Good luck out there guys. Horrible weather to start the season. Most of WI is expecting 1" - 3" of rain today with 40mph winds from the East.

Hold onto your hats and be safe.

Always enjoy this thread- It's a good day to organize gear... it's nasty out for sure.
Good Luck

Yep, definitely not setting anything right away opening day. If the rain slows in the afternoon I may set the neighbor's standing corn edges for raccoon. He wants them gone sooner rather than later. That'll help clear them out before I start in on coyotes there.
Saturday will be a good day to do last minute trap tune ups, fixes, etc.
Plus, I need to mount a turkey tail for the neighbor kid. He shot his first tom last season and he asked earlier this summer if I could mount it for him.

Good luck to all of you. I'm going to start on the coyote first just to get rid of them but I'll wait for the ground to dry out so I'm not leaving ruts in the farmers fields. I'll let the coon prime up a little longer other than the incidentals I will catch in the coyote sets. Be careful out there. I took a good fall on Monday while scouting and am seeing the chiropractor to get my back straightened out, lol. My wife thinks I should slow down and be more careful, she may have a good point. Have fun.

Looks like the rain will be done around 4am here. Won't be able to get much metal in the ground due to farmers not wanting field roads to be tore up from driving on them after 2 plus inches of rain. Will set a few here and there but will be waiting until harvest is done so I'll have more time. If I have a couple dozen in by Sunday night, I'll be happy. The coyotes I've been hunting seem to have pretty decent fur already.

Good luck everyone

I'm going to start trapping rats next Tuesday.

Mark and I Went to Fur school yesterday and Helped the Students skin around 20 some otter. They were all DNR personnel from all over the state. Good bunch of people and they did a good job of skinning and fleshing.

I went to the Fond du lac Marsh and was disappointed. There was not enough water for even a duck to get its feet wet. It would need about a month of rain to make a difference. Guess I willgo to Allenton and trap the rivers and creeks.

Sloughs I trapped for 20-40 years are dry. I only have 2 marsh areas I can get a canoe in and paddle. Decided to wade the river sections I have early to see sign. Last year sign was very low. I have done 3 sections and there is more sign this year but man are the rivers low! I have 3-4 more sections to scout. We have 1 inch of rain the last 16 hours! That is the most at one time at our house since mid July.
Coon sign is unbelievable. I will be taking out a lot of 160s on the water line as a defensive trap so all my nice feed beds are not tore up.
I earned an extra $500 this summer doing some odd jobs. I plan to use those dollars for gas to trap a longer line for coyotes and coon. My 3 main species, rats, coons and coyotes are not worth much. I will write it off as a donation for public service! Take care out there and enjoy nature.
Bryce

I am 99 percent sure I am going to live in a set of rain boots for trapping this weekend.

Wading some rivers I have seen huge crops of wild grapes. The most I have ever seen and big coon toilets full of purple poop and seeds near them. That may go along with the bear hunters and baiters relating the big supplies of natural foods in the woods this year.

Bryce

How many of you WI bobcat trappers use CD's or some other shiny object above your sets? And how effective would you say that type of set is? My son drew his first bobcat tag this year and we are looking for ideas. Thanks in advance guys.

I am no help, but good luck to your son.

I set for cats and yotes with the same set, I do not use CD’s or tinsel. If you have good sign probably not necessary, after I catch my cat and the set is all sprayed up- high likelihood of a yote being in the trap the next day.
I have a tag also and looking forward to it.

I finally broke down and bought a decent pair of rubber boots this year. They'll get a good workout this weekend for sure.

catch all mine in a standard coyote dirthole

Today it begins. Have fun guys because none of us is guaranteed tomorrow.

watching, we need rain bad!!!!, most ponds are dry, creek are barley flowing. I'M waiting for a couple weeks yet to start, fur buyer said not to trap Coyote. But I have to trap some. Mainly going after beaver

Three inches of rain overnight here. Crick doesn't look too high in the yard. I'll get a few sets out in the corn field edges this afternoon.

Nice job, Gary.

We got just shy of 2 inches. We have been on the low end of the rainfall amounts all year. Eight miles west of me 3 inches and one could see the difference in water standing in fields, ditches etc. I doubt there will be much runoff as the ground will absorb just about all of this.

Bryce