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.