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With the season fast approaching and only a week away. I'm opening up a thread for pictures and updates of my season. This is where I'll post catch pictures, fur shed pictures, updates, catch reports, new sets I've tried, etc. Have a good night y'all!
Well just finished tagging and checking through chains and swivels again on my 8 dozen traps that I'm setting on opening day. I have 5 dozen footholds (muskrats), 1 dozen colony traps, 1 dozen 110s (blind sets on land), and 1 dozen 120s (also blind sets on land where a mink maybe). Really excited to get out there on opening day and get some steel in the water. Only running mainly mink and rat traps for now. Not shown in this picture is my small boat that's going to be used to set traps or my 6 ft fiberglass poles for my footholds.
You can tell in our responses you have all of us fired up and ready to go. That’s the trap line spirit. Love it when someone comes on here locked and loaded, ready to roll. I pray you have good weather and an awesome season. Can’t wait for updates. Jim
Money cannot buy you happiness, but it can buy you a trapping license and that's pretty close.
Is opening day this weekend for you? Make sure to include photos of your boat. I like seeing peoples setups
Not this weekend sadly, will be working to catch up on 5 yard cleanups then my list is done. On Tuesday I will be setting since that is opening day, scouted my starting spot over and over, and have a loop of it in my head. Will be sure to have pictures of the boat.
I have only one slough out of 5 that may have enough water to trap. Can't paddle through mud. Those areas got over 120 rats the last two years. This year maybe zero. Water is down 2 foot or more in most. Did get a 133 in two checks with my fall canoe trip rat trapping partner. May be the best we have this year.
Found some more beaver sign today with a friend. Beaver has a tree cut down maybe 20 yards away from his lodge and the other one we saw while we were looking for other sign. Hopefully, they're still around during Thanksgiving break so I can focus on them a little more. At the first lodge, we saw coyote, raccoon, mink, and obviously, beaver tracks everywhere. This is awesome because these are the 2nd and 3rd colonies of beavers I have found this year and I would like to catch one. Hopefully, I can trap a few and expand to a little bit more gear for beavers. These were not the only slides, one of the lodges had 5 slides and I saw 4 more on the other lodge so plenty of spots to put traps.
Man, all those fresh slicked up mud trails. Active beaver locations they practically put up neon flashing signs pointing to where you should place traps. Have fun bud! Jim
Money cannot buy you happiness, but it can buy you a trapping license and that's pretty close.
Man, all those fresh slicked up mud trails. Active beaver locations they practically put up neon flashing signs pointing to where you should place traps. Have fun bud! Jim
I'm so excited, never trapped a beaver before so this is all new to me. Have 3 #3 or #4 DLS and 2 330 conibears to start with and a few slide cables.
Good traps and good sign so your already ahead of the game. Just make good sets and eat a good breakfast the next morning cause you'll get a good workout hauling beavers the next day!
Common sense is a not a vegetable that does well in everyone's garden.
Well, the time has come upon us, only about 12 hours until I'm hitting the road to go set some steel in the water. I'm missing school tomorrow to do something that I love and couldn't be any happier. The truck is loaded with all of my gear; all that's left are my waders, gauntlets, and myself.
Enjoy the day! I'm a teacher, but I will even cut you some slack for missing tomorrow! We also missed school on opening trapping day years ago.
I will! By the same time last year I would have missed at least a week and a half of school but this year I have missed 0 days so this is a little treat to myself. Been working hard the last 2 weeks on yard cleanups also so going out and doing what I love will help me more than anything else.
Funny story though, I was walking back from the bathroom during lunch and the principal/super intendant stopped me (they watch over lunch). She said what great of a job I had been doing keeping my grades up (Not hard for me and should be a given) and how I haven't missed any school. I told her that I was missing tomorrow and she asked why so I said "I'm going trapping". The look on her face was priceless, luckily all of my teachers know what I do during this time of year and have been nice to me about missing tomorrow. My art teacher is the most supportive because one day while I wasn't feeling like doing my work, I talked with her about trapping, and over the next few weeks I have been telling her the days until the season. Today I told her I wasn't going to be there tomorrow and she was so excited that It was finally time for me to go set traps. Anyways that's my story of the day but I need to keep working on getting caught up on homework.
My senior year of high school and I wanted to take the first week of trapping off from school. Talked to the principal the Monday before and he said to let him think about it and stop back Friday after school. Meanwhile I got all my homework done and things cleared with my teachers. Friday finally came and when I went into talk to my principal, he said no as if he let me go then he would have to let everyone go. Poor excuse as half the school was gone when it came to harvesting or deer hunting but I had a plan. Monday morning when I got to school I reaked of skunk! My teacher sent me to the principal's office and he sent me home. My plan worked and I spent the rest of the week trapping. Friday the school called and told my parents I hadn't been to school all week and wondered why. That evening I got home and was confronted by my my parents. I just came from my fur buyer and pulled out a fat check that was more than both my parents made in a month combined! Nothing more was said at home or school. Now, like I said go get'm!!
Last edited by 20scout; 10/31/2211:32 PM.
Common sense is a not a vegetable that does well in everyone's garden.
My senior year of high school and I wanted to take the first week of trapping off from school. Talked to the principal the Monday before and he said to let him think about it and stop back Friday after school. Meanwhile I got all my homework done and things cleared with my teachers. Friday finally came and when I went into talk to my principal, he said no as if he let me go then he would have to let everyone go. Poor excuse as half the school was gone when it came to harvesting or deer hunting but I had a plan. Monday morning when I got to school I reaked of skunk! My teacher sent me to the principal's office and he sent me home. My plan worked and I spent the rest of the week trapping. Friday the school called and told my parents I hadn't been to school all week and wondered why. That evening I got home and was confronted by my my parents. I just came from my fur buyer and pulled out a fat check that was more than both my parents made in a month combined! Nothing more was said at home or school. Now, like I said go get'm!!
I don't know if my measly fur check nowadays would have the same effect and I'm not too willing to try.
My senior year of high school and I wanted to take the first week of trapping off from school. Talked to the principal the Monday before and he said to let him think about it and stop back Friday after school. Meanwhile I got all my homework done and things cleared with my teachers. Friday finally came and when I went into talk to my principal, he said no as if he let me go then he would have to let everyone go. Poor excuse as half the school was gone when it came to harvesting or deer hunting but I had a plan. Monday morning when I got to school I reaked of skunk! My teacher sent me to the principal's office and he sent me home. My plan worked and I spent the rest of the week trapping. Friday the school called and told my parents I hadn't been to school all week and wondered why. That evening I got home and was confronted by my my parents. I just came from my fur buyer and pulled out a fat check that was more than both my parents made in a month combined! Nothing more was said at home or school. Now, like I said go get'm!!
A great story! Wish I could have trapped when fur brought real prices
Well, 32 sets in today in 7 hours, very poor numbers on my part. I would walk up to a hut just fine and there would be 6" of water around the whole hut, not near enough water to drown them in. Little bits of vegetation in 6 ft circles around the feed beds took 10-15 minutes to clear just to set a couple of traps. At least I put in 32 good sets and not 96 hail mary sets.
Ended up getting permission to hunt coyotes on some guy's land though after he had a coyote come out of the trees after the ball that he was throwing for his dog. Which turned into me getting trapping permission for all of his ground. Found a beaver colony in one of his stock dam/sloughs which will be the 4th colony so far found. They have caused lots of destruction already and have at least 5 of the 8 or 9 trees that are surrounding the slough/stock dam starting to get dropped. They're at least 2 of them there but most likely more.
Also was cruising down a road that has a lake on both sides and I saw something sticking out of a pile of reeds so I stopped and checked it out and pulled out a spinning rod and reel combo that still works. And not 5 feet away, there was a mimic minnow. So that helped me cheer up a bit after having a harder day of trapping.
I would have liked to get 96 sets out but not everything always works out and it wasn't from a lack of effort. I enjoyed being out on the sloughs and I learned way more than if I had been in a classroom for the same amount of time. Lots of pheasants out and I almost had a hen land on top of me, it would have too unless I had yelled "Hey"!
Here's a spot where there were two runs going into trails from the slough that the rats were using to get to their bank dens and the mink were following. Both are set with 110 conibears on wooden stakes.
Here's one of my favorite sets of the day, halfway submerged 110 conibear on a wood stake in a heavily used run/trail.
Here's one of the toilet/feedbed sets that I did, had to scrape out vegetation for 10 minutes with the potato rake just to get the water open enough to drown the rat.
Awesome job bud. Keep at it. Sometimes it takes me a few days to get the whole line up and running.
Yeah, going to bring some more of my 110s that are rigged on Hagz spring clips and some carrots. I need to experiment and see if they'll go after carrots since I would like to get more traps out.
Might also experiment with some lure and see if they'll come to it too or not. Lots of places to put traps but no feed beds or toilets and the huts have very little water by them.
First catch/haul of the 2022/2023 trapping season! 1 mink and 13 rats, the mink is my first caught in a trap, and a colony trap at that. I'm so excited, I got the wood stove in the fur shed drying the rats to be skinned tomorrow night. Didn't set any traps today but plan to go out tomorrow and check/set a whole bunch more since we're already going to get some ice this weekend and maybe some snow next week.
What a great start to your season. And a Mink to boot, congrats.
Keep posting, we like to see updates. Make sure to post some put up fur also.
Will post put up fur when I get to putting up, got the rats from today drying in the shed now to be skinned tomorrow night after I go set more traps. Need to make a drying rack, was thinking of a 2x4 frame with chicken wire stapled on top, so the air can go below because right now I have them sitting on cardboard on the floor.
Looks like your hard work is paying off on spades! WTG!
Yes, it is, going to set more traps tomorrow since I saw a lot more feed beds open up today on the same slough. Also on a slough just up the road to the north, I saw some rats while checking a blind set 110 I had set up.
What a great start to your season. And a Mink to boot, congrats.
Keep posting, we like to see updates. Make sure to post some put up fur also.
Will post put up fur when I get to putting up, got the rats from today drying in the shed now to be skinned tomorrow night after I go set more traps. Need to make a drying rack, was thinking of a 2x4 frame with chicken wire stapled on top, so the air can go below because right now I have them sitting on cardboard on the floor.
I made my wife a frame just like that for drying wool fiber on after washing. It has also served double duty as a drying rack for rats, mink and otter.
Another day, another check! Went out and checked and set some more traps. Got another dozen or so out but would like to get more out since I'm still only trapping 3/4 of the slough. Changed out two of my conibears for colony traps since I decided they were active enough for it. Might pull the bottom edge set since it hasn't caught anything yet. Set a 110 on a spring clip in front of a random hole in the middle of the slough. It's most likely a rat den but no clue.
This little bugger was waiting for me at my first foothold of the day. Looked like a rat and I was pumped since that set didn't produce during yesterday's check. Pulled the chain and cleaned off vegetation and a nice mink was waiting for me! I absolutely love being able to finally catch mink after 3 years of targeting but no catches.
Here's the catch from today, 8 rats and 1 mink. One of the rats tried to wring out of the 1.5 coilspring but ended up staying so his leg is all sorts of messed up and then he has a few holes by his front left leg luckily he was a smaller one that can be used as bait and I don't feel as bad. I would have liked to skin him out but something got to him first.
Really itching to get beaver traps set but still have at least 3 weeks. I'll be content trapping rats and mink until ice up though which may come early this year.
I have good beaver and coyote trapping where I'm at and would gladly trade that away for rats and mink. I've only caught a handful of muskrats and mink. I would love to have a good rat and mink slough or two.
The season is off to a good start, keep them coming. I've been looking at your updates, helping to take the edge off a bit while I wait to set traps here.
The season is off to a good start, keep them coming. I've been looking at your updates, helping to take the edge off a bit while I wait to set traps here.
What type of set did you catch the mink in?
The first mink was in a colony trap and then this mink was in a 1.5 coilspring set on a rat toilet. I'm very surprised with my recent success with them as I have never caught one before these two.
Have 6 or so colony traps out, 6-8 110 conibears out in runs/ dryland, and then probably about 35 footholds. I haven't really counted traps but will today so I know how many I should be picking up when I pull.
Great catching there. The mink are nice to catch along with those muskrats. Keep setting. I will be riding along with you. Again good job. Just an FYI 1980,81, and 82. All my classmates took off of high school for deer hunting. I took a week for trapping. I know that look you got from the principal.
Well, not the best catch in the world today, Only 5 of them but 4 of them are pretty big rats and 1 is a little puny guy. A friend was supposed to come ride along with me and I gave him quite a few warnings that I was going to go check but he never came. Sometimes I wonder how my generation can live with themselves when they stand someone up like that. Does any other generation want to adopt me? Going to try putting those rats up tonight if they dry quickly enough. Might be trapping through huts soon enough, 1/4 inch of ice on the slough but the boat did wonders breaking through it. Had 41 sets out and only 5 rats which is an 8.2% catch rate but I'm having fun doing it so it doesn't matter for me as long as I catch a few. Ended up putting those other 20 rats into the freezer on carcass since I couldn't get my heater to start this morning to skin them. Y'all have a good night now!
Man! You are on a heckuva roll, Bud. Stick with it and keep us updated. By any chance, do you take the time to keep a journal of your trapping? I started keeping journals of hunting/trapping/fishing when I was 11 years old. Now that I'm an old-timer, it's really fun to pull out those journals from 50 years ago. I really encourage you to do so.
That's good advice from eedup...hang by the tail or back foot and put a fan on them. Great job! Keep at it...you are rolling now. We don't open up until the 10th.
Last edited by MChewk; 11/06/2209:39 AM.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: Gulo]
#7710137 11/06/2212:46 AM11/06/2212:46 AM
Man! You are on a heckuva roll, Bud. Stick with it and keep us updated. By any chance, do you take the time to keep a journal of your trapping? I started keeping journals of hunting/trapping/fishing when I was 11 years old. Now that I'm an old-timer, it's really fun to pull out those journals from 50 years ago. I really encourage you to do so.
Jack
I used to keep a trapping journal last year but ended up losing the time to write in it. I'm going to start another one tomorrow and keep with it.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: eedup]
#7710138 11/06/2212:47 AM11/06/2212:47 AM
Great job ! Those rats could be hung up to dry. Also if you always lay them on their backs they'll not spoil as quickly as laying them on belly.
I had all of them laid on a piece of meshlike chicken wire and it was working well, they would have been skinned this morning but I couldn't get the heater going to keep me warm.
Well, I'm really embarrassed to show this but these 4 rats are my first attempt at putting up rats. I skinned out all 5 from today but one of them was too bad to even put on the stretcher. I couldn't get the face to come off of the head. I feel really bad for these rats but I know there's a learning curve and hopefully, I get it sooner rather than later.
Keep the nose pinned at the top of the stretcher. Rats are measured from nose down so you are losing a lot by having them pulled so far down the stretcher. Otherwise, keep up the good work!
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: Tony1967]
#7710284 11/06/2210:10 AM11/06/2210:10 AM
Keep the nose pinned at the top of the stretcher. Rats are measured from nose down so you are losing a lot by having them pulled so far down the stretcher. Otherwise, keep up the good work!
I’m pretty sure the nose eyes and ears are still on the carcass.Don’t be afraid to use your knife once you get to the ears and on down to nose.Pretend your a taxidermist intending to mount the rat even if it takes 20 minutes.Once you learn how to do it right you can work on your speed.
Keep the nose pinned at the top of the stretcher. Rats are measured from nose down so you are losing a lot by having them pulled so far down the stretcher. Otherwise, keep up the good work!
You can use several clothes pins to keep the nose(or what's left of face) at the top of the stretcher. Then hang it nose down. You'll get it ! !
Great job ! Those rats could be hung up to dry. Also if you always lay them on their backs they'll not spoil as quickly as laying them on belly.
I had all of them laid on a piece of meshlike chicken wire and it was working well, they would have been skinned this morning but I couldn't get the heater going to keep me warm.
Wire drying rack is fine, just always try lay them on their backs.
I’m pretty sure the nose eyes and ears are still on the carcass.Don’t be afraid to use your knife once you get to the ears and on down to nose.Pretend your a taxidermist intending to mount the rat even if it takes 20 minutes.Once you learn how to do it right you can work on your speed.
You would be correct, the eyes and nose are still on the carcass, I got the ears on all of them. I was using my knife quite a bit when I got down to the face, I definitely need to watch some more videos and take more time.
Russ Carmen has a trick I have used on muskrats and mink. After your catch. Wrap them in newspaper. You would be surprised on the way home. How much water the newspaper will absorb from the fur. Good catch. Yes keep those eyes ears and nose on the hide. Helps keep the hide up. We all started some where. You will get the hang of it. Just keep trying and don’t give up
Russ Carmen has a trick I have used on muskrats and mink. After your catch. Wrap them in newspaper. You would be surprised on the way home. How much water the newspaper will absorb from the fur. Good catch. Yes keep those eyes ears and nose on the hide. Helps keep the hide up. We all started some where. You will get the hang of it. Just keep trying and don’t give up
I would have tried again if I had caught any today but it was too windy to run the line, luckily we have every other day check here. We don't get any newspaper so can't try that trick but having that fan and heat on them worked great.
Well, today was a bad day for trapping. The day started off with me waking up and seeing it was too windy to get check rat traps, so I naturally look for things to do and got some beaver traps ready for Thanksgiving break that went quickly so I hung out for a bit in the house. Went back out to the garage and started tagging 3 coon boxes and 6 dogproofs for me to go set. I got it all done, the truck loaded, and headed out to the spot. Got all of the traps but 1 coon box out and I found a nice enough looking trail to put it by. I started setting it and was about to set the 220 when I see a guy coming through the ditch to where he thought he saw me enter. So I assumed he was looking for me and I stepped out of the tree line. He came up to me and asked what I was doing so naturally I said I was trapping. He asked for what and I said coons, opossums, and skunks. He asked what traps I was using and I told him conibears and dogproofs. He said that I need to pull all of the conibears since he has cats and dogs that run around there. So I said I will pull this one box and he proceeded to say that his cats and dogs run the whole tree belt not just this part. So I said I'll pull them all and I walked up to the truck with trap and box in hand and put them in the back end. He walked up to me as I was closing my topper door and said that he had called the landowner ( I had permission), and he said that the landowner said no to conibears. I went and pulled into the guy's driveway turned around and went and picked up my 6 dogproofs and 3 coon boxes and said goodbye to that perfect spot. I understand that I need to be careful while using these 220s and I assumed I was far enough away from any houses. I may have been in the wrong but I don't think I was, was I? Sorry for the long read but I really need opinions on this to make sure I didn't do anything wrong.
It’s a game of learning. Call the landowner or go to his place to confirm what the guy told you. Sometimes it is BS. Just saying. Don’t let it get you down. I have 4 counties I run. 4 different game wardens. Come trapping season I will get at least two calls. All BS but the wardens have to follow thru on a complaint. Running into the public is always a possibility. But sounds like you handled it very well. Chin up young man. Keep plugging away.
You might not have been wrong, I am not familiar with SD regs. But I think the guy will be a problem down the road. I assume he felt it was ok to be on the property you had permission to trap, and felt comfortable enough to call the owner to complain about the 220s. He would be watching every move you made. I think you were right to pull those traps; I would have done the same thing. Sometimes its not worth trapping a spot even if you are in the right. Maybe others here will give you a different answer, but I would have handled it just like you did.
It’s a game of learning. Call the landowner or go to his place to confirm what the guy told you. Sometimes it is BS. Just saying. Don’t let it get you down. I have 4 counties I run. 4 different game wardens. Come trapping season I will get at least two calls. All BS but the wardens have to follow thru on a complaint. Running into the public is always a possibility. But sounds like you handled it very well. Chin up young man. Keep plugging away.
First time in 3 years that I have had a run in like this. I'm just going to stay away from that area from now on and just leave it at that.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: 8117 Steve R]
#7711004 11/06/2210:58 PM11/06/2210:58 PM
You might not have been wrong, I am not familiar with SD regs. But I think the guy will be a problem down the road. I assume he felt it was ok to be on the property you had permission to trap, and felt comfortable enough to call the owner to complain about the 220s. He would be watching every move you made. I think you were right to pull those traps; I would have done the same thing. Sometimes its not worth trapping a spot even if you are in the right. Maybe others here will give you a different answer, but I would have handled it just like you did.
I handled it the best I could even though I was mad. If I had left the dogproofs, the next thing I would have to deal with is probably the sheriff because the guy heard shooting. I even hung out at the truck for about 5 minutes before I went into the tree line and he could have approached me then.
It's better to give up an area than deal with drama. Drama in trapping=much less enjoyable. Take the time you would have spent running that spot an invest it elsewhere.
It's better to give up an area than deal with drama. Drama in trapping=much less enjoyable. Take the time you would have spent running that spot an invest it elsewhere.
Yep, going to maybe set another rat spot and check one spot one day and the other spot the next day.
Another day, another check! 1" of ice on the slough this afternoon means it's time to pull. I pulled and will organize all of my gear and get ready for snow on Thursday and Friday. Probably going to set some weasel boxes, mink boxes/sets, and a couple of coon sets this weekend. Had 4 rats and 1 coon this check but no coon sets out. I caught the coon in a feed bed set for rats. Set with a Duke 1.5 Coil, 6' fiberglass pole and it didn't escape. Had to run a 1/2 mile - 3/4 mile in waders back up to the truck to grab the gun to dispatch it. Got it dispatched, pulled the last few traps, and loaded the truck to come home. Ate some dinner and sat in the garage getting the gear out of the boat and unthawed. Still need to pressure wash them to get some of the reeds and sludge off, that slough water dyed those traps a nice dark black. Have a good night y'all!
This is the boat with quite a bit of the gear removed and catches out but still very messy.
Also here's a side note, an air compressor with a spray nozzle does a very good job of making rats dry enough to freeze without them sticking to everything and it makes them fluffy.
Lost a 110 conibear while I was pulling traps yesterday and I looked and looked for it and couldn't find it anywhere. So I drove to the North of the slough I was trapping and I counted 5 rats on one hut and then over 5 on the other side of the road. They know when the traps are out. I'll be back for them though.
Now you know why it's called trapping and not catching. Your learning fast about the ups and downs of this sport/hobby.
Yes, I am, especially muskrats. With this weather moving in I'm going to start prepping for spring rat now. I'm going to outfit all of my 1.5 coils with Wild River Mink Pans since they seem to make that catch rate go way way up.
Here are the rats from the other night, all dried and stretched. Had one really big rat and it's a shame that I wrecked it. Hopefully, I'll be able to trap a few with baited conibears through the ice and get more practice before spring.
You are getting started. That is what counts. Liked the video. When it starts freezing and a front moving in. The muskrats know it is going to be a long winter under the ice. Keep plugging away
You are getting started. That is what counts. Liked the video. When it starts freezing and a front moving in. The muskrats know it is going to be a long winter under the ice. Keep plugging away
Just set out 2 mink boxes, a 110 blind set in a run under a half-submerged log, and 2 baited conibears. Got out of school early today because it was supposed to be icy roads but it wasn't. Found a beaver lodge within 20 yards of the 2 mink boxes and blind set 110 so will set that on Saturday when I go check.
Has anyone ever looked at Mink and Muskrat Trapping by Stanley S.Hawbaker? This set was in it and I was wondering if anyone here had given it a try. Seems like an odd ball set.
Here's a video I took of 2 muskrats watch me prep baited conibears, hopefully, they're caught on Saturday. They look big! (Sorry for the music, had to upload from TikTok)
Nice video. Not saying one way or the other on the ice box set. But if the ice gets that thick. With little to no snow. I personally would be looking for feeder and grooming huts. A lot easier. More productive. Not sure if you have done any hut trapping when everything is froze?? Hope you score on some fur tomorrow. I am enjoying your thread
Nice video. Not saying one way or the other on the ice box set. But if the ice gets that thick. With little to no snow. I personally would be looking for feeder and grooming huts. A lot easier. More productive. Not sure if you have done any hut trapping when everything is froze?? Hope you score on some fur tomorrow. I am enjoying your thread
I'm still going to bust huts but just thought it would be a cool little set to try out. I've never done any hut trapping but it seems pretty straight forward. Went out to set some more tonight and put in a pocket/dirthole set. Hopefully tomorrow I have some though. Ice is able to be stood on now so it won't be long till I'm able to trap huts.
Going to the fur buyer's place in the morning. Will take a picture when I'm loading up. No catches today and no catches yesterday, got 2 mink boxes out, 2 baited conibears, and 1 pocket set. The ice should be ready by next weekend. Hoping to get these 3 rats thawed by tomorrow afternoon so he can teach me how to skin them correctly. I just wish I could have 1 rat just this one check just in case these 3 don't thaw out.
Well, went to the fur buyers. Got 35$, and have 2 mink and a coon that are getting tanned. 35$ for 28 rats, 7 of them put up, 3 of which were done there. Averaged 2$ put up and got 1$ a piece on the carcass. Figured out how to skin out the head, will need some more practice before I'm really good at it. Checked traps today and got nothing, set up a weasel box with weasel lure and muskrat meat where I saw that weasel the other day. Also, set a 1.5 longspring in a hut so I can actually start catching fur again. Coyotes were just some that my dad shot while thermal hunting but got nothing for them so they're going to the dead pit.
Carry a bunch of newspapers in your truck. Wrap each rat or mink up in about 3-4 pages. You will be surprised how quickly it pulls the water out of the fur. Won’t be completely dry but will speed up the process immensely. Newspapers are also THE BEST method for drying your boots- loosely crumple 6-8 pages and stuff them in each boot. If you had a mishap and filled them with water, you may have to change the newspapers out 2-3 times. Will wick out all the moisture and will have a nice dry comfy pair of boots ready to go for your next check!
Skinning technique- once you open up the back legs and get pelt loose from the tail, sit the rat on his rump, grab the pelt on the top side of the tail, put your right hand on the rats face and push in with right hand while pulling pelt towards you peeling it off the back with your left. Your right hand will end up inside the pelt. Pelt should pull off the back up to the shoulders pretty easy. Pelt will still be attached on the belly. DONT start pulling from the back! Starting on the side along the ribs, pinch and pull the pelt loose from the rib cage. Work the front legs through- I usually just pull them without need of a knife. Next gently pull pelt loose from the belly from front to back. Then pull pelt over the head till the ears appear, cut the cartilage at the base close to the skull, continue pulling till eyes appear, cut the eyes and nose loose and then work pelt off his mouth.
Couple of tricks to make it easier- mount a vice grip to your bench and clamp the rats tail in it and pull each leg tight as you make opening cut from heel to base of tail on 1st leg then again on the other. Same clamp works well to allow you to keep tension on the pelt as you’re working on the ears and eyes- keep tension on the pelt by pulling it away from the rat with left hand as you are cutting the ears/eyes/nose with your right. Keeping it pulled tight is key to getting nice ear and eye cuts!
Hope you found something useful in my post! Once you get the hang of it you’ll be peeling them in a minute or two.
Sounds like you have plenty of territory and rat populations. You are fortunate to have decent rat numbers. Now get a system worked out to suit your goals. The newspaper trick works very well. As soon as rat is removed from trap, slick it down nose to tail with your gloved hand to expel mud from the rat in and out of the water. Too bad you don't have newspaper as it works so well wrapping each rat to help dry rat which checking rest of traps then driving home. Then hang each one from a wire high enough so the dog can't get them. I do run a fan on them a few hours say overnight and they will be nice and fluffy the next day after you run a gloved hand over them.
Well brought a friend on the line today and was hoping for once to have something but it disappointed me again. The ice is already too dirty to see any bubble runs. Pulled 1 weasel box, 2 mink boxes, and a dry pocket set to the way north today since none of it was producing. The hut had a tripped off trap but no sign of anything else, the plunge hole was still open. Set a 110 in a run but the water was too dirty so couldn't see if it was close to the bottom or not, ice was 2-3" thick on the rest of the slough but in that run, it was maybe .5" to 1" thick at most. Set a weasel box and a mink box right by a culvert where I saw some sign. Mink pans for the 1.5 coils come today and put 3 of them on my bridgers before I fell asleep on the couch.
That's the plan, I have to teach someone how to trap now. Going to pull all my traps tomorrow since it's going to warm up a bit this weekend and the ice was already a little sketchy yesterday. Found a spot for coons about 10 or so miles away. Off the main road so I'm able to use 220s. Going to set my few 220s in boxes/trails, some dogproofs, and maybe a couple of dirtholes till the ice gets better. Hopefully, I start catching some stuff so I can show this friend some catches and not just empty traps. He's riding along tomorrow as well.
Was a sad day pulling the remaining bits of the rat line. Got the bigger one in that conibear I set yesterday in the run and the smaller guy in the hut. No ride along today, he had to go do something at home. Bad weather, snow blowing in every direction, got into the slough that was lower in elevation and it was way less visibility. Going North it opened up a lot but the ride back South was a take it slow type of ride. I'm going to go set out some coyote and coon gear tomorrow since it's supposed to warm up for the next week or so. Already got those two rats skinned out, got a little bit more of the face this time, better than last time but still not the best. Took advice from my fur buyer and bought hook blades for box cutters and it's way better for the opening cuts, and way easier also.
I admire your work ethic! That's what makes a good Trapper. Its not a secret lure or bait its about getting sets out in good locations and keeping them working. It is a great sense of accomplishment when it all comes together! Enjoy Each Day!
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: Bison88]
#7721380 11/19/2212:38 AM11/19/2212:38 AM
I admire your work ethic! That's what makes a good Trapper. Its not a secret lure or bait its about getting sets out in good locations and keeping them working. It is a great sense of accomplishment when it all comes together! Enjoy Each Day!
Thank you! It's a very big accomplishment when everything comes together after a week of not catching anything.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: IowaTrapper]
#7721381 11/19/2212:39 AM11/19/2212:39 AM
Well, today was a doozie, I did my usual go after school Friday to set traps, and little did I know that my trapping spot drifted in severely. I got the truck loaded and headed out, luckily I had put a shovel and a couple of scrap pieces of 2x4 in the bed when I went to go pull traps because I thought it would be way worse than it was. I had started to travel to the spot and I was about a mile south of it when I saw the first small drift, nothing big about 1 foot. I continued down the road following a set of tire tracks from the guy before and went another .5 mile to .75 mile up the road where it was starting to get to 1.5 feet to 2 feet of drifts. I was taking it slow but not slow so I would get stuck and I round the bend in this road since it goes around a lake and it goes to 2.5 feet, then 3 feet, then the guy tracks run out. Where the guy stopped it was at least 3.5 to 4 feet of drift snow. I start backing out in 4 wheel drive and realize that I'm sliding so I try correcting it but just get stuck. I hopped out to figure out what was going on and I slid into the ditch grass where there was no snow to compact and keep me up and then the snow had packed under the running boards and behind all 4 wheels. I went to the bed and got the shovel, started digging, and when I was done. I threw the shovel in the bed and began to back out and I was good to go, I had to go forward a few times but other than that I was home free. It was not the most fun, I luckily didn't lose any trim or pieces of plastic. I had gotten stuck at around 4:05 and was out by 4:30 so not having much time to set when it gets dark around 5:30 so I decided to call it a day and go home.
Well, today I didn't wake up until 3 pm for some unknown reason and slept through 5 different alarms. Still got out and put in 1 dirt hole with a duke 550 and 2 dogproofs. Hopefully, I have something come Tuesday.
I got another dogproof and 1 step down dirt hole set today, baited with mountain man bait with a chunk of wool blocking it, and 40 below by Tom Krause as a call lure. Fox urine sprayed about 2 feet away on a shrub.
Yes, it is, also has a slough with a small colony of beavers on it and a small pond with 4 or 5 rat huts. Got permission on it a couple of weeks ago when the guy was throwing a ball for his dog and a coyote ran out of the tree line to grab the ball. Got the text the next day that we had permission so we went out and met the guy. Dad has thermal hunted it a few times and now I'm throwing some steel in the ground.
Keep us posted on your catching. Hope your out at it young man
I wish I could say I have had a lot of luck but sadly I haven't. Been feeling crappy since Monday and my sinuses have been acting up this whole weekend. Pulled everything off of that one property and haven't got anything else out yet. No clue where to go next.
Well felt a whole lot better today but did a bunch of nothing. Threw my rabbit fur and muskrat meat back into the freezer out of the sled and sloshed it out with water in case the fish start biting hard. Found a nice Ion auger on Sunday and picked it up for 150$ with the auger head, charger, battery, and extension. Pretty much brand new and will give me something to do when I get some time over winter break. Also going to use it for some beaver trapping/muskrat. Might venture out tomorrow and check the ice on the sloughs and see if it's safe again yet. Looks like freezing temps for most of the next 10 days. Teachers are still assigning a whole bunch of homework and I've lost quite a bit of motivation on doing it. Going to still do it because I won't let myself not do it, still have straight a's luckily. Hope you guys have a good night and I'll keep you guys posted on when I'm getting traps out. I'll leave you guys with a quote.
Well, ice is 4-6" thick and is good to be walked on. I even got to use my new to me, Ion, today for some checking. Going to get the sled loaded and ready to go for tomorrow. I plan to bring a dozen longsprings, half dozen 110s, 1.5 dozen fiberglass poles, and a few weasel boxes.
Well, I got 11 sets total out today. 5 1.5 longsprings in huts and 6 110 conibears in runs baited with carrots for extra appeal and because I need to use them up. My new Sitka jacket I got kept me nice and warm and the wind wasn't an issue today. Might be addicted now. Got some water in my glove and then it froze within 20 or so minutes so I started calling it quits and heading back while putting more sets in.
Way to go. Sounds like a great day out on the slough. The baited 110s in the runs sounds great. I never tried a 1 1/2 LS in a house. But I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I use 1 1/2 coil springs with about 2.5 ft of chain. Then a small fox drag to anchor on the outside of the house. Around some cattails. The chain length allows the muskrat to go down the entrance hole when caught. Drowns. I have learned to do that. When I trapped up in northern MN. Timber Wolves like to hunt lake edges. If you had a live muskrat. The wolves would tear the house apart getting the muskrat. Muskrat and trap would be gone. But you don’t have Timber Wolves. So you should be good to go. I bet that long spring would act as a killer trap. Good luck. Keep us posted on the results. Remember never give up Youth Trapper.
Way to go. Sounds like a great day out on the slough. The baited 110s in the runs sounds great. I never tried a 1 1/2 LS in a house. But I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I use 1 1/2 coil springs with about 2.5 ft of chain. Then a small fox drag to anchor on the outside of the house. Around some cattails. The chain length allows the muskrat to go down the entrance hole when caught. Drowns. I have learned to do that. When I trapped up in northern MN. Timber Wolves like to hunt lake edges. If you had a live muskrat. The wolves would tear the house apart getting the muskrat. Muskrat and trap would be gone. But you don’t have Timber Wolves. So you should be good to go. I bet that long spring would act as a killer trap. Good luck. Keep us posted on the results. Remember never give up Youth Trapper.
I would have used guarded/stoploss traps as they're more common practice around here but I don't have any. And I considered using a 1.5 coil but all of them are still getting the new mink pans put on, but the Bridgers are being a real pain otherwise they would all be done. I'll take some pictures of my setup on Friday when I go check. I have about 2-3 feet of chain on most of my traps but I need to get more chain this summer and do about half of my muskrat traps and then they'll all be about the same.
Well, the itch got the better of me and I had to go check traps today. Luckily I had 5 rats though. I caught 3 of them in conibears and 2 of them in huts. I also had a muskrat wring out or something, the leg meat and foot were there but the rest of the rat was gone. Probably going to go check them again tomorrow if the wind stays down.
Im enjoying your posts!! Im 50 years old. Trapped coyotes for last 35 years. And im setting here at sheep camp. Waiting on fog to clear. And still can’t wait to get at it!! I am 99 % certain their want be a coyote here. The otherday rode = 64000 acres and saw 2 coyote tracks. BUT I still find myself looking out the window waiting for the fog to clear. So i can go check traps and snares. Lots of people talk about = us old timers getting burned out ? Its never happened here. I will NEVER be rich. But I almost always enjoy trapping everyday. Sure. Like any job. Their are always days on coyote jobs. I want to quit. But when you do something you love. You never really work a single day. SO from 1 aging coyote trapper to 1 new trapper. Keep up good work. And have fun !!!
Success Youth Trapper. Way to go. Your on ‘em. Hammer time!! Thank you for the posting. As far as that muskrat that was gone. Mink do hunt under the ice. I wouldn’t be surprised the mink got that one from you. If it was pulled down thru the hole. Good job on the muskrats. Hope you get a few more
Success Youth Trapper. Way to go. Your on ‘em. Hammer time!! Thank you for the posting. As far as that muskrat that was gone. Mink do hunt under the ice. I wouldn’t be surprised the mink got that one from you. If it was pulled down thru the hole. Good job on the muskrats. Hope you get a few more
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised much, that was my number one guess.
Well, I brought my dad out with me today. The first time he has been on the line with me this year. Taught him how to find runs and set in them—taught him how to trap huts. Got 7 rats, today. 1 of them was small so I threw him in the freezer because I'm going to get the same price for it put up or on the carcass. Also, threw 2 others in the freezer with broken legs. So I have 9 rats to skin tonight. Was really crappy out today but that new Sitka jacket I got is amazing for wind and cold protection. I think I'm sold on this Sitka stuff, have a hoodie coming sometime within the next few days and then I'll really be warm.
Im enjoying your posts!! Im 50 years old. Trapped coyotes for last 35 years. And im setting here at sheep camp. Waiting on fog to clear. And still can’t wait to get at it!! I am 99 % certain their want be a coyote here. The otherday rode = 64000 acres and saw 2 coyote tracks. BUT I still find myself looking out the window waiting for the fog to clear. So i can go check traps and snares. Lots of people talk about = us old timers getting burned out ? Its never happened here. I will NEVER be rich. But I almost always enjoy trapping everyday. Sure. Like any job. Their are always days on coyote jobs. I want to quit. But when you do something you love. You never really work a single day. SO from 1 aging coyote trapper to 1 new trapper. Keep up good work. And have fun !!!
Yeah, I may never be rich either but at least I'm happy. There have been a few days I just want to quit that day I got iced in badly and was out until almost 8 pm at night pulling traps. Luckily that was only a temporary feeling. I wish I could get on the coyotes like you though.
7 more rats. Your a high roller now. Good deal. Your hard work is paying off. Good day for you and your dad out there. I bet your dad is proud. Keep it up. Looking forward to see tomorrows catch
Put up some rats and hung out in the fur shed tonight. Finally got the noses to stay on the faces! I only had one slip of the blade where I missed the right cheek of the rat but that was the worst of it. I had another trapper sharpen my knives while he was teaching me about coyote trapping and they're very nice now. Just need to get it figured out on my sharpener.
Well, today was a day. Woke up at 9:30 am after not falling asleep until 3 am. Helped dad put some new flooring in our guest bedroom. Went out to the fur shed and got some more wood on the fire, took the dry rats off the wall, and moved the wetter ones where they would dry better. Started burning some of the old bamboo wood in the fire pit, which happened all day. Split some more wood for my wood stove, and put that in the cabin. It was about 16-20" wide by 2' tall so a decent amount. Then went and ran the line. Reset the conibears that wouldn't stay set yesterday and while I was working on getting the first trap of the day set, I hear a bloop, imagine surface tension is broken and then something going back under. So I quickly look and there was nothing so I assumed it must have been a chunk of ice, and as I'm getting the conibear set to put into the hole in the ice, I see the face of this muskrat right up by the farthest edge of ice watching me. It was a cool experience, I was a little scared to put my fingers back in the water to put the conibear in but I did check the conibear on the way through and he was not in it. So I continue down the line and come up to my second hut set and go about breaking it back open to get to my trap, and I realized the hut was really fluffy inside I thought it was weird but wasn't too concerned. I got the hole opened up enough and pulled the chain and here comes out this muskrat screeching and clawing. I drop the trap and run back to the sled, I luckily keep an axe handle in there because of hearing about this and gave him a couple of whacks on the head, he was out in seconds. I caught 8 rats today out of 14 sets since 3 out of the 17 weren't working. I also set one more hut today. Then I got home and had 2 small rats that would have had no difference in price if I skinned them or kept them on carcass so I froze them. I luckily had 6 more to dry. I hung those by the tail to dry and set out on skinning the 2 rats that were fully dry while the others from yesterday got finished out and the 1 rat from today that had to get bopped with the axe handle. I was doing really good and got those 3 skinned with a breeze and the other rats from yesterday had finally dried out. I felt the knife was a little dull so touched it up on my work sharp belt sharpener and felt I had done a good job. So I pulled out the biggest of the few since I was all warmed up and ready to go. I was doing fantastic on the opening cuts and everything and got it down the front legs where I had a bit of an issue but got it figured out. I got to the ears and got them cut then got to the eyes and it struggled cutting but I got it and moved onto the face and it was going good but then it wouldn't cut at all so I ended up leaving the lower jaw fur and the front of the cheeks. It hurt a lot because that was the biggest rat of the season. It still turned out good enough to be sold but doesn't look very good. But the good news is that the 4 rats that I skinned out yesterday were ready to be taken off the stretchers and they all look to be 2$ rats so that's nice. Anyways, sorry for the long read but I will post pictures now.
This is a #1 Sleepy creek stretcher by the way and it almost filled it out, almost had to grab my Victor 1.5 stretchers. This is the big rat.
Good job. Your catching those muskrats. Your put up is much better for sure. You’ll get the hang of the heads. It takes time. Just keep plugging away. Your muskrat count is piling up for sure.
Well, today was a big day. Didn't wake up until noon, tried getting up at 9 but fell back asleep. Got up finally and sent a text to the guy who was going to help fix my knife. He said he would be around in an hour or so. I went to the fur shed and made sure it was still running and made sure the fan was blowing. Went to the garage and started putting together my conibears with spring clips on them. Took the chains off and made sure they were all set. By the time I was done with that dozen I went back to the fur shed and stoked the stove, grabbed my knife, and started heading to the guy's house. Got there and dropped the knife off, came back home, and loaded the sled up to go check traps. Checked the traps and put 2 more conibears in. Got 9 rats today, would have had 10 but I'm pretty sure I ripped one's leg off while trying to get it out of the hut, couldn't find it and I tried everything to get it out. Started heading home and texted the guy who was fixing my knife to see if it was done and he didn't respond so I drove around for a bit hoping he would text me while I was still up in that area. Headed home and as I'm about 100 feet from the driveway I hear my phone go, bing, so I pulled into the driveway. I checked the stove and threw some more wood in and got back in the truck. I drove back to the guy's house, picked up the knife, and headed back to the house. Got home and got all 5 of my rats skinned with no problem. Won't check the line tomorrow but will put up these 7 rats. Up to 61 for the season, one fifth of the way to my goal.
Good job Your catching. I saw your temperature on you thermostat. Drying muskrats and mink you want it really no warmer then 60 degrees. The animals don’t have a lot of grease. If you dry to warm to fast. The leather can crack and tear easy. Try it you will see the difference. Raccoon on the other hand 80 is a great temperature. Doing a great job though. Keep up the good work. Enjoying your videos as well
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: stinkypete]
#7734953 12/05/2212:04 AM12/05/2212:04 AM
Good job Your catching. I saw your temperature on you thermostat. Drying muskrats and mink you want it really no warmer then 60 degrees. The animals don’t have a lot of grease. If you dry to warm to fast. The leather can crack and tear easy. Try it you will see the difference. Raccoon on the other hand 80 is a great temperature. Doing a great job though. Keep up the good work. Enjoying your videos as well
Yeah, the wood stove is kind of go hot or go slow, haven't found an in-between yet where I can keep it cooler. It's usually only 80 for about 10-15 minutes after stoking the stove then it's about 65-75. It's still plenty hot but like I said the stove is a little overkill for that small of a building.
if youre busting huts for rats, you need shoulder length gloves. open the hut, make sure the rats not sitting in there waiting for you. pull the chain tight with your left hand, and follow it down the hole with your right, til you feel the rat. pull him out by the head, not the trap. front leg bones are like tooth picks and will snap off easily. always pull up the rat, never the trap. rats are great at tangling the trap/chain around anything thats under the hut.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: fossil2]
#7735744 12/06/2201:47 AM12/06/2201:47 AM
if youre busting huts for rats, you need shoulder length gloves. open the hut, make sure the rats not sitting in there waiting for you. pull the chain tight with your left hand, and follow it down the hole with your right, til you feel the rat. pull him out by the head, not the trap. front leg bones are like tooth picks and will snap off easily. always pull up the rat, never the trap. rats are great at tangling the trap/chain around anything thats under the hut.
Pretty chill day today. I got home from school, did a few chores in the house, and then went out to the fur shed. I emptied the ash out of the wood stove and dumped that in our fire pit. I built up a new fire and got that rolling. Then I took the rug and my piece of cardboard out of there so I could sweep. I swept the floor really clean so I got all of the mud and pieces of shrapnel from the wood. Put in a new sheet of cardboard and the rug after shaking it off. Then stoked the fire some more and split a whole bunch more firewood. Started skinning and it went quickly on 7 rats. Got 4 of them fleshed then I got called in for dinner so I went in and ate. Got back out and fleshed the next 3 and started boarding them. I took the others from yesterday night off the stretchers and put them in the postal box since I don't have a fur hanger. So I came inside after that and ended up falling asleep after making cookies. Posting a video in a little bit after I do my homework.
Fossil2. Good advice Tim. Punching out a couple hundred houses a day. A guy learns real quick. I also wore chest waders. The trick is to stay clean and dry as well. Amazing how wet and dirty a guy can get ice trapping rat houses. But fun. YouthTrapper. I really am enjoying your muskrat trapping thread.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: stinkypete]
#7736636 12/07/2201:22 AM12/07/2201:22 AM
Fossil2. Good advice Tim. Punching out a couple hundred houses a day. A guy learns real quick. I also wore chest waders. The trick is to stay clean and dry as well. Amazing how wet and dirty a guy can get ice trapping rat houses. But fun. YouthTrapper. I really am enjoying your muskrat trapping thread.
Yeah, I do get a little dirty but even with my normal length gloves it's still clean and that Stika jacket I have stays really warm and dry.
I checked my traps today and got 7 rats, could have had 9 but they wrung out somehow. I got home and put them in the shed, and cranked the wood stove up. Took the other rats off the stretchers and did some rough grading. I figured in the 20 rats I have put up, I have about a 2$ average. Put up a couple of the rats from today's check and they looked small hanging but they look to be medium on the stretchers so maybe my mind is playing tricks on me or something. I may as well put up the other 5 rats tomorrow and get it done with then check the line Thursday. It's really hard for me to determine which one to freeze and which ones to skin but I'll get better. It has been a good couple of days on the line though. Going to try and make a video of me skinning this weekend but I need to get a gopro or phone mount figured out first.
youre getting way too many wring outs. when you open the hut, clean out any loose material first, then widen out the plunge hole to as big as possible. reach down the hole and push any debris away from the underside of the hut. when the trap fires, the rat should dive immediately without anything hindering its trip down the hole. a rat can often times climb back into the hut with a #1 sized trap, but a 1 1/2 coil usually holds them down, after they dive. some huts will have a plunge hole thats actually too small for the trap to fit through. either widen the hole or skip that hut.
stinky pete,,,hey wayne,,,hope you and the family are all doing well. i miss busting huts too,,,its been a while. we always wore waders too, neoprene. dont know how many times we fell through the early ice. brent and i were cracking huts years back, on a lake with around 800-1000 huts of all sizes. no competition. we had a blast, and were catching so fast that we couldnt afford to take a day off. one day a blizzard hit, and occasionally we had to hunker down behind a big hut and warm up. bad winter and very deep snow, and the deer were starving. when we'd crack a feeder hut, the deer would come and paw out the wet vegetation we plugged the hole with. a farm a mile away had about 200 bedded in their yard all winter til the snow melted off. on another lake the carp were winter killing, and they would swim up in a hut and suck air. we pulled dozens of them out of the huts. another spot we found a carp floating but still alive. an otter had eaten the tail end up to the stomach, and the poor thing was just floating around and couldnt swim w/o a tail. ive seen alot of strange things trapping winter rats. hope our rats come back someday. this drought has really hurt them bad.
Tim, good story! Around here the 'rats take a beating in the marshes, ponds and lakes from hawks and now eagles. We are seeing more eagles showing up. The creeks still have rats but limited numbers. Everything wants to eat muskrat...snapping turtles, mink, otter and raptors. I'm surprised we still have 'rats...lol
YouthTrapper. Your stretched muskrat put up is looking much better. Good job. The way it sounds. You are about the only guy in the country with water and muskrats. I am jealous
mchewk,,same thing here. too many eagles and other raptors, and otters. ive seen otters clean out a slough in a matter of days. almost no rats in our creeks anymore either. we'll need 2 good wet years to bring back any numbers of rats at this point.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: stinkypete]
#7737476 12/08/2212:10 AM12/08/2212:10 AM
YouthTrapper. Your stretched muskrat put up is looking much better. Good job. The way it sounds. You are about the only guy in the country with water and muskrats. I am jealous
Well luckily I do otherwise I wouldn't be catching anything. Rats are my favorite thing to trap no matter the day. I have also really enjoyed putting the fur up, I just wish I had a bigger space to do it in since that little shed gets a little crammed.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: fossil2]
#7737479 12/08/2212:12 AM12/08/2212:12 AM
youre getting way too many wring outs. when you open the hut, clean out any loose material first, then widen out the plunge hole to as big as possible. reach down the hole and push any debris away from the underside of the hut. when the trap fires, the rat should dive immediately without anything hindering its trip down the hole. a rat can often times climb back into the hut with a #1 sized trap, but a 1 1/2 coil usually holds them down, after they dive. some huts will have a plunge hole thats actually too small for the trap to fit through. either widen the hole or skip that hut.
I figured I was getting too many. I clean out most of everything I can reach and always clear the plunge hole. I'm using 1.5 longs right now since my 1.5 coils are still getting the new pans on them. I've been a little lazy about getting them fixed. I would use my #1 coils but I stole the chain off of them to put on my 1.5s since they were really short. This summer though I'm going to get all my traps fixed and chained appropriately.
Well, I came home from school yesterday right after 7th period and slept for a solid 6 hours. Stayed home today all day and slept until around 12:30. Had to check traps today so I went out and checked around 2. Got 2 rats today, made my conibear holes bigger, and fixed up some of the huts a little better. Put up both rats and made a video about it but I can't get them to merge so I'll try again tomorrow to get them fixed otherwise I'll just have to upload 4 different parts. Had another two wring outs. One was caught by the toe and the other by the whole foot. So yeah, stay tuned for a muskrat put up video tomorrow or so, I'll make sure I put a post in here about it.
today was a 50% loss in wring outs. sounds like your 1 1/2 longsprings arent fitting down the plunge holes, and theyre holding the rat inside the huts. those traps are over powered for a rats front foot. the weight is nice for drowning in open water, but a poor choice for inside a hut. youll be setting new huts soon, so just use a few of your 1 1/2 coils for now.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season
[Re: fossil2]
#7738668 12/09/2202:30 AM12/09/2202:30 AM
today was a 50% loss in wring outs. sounds like your 1 1/2 longsprings arent fitting down the plunge holes, and theyre holding the rat inside the huts. those traps are over powered for a rats front foot. the weight is nice for drowning in open water, but a poor choice for inside a hut. youll be setting new huts soon, so just use a few of your 1 1/2 coils for now.
Yeah, I need to fit those pans tomorrow night. I'm going to scout farther to the south of this slough but it's still connected to see if I can find any more settable huts otherwise I'll switch to one of my other spots.
Here's the put up video, hadn't skinned a rat in a little bit so cut me a little slack. Also I just realized the knife scraping the skull so that's my bad, didn't realize I was doing it till I watched.
Only 1 rat today and I didn't feel like getting the wood stove running for only 1 rat so I froze him. Going to pull traps tomorrow until Friday since we have snow moving it quickly. Going to work on some projects for the time being. Need to put up some more firewood since I still have a couple of months of needing it and I'm getting quite low.
Once you get your opening cut done place the rat on the table and you can hold the belly while pulling the pelt off and you won’t rip the belly open as often.
I read your whole thread young man and your doing a fine job, I like trapping muskrats almost as much as I like trapping beaver. Keep up the good work, I like your positive attitude, and your work ethic, this country would be better off if we had more young people like you.
Once you get your opening cut done place the rat on the table and you can hold the belly while pulling the pelt off and you won’t rip the belly open as often.
I need to clean my table first, it's full of slough grass and mud from brushing the rats. Will try it when I have some more rats.
I read your whole thread young man and your doing a fine job, I like trapping muskrats almost as much as I like trapping beaver. Keep up the good work, I like your positive attitude, and your work ethic, this country would be better off if we had more young people like you.
I love trapping them too, sucks that there isn't a little bit more money in them. I wish we had more people like me but I'll take what I can get at this point.
Well forgot to post yesterday. Caught 2 rats and pulled all my traps, and started skinning them. Skinned out the smaller one first and did fine, got to the bigger one, and got to the head. I messed it up badly and didn't finish the cut on the one eye so it got all messed up and I had to scrap it. It was just one of those nights yesterday. The bigger one was alive when I go to the hut too and he was feisty and tried taking off with the trap and fiberglass stake. I don't think he realized that there was a 6' drag behind him while I dug out my axe handle. Then today I went to a family friend's house who fixed my knife and cut some firewood. We have a local arborist who drops all the wood off at this guy's house since he has a wood boiler but it's hundreds and hundreds of cords of wood so he lets me snag a couple of dozen logs every now and then. Got most of it split tonight but will have to split the rest tomorrow and cover it with a tarp since we're already looking at getting some snow tomorrow. This load of wood should last me a couple of months hopefully.
Well put up and stacked/piled the rest of the firewood today. It should last me a couple of months and now I already have people messaging me for snow removal jobs so I'll be busy even without traps out.
No school today and no school tomorrow. Will still be holed up for a while though. Still looking crappy out, just been working on mink pans on the 1.5 coils these last few days. Only have about a dozen left and then I have to fine tune everything. Once I'm done with that, I'm going to see what I need for parts for my broken traps and then start seeing what I need to sell to make my trapline a little more organized.
All this snow is making me go a little bit crazy. I feel like I have eaten more food in the last week than I have in the last month. I shoveled the sidewalk about 50% tonight while the dog decided to take her sweet time running around. I wore my Sitka Traverse hoody and Duck Oven jacket and I was sweating by the end with the wind whipping and snow everywhere. Hopefully going to get traps out Saturday if the roads aren't terrible still. Got all of my 1.5 coilsprings with the new pans checked over to make sure they still set and everything. Now it's time to put tags on them and put hagz brackets on the ends. Been thinking of ways to streamline my traps and I have found out the best way so cataloging traps that I want to sell/keep. Been a busy few days, haven't even started fixing my traps in the broken bucket yet.
12-17-22: Well got tags and brackets put on all the 1.5 coils yesterday. Those finally went back out to the garage after months of being in the house. Been cataloging and collecting traps that I want to sell/trade. Went through my bucket of broken traps and only had 2 that were actually broken. One of which I'm selling anyways, so I'm just going to sell it as a parts trap. The other is a 1.5 longspring I broke while unloading the truck after pulling traps. I threw it on the ground to get rid of the ice on it and it bent the jaw enough that it popped off entirely. Probably going to end up being a parts trap too.
12-18-22: Went out today scouting around 10 am. Found a good spot where I have permission but it was right off a highway so couldn't find anywhere to park where I wouldn't get stuck. So I abandoned that spot against my better judgment. Headed back to the house, went up north to where I have been trapping and decided to check out the road that has the slough I have been trapping for the last couple of weeks. Well ended up busting through two drifts and decided that was enough so I was going to turn around at the next wind tower road (the guy had wind towers in the middle of his field). So I was braking to turn and of course, I'm at the top of a hill when I start braking it was pretty slick out and I ended up sliding down the top of the hill about 20 feet into a big drift that buried the truck up to the frame. Started shoveling for about 20 minutes and tried everything. I was just getting ready to call my dad to come to pull me out and the landowner pops up over the hill and luckily stopped in time. I had a chain with me so we got me all pulled out and that wrecked the day for me. Went and drove around and couldn't find any tracks really. Went out and scouted with my dad after I got home and we couldn't find any either. Found one slough with a good couple of huts and some random tracks so I'm going to go set that tomorrow. Plan to set out a dozen weasel boxes so I can maybe catch a few before the season closes at the end of January. So yeah, it has been an eventful day, plan to go to bed in the next hour or so, and hopefully going to get up around 10 am again and get some traps out after being stuck at home for a week with no skinning to do.