4 rats today, real cold and windy, water is at its lowest level so far. Seems we are catching more large rats than in previous years, usually 1x and larger, is this good for our population? For those of you in the know.
No snow on the boards this morning Squash but maybe tomorrow morning.

That's something I never caught spring muskrat trapping.A coon.

Bruce he sure was happy to get that trap off his foot.
No pics today we didn’t check today, it’s really cold here, like Minnesota cold, worked in the shop.

Lol.....bet he was.

Being in the military, I've trapped all over the country and that is the biggest trapping mystery to me. I've had places the rats climb all over floats and stools and places they completely ignore them, even with bait and lure. No idea why. They don't seem interested here in PA but our season ends pretty early too.

It remains a mystery to me.

We were walking on ice yesterday checking colony traps. Caught 10 rats but It was lots of work chopping them out. Going to pull today.

Coons can mess up a lot of sets. Used to be a welcome cha ching though

Well first time in nine years we got skunked on rats, man is it cold here.


The highlight of the day, Gerry set a few channel sets the other day and one connected.

Nice otter

Ya you're going to get those days-might be time to move some stuff around. Nice otter though. You guys get beautiful otter along with your beavers and rats-nice dark stuff. Bet you aren't as cold as we are LOL. Our rivers etc.. are not quite open yet.

Water just opened up here in rivers and streams.

Thank you for sharing. Each year you and we find out new things. You must have about 30-35 floats if they all are out and your first catches were about 1/3rd so that seems OK to me. I notice how you are drying your rats. I did it that way for several years. The last 20 or so I put my rats on top of my half dozen coon cage traps and with 2-4 fans (low cost window fans) I can blow air on the rats top and bottom. Many times within an hour I have enough dry rats to skin and move the mostly dry ones to the better spots.

Bryce

Thanks for the tip Bryce.
My ole buddy taking a break, worked in the shed today, forecast is for warmer and rain maybe it will get the rats running.

The stick on the left marks where the water was when we started

Today’s catch two rats and one small beaver.

I am not going to abuse your thread with anymore of my pics, but your floats are similar to mine...is it lawful in your state to use the parsnip on a nail as bait like I do ?

I sure miss spring muskrat trapping.Thanks for posting.

Post away les, I love pics and ideas and anything trapping, yes it is legal, if it’s meat bait it has to be covered, I think to avoid birds.

I cant spring trap here, but if I could I would use some rat toilet material like it appears you do. Mine are fall pics from a few years ago.

I have a stack of beaver floats, and they work fine, but I have never showed that in a pic....

newfox1, did you have to move many or all your floats, cause it looks to me you lost about 3-4 foot of water?

Bryce