Pushing my luck with the hopes it doesn’t freeze tonight. Hoping the wind keeps it open then will bring the canoe home and wait for the ice to get good. I’m always hesitant to set those shallow runs as I’ve had problems with critters grabbing my muskrat and taking off them then I’m looking for my trap. I started putting zip ties through the spring eye around the steak and that has solved that problem. Well not critters messing with them but worse case is they break the steak but the trap doesn’t slide off and it gets tangled in the edge when they drag them away. Deep runs I don’t worry about it. The one picture is what these ditches banks can look like after a big wind that blows all the corn husks around, they can be a nuisance if it gets bad.

How's the beaver population in those ditches DRF ?

It is spotty but times I catch a few. The ditches I trap down in the river bottoms have more beaver cause it’s close to rock river. If patient you can limit out on otters (5) in these ditches even far from the river but I usually get those while trapping the bottoms.

The 1st catches of 2025. Four B.E sets produced this mink and two rats.

nice,

Last trip in the canoe unless warm weather comes back. Been down a couple days with a nasty cold so caught up on skinning. Made it out today and set a few traps along a short ditch.

Finally was able to get out on some beaver ponds this weekend. Lack of snow and cold weather is making a lot of ice on the beaver ponds. Good thing too because I went for a swim last week after the rain and warm weather.

This house and feed bed will get a couple snare poles the next time I am in there.


The water wasn't any too deep. We covered the holes as best as we could but still hoping they connected last night or I will be chopping out frozen traps.



I made this caster mound set New Years day. Yesterday it was frozen solid


Last winter I had someone start tagging along checking traps. This spring he took the Trappers Ed class that I taught and he was able to connect on his first fisher on the last weekend. Then yesterday he got his first otter. He is young and big so he comes in handy for carrying things or checking to see if ice is safe to walk on.


I love catching beavers under the ice so I'm excited for the next check as we were able to set up 2 new ponds yesterday!

JSell, good for you being a mentor and tell him Congrats on fisher and otter! Ended my 5 year streak of catching a Dec. Fisher with only some coon to show for my efforts. I did skin 2 fishers for a couple newer trappers who are donating them to the Women's Trap Camp. Good luck out there.

Caught this female mink and a rat today in the few BE sets I had out. The rat was missing an appendage and was mostly healed up.

Nice catches.Nice fisher

Took almost a month for this male otter to swim into my 1216. Four day checks and a couple 150's set close by to keep the muskrats out. Still caught a couple rats in the 1216 by the tail. The creek here stays open even below zero
and I've caught a lot of otters here over the years.

Nice catch Walt. I always look at those 1216s, maybe I'll pick one up some day.

Nice otter

Nice otter Walt. I like those spots that produce year after year.

I mentioned the other day that one of the students from the spring Trappers Education class had caught his first fisher. I didn't realize it but he also had his second fisher when he pulled his traps, and he did have 2 tags.



This morning another graduate from the spring class caught his first bobcat. Now its time for me to collect mine.

Congrats to all of above!! Good to see new faces introduced to the trapping world!

Nice catches all of you. The bulk of my BE sets are frozen but I did manage to pick up a muskrat and a female mink yesterday. That's the first female I've caught all year. She had a bunch of minature ticks on her head after she had dried. I also had an ermine but I really need some snow to find sign.

A small ditch I know has muskrats in it but I also seen signs of a beaver so I snagged this guy and left the traps out in case another before I set for the rats. Got the canoe out into the ditch I was in a couple weeks ago, it never freezes well and sometimes will stay open in places so set some rat traps here this afternoon. Shelf ice along the sides so makes a little difficult getting in and out of the canoe.

Congrats to them all.

wtg everyone thanks for posting

I got one last night that would have been a contender for the big tail contest.

This was a pair with a small house on a crick. 1 more check and I'll pull from that pond.




A couple traps were frozen in and so was this beaver. Lots of ice to chop and we made the big guy pack that one out. It is about a 500 yard hike to the pond from the road.



In the picture above notice all the wolf tracks in the snow. Every year there is more and more wolf and cat tracks and less deer and coyote.. I think I have run into a couple ponds this year where the wolves have taken out some beavers before I got there. The picture below was from last week about a mile from the above picture. There had been an active beaver pond this fall about 100 yards from where all those wolves were, but the dam is now broken and all the water and beaver are gone. I've run into 3-4 ponds so far this winter like that.
Either beavers are all gone or there is still a few there but something happened to a couple members of the colony.