We went again in a John Boat to check on the Marshes around Fon du lac. There is not enough water for a duck let alone Muskrats. It is raining now but I think it will be too late for Muskrats this year. They look to have all moved to the lakes and Rivers.

All those small sloughs and little cattail holes have been good nursery area for rats when there is water as many don't get trapped and cover is better than a stream even if small. Almost all of those I trap are dry, some are cropped this year. Yes rats can and do move to lakes and rivers but we have been dry here two springs and summers so repro in general is way down. Also when rats move overland to find water they have very high mortality rates. I am seeing sign on my river line but not high enough to take on what used to be produced in all those sloughs. Small rivers and streams are basically all edge and predators hunt edge. I have trapped some of the rivers trap now for 35 years or more and numbers are always moderate to light as they are vulnerable and with no cattails or other bulb rooted plants, winter food is limited.

Bryce

Just another sign that it's not worth trapping rats this year.

I think you are BOTH Dead on. Do you think these conditions will eventually drive up the Rat prices in the future??

Yup. On the rat River in Winnebago County the water is so slow the duck hunters can launch their boats in many locations. Rats are mostly in bank dens now.

I don't think rat numbers up or down will drive prices. When the surplus tame brown female mink in all the storage shed get sold that will help. We also don't know if there will be a viable wild or tame fur market down the road.
We need maybe 20-30 million ranch mink annually to keep the processors in the business who also handle our wild fur.

Bryce

Any idea what muskrats will bring this year if they sell.

The fur market is a fickle beast. While wondering through the valley we’ve stumbled into a crevasse. Wishful thinking would focus on supply issues. Demand remains the other side of the equation.

Looking like of rough year for numbers. Low expectations give way to upside surprise. Hope ya find some...

FFG in the mail today said $1-$2. Maybe more for winter collections.

If you can find the places where the rats find enough water to survive you can really stack them up.

Several smaller lakes I like to fish in summer have their boat landings completely dried up. Only way to fish them is carrying a kayak to open water.

we had have had near a foot of rain in October , I guess that didn't fall farther north

checking map
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/data/chng/png/current/current_WI_chng_1W.png

yup not even all of green and rock county saw the improvement

Green County, when I started checking out the Marshes they were Bone dry and even the pools were dried up.