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.

Well, today was another check of the trapline. I didn't have anything in any of the beaver sets, but I did have a snapped off conibear. I caught another coon in the spot closer to the conibears where I caught one on Tuesday. I've been trying out a homemade bait and it seems to work well. I also caught a double on skunks right by the 2nd old Beaver Lodge. I got them dispatched but will leave them till the next check so they can air out a little bit. I also had to remove a coyote set where I had kept a deer for a little while since the area was pretty torn up, hopefully, it'll bring some attention to the area with it so disturbed. I'm going to be setting muskrat traps, on Friday so I will have another update for you guys later today. Anyway, I think that's all I have for today, was a pretty uneventful day. Here's the picture of the coon, I couldn't get a picture of the skunks because they weren't positioned too well.

Nice catches.

Nice!

Way to go TYT.
Go back and get them skunks before some critter does.
You'll get used to the smell the more you trap. Airing them out by leaving them there won't do much good.
Way to stick at it and get a nice mixed bag of fur

Looks good!

The critters around here don't bother them. I'm just trapping them for the pheasant population so I'm not skinning them. I can't smell skunk at all unless it's a foot away from my face. But I get yelled at when I come home and smell like it, so leaving them for a day or 2 does help.

Thank you guys for all the replies!

Today was another great day on the trapline, one of the best. This place isn't close to home but it sure is paying off. So I guess let's explain how tomorrow went as far as setting rat traps. I got 2 colony traps and 3 blind set 1.5s set on a small irrigation ditch. I also got 4 blind set stoplosses and 2 159s set on a slough. And another 2 stoplosses blind set on a second slough. So today I started the day at the irrigation ditch and caught 1 rat in a colony trap and 2 in the other. I then went to the 1st slough and I caught a good sized coon in a #1 Victor Stoploss, it held him perfectly, he did rip the trap up a bit but it should be an easy fix. I got him dealt with and couldn't reset the trap as he messed up the stoploss spring and the pan. I will never doubt the holding power of one of these little traps again. So I then went to the 2nd slough and had nothing, I did switch one of the traps around from a hut landing to a feed bed. So I finally got to make the 15 mile trip up north. I started the day with a nice sized beaver, probably 35 to 40 pounds in my drowning set. Another trapper who was out pheasant hunting stopped by and we chatted it up for a bit, he was from a little more north of where I was trapping. It was very nice to talk to him. I then went and checked up until the 2nd old beaver lodge and picked up the 2 skunks from the other day, which smelled way better. I got those traps reset and I thought about making a pocket set but decided against it for now. So I continue to the last double of coyote traps. In the dirt hole set, I had a very beautiful male coyote! It's the first one I have ever caught and it was a perfect catch. The remake was very good looking as well, so I hope to catch another one there. I also had to remake my last gland set as another deer set it off. I also stopped at a slough where the landowner saw a couple of mink and made a pocket set with a 1.5 on a 10ft drowning cable.

I can't even explain how it felt to catch my first coyote, it was nothing like any other animal I have caught before. I was completely blown away. I have been trying to catch one for my whole 5 years of trapping but this is my 2nd year trying decently hard to trap them and it finally happened. It will be getting taxidermy tanned as in skinned out paws and everything else and tanned to be hung on the wall. Anyway, here are the pictures from today. I will upload my reaction video on Youtube of my first coyote catch. The coon isn't in the picture as it was very full of stinky slough mud and I didn't want that on my floor. Thank you for reading.

Keep at it!

Congrats on the coyote, TYT!

Skin those stinkers!

Yep skin them skunk, we got good money for our skunk's last year
on the Montana trapper's fur sale.
Ms.V had top skunk @$32.50
More than I averaged on coyote

You should really put up those skunks TYT. Good money and everyone buys them. Learn to extract the essence and double your money. Easy to skin and easy to flesh. Just watch out for those pods when skinning.

If your family raises a "stink" about the smell do them out back in the woods. Around here a coyote or fisher would apt to run off with a skunk laying around.

Your doing good. Keep it up!

I learned to extract the pods before I skin, some good u tubes on it.

Last January I caught two large males. By the time if sold the hides, essentially, pods, fat and raw skull I averaged just under $90 apiece. That's a lot of gas money!

Thank you

I may get around to skinning the skunks some time, but I just need to get the motivation to want to do so.

I understand, they can be intimidating at first, but they're not that bad. I actually enjoy putting them up now.

Today was another great day, I love this new line that I'm running. I started the day by the irrigation ditch. I caught a buck mink in a colony trap and a coon in a 1.5 set on a crawl out/ trail. I had my doubts about the 6' fiberglass poles staying stuck in but I've caught multiple coons with them and they're holding strong. Let me tell you though, those coons rip up an area especially if there are cat tails there. I then went up to the spot where I caught that coon in the #1 Stoploss. I had nothing in those traps again, but rats were swimming all over. The problem is that these rats don't have any feed beds or anything, I can't even find a bank den. I'm going to pull those traps on Wednesday if I have nothing again since that spot does add an extra 6 miles and probably 30 minutes to my drive time. At the next spot, I had nothing again but saw rats swimming so I repositioned one of my #1 Stoplosses to a hut where I saw coon tracks to hopefully catch something. So I finally got to venture up north and I got to my pocket set I put in the other day. And guess what, I had a coon floating about 5 feet down the drowner. I also had to fix my beaver foothold since it had fallen off of its bed where I had it. I refreshed the dogproof near there as the rain had come through yesterday. I got to the 2 beaver conibears and 1 was set off, so I reset it. I might need to bring a foothold down there and try it. I also rebaited and lured all of my other dog proofs. Since it was running out of light though, I didn't stop to remake any coyote traps. I will remake them on Wednesday when I go out again since I should have some more time. But all in all, it was a good day on the line. On my way home though a deer hit me as I saw it was coming straight for me and had little room to go to either side so I stopped and it ran dead smack in the middle of my grille guard. It only ended up breaking my license plate frame but I should be able to fix it with some JB weld.

I ended up getting home quite a while after dark and I got right to drying some fur and getting ready to put up some fur. I ended up getting the 3 muskrats from the other day put up, the mink from today, and a weasel for a buddy. This was my first time putting up a mink and I think I did well for never doing it. The rats do have a little green belly but it should be just fine once they're dry. I did end up messing up on the weasel for my buddy as I didn't cut the tail enough and popped it off. Now all I have left is my one beaver from the other day but I think I'm going to try fully putting it up tomorrow night. Anyway, I think that's all for today. Here are the pictures.

Good job!

Looking good partner

Nice mink!

Today wasn't the best day on the line, but it was still fun. I only caught 3 rats in total. I did pull the traps from the spot where I had caught that coon in the #1 Victor but I did catch 2 rats there. Catching a couple of rats wasn't worth the time and miles. I did set out more traps though, I ended up double setting a culvert between 2 sloughs full of rats and huts, I'm going to try to get permission on them. I also set another colony trap in a culvert up where I have my beaver and coyote sets. I also set another 2 pockets sets up by my coyote and beaver sets. I also did pull one of my coyote sets as deer keep setting it off. All of my coyote sets got reset and rebaited or relured in one way or another. I had no snapped off traps or anything today so not a bad day at all. I'm going to be putting up those 3 rats and skinning out my beaver from Monday, tomorrow night. My mink should be ready to come off the board within the next day or 2. Anyway, that's all I got for today. There wasn't too much excitement.

I'm enjoying your journal TYT.
You are doing good on the line.I like to see trappers running lines that target all species.
That is the way we do it here.
Your put up looks good.

I downloaded movie maker to my Samsung pad the other day that is fairly easy to work with.

Thank you
I'm glad you're enjoying it.
This is the first time I've run a line like this and I love it. The weather has been good for me this year so I've been able to use sets I usually don't get the chance to.
Anything different you would do for the put up? I'm always trying to get better at it.

I have that but mine was all messed up the other day, I need to sit down one of these days and mess around with it some more.

Today was another great day on the line! I started the day by setting 3 coon boxes at the first spot with the irrigation ditch since there are a bunch of coons there but I haven't figured out a way yet to deal with the super soft mud to anchor traps. I have sunk up to my hips multiple times in it so still thinking about what to do there. I also blind set a 1.5 in a trail that I'm assuming the coons are using to go from the cornfield to the slough. Instead of digging to leave as little trace as possible, I pounded an imprint into the dirt and covered it with some grass. I then started making my way up to the northern trapping spot where all the beavers are. I stopped and checked my stop loss traps in one of the sloughs and caught a rat. Then I continued up and stopped at the culvert with my 2 colony traps in it and had 1 rat in one of them and 3 in the other! I need to make some wings for my colony traps as I'm currently using rocks to block the culvert up more. I finally made it up to the northern spot and had nothing in the first 2 pocket sets and the beaver set. So I walked back in and checked my 330s and I had a mink in one! I also found the beaver's lodge but it's on the neighbor's land so I need to go talk to them. The beavers also cut another tree down. I had nothing in the coyote sets or dogproofs along the way to the next colony trap in the culvert. But I did have another 3 rats in said colony, I do need to bring a bigger colony trap there as I only have a 6x6, and the culvert is way bigger. I then ended off the day at the last pocket set and had a coon floating, so I rebaited it with sardines and shellfish essence and got the set remade and that was the end of the line. Thanks for reading, here's some pictures from today.



I love the coloring on the mink, I'm going to wait to see how it looks when it's not wet and I might put it in the pile for the tannery.

Good days catch. How is the new fur shed working for you?

Maybe you can rig up a log clog (drag) to anchor those coon traps? Good lookin mink.

Nice work, you can put 2 colony traps side by side too. Enjoy this open water, it has been a blessing!

I enjoy reading about your adventures.
Keep it up.

TYT this is HUGE… Boco saying your put up is good. This is huge. Keep at it… Boco is Canadian and we all know us Canadians have the best put up.

Way to go young man! Very nice catches.

It's amazing! All of the stress and everything of putting it up was worth it. It has increased my productivity a lot as well. I still need to get a heater but the weather is good, so I've been holding out. Just got the last of the insulation needed to finish the 2 gable ends.

I was thinking something like that but there are no logs around to hook up to, might be worth bringing one over and leaving it there since I also trapped it last year. I have a bunch of 15lb sash weights I could bundle together too.

I would but only the middle of the culvert is deep enough for a colony trap. I've been procrastinating making some wings for 2 years now so who knows if it'll ever happen.

Thank you!
Will do.

I know! Boco has some of the best put up I've seen.

Thank you! Waiting patiently to break out my weasel boxes and some Lenon's to start laying it down on some weasels.

Another day, Another check of the trapline. Today was an easy day. I started the day at the irrigation ditch, I had nothing in any of the traps except for my blind set 1.5 which had a rabbit foot in it and was thrown out of the trap bed. So I remade that. At one of my coon boxes, there were fresh coon tracks everywhere. I need to invest in some trail cams so I can figure out what's going on at some of these sets. I would just like to know and then I can also learn more. So I loaded back up in the truck and made my way to the slough where I caught the rat yesterday. I had nothing in the traps today so I pulled them since they're not producing. I will probably go back during early ice and see if I can find some bubble runs. I made my way up the road to the double set culvert with the colony traps. And I couldn't find a colony trap at all. At the same time as I was looking for the trap, a truck pulled up. It ended up being another trapper who had seen me pull over and we got to talking for 20-30 minutes and had a really nice chat about trapping and everything that comes with it. I did end up finding my trap stuck up in the culvert and I only had 1 rat in there. I went to the other side and caught another rat! So I loaded up in the truck again and headed north. In the first pocket set, I had a rat in a 1.5, barely even slid a foot down the cable. And then after that, I ended up not catching anything in any of the beaver sets, coon sets, or coyote sets. I did remake all but 1 coyote set since we got more rain and everything was plugged up. I then went up the road to the colony in the culvert and had 1 rat in it. I went up the road some more and had another rat in the pocket set where I caught the coon the other day. The rat was so full of freshwater shrimp, they're all over my floor now. I ended up catching 5 rats total for the day, I need to set some more traps and see if I can start getting catches to increase again. I finished the day out by spending some time in the fur shed putting up fur and taking some fur off the stretchers, I took off the first mink, the first 3 rats, and the weasel. I also hung my weasel from last year that I caught in a #2 dogless up to thaw out so I can put it up tomorrow night. Anyway, enough talking, here's the picture.

Well, I forgot to post last night. I was working on homework and tired by the time I got done. So here's how the trapline went yesterday. I caught two rats and a mink. I caught nothing at the irrigation ditch, I will be pulling that spot tomorrow. There are no fresh tracks that I can see even, so it's time to get out of there unless something crazy happens and I catch a bunch there tomorrow. On the way to my 2 colony traps, I stopped where 3 culverts were going from a field to a shelter belt. I set a dogproof in front of each culvert so 3 dogproofs total, I'm hoping this spot pays off. So I got to my 2 colony traps and had only caught 1 rat in each of them so only 2 rats. I headed north again and got to my main spot. So I checked the first few sets and had nothing, I pulled my beaver foothold on the drowner since it hasn't caught anything the last couple of days. I then also caught nothing in any of the coon, beaver, or coyote sets. No set off traps or anything. So I worked my way to the 1 colony trap in the culvert and had nothing it that which was surprising. I then went to the last set of the day which was a pocket set. I caught another buck mink! It didn't even take my bait either so I reset the trap and went on my way. I got home and made up 8 more cable drowners and paired them up with 1.5 Montgomery square jaws. I'm going to try to set them all out tomorrow since I'm going to be pulling traps on Monday since we're supposed to be freezing up next Wednesday.

Tonight, I got the 2 rats and mink put up, I also finished setting up my drowner rigs so those are ready to go. I need to make some more mink belly boards since I only have 2 right now and 1 of them isn't the best. Hopefully, with his cold spell, I can get some other work done and get the fur shed cleaned up a bit.

Things get better after freeze up, stick with it bud. Worst case scenario you'll have fun and keep learning, that's what we're all doing. When things slow down, a new area never hurts either. It's nice to see kids out trapping, don't stop

Nice job on the mink!

Thank you

Things get better in the spring for me since that's when I can run floats. I hope to run a mink and weasel box line this year once we get snow. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon unless I physically can't do it anymore.

Well, again, I forgot to write here last night. Yesterday was a very uneventful day. I only caught one rat and an opossum. I could have also lost a few rats, but I'll cover that later. So I started the day by pulling that irrigation ditch spot, I only had a rabbit in the trail set 1.5 but the back half was fully eaten so I assume a mink or weasel went to town on it since it was drug into the cat tails as far as the chain would allow. So I headed north, in the triple culvert, I had caught an opossum so I reset that trap and headed on my way. The next stop was the double set culvert. Well, it seemed the culvert dropped on one side and my colony trap was sticking up out of the water 1/2". when set. It was also halfway collapsed when I got there and the big rock I had on top was knocked off. I'm not a big fan of these collapsible colony traps, sadly I sold all of my nice 1x1 heavy wire colony traps so now I'll just have to deal with it this year and try them out some more, hopefully, it's just a user error. On the other side though, I did have one rat. I stopped and set a dogproof between a recently harvested cornfield and slough in a culvert. I then continued and set 2 dogproofs, one in front of a culvert and the other on a trailer leading from it into the shelter belt, these were also between a small cornfield with standing corn and a slough so almost a perfect spot. I didn't have anything in the 2 blind set 220s that I set at the end of the culverts going from one cornfield to another. So I headed north again to the main spot. I ended up walking a coon box and a dogproof into where I have my 2 Beaver 330s as I'm always seeing tracks. I then proceeded to have nothing in any of my other traps, I did set another drowning rig near the culvert where I have the single colony trap. So that was my day. Here's the picture.

Keep after it!

You are staying busy

Pretty much catching a few of everything

Nice catches.Congrats

Well forgot to post again, been stretched thin between feeding cows, trapping, and finishing up fall cleanups. I hope to finish cleanups tomorrow, so that'll be nice. I only caught 1 rat on Saturday. It was a really good sized rat, probably 3-4 lbs. I caught it in that double set culvert where I now only have 1 colony. I had nothing else in any of the other traps and no set off traps. I will also be pulling traps tomorrow since we're going to get some bad weather here soon. I plan to set out more gear for coyotes and such on some land I set last year. It looks like snow on Wednesday so it should make finding sign a lot easier. I also skinned out my first coyote on my new roller base and I figured out I need to make some improvements. I also broke my dryer that I use to dry my rats, mink, and weasels so I'll need to fix that or find a replacement. Anyways, that's all I have today. I forgot to take a picture of the rat before I put it up so no picture today.

We accept pics of finished fur too!

I got the line pulled today. At the first stop of the day, where I caught that opossum the other day, I had another opossum in a different trap, the same spot. I then went on for the rest of the line, pulling everything with no catches. But surprise, surprise, I had another colony trap that was starting to fold up. But I had to run through the line fairly quickly today as I had many other things to do today. I plan to get some more traps out later this week or weekend probably once this rain blows through. We have probably gotten an inch or more since it started around 6 pm so it'll be a muddy mess for a few days. I also bought my heater for my fur shed so that'll be here soon. I'll work on my fur shed for the next few days. The fur shed is a mess right now and I have piles of traps that need to be cleaned up and stored away. Once I get the heater, I'll probably start putting up the 7 or so beaver hides I have in the freezer. Anyway, here's the picture of the opossum.

Nice catches.Congrats

Good job.

Thank you

Thank you