Well, I suppose it's time to start my yearly trapping season thread. I have until next Friday to begin setting rat and mink traps, but I do have a bit of trapping to do this weekend. I'm going out on Saturday to set some coyote and beaver traps for a landowner who has a few beaver getting at his trees. It looks like the water should stay liquid until Friday so hopefully I have a little bit of a fall rat season. I have been dealing with health problems the last couple of weeks so I just got around to getting permission for some properties, and so far I only have 2 left to get permission on that I'm going to give a call tomorrow. The fur shed is mostly ready, just a few things here and there to do. I still have to get a heater and finish some insulation. I'm working on getting my roller base for my skinning machine finished up, just waiting for my dad to have time at work to weld some stuff up on it. I think that's all I have for today though so I'll be back on here Saturday to put up a post about how setting goes.

I'm following. Season opens today for me but have some family obligations to take care of next two days. I'll set a few land traps starting Monday
Go get em TYT

Looking forward to how your season goes.

Hope you have a good season,I will be checking in.

Same here. Go get em!

Today went as planned, I got some sets out. I set out 2 330s for those beavers. I also figured out a plan to trap another beaver with which this guy is having issues, and I think it will work. I still think I need to get some 20' cable drowners to get them out there deeper on these lakes and shallower sloughs. I have quite a bit of confidence in one of my 330s, but I want to change the other one so the trigger is on the bottom. I also got 5 coyote sets out, I'm hoping to catch a coyote this year. I did see a lot of coon sign, there's tracks all over the banks of the slough and coon poop on every log near the water. I'm bringing out 1 dozen dogproofs next time to see what that covers and then I'm going to bring more out if I need more. The landowner also said he saw 2 mink last night, so when the season opens on Friday, I plan to put in some pocket sets. I had videos of all of the sets but all of my videos of my coyote sets have no audio.

I do have a couple of questions for you guys.

#1: Have you guys seen beavers selectively eat cedar trees when there are better options around? It looks like this one beaver or however many there are is only taking down cedar trees.

#2: Would you guys be interested in me recording my adventures and posting them on YouTube, I would still post on here but I know some guys like a visual.

Anyway, here's the video from today of the beaver sets.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iSTKI8qPIo4

I decided to check traps today. I didn't catch anything but I did get more traps out and also got some footage to use, I need to edit it down and upload it to YouTube. I got 5 dogproofs set, all of them right by a large number of tracks, I forgot to bring a couple in with me to where I have the 330s set since there are a bunch of tracks in there too. I also got another coyote set in. I did bring a foothold with for the beaver and did get that set, I'm not super confident in it but I think it will still catch if the beaver is still in that area. I also found a bunch more mink tracks so I'm hoping we still have open water once the season opens because I want to try some pocket sets and see if I can catch some mink since I haven't caught any for a couple of years. I won't check until Tuesday to let everything sit without being disturbed. I did have one set off coyote trap but I'm pretty sure it was only a deer since it was just snapped shut and not disturbed. I do have a couple of spots where there are mink tracks so I'm excited to see if I can catch any. I have a couple of landowners to call yet about trapping but I should be all good to go by Friday so I can start setting some rat gear out. Anyways, that's all I have for today. Here's the picture of the new coyote set I put in, I tried to do a scent post kind of set, the clump of grass on the left has coyote gland lure, and the one on the right has fox urine. It was a naturally occurring area so I'm hoping the coyotes and such won't be too scared of it.

Good luck this season

Hard to imagine water freezing when it is 69 for the low and upper 80's to 90's for highs

Beavers in our area actually really like the bottom limbs on cedar trees. I see it all the time and often its my favorite "bait" to put on a hancock trap, in conjunction with a good lure. They rarely cache them, but I've seen where they shave them down on the bank, as well as drag it back onto their lodge.

Thank you

We already have a low of 29 and 30 in the forecast. For the past 2 or 3 years the sloughs have been frozen up by November 7th. I wish it wouldn't freeze till Thanksgiving but I'll take what I can get.

These beavers are taking whole cedar trees 4-5" in diameter down and dragging them, I wonder if they're building a lodge instead of a cache like I thought. I haven't seen any other lodges that are active though.

If you are open to some suggestions..... If your trap is the bare dirt spot between the 2 clumps of grass you will likely have more luck if you move it out about 6" to the open side of the grass, towards where you are standing to take the picture. Keep it centered between the clumps but ideally you want about 8" from the pan to the attractor(s). Take your dirt sifter and grind some of that light ground duff through it to blend your pattern in.

I'm always open to some suggestions since I really don't know what I'm doing. I'll move it when I go check again on Thursday.

Today was one of the best days on the trapline I've had in my 5 years of trapping. I started the day by looking for my drowner set for 20 minutes until I looked at the footage. I did find it and ended up pulling up a beaver. I got that trap reset and everything is good. I go down to one of the dogproofs I set on the shore where I saw coon track and I had a coon in that trap as well. I got very lucky on this set though as the coon had chewed or broken off the log the trap was attached to and the only thing holding him there was the grass it was spun up in. I did fix it temporarily so I can keep that set, but I will bring fence staples on Thursday. So I went down to where I have the 2 330s set and couldn't see the first one, well to my surprise, as I got closer, I saw that both of my 330s had caught beaver. This was my dream but also my worst nightmare as I later figured out I was about 200 yards from the truck with a walk through a tree belt with a bunch of dead fall. So I got the traps reset and threw one beaver in my backpack and the other in my hands as well as the 330 stand that the bigger of the 2 bent up. I only got about 20 yards though and ended up leaving the beaver in my hands on the ground to walk easier. I did go back and get it. I got them back to the truck and was already ecstatic with how the day was going. I got to the first double of dogproofs and I had another coon. I quickly ran through the rest of the line though as my luck had run out on catching critters for the day. I had to remake a couple of coyote sets due to deer snapping them off. I ended the day with 2 coons and 3 beavers. The biggest beaver weighed 54 pounds and 10 ounces, my biggest to date.

I do have some video footage to upload to YouTube if I figure out how to edit it all together. Anyway here are some pictures from today.

Great job! Get a jet sled to haul your fur to the truck.

Off to the races!

Good start young man.

Awesome day YT

Nice work YT dem some big ol flat tails for sure

Thank you, I have one but it would get snagged on everything.

Thank you. They're big enough, and that's for sure.