I haven't seen a thread started for the season yet. Green Bay usually kicks it off. I know some seasons are underway statewide, and in the north zone. Central muskrat and mink to open this weekend. As always I look forward to participating and following others on here, taking my kids and wife when it works.

As the trend for the last decade, despite low fur prices I look forward to my time in the Marsh, Field and Woods! The opportunity is there, I realize that won't always be the case, so I'll enjoy it now. Hope everyone enjoys the fall season ahead! Good Luck and share the outdoors with a kid if you get the opportunity!

I’ll start a share!

Well last weekend we had a trappers Ed class for veterans. Was a good time and had some other members from here there as well. Guess that's the only pictures of trapping I have so far this season so I'll share 'em.

I look forward to following along.

Trap Setter, that looks like a great event I'm about an hour from Eau Claire if you put on another one let me know I'd donate some traps or whatever is needed to support other Veterans. After Iraq and Afghanistan I'm not much of a social person but this sport has helped me out tremendously I'd love to see other Veterans get involved

Me too.
Great pics.

Will do. Hopefully it will become a yearly event.

Nicely done, Trap Setter!

Moosetrot

Waiting for Saturday here to trap a larger marsh. Sign is the lowest I have seen in years. Good year to just relax and not hurry and enjoy the venture. Did go with a friend for northern rats last weekend. TWo checks and we got over 125 rats. Hard work paddling in the wind for those days.

Bryce

Thanks for getting the thread going. I have been busy with nursing home issues with my parents, working too much, and chasing my kids around. I always look forward to following what everyone is up to.

Very nice

Nice catches witrapper715! Nice thing you doing there Trap Setter! Looks like a good time.
Going to do some do some scouting today. Hope to put out a few rat traps this weekend if there any around!

Talked with Dan Weibke today.Rats $1.50 on carcass as he hasn’t sold many in 3 years.Beaver down $5-$20,$10 and $2 for small on carcass.

Not sure yet how much I might contribute to this post. I will be following like other years watching and enjoying.
Hope you all have good time.

Mac

"Never Forget Which Way Is Up!"

I'll be helping a friend set for coyotes at his place on Sunday. One more week of running coon traps after work, then I start on coyotes. Mink/muskrat and otter open then also, and I will set those also. Nothing huge, just having fun.

I've got two weeks of half days coming up, so I can spend plenty of time out there.

I'm waiting to set some CRs later now I'm concentrating on my ADC rat jobs.

did some scouting yesterday, guys already out with pocket sets and DP's ahead of me

Scouted some area yesterday. Found water, found rats!
Headed out early this morning, put out 125 sets and called it good. Lots of duck hunters this year, more than I ever remember. Picked up the first rats of the year on my paddle out. Felt good to be back at it. Saw 3 other trappers making sets from shore, talked with one guy a little bit. Was going to check this afternoon but my wife has other plans, oh well. Hope to take one of my kids with tomorrow. Enjoy the nice day!

Living the good life.

Marsh is harder to get to every year. Had a meeting this AM so did not set until 11 AM. Got 43 sets out as sign is down. Have meetings on Monday so won't look at newer areas until Tuesday.

Bryce

Picked up a nice yote tonight.

Pretty coyote.

I'll be moving traps tomorrow to a new property. With the warm coming, pretty sure it'll be a slow few days.

Went down to the Kickapoo Vally Reserve to join Don owner of Wild Things Fur for his annual trappers Ed class. He always puts on a great class. Today we had a couple young boys who are going to be the future of trappers and were absolutely focused on the skinning part of the class, crawling as close as they could get to the action lol. Also had a great coyote demo from Don's friend Tim. Great way to spend a day! I might even get a trap set myself this coming week lol

Nice work, Trap Setter.

I relocated a bunch of my traps today to fresh ground. Also added a few coyote sets. Figured I'd let them cool a bit while we have a couple more warm days..

Nice day in the Marsh with my younger daughter! We had a good time. Saw a few more trappers out and about. I'll check 2 more times in these locations and shuffle traps or move to new spots depending on time and weather. A few pics from the check.

Nice catch Deerfly! Now one needs to sharpen the knives! I had 43 sets out and got 1 large male coon I will skin to see how they look and 16 rats. Meetings tomorrow so don't want too many to check and won't set more til later..

Bryce

Set a small coyote line this week. Pulled it today. I just wanted to take some out of my deer hunting area. Caught 8.

Congrats

Nice work Lance.

Thanks Ken. I could catch a lot more but I hate skinning them.

Set the first rat traps of the year yesterday. Caught 25 which was less than I expected with the amount of sign but it was a nice weekend to start the season off around here. Good job on the coyotes Lance, but I don't like skinning them either lol.

What kind of boat do you got there?

It's just a 14ft Jon Boat. The way the pic turned out is why it looks like a weird shape to it. Photography is not my strong suit. Lol

Nice rig and nice catch Walt!

Moosetrot

nice job guys, keep them post coming,

I came on here this morning purposefully looking for this thread. I need to set some muskrat traps this weekend here in the southern zone so I can take a 16-year-old boy out checking them, he is excited about the idea. I would like to kill a buck more than catch 2 dollar rats but can maybe do both.

Tried to setup one of my small sloughs this AM. Too low due to no rain for several months. Wiil try after freeze up. Madea quick check on my 41 trap line. first check yesterday was 16 today was 10. The big male coon yesterday still needs some time. I thought the older males may be further along now. Good color our our area.

Bryce

Another 23 rats today. Picked up traps from last 2nights and set 15 along another shoreline. Hope this pic is better than yesterday's. If you look close at the side of my boat you can see the homemade sponsons or floatation strips I attached to my narrow Jon Boat. They work great and by mounting them low they add a lot more side to side stability when climbing in and out all day.

Dang, that's nice, Walt!

Moosetrot

Got a 33 lb coon today, sorry no pics.

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.

huge!

Trapping rats with a few on stretchers. This drought and warm weather is about to change thankfully. Im having fun.

Glad I pulled the marsh line yesterday. It was really rough yesterday, today would have been far worse. I set up a section of my river line that is always limited in sign and today was the same or maybe lower. River is low. I don't know how much rain we will get over the next week. We need it really bad and if I can't wade the river for rats that is OK.

Bryce

Bryce,
I think the coon were possibly barren but maybe they had early litters. Both were really nice. I agree with you that they are easier to scrape and usually have the best color. I set 69 coon traps today so I should have a pretty good idea tomorrow of how they look. I'll report back.

Witrapper715,

That is a huge coon, congrats. I finally bought a scale so I can weigh some coon this year.

Wow, Lance, rhat's a fatty for sure.

Had a big boar also, hide was alnost prime, just a little blue on the flanks.

Make sure you give us the stretched size.

Does anyone know of any local fur buyers around central Wisconsin?

I’ve only ever sold to Groenewold when he comes through or sent my fur in to Moyles to be tanned. I don’t currently have any desire or need to sell anything green or round, but was curious if there is any local buyers in the fox valley/central WI area should I ever have that desire/need.

I believe barns goes just north of green bay

These look a little better than expected

Clark’s Willowtree Fur, they are amazing people to work with and they collect fur for Barnes.

Raccoons are starting to look good Jsell, Nice put up!
Checked and pulled an area today, 51% catch on 3rd check, ill be back to that spot after freeze up. Set up a new spot after that. Put in 40 sets and headed home for lunch. Concrete work for the morning tomorrow, then check sets from today. Some pics from check and set! Fun being out there!

Nice job Jordan and Deerfly. Here's what I caught today on my first check of the coon line. I caught 19 and released one so brought home 18. The constant rain/mist didn't make it that much fun.

Nice catch Lance. Looks like they ran well on your line.

They were pretty active last night. Tonight is similar but colder so we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Can't catch the same one twice so I'm assuming my catch will drop. I have other places to set but with the rain I don't dare tear up the farmers field.

Nice work on the coon guys.

Goos work Lance. You have on average a lot better color coon than I do over on the eastern part of WI. Mine would be mostly thre reverse of yours, about 5 decent colar and 14 more reddish, brownish and yellowish.

Bryce

We had just short of 3 inches of rain Wednesday night! We needed rain badly but not that much that fast. I set 20 traps on a short section of river line, Wednesday afternoon. Thursday I could not get in many places as it was tood deep and too fast. Today I pulled and got 2 rats. The water is still about 1.5 feet above when I set them. Went down stream to pull as I could not have waded up stream. Several places have along my line have pumps on their tile lines and they were running like crazy. Was hoping more of the rainfall would soak in more. Even with this a couple of my sloughs are still too low to paddle.

Bryce

Bryce, We only had about an inch of rain and all my traps are set on dry land. I had a decent day today with 10 coon and they ran larger than yesterday. Good color as well.

I forgot to add the picture.

Thanks for the update. Those coons look pretty fully furred which is good when you are catching several.

Bryce

Just starting to get a small road line out. Six rats yesterday, ten today. Suppose to rain for three days in a row so not in a hurry to get more creek sets out yet. Keep piling those coon up guys.

Checked sets today. Should have added an accelerator to yesterday's loads. The 40 sets yielded a good check. The first time trapper had a good time too! A few firsts with true doubles there other than one time taking two rats in a mb750. I put in a few beaver sets today in hopes of showing him a few things. We'll know more tomorrow.
Nice catches to those sharing! As always enjoy your time out there!

Checked the same sets again today! Another good check. I'll pull tomorrow. The 3 beaver sets took one beaver. The new trapper I took is hooked I believe! Fun to share the outdoor adventures with someone new! Rain for a few days again. I'll take a break for a bit and get some work done. Have fun out there!

Yup, good trapping is hard to beat when it comes to the outdoors action and excitement
Good job deerfly!

Thanks Nimzy
Checked and pulled the 40 sets today! Kids were off school so my wife and younger 2 joined me. Fun for all. See if I can hold off the addiction for a few days as I plan my next adventure. I have a crate of 150's ready to go and a Ken Smyth bottom edge VHS I might watch for the hundreth time, brings me back to the first time I watched it everytime. Love it. Keep crackin to all those out trapping, life only happens once!
A few pics from the check




Back to skinning!

On the board finally.

Nice pic's Deerfly. Congrats on your pipe dream coyote K.Snow. Used it myself with some success when I was trapping coyotes. Went over the 100 mark on rats today. Waiting for creeks to stabilize before adding more sets.Might have to trap a beaver to add to my fisher bait along with muskrat.

Great family pics Deerfly. I miss the days when my boys came along on the line.

Congrat KSnow on the pipedream coyote. I use that style of bedding on all my coyote sets, dirtholes and flats. Really stablizes he traps.

Great rat numbers already Walt.

I noticed the creeks rising on my coon line but I'm only setting dry land at this time so it hasn't affected me. What has been troubling is that I've had the flu since early Saturday morning and its really put a damper on setting more traps. My wife had to go with me Sunday and check the traps while I sat in the truck. She's a trooper, lol. With all the rain I haven't been able to travel back into a lot of my locations because I don't want to tear up the fields.

I forgot to add that I caught my fisher on Sunday when my wife ran the line with me. It was a nice large male and I put it on a coyote board since I don't have a designated fisher board.

Nice fisher Lance! Get healthy and back at those pesky coons!

I tried to rush back into the trapping too soon (according to my wife) and as usual, she was right. I hit it hard yesterday, rebaiting all my traps, and caught 6 coon today but really feel like garbage. Hopefully I'm closer to 100% healthy in the next couple days. I really hate being sick during trapping season.

Got a decent size boar coon today. Leather looked nice and white.

Great catches Lance. Get better soon.

Found a path into a slough I usually setup. With lower water, more dragging and lugging canoe and gear. Did not trap this place last year. Interesting situation. There are probably 15-20 structures in about 4-5 acres, but not many feed beds. I set a couple dozen sets. Will bring a few more tomorrow. Some good sign and some older sign.

Bryce

Finally put some traps out here in the southern muskrat zone, Bryce, you stronger than me or does your back also hurt dragging that canoe in?

Picked up another nice boar coon and the first mink of the season.

Caught 6 coon today and 9 possum. 9 possum in a day is a record for me. I've never seen this many in all the years I've trapped. They must have wintered well. This can't be good for all the ground nesting birds.

I have another place much worse that I have had to enter the very hard way for about 10 years. I am 76 and the last 2-3 years I have noticed a decline in leg strength and endurance when having to carry or drag heavy loads.
Yes I notice parts of my body now I did not even know I had before! I am looking to find an easier way to enter the really tough area or maybe let it go. Another thing is paddling and setting up a big marsh in strong wind!!! We had 3 days of that this season and that really puts the upper back and shoulders through the mill. Coon trapping for me us much easier than rat trapping but they are harder to handle and put up.

Bryce

Have seen more road killed possum this fall than ever before. Last winters mild temperatures really allowed them to explode. A hard winter will knock them back again.
Hang in their Fishdog! The muskrats are waiting for you!
Got the 1st mink of the season today,along with a few rats also K.Snow. Got some more sets out today. Felt good to not be rained on all day.

How do the mink look?

Year in, and year out mink in this part of Wisconsin are prime enough to trap by first week of November. Won't skin till tomorrow.

2nd of November caught big buck in rat set, bluish gray leather in central SD. Figure he needed about a week.

A few days can make a big difference with mink.

True Walt, I'm actually going to run a mink line this year, can't wait, just a few more days.

Really wet, ha.

I will put it up tomorrow afternoon. Pretty sure mine is a young male. Caught in a #11 on a crossover.

Skinned yesterday's mink. Except for a few dark dots from ticks it was all white leather.

The mink I caught dried pretty dark, but my rats are running good size for this area. Mild winter last year has something to do with it? Normally get many mediums.

Here's the mink I put up today, caught yesterday

Had 20 sets and got 10 rats with 4 snaps plugged and full of debris. Rats are moving material like a construction crew! Put in a few more sets today. Slough is an old flooded area that was once about 1/3rd shrubs and brush and cattails. There are dozens of large dead trees, logs laying in the water. Hard to navigate but workable.

Bryce

Same thing with my rats this year. lots more xl and 2xl than normal. I been thinking the same thing about last winter.
13 rats today. At 125 so far. Just running a short line now with a dozen stops. Enjoying this weather.

I’m gonna theorize that there was a short population in this area coming into the rearing season. However, Early frequent rains stimulates breeding activity while it enhances habitat, creating a recipe for very good population growth. Then suddenly the rain stopped and things got dry, a scenario that had the exact opposite effect. It may make sense that the rats are running larger than normal, perhaps litters 2 and 3 didn’t materialize? Just my thoughts. We may see some kits under the ice though. 3 inches of rain and above normal temperatures may have our buddies confused.

I am finally on the board lol. My partner and I set up a colony in the dark yesterday just 6 traps and picked up 4 beaver today. 1 adult 1 two year old and 2 kits. We haven't set above the main dam yet so may be two colonies. Just doing it as a favor to an older gentleman as they are flooding his driveway. Asked to trap two years ago but the wife liked watching them work, not so much anymore lol. But it's close to home and easy access plus he said otter, mink and muskrats are fair game as well. Works out for everyone sometimes.

That's a great catch ratio Ben! Funny how people's attitudes change when critters start doing some damage.

64 lbs

Another day on the slough. A few more traps but fewer rats. Rat size is running good as Nimzy referenced but some houses appear to be 1 and done while a few have nice doubles. Water depth is about 1 foot lowere than a couple years ago. Lot of other life events are going on right now but will set out a short coon line and some small feeder streams this afternoon. 7 rats today and another 5 snaps that are plugged. I almosst always want about 1 inch or so of water over my traps, but I am moving some to be on top of the mat to see if that helps. lot of debris being moved on the active structures.

Bryce

Another day on the slough. A few more traps but fewer rats. Rat size is running good as Nimzy referenced but some houses appear to be 1 and done while a few have nice doubles. Water depth is about 1 foot lowere than a couple years ago. Lot of other life events are going on right now but will set out a short coon line and some small feeder streams this afternoon. 7 rats today and another 5 snaps that are plugged. I almosst always want about 1 inch or so of water over my traps, but I am moving some to be on top of the mat to see if that helps. lot of debris being moved on the active structures.

Bryce

Finally about over my flu/stomach virus. Started feeling better yesterday so extended my line. Had 12 today and some were really nice. At least two over 30 pounds. I didn't bother weighing any more. Time to start skinning.

17 rats today. 4 nice rats in a colony trap made my day.

Nice surprise this morning. 2nd night out for this pipe dream set. Could smell it driving up to it.

Got 8 rats today. Will pull the slough tomorrow. Set 10 coon sets out yesterday and got 4 today. All decent size with pretty good color as well.

Bryce

Got the slough pulled today. Got 4 rats so that makes 10,7,7 and 4. Size seemed to go down each day as well. Got 1 rat in a feeder stream. The lack of sign in those does not bode well for the river line I plan to trap next week.
Got 4 coons out of 10 sets again today. Size was a tad smaller on those as well. Color is good for what I typically get but I have not got in larger older males either.

Bryce

Added another 25 rats to make 167 so far. Size is still holding up. I'm not trapping hard or traveling far so has been enjoyable. The rat season opens tomorrow in the Mississippi zone but I'm not going to trap it this year. Good luck to those who are .

White fur spot on a beaver. I wish the spot had been bigger.

I’ve had that before too. Always in the middle on the belly side. Must be some sort of recessive genetics.