Set my first ever humble trapline last night. 7 muskrat sets like this in a creek loaded with chewed up banks, actually was sitting on a den unknowingly during deer season when one popped out right below me. Hardest thing was finding water I felt was deep enough. Let me know what you guys think.

Good luck and let us know how the first check goes. Pictures are always an added treat too.

I grew up learning how to trap muskrats in a creek that most rat dens were in water not much more than knee deep. If you are using body gripping traps you have nothing to worry about... except will some other critter come along and eat your catch. When I started trapping, conibear traps had not yet been invented. I used either #0 or #1 long spring. You would set for a front foot catch... stake out in deeper water (adding a length of wire to chain), place another stake between that stake and the shore for the rat to tangle around and drown. This kept the rat away from the shore and other critters to some extent and didn't block the entrance to the den.

Remember when trapping in moving water to wade upstream.

Good Luck...

Garry-

Hoping you catch some fur today. I haven't had great luck with the sets you have shown. Don't be afraid to set some slides or places you can see they have been chewing and digging on the bank. Also if you find an active den locate the run and set a coil spring on the bottom in the trench coming out of the den they will put their feet down there. Good lock welcome to Trapperman.

Good luck. You probably did not sleep last night.

Have a great first check

Great 1st post- I run some Sudden Valley sets in streams on eddy's so they don't collect debris and they produce well. You can move to a pocket set on the bank to increase your chances of other target species - just make sure you stake for coon.

Keep us posted- Good Luck!

Can't wait for see how you did. I'm old but new to trapping and I know I don't sleep the first few nights.

good luck

Excited for you. Add a few colony traps to your arsenal as they work well inserted into the mouth of bank dens. Just make sure the entire colony trap is underwater and it is level. Good luck!

Chris

Good luck and can't wait to hear about your first catch. Make sure your trap with the Hagz bracket is on the downstream side of your bait in current. I do dye and wax my water traps for water trapping. Show us some more of your sets when you get the chance

Good Luck

Good luck! Waiting on pics tomorrow!!

Welp first check was a bust in the dark, nothing tripped or bait touched. Thanks for all the good words! Just a few weeds wrapped around the stakes. I relocated some of the sets that were closer to the middle of the creek out more towards the edge where there was some chewing sign. Made sure all the traps are downstream, and tied on flagging tape to the stakes, maybe thinking it will look like more carrot to skrats. I have them anywhere from barely below the water to about 3 inches to see what works best for depth of the trap. Hoping maybe it was just a slow night because looking at this creek there has to bee crazy amounts of them in here. Turtledale, I did dye and wax them. The wax turned out great, but the dye didnt take the nice dark rich black color, I degreased twice but they wouldnt rust after a week I just dyed and waxed them so I could set. My next order of traps im going to soak in some induatrial degreaser I have from work and see if theyll rust then. Going to bring some 110s tomorrow and stake some baited sets the up the creek the other direction. Thanks for all the replies!

Good luck. Don’t get discouraged just stay after emm

I'm amazed that you can actually see the bottom of the creeks. Lol.
Good luck on the muskrats!

find a spot where the rats are pooping, and set by that

if never used that setup so someone correct me if I'm wrong but in the picture posted is the trap not supposed to be slightly under water? and the bait lower down on the pole. so the rat swims to the bait then steps up onto the trap to reach the bait? like trapper dahlgren said I'd find a toilet and set that. good luck

I believe the trap is underwater looks turbulent tho

I would position the trap facing downstream

Second night check, 7 more empties. Lowered the carrota tonight and rebaited. Moved sets closer to the edge and condensed the line to the best sign. Hoping for a first catch tomorrow!