Nothing in the traps today, I did move one of my 330s a little deeper, hoping that will help. I also set a weasel box near the tracks.

Well, the last couple of checks haven't been too exciting. I've only caught 1 mouse out of the weasel box. I had some chewings near one of my 330s, I'm thinking about cutting some snare poles to put in the feed pile and just leaving them for the maximum check time. I will probably start going to a line where I can see the road if we get a lot of snow. I'm hoping all of the culverts freeze so I can get my weasel boxes out, I'm also going to go after rats once this run of negative degree weather is over. I did manage to put in one hay set today for coyotes but didn't have scissors with me to blend the trap bed in well so I did the best I could. It's baited with Dakota Prairie Predator bait and I'm using Super Bonanza as a call lure. Here's a before and after picture of putting the hay on. It's set to the side of a two track where I've seen tracks and I know rabbits run.

Nothing in the traps today, going to pull them on Thursday and hang around the house until we get some above zero weather so I can go and bust huts. I have a couple of places full of huts so I'm going to try and get in contact with the people who own the slough and see if I can trap them or not. I did set out one weasel box today in a culvert where I've caught weasels before. It looks like a mink or something was running in and out of the culvert as there's a lot of tracks in the snow.

Hope you get him!

Nothing in the traps today, I went out and scouted and found around 30 muskrat huts in 2 different places. I will try to get permission on them so when it warms up, I can start busting huts. I also scouted out a bunch of culverts that will be good to go after this cold weather. Now I need to get some beaver meat from someone.

Well, I have some updates for you guys. I lost permission on both of those places with huts, one had another guy who spoke for it, and the other I couldn't get into contact with the person who owned it. So I haven't busted any huts recently. I did get out 10 weasel boxes on Tuesday though and had my first check today. I had 10 set off traps out of 10 traps so I think the warming up may have messed up my traps or something. A few of them had weasel tracks and bait stolen so I don't think all 10 were because of not weasels. I did rebait and reset, and a few of them got relured with a different lure. I'm probably going to check them a few more times and then be done for the year messing with weasels since the season ends at the end of January. I did get a couple of mink sets put in where a 20 ft ditch/creek necks down into a culvert. I put a 120 in a pinch point and blocked it in and then a 1.5 set at a crawl out right by the culvert. I weighted the 1.5 down with 20 lbs of steel blocks on a 5 or 6-foot cable extension to act as a drag as nothing would stay in the ground there. There were a couple of old truck brake drums nearby with a piece of cable loop and an S hook on it near my set grown into the ground so someone had trapped there previous to me, I did pick them up since I saw no point in leaving them there. You can see in the upper right of the picture a side of the drums. As far as I know, it's been a long long time since anyone had trapped in this area so it's nice to find signs of other trappers and know I'm doing something right. I also got back my hooped beaver today so that's really fun. Anyway, enough ranting here are the pictures.

Beaver looks great! Where did you get that done?

Beautiful Beaver!

I got it done by Mike Widner from Riverine Traders, his username on here is Muskrat. It's very good craftsman ship and I'm very impressed. I would go with him again for anything I would hoop.

Thank you and yes it is.

Nothing in the traps today, pulled them. I'm probably going to hold off on trapping until spring and get back after it with floats. In the mean time, I'm probably going to put up firewood for my firewood business this summer.

Don't give up yet keep after it you'll get one

I checked empty traps for 30 days straight. Then one morning I got a red fox, then a fox and a coon. Then another fox, then 3 bobcats, then more foxes then a coyote. You never know when the tide turns. If you're home you'll miss it, just saying.

Yeah man you gotta keep after it. Even if you just have a couple sets out. I know for myself, even if I'm not catching anything I'm still learning stuff just being out and about. Just keep it simple and get out there and you will find success.

They're starting to get rubbed here, going to hit it again next season.

Yeah, I get it. They're starting to rub and get a little worse for wear so I'll hit them again next season.

Yeah, I would love to keep my traps out for longer than I do but most of my spots are 30+ miles round trip and my truck doesn't get good gas mileage. I also don't really work in the winter time so I'm kind of on a budget on how much gas I can afford.

I agree with musty there just being out everyday you learn an pick up on things after awhile even if your not catching anything just the time in the field is worth it I wouldn't worry about the dogs being rubbed or not I'd just be trying to catch one...I get the 30 mile round trip tho gets hard to make that drive everyday if your not in the action but yeah tide can turn at any moment patience is key ..I think I read on here today steeltraps had a trap in the ground for 65 days before connecting with a dog

Well, I'm sorry that I haven't been posting, I've been busy working and dealing with this unusually warm weather. I've been coon trapping since Friday and already caught 2 coons over 3 checks. It's dropping well below freezing until Wednesday night and then the coons should start back up again. I'm going to probably pull 1 of the 2 spots tomorrow since I haven't caught anything there and go to where I know the coons are. I would have pulled it today while checking but I'm using earth anchors and forgot my cable cutters so I couldn't pull. I usually can pull them with my normal puller but it was very frosted near the top still since the area is in some shade. But that's about all of my updates for now, I will update you guys when something happens.