would say February and March are hard to beat.

Problem is it’s much more challenging to make viable catches when conditions are tuff.

I will start at gun season, not because I’m religious, simply other obligations.

Fact is trapping today is more of a passion play and less economics. Rewards take different shapes. Go for it!

The thing about coyotes Is around Late Dec they are starting to go the other way. Groney will tell you he likes late Oct and early Nov when It comes to coyotes.

Filled tag here

not sure how to turn that

Nice cat

Nice cat and nice catch!
Flipped it!

nice cat , looks like a toe catch

yes, I wouldn't have spent much time with a photo

Bet that got your heart thumping Keets
. Good looking WI bobcat and no way I'd have taken a picture with that toe catch lol. You are a brave man

I caught 3 last year that I had to release. Not that much fun. Hoping it doesn't happen again since I didn't draw a tag this year.

FYI, The DNR 's going to push back the muskrat opener even further next year, good luck to the nothern muskrat trapper in '22 and beyond. The opener in the north now stands to be 3 weeks later than it was not that many years ago (2014?), and will now be as late as Nov. 7th. Unless this DNR link is wrong, or I'm reading it wrong, they will be creating 3 muskrat zones but the north, central and south all having the same dates, so I have no idea for the creation of zones:
https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/sites/default/files/topic/Rules/WM1820DraftRule.pdf

I see their finally going to let us use CRs at the start of the canine trapping season.

Fox Claw I believe you are reading it incorrectly. Next year the northern most season should open about a week earlier than this year, with the middle a week later and the south a week after that.

Bryce

I am reading it the same as Fox Claw. Hopefully its an error.

The intent was a staggered opener to follow our old structure. With increased opportunities for late winter harvest. Staggered again in March, I believe

I guess I am not sure why we would need zones if we are going to open and close on the same day so leaning towards misprint.

Last I heard at the WCC fur harvest committee was the proposal for zones and dates that passed spring hearing was moving forward and should be in place for next year.

Here is the response i received from Scott.

Yes it is an error. The dates should be as follows:



- The south zone should open on the Saturday on, or the first Saturday following November 1, and should close on March 15.

- The Central zone should open on the Saturday on, or the first Saturday following October 25, and should close on March 22.

- The Northern zone should open on the Saturday on, or the first Saturday following October 18, and should close on April 15.

- Maintain current Mississippi zone including start and close dates (beginning on the second Monday in November or the day after the close of the duck season in the Southern Zone, whichever

Let's just hope their able to get those official documents changed. All this stuff goes through an official, legal process. It's not like you can just say "oops." If the process is to far along there's major work to be done. I haven't followed this enough to know. It's good you called them marshrat. They may have never realized the error until it became law.

I wouldn't have known to call without you bringing it to my attention. You get all the credit on that one!

Good luck to all of y’all!! Let’s see some pics!

Sure now that I don't live in the Northern Zone they leave the mink/rat season open till April 15th. It was a crying shame to always have to stop trapping rats when they just get prime end of Feb.

Kelly get off your butt and come up and trap for a week in the late season. Your not that old......lol

If I read that correctly that means if we would have had the staggered openers this year the north would be the 23rd, the central October 30th and the south November 6th.

Bryce

Another tag filler

And this guy, he was scared after I released him. Just couldn't see harvesting him. On my own land, didn't know any grays were around.

Nice job Hodag Catcher!

Chris

Anyone else?

Good call.I caught one in the late 70s and haven’t seen one since.

Normally these are vicious little buggers and bark at you.

Dogs are the #1 reason I hate knocking on doors.

Wheres cableable?

I don't do pics but I have 8 coyotes and 3 coon on boards.

Got my helper out yesterday to set a few rat traps and here she is with today's catch. Only made 8 sets since I didn't want to take her in the canoe with me and I've gotta pull to head to ND for a duck trip Tuesday night. I'll get after em more when I get back, but for now, not a bad start. Should be some good eating since I know they're fresh and that water sure was chilly!

Way to go, tlguy! Good luck in ND! Sure not much going on for ducks in Pool 7.

Moosetrot

My buddies just got back from a ND duck hunt. Ducks where everywhere.

Awesome pictures and catches Keets, tlguy, and hodag catcher

I overbooked for fall work this year and forced myself to miss the start of the muskrat opener. I haven't missed a 4am/ now midnight opener since 2005. As I was finishing the project yesterday I told my brother I wouldn't miss one again until my body cannot do it anymore. I hope I can hold myself to that statement.

I got home around 2pm yesterday and loaded my truck with a few traps and grabbed my daughter's. Figured I had lost the place in the Marsh I typically go so we headed to new areas and did some on the spot permission's, funny how they seem to come easier the day of than earlier when one is trying to prepare, for me anyway. We set 30 traps and headed home. My oldest daughter came today to help check and snap photos! We had fun! Take a kid or someone new trapping!

Way to go deerfly!

Looking forward to ND, sure haven't been many ducks around here in the Green Bay area either.

What part of ND are you going to hunt?

NICE DEERFLY

I believe we're heading to the Edgeley area. I'm a last minute addition to the hunt so I don't know many of the details. Just showing up to the rendezvous point with gun and gear and be ready to drive.

Got my first ever Fisher Friday. Might try to figure out how to post a picture.

I am off to a very slow start, the marsh did not look good that I have trapped every year since retiring in 2017. Four rats out of 22 traps, usually had 3 dozen traps in and would catch 12 to 15 the first day.

Nice job on the fisher Bwtraper! Hope you find some decent Marsh and things turn around for you Fishdog1!

A few rats tonight and another mink. First mink in a colony trap. I'll check Wednesday and pull and move.

Slower opener for us. Catch was off about 60% with much less sign and a real drop off on 2nd check so we pulled. Set a couple new areas and those are always a learning curve. One place had almost all bigger rats, but not too many and and another was mostly smaller younger rats. Productivity is nice but does not help size when going early.

Bryce

3rd check today after 2 day soak. 16 for 30 at 53 percent. Pulled traps as that was the plan. Should I have pulled? 7 rats 2 days ago. I often run this order of checks, and used to check one more time but was often disappointed at the take. The 3rd check after 2 days has always been good and seems more efficient and allows a day for skinning/ put up I'll never know this time but we'll be back to these locations after ice up. Hope everyone is getting out and enjoying themselves! Weather is nice!
Only pic that will load today.

Sometimes I believe skipping a day settles the marsh down a bit and that can help with the rats moving a bit more. Nice 3rd check. Good habitat the rats will be there next season.

Bryce

nice guys , thanks for sharing

I set for coyote Monday. Skunked the first day, yesterday I had 3 coyotes and a skunk, today I had 4 coyote, a skunk and 2 bobcats I had to release. Any idea how many years it will take to get a bobcat tag? I'm from the Eau Claire area.

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/trap/draw

Thanks WIMarshRat. So about 3 years from what I can tell.

This is my first reply I do not know much about trapping but I love it. Yesterday I got a very muddy raccoon when doing animal removal with my dad.

Welcome to Trapperman, Clemke! It's the best trapping website out there! You will learn a lot about trapping here!

Moosetrot

Released another cat today

Rat sign for me is off about 40% and the catch is too after the first week. To date 97 rats and 4 coons. The coons are all in 1` stoploss set for rats. Saw my first smaller buck today, about a small 6 pointer making tracks.
The one interesting thing is that I have caught rats in 6 different places. Most with fewer rats that run average to bigger and two with a lot of smaller rats and some really small rats. Looks like repro is quite different for similar habitat etc.
Bryce

Pulled a small slough yesterday 9 rats on 2nd check with 20 sets. Down from last year but higher than my several year norm. Went to a new slough for this year armed with traps and set none. Not much sign at all, a few houses in one corner and I will try those through the ice. Long canoe and gear carry situation so wanted more sign. I did set up two stretches of my wadable river line and sign looks above the norm for the las decade but less then last year. Need to get the 4-wheeler running tomorrow as I am using it on 3 sections of the rat line this year. Colonies are not producing, but got a couple in 160s in the small streams.

Bryce

Pretty quiet on there this year and I'm sure it has to do with the current predicted fur prices. I've been trapping for 52 years now and haven't seen the market this bad. I'm at 11 coyote but haven't caught any the last two days. Set a couple new farms yesterday so maybe that will add to the pile. Last year I caught 21 coyote but never caught a red fox. Yesterday I caught 2. Is it possible that my coyote catch last year helped some of the fox survive?

Pulled my coyote line and started my ADC rat line. Put In 50 sets Monday this will be the first check. The parks people dropped the water level by about a foot. So the colony trap system was not going to happen. So 90% of my sets were baited 160s. Can't use any foot holds unless they are 6' from shore. And I'm not sold on stools or floats In the fall.

Great job BWTrapper, fishers are a cool animal. I have the first I caught mounted

27 rats today.
Not as good as I hoped but they made me $270.00 and I haven't even skinned them yet LOL And I charged them $600.00 to set It up.

Anyone sold any stuff yet

I made some rat sets in the marsh today. I got in about 15 good sets with conibears and colony traps. I am in post op recovery(heart) but still felt ok. I used to be in a hurry to trap the open water before freezeup. Now I'm looking forward to after deer season and safe ice. Easier walking. Its good to get out in the fresh air.

Ya, I sold some grease coon for $1 average…I was way happy with dat, eh?

But I charged $800 set up fee..,so ya gotta figure dat too I guess, ya. Averaged $125 nose count…hard to beat dat, eh? But I got the normal Beav Black Friday discount coupon if n ya want to wait?!

Got 30 rats and 1 coon today. Repro on these to sections of the river was outstanding and I caught my share of medium rats today.

Bryce

Some new line and 2nd check on two lines. 29 rats ( better size today) 2 mink and 2 coons. Coon sign where there was corn if unbelievably high. I am doing my best to avoid them.

Bryce

I ended up with 51 rats 4 were eaten by coon. Most were caught In colony traps. Coon just love to pull those colony traps up on the banks and eat those rats right through the wire. But those rats still brought me $10.00 each. That job netted me over a 1000.00. And I haven't sold the 47 rats yet.
Setting up the next job tommrow.

Thank you Beav for the public works on behalf of trapping. Good to see a very liberal city like Madison appreciates the management, control and harvest of wildlife species. Nearly $25 a rat at reasonable numbers is some nice spending money too.

Bryce

BEAV GOT IT MADE IN THE SHADE

Trapping camp 2021

very cool

Nice catches Bryce, Beav and Howell! Howell Bros Awesome pictures, looks like a dream I have every fall before trapping starts. Your doing it! Kick butt!

Plugging away at a few rats, trapped a few adc beaver this week. Heading up north to grouse hunt Friday. May set some beaver traps Saturday if there are any near the cabin. Probably plug in some muskrat sets as well as they will soak for 2 days. Always feels good to be out!

Awesome adventure Howell. Very cool

Yes I look at the pics and it is in my mind a REAL EXPERIENCE to take the time to setup and do real outdoor event associated with a trap line. I am getting to the age where I need a better place to rest to be able to recuperate for the next day or two or three. I did a small 2-day semi wilderness canoe rat trapping trip in the mid 90s when fur prices were very low. I did not have any way to keep fur cold as I did not have a generator, frig or freezer thus the two days. It was windy as H for two of the days so trying to sleep in my tent was almost impossible. I stopped about 2:30 PM the two days to skin before dark. Caught about 3 dozen rats and had about 4 all in one section tore to pieces by some critter. Did not find any tracks. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Bryce

We set up a little drying tunnel for our rats. We were fortunate to be able to drive to our campsite. The cattle trailer was our emergency shelter for everything we needed to keep dry outside of the tent. Worked out very well. We only needed to stay ahead of the rats. The coon kept well once skinned and in the shade. Also brought the coonhound along to keep a few off the houses. It was a great trip and alot of work!

Were you on the Wisconsin river Howell? Nice pics, I like that black coon. I had one cross the road in front
of me last week that color that was a big one.

Very Cool!! Looks like a blast!!

Some from the last week. The cat is the same in each pic, older boys tag, real pretty young female.

Awesome pics Lindner! Good your kids like it too!

A few rats from today

Pulled two lines today, 3rd check and got 5 rats. The 2nd check on a line I will pull tomorrow had 8. Plan to set a big stretch tomorrow. We are taking family out for buffet for our 51st wedding anniversary so need to be home early and spruced up! Saturday will be a short day as our VFW is cooking brats, hamburgers and selling beer from 11 AM to 7 PM. My shift is from 1-7

Bryce

I got about 20 or so rat sets out today, water on bay of Green Bay is lower than I've ever seen it. Lots of places I can get outta the canoe and just walk around in my hip boots to make sets. Found a doozy of a underwater run on my way back but I was fresh out of colony traps.

Glad to see some others out there getting after it.

Picked up 3 today, dang SW wind blew all the water out of the bay. Water levels dropped 4-6" in 24 hours. Had to drag the canoe most of the way today.

Pulled a long line 3rd check just a head of the chisel plow this AM!! Got 4 rats and a male mink. The short line 1st check was 6 rats our of 20 sets. I did get about 2/3rds of another line out. Slow going wading the river that is full of stones. Farmers in the past used the rivers as a place to store their stones from the field! The buffet was good, family time is fun. Busy tomorrow selling brats and burgers.

Bryce

Was able to tag a nice buck. Now the traps are coming out.

Nice buck...and hoodie too!

Moosetrot

Found some beaver close to the cabin, grouse on the other hand were hard to come by. My brother and I typically shoot more than we flushed this weekend. Always enjoy being in the big woods regardless! Lots of snow shoe hares as well! Good thing I have plenty of . 22 ammo for winter.
Nice rats Tl and nice buck Wptourist!

Pulling a long line tomorrow and setting up the last of the longer river line before giving platelets! The last two lines were OK but not great. My coon avoidance is working quite well. Compared to last year at this time after 2 weeks my rat catch is off about 25% and my coon catch is down about 75%. Legs sure are not what they were even a decade ago, neither are my shoulders and hands? Nice to be trapping with a long sleeve T shirt!

Bryce

Pulled my rat line today and now It's time to hunt some speedy beef.

keep going guy never give up [or stop trapping ]

Pulled a big line today, couple rats and another mink. With rat numbers up the last few years I am catching more mink and seeing more sign. Setup 2/3rds of a longer line today. Sign is moderate from my best guess. Quit early today to give platelets. My stats were good, BP down, weight down 8 lbs. in a month so yes trapping has great benefits for me, most of which are not financial.

Bryce

I wanted to hunt some this last week, so now I will think about setting some traps again.

Nice deer Fishdog1!

Nice buck Fishdog, with these temps you need to have your knife sharp and ready. Save some of the sausage for the T-man feed next year!

Bryce

nice buck

I'm up to 36 coyote now so saving some of the area deer I hope. I'm also seeing some red fox for the first time in years. Hopefully, maybe the fox will bounce back if I remove the coyote. My best farm has produced 9 coyotes. I keep thinking it will end but they just keep coming. Unfortunately, I have to go back to work next week so will pull sets the end of this week. This will be the last year I have to work since I'll be retiring in April. Good luck everyone.

Well I got that out of my system.16 sets let 2 coon go and every trap was snapped or caught something.

i.[/

Saw 3 dead reds on road in this county last week. Haven’t seen that in years.

Nice buck Fishdog. Way to get it done

Slow last couple days. Got two more mink today, 6 so far trapping rats. Today both were on the same river stretch about 10 sets apart, young male and young female.

Bryce

WGT guys keep at it , i pulled my line

With the plus 1" of rain coming tonight, I'm thinking of pulling my line today. I have a lot of sets back in on farms that get really greasy when it rains and I don't want to risk getting stuck or tearing up the farm roads. I exceeded my goal of 30 coyotes but had now hoped to hit 40 since I'm so close. I could hit that today but you never know. I do have to return to work Monday so would have pulled anyway. Continued good luck to all of you. After deer season, I'll probably put in some water sets for a change of pace.

I pulled my last two longer river lines. Wow were the coon moving, hit two family groups and released a half dozen smaller coons!. Got 3 rats. Yesterday I caught my 7th mink on these 5 sections or the line, the most in years. Rat numbers wound up being almost exactly the same as last year with more or less coming from different sections, I am finding the sections that have crops near the banks have the most rats. Those areas with a lot of reed canary grass bottom land do not.

Bryce