It seems like this year the weather will be fighting me again with freezing up early. I might be switching to coyotes sooner than I thought but they keep switching the weather every hour.

Well, 3 days and counting. I went out and scouted 2 sloughs today and both had ice that I could stand on. About 1.5-2" of ice. I hope that it will thaw out by Wednesday so I can set out some gear or at the latest Friday. Still have 15 or so yard cleanups to do so I'll keep busy either way. I said I wouldn't bust huts this year but it might be the only way to catch some rats. The goal is 400 for the whole season, if I can catch about 100 before spring then I should be able to catch the other 300. I have around 85 floats this year and enough traps to fill every one so it'll be a good spring season.

Well, today didn't go as planned but nothing has gone to plan for the last month so what's new? I only got 5 sets out in about 2 hours. There's not about 2.5-3.5" of ice with some open water left and the culverts still open. Definitely not the start I wanted. I have a 159 set in what I think is a run, a 159 set in an old concrete culvert that's about half submerged, a colony trap in a run, a 120 in a dryland run, and a mink box set near an open culvert with mink tracks near it. I didn't have any mink lure or bait with me but will thaw some bait out for the check on Friday and throw a jar or lure in the bucket. I'm hoping to connect on a few sets for rats but most of them were Hail Mary sets. I wish I trusted the ice enough now because I could start busting huts but I'm going to wait at least another week before that happens. Might pull these sets on Sunday if they don't catch anything and go set some easy to check coyote sets or something.

I went out and checked traps today, The ice is starting to melt so hopefully this week I will be back out on the sloughs setting out a bigger line on the slough I was going to trap on opening day. I'm glad I waited to bust huts. I did pull the mink box and one of the 159s today as they were both obsolete after the ice melted. The good news is that I caught 1 rat in the 159 in front of the old concrete culvert and 2 rats in the colony trap about 5 feet away in a run. I didn't catch anything in the 120 in the dryland run but no biggie as it's about 20 feet away from my other 2 sets. I will pull on Sunday so I'm ready to get my bigger line set if the weather works in my favor. Already have all 3 rats put up and they look really good, they definitely look better than the first rats I put up last year. I did find a new knife I like already and this was my first time using it, so I'm going to order a new one since this one is used, I think it's a Victornix Swibo boning knife.

Looking good, fall rats are nice, no bites like in spring.

Thank you, I like spring trapping more than fall trapping but that's probably because I haven't done much fall trapping.

I pulled traps today, I had the 159 set in the culvert snapped and then 2 rats in the colony trap, male and female. I'm going to get my bigger rat line set out this week. Around Wednesday. Didn't get a picture of the rats on the carcass but I'll snap a picture tomorrow of them put up. They look way worse than the other ones I put up, one of them also had something wrong with it but they're really good sized rats. Also, I have a question for you guys. I'm freezing my carcasses to process later and was wondering how you guys prevented them from freezing down to the surface they're on.

dry them over night with a fan on them, then layer them in the freezer belly side up. dont stack them deep. the cold air has to get to the bellies so they dont green up.

I skin them out right now but I was wondering like the actual carcass part, like the body after the fur is removed.

if saving them for bait, break apart into about 5 pieces. sprinkle a layer of salt in a bucket, then a layer of bait, then lightly salt the top of the bait. continue this in layers. they wont freeze together this way. the salt will penetrate the meat and make it freeze proof, and the mice wont eat the bait from your sets as they would with non salted bait. non frozen bait will also keep putting out more odor than if frozen.

Well, I finally got done with all my yards, I started a couple of weeks ago with 15 and got done with the last one tonight so you know what that means. It's time to get some steel out. I got 4 dozen footholds, half dozen colony traps, half dozen 159s loaded up with 5 dozen fiberglass poles, and a couple of tools. All loaded up in my 10 ft Pelican Bassraider, the plan is to use this to set and then check with my big otter sled. I'm going out to set tomorrow if it's not too windy. Anyway here's the pictures of the rats put up that I caught on 11-6-23.

Looks like we are going to get a nice warm up. Hope you have some open water to enjoy!

Yes we are! Going to hold off on my coyote trapping plans a bit. It's all open now, but I just need to find the time.

Nice job on your rats YT.

Your rats look pretty good YT. I see you are pinning down the side skirts, which is good. I would suggest you not put as much tension on your tail hooks, just snug, and you will eliminate a lot of the longitudinal wrinkles on your rats. This will give you a little heavier hide in those areas. Good luck, and have some fun ratting, Gary.

Thank you!

Yeah, I noticed that with these ones. Still getting back into the rhythm after not putting up fur for a couple of months.

I went out today even though it was windier and colder than I would have liked it to have been but I stayed warm. Got into around 2 dozen footholds and 1 colony trap. The rats are doing the same thing they did last year and stacking vegetation up against their huts 3-5 feet out so there's little water by the huts. So I just dig it out quickly and set my trap. I lured a couple of them with Dave Scirfes Muskrat cherry lure, hoping that it will be similar to Mark Steck's Laughing Lady since I really like that lure for rat trapping.

Keep after em TYT!

Well, I forgot to post but I caught 3 rats yesterday so not great but it's still catching. We had it ice up on the edges so it deemed almost all of my traps inoperable. I did put it in a pocket set on the side of a hut with a dead rat that I found. So maybe I'll have a mink tomorrow. Going to pull it tomorrow since it seems it's going to be the same for a few more days. Might switch up to yotes and coons for a bit since I found a spot but just waiting on the go ahead from the land owner for yotes. Have a guy that's trapping all the culverts around me with colony traps, left a note on his lath to try to get into contact with him to talk to him. I learned how to gut muskrats today so that was new. Going to be a really hard spring season if this weather doesn't help me a little bit. Anyway here's the picture, I didn't get it while they were still on carcass.