For lure I found poplar bud oil works
I store the lure in my coat pocket while trapping

Always just used a 1/4 of an apple on a stick. Used a drop of Hawbaker's oil apple (don't know if it's even made anymore) on the slice for a while. Not sure it was necessary or helped any more than just the apple slice.

I've used carrots before on triggers of 110s under ice. I've always used lenons or carmans mcl100 as my lure and just keep it in my wader pockets

Not sure I ever caught a muskrat using bait or lure, I seldom used it. I probably tried it when I was first trapping 65 years ago. Once I learned a little about trapping muskrats I found it wasn't necessary.

I just cut a hole out in the bank sit a trap in front of it Collect the rat next morning

It might be different where you live but if I use any kind of lure on a rat set a coon will be there the next morning, and have the area around the set destroyed. I learned this years ago. I don’t really think my take has been hurt at all by not using lure and it’s one less thing to mess with.

Here's the way I see It.
You find a rat toilet or feed bed and you set them. Now your only going to catch ONE rat at those locations. But If you make several lured sets close by those locations your going to catch more then ONE rat. Those feed beds and toilets are being used by more then ONE rat.

Open water marshes I use neither. On rivers and streams where I find the longer feed beds under the overhangs I use a homemade lure dipped in a Q tip. I put Q tips in a container with a lid and pour in some lure. I can carry several dozen that way. Under ice body grippers I use colored duct tape, orange works better for me than red, green or white.

Bryce

Here's the way I see It.
You find a rat toilet or feed bed and you set them. Now your only going to catch ONE rat at those locations. But If you make several lured sets close by those locations your going to catch more then ONE rat. Those feed beds and toilets are being used by more then ONE rat.

Must be different rats over there, Beave. I catch rat after rat on feedbeds and toilets (no lure/bait). I'll take a feedpad over a house any time. Yes, some are one or two (like huts) but just as many are 3 or 4 or 5 rats using that pad. And if that one runs dry quick, another one has usually popped up so it's just a matter of moving the trap. A feedbed is usually much faster to set than a hut, too.

By the time you dink around with rat lure, you could have set another trap. Not to mention tracking down coon that are also attracted to rat lure (probably more than a rat is). And be sure your rat lure doesn't have castor in it (some do). Then you have the issue of beaver in your rat traps.

I quit using rat lures years ago. My catch didn't go down, it went up. That said, every location is different. I see a few places every year that a rat lure "May" help. But those are also coon locations...sooo.

PM me for the best float bait I've used in the dakotas Youthtrapper. Nobody has ever touched on it here. Carrots are a poor rat bait, IMO. They do attract rats, but rats really don't like them once they bite into them much...which granted is usually too late.

[quote=TheYouthTrapper]What bait do you guys use for rats? I'm thinking of using pumpkins, apples, and carrots this year and was wondering if anyone else had tried these. Also going to be running Rat Checkmate and a few other random lures with the bait and was wondering how you guys stored the lure while driving around in the truck. Thanks in advance!



A farmer that grows pumpkins dumps some near a creek & muskrats chew holes in them so they like them. I personally dont use lure for muskrats anymore because it draws too many coons

Most baits like potatoes and apples lose their color pretty fast once under water. Sure they work but a better choice would be using some of that plastic corrugated sign material. It slides right on to the trigger wires and It's water proof and holds It's color well.

Yes