That's a hog of a coon.

He must have been hitting the bear baits this summer

good job guys, I go to doctors again Wednesday, hope to get the ok to trap

muskrat walt, please give closeups of the flotation strips, and the process of how you put them on

Will do that when the boat is back on the trailer.

Walt . . . boat reminds me of a Sears jon boat I had many many years ago. What is the brand? Did it come stock with the braces on the bow? And yes, I too am curious about the flotation sponsons and how they are attached. Good design with the angled front on these to lessen hanging up on vegetation. Are they angled towards the stern the same? Good pics.

Nice job on the rats Walt and an even better job on the improved camera skills, lol. I'm waiting to set some coon traps but now the potential for 1-2 inches of rain could effect the drive in areas I have. Since it hadn't rained for the last two months, I figured it would start once I planned a big line.

Nice pics fellas.
Good luck with the doc TD.

Anyway, back to that Sears jon boat. 14' and narrow. This is back in the late 70s. I picked up an 18 horse Evinrude and bolted that to the transom. Way too much power, but no money so used what I had. Wound up reinforcing the transom after discovering it wanted to buckle under full steam. Boat was probably rated 10 horse max. Good thing a warden never checked me in that rig.

Picked up the traps I set yesterday and going to take a day off before starting my small road line. 17 more rats . A couple colony traps did their job well along with the bg's and foot holds. Muskrat, it is an old Alumacraft and this 6horse Merc. is the fourth motor I've had on it including a mud motor and will probably be the last. It works good for me. I will make a separate thread for describing installation of floatation strips for those Interested in the next few days.

Nice catches and Pics Lance and Walt!
Checked all sets today and pulled one location. Solo today, little warm but that should change soon.
I'll pull remaining traps tomorrow or Thursday and set up a new location. May start to make some mink sets over the weekend depending on rain amounts we get. Taking someone out over the weekend that would like to get into trapping, we'll see if the addiction grabs them too!
Have fun out there! Few pics from today

I bolted the braces on to act as handles when pulling it. The back of sponsons is cut flush at a 90degree.

How are the coon looking? I haven't put a set out yet, still trying to fill the bow tag. It's not looking good lol.

Four days ago, the big boars were light blue, kits and sows were blue to REALLY blue.

I guess I'll wait another week. That's about the only to trap around here. No rats, mink or beaver since everything's so dry again this year. I'm glad you guys are find some rats

Pulled the marsh I had set up today. Brutal in the wind and then lugging all gear and canoe out over couple hundred yards with a steep hill! Got 35 rats ( 9 today on last check) which is about my average over the years. only a couple kits, all the rest decent size. Will set up a short section of river for a two-day check tomorrow. This is decent access but sign is really limited. Will pull on Friday as we are traveling to WI Rapids for the state Xcountry meet. Our kiel team is running and our granddaughter is the 1st o r 2nd runner for our team. Not much going on then until next week.

Bryce

I caught 5 coon in coyote traps and only one looked bad with pretty dark leather and was a kit. 4 out of the 5 were 3x to 5x large. Two were boars and two were sows but the leather was decent but the fur had a very slight curl to it. I'm setting some traps for coon tomorrow so I'll get a better idea of primeness as I increase the size of my line.

Lance do you think the 2 females had litters this year or not? Or they could have weaned a litter early. I have found barren females to be my best coons. Size is good, easier to handle and color is better..

Bryce

keep getting after them guys,

Picked up a 42lb coon! This was a beast, it was bigger than the coyotes I had.