The season is almost upon us. Good luck, have fun, and be safe! Post pictures to this thread so we have a running idea of how the season is going.

I'll try to remember to take pictures. I will be mentoring for a Learn to Trap this weekend at Collins Marsh.

Tight chains to everyone who goes out.

Good luck everyone, I'll just be after coon & skunk for now. Gonna wait a little longer for yote and fox

Starting my ADC rat line on mon. When that's done, I'll start my coon and skunk line.

And looks like we have a beaver job on some DNR land.

Anybody set steel in the 73 degree heat?

Tight chains to all

Only because it was a learn to trap mentor day. It was warm for sure.

Heading out now. Only going to put in a couple sets

Good luck to you cowboy

What are you going to set for Cowboy? I want to see some pictures of what you catch.

Thanks!

Coon and skunk for now. Probably going to catch a possum before anything else though

Those possums are good skinning practice.

Yeah!

Well, I made a few sets... One is kind of a dirthole, with a tree as a backing. Double jaw 1.5 coilspring (courtesy of Savell ) I put a marshmallow and some Caven's predator bait down in the hole. Not sure how the marshmallow thing will turn out but they work good in my cage traps so we'll see. Then I made kind of a flat set with another double jaw 1.5 at a different location baited with more Caven's predator bait. Then I set a couple cage traps for possum. Going to try for skunk tomorrow or sometime later in the week

How are you at putting up fur Cowboy? If we can find a way to do it legally, I might be interested in buying a couple possums off of you.

Hoping for the best for you! I remember my first seasons and the sleepless nights thinking about my sets! Keep us posted!!

Not too good, but I'm working on it! My fox didn't turn out too bad even though I accidentally pulled part of the tail off lol. Still need to find a way to sew that back on I'll send you a PM

Thanks! Yeah, it's super fun to think about it all night and then finally go check 'em when the sun comes up!! I'll keep ya posted

Learn to trap was pretty successful. My students ended up with 1 muskrat and 1 raccoon. What a change Sunday morning was from Saturday afternoon. Mid 70s and sun to 50 and raining sideways.

I'm starting this morning.

Good luck Beav.

A few from Vilas county only have about 50 traps out

Nice catch trapbub. Looks like it was a lot of fun. Keep it up.

Nice picture trapbub.

Good catch trapbub!

…. Figured yall up north hands would be trappin a little more by now

… don’t be shy and put your pics in here

… I enjoy them

Thanks hard to decide trap or hunt

…. Big animal… Hope you get him

Well, it wasn't a great first check, but I caught 8 rats and had 4 sprung traps. They raised the water level on me yesterday and that wasn't supposed to happen. And there wasn't much for sign, but we did a real hurt on them this spring. We caught 120 rats out of those lagoons.

I have never in all my years of driving but this morning I missed at least 3 deer but managed to hit one. The old 2002 F150 ran right over that deer, and we just kept going. Not any damage t0 the truck in fact there wasn't even any blood to be seen. On the way home we stopped to check on it. It was a very small fawn, and it wasn't worth picking up. But someone had stopped and dragged off the road.
Lucked out again.

First catch of the season!

Good job Cowboy!

Thanks!!

Nice work Cowboy. Keep after em.

Thanks!!

Thank you Brian for starting this thread. Two of us did our northern rat run again. We left home on Thursday and came home today, this Tuesday. We did two checks and got 142 rats. This may be the only trapping I do this fall. We moved into our new condo on Wednesday the 15th! We have our old home to clean up and close on and a condo full of boxes and bags. All my trapping stuff is in a hay barn with no fur handling set up yet. I have a ton of stuff in another storage shed, so tons of work to do and and all the new utilites, garbage issues and phone, inernent and TV to get going as well.
Good luck to all on the line.

Bryce

A lot of wind and rain today got another 23 rats between the two lakes I have set , Gona pull the small lake and move to another area tomorrow

great job guys ,keep posting

Gorgeous weather to get out. You timed that well Bryce

Caught 8 more today. These are huge rats and have no fat on them. But the nice thing is those 16 rats are worth $560.00. Setup fee Is $400.00 and $10.00 per rat.

Brian, nice temps, horrible winds while in our canoes for Sunday and Monday. Color was great and with 2 days of wind a lot of leaves came down.

Bryce

Pulled the small lake outlet marsh yesterday and moved traps around on the big lake marsh got 18 medium to large rats got a very small beaver that I was able to pull the trap free from his toe thank god I weaken the springs on the 1 1/2 coilsprings rain in some form all day

All I got this morning is 2 rabbits

I put out four coyote sets today and 10 DP's for skunk, lol. Can't believe I'm trying to catch them after all the years of trying to avoid them, lol.

All traps out of the water for know. Time to bowhunt

When does everyone start trapping coons. I know season is open but dont want to get them if the hide wo t be prime. Thanks

I'd wait until at least November 1, if not another week after that.

How's the hide on the rats?

I had 2 coyotes out of 4 traps and two coon out of 10 dogproofs. I tried not to catch the coon and mainly set up on skunk sign.

Nice work Lance. Looks like it was a frosty morning.

Thanks. Definitely had a hard frost. I skinned the two coon and two coyotes. The large coon was ok but the smaller one was pretty blue leathered.

If you are setting on skunk sign, the last trap you want is a DP.

LOL

I've caught a lot of skunks in DP's but I'm sure I could catch more with dirt holes. The end of next week I'll have the full arsenal of traps out including footholds, DP's and bodygrips.

I agree. Last season set on coon sign and caught mostly skunks with my Dp's. Good start guys!

I pulled my rat line today and ended up with 42 rats. And I've caught 3 beaver off this property. No beaver action today so I will be pulling the beaver traps tomorrow. I have a neat pic of some beaver I caught.

I'm going to start trapping coon and skunks on Monday. Might even hang some cable.

Way to go guys tight chains to all of you.

Good luck Beav. I caught 4 coon today in my DP's and still no skunks. Two of the coon were nice big boars and looked pretty good. The other two were small and look pretty curly on the back.

Last photo is pretty neat, thanks for posting. Getting a lot of huts up in the last few days here. Got the itch already and a month to go......jk I meant that for the photo of the live muskrat on the hut.....jk

I'm trying to help a guy get his first fox and coyote this year, I'm having him set all the traps so he can say he caught it, had a fox step on jaw of trap, [trap didn't move he got the bait] he should come back, yesterday we had a coyote step on every side of the trap and dig up the dirt hole and get bait, we only have a few set out,

Of course she had to mess up a perfectly good coyote set.
Blue as a new pair of jeans.

Slung some steel in the central rat opener yesterday and was able to catch a few. Water is low and not much sign, but it's still fun to be out on the water.

we pick up a couple of coons
and they are looking good,

Another check, another couple rats.

The landowner and I were reminiscing about the first year I trapped out there when I caught almost 100 rats. That was back in 2017 or 2018. I bet I haven't caught 100 total since. Water levels are way down. Still fun though.

Here's what the coon look like right now. I caught these in the last 3 days. As you can see from the leather they aren't very prime yet.

nice put up,

My dad and son and I got a few traps out Saturday but needed to pull Sunday morning. We also spotted some unusual critters along the line the weekend before.

Nice looking skunk, should be worth a few dollars with that tail.

They don't look horrible. By the time they are real white they probably be in the den. I just started now and have caught a few. Last year I started a week later and they were in the den already. No where to be found in this area. Good job catching a few.

From this morning's check

Nice job, CC!

Good job Cowboy! What did you catch them in?

That's a great picture of your son and his grandpa.

Way to go cowboy, all the turkeys and ducks will appreciate you. How are you liking your henry? I love mine for trapping.

Thanks!
Got the possum in a cage trap and the coon in one of those No-BS double jaw 1.5s Savell sent me
thanks! I like it a lot! Only thing is I wish it was a little easier to swap out the LRs for a .22 short! Takes a while to empty the magazine & chamber and then load a short

…. Good deal cowboy … glad them traps working for you

… now stay after them

Way to go CC.
My partner and I will have 76 DPs set by late Thursday. Hopefully I will have some pics to post.

Way to go Lance.

I have 2 big boar coon on boards and they are prime with white leather. There's about a 7 day window where the leather is still blue or slate color, but the fur will be prime.

Go get em guys.

Your right about them denning up when it gets colder.

Good luck Beav. I'll probably have about that many out by Haloween. Caught 5 coon today and 3 possum out of 28 traps. I'll start adding more sets to the line tomorrow. Here's a pic of a nice double.

Allrighty! Thanks!

Nice!

wtg cc, and everyone else,

Very nice skunk Jordan. I bet your son was beyond thrilled. I still haven't caught a skunk yet but I'm doing well on the possum, lol.

Keep hammering them CC. Looks like you're going to have a good year.

A medium raccoon and a muskrat today.

5 more rats on a 2 day soak. Got 5 outta 10 so far in a colony trap set on an underwater entrance to a hut.

On one of the farms I trap, the land owner told me he had some kind of trail running from an old corn crib to another barn. I set 3 traps on the trail yesterday and had a triple this morning. Him and his wife were happy to have them gone. I couldn't get them all on the same photo so had to take two pics.

Think I caught my biggest muskrat ever. The left one is 12 inches nose to tail, a kit. Right one is 13 inches, pretty standard for the creek these come from. Center one is 16 inches. Can't wait to hoop that one.

great job guys,

Ksnow, nice rats. The one looks like a kit beaver. Should look great hooped.

That's a big 'un alrighty!

How did you ever figure where to set the traps? LMAO!

Mac

No pics but I caught 4 coon and 1 skunk and a grinner.
Not a good % when your checking 80 traps. But I pulled a bunch and moved them to some new locations.

Macthediver - A blind person could have set that trail.

I checked 50 traps and had 12 coon and 3 possum. Put's me at 40 coon but still zero skunks, lol.

Disregard the beer in the picture, pretty sure it's my wifes.

LS they look like pretty big coon, what are the weighs of the bigger ones. Here in Pa a 20 pounder is big, bigger exists but not common.....jk

Nice catches guys!

JK - I don't weigh many of them but I've heard of people catching them in the 25# to 30# range.

Got this guy today

Nice catch cowboy. Randy the red nosed opposum.

Thanks, yep lol

You get him put up Cowboy?

Not yet... Ain't got time to what with getting ready for the trip. Gonna stick him in the freezah and do him when I get back

5 coon and 2 grinners today. Pulled one property and set up another property.
Got some pics but I'll post them later on.
I'm going to weigh some of these coon. I'm betting some of them are in the 30 LB range. And we have not caught any dinks yet.

3 of them went 24 26 28. They seemed a bit heaver when I was hauling them out. LOl

Those are huge Beav. Have you noticed that the coon are incredibly fat this season? My line was pretty poor today so I'm hoping it was the weather. I went from 12 coon to 9 coon to 3 coon in the last three checks. I did finally connect on two skunks. I've had some very tiny coon this year as well a extra small possums. Must have had late litters or do they have more than one litter a year?

How are the coon as per being prime?

They still need some time. The larger coon have some white leather but the smaller ones are still slatey. The sows are pretty weak yet.

I caught 5 grinners this morning I was tempted to toss them but .50 cents is still .50 cents. LOL

Set on all kinds of coon scat locations and nothing.

Beav,
I've had the same thing happen in the last two days. Only caught 3 yesterday and 5 today and I have a lot of sets out. All 5 coon today were in 160's, nothing in the DP's. Maybe the strong winds are making them travel less, just not sure.

Just 2 tiny possums today. And 1 coon in an alfalfa field, obviously sick. Head tucked in, just rocking in place, its in trash panda heaven now. First coon I've seen in a few days. But not set for them much either.

DPs seem to be working as to catching coon but the jury is still out on catching skunks in them. In the past when I was trapping coyotes I caught quite a few skunks in those sets. Maybe I should be using some type of tainted meat bait in my DPs. And I haven't even caught a grinner in any of those DPs

Beav, I'm surprised that you are unsure of the dps for skunks. We have great luck using them up here. But maybe there is a difference between your skunks and ours, kinda like muskrats on floats in the fall from one region to the next.

same here on coon not many I believe distemper went through again, not many on the roads, had a lady call and had a dead one on her porch

What are you using for bait?

General a homemade smokey fish bait or a homemade bacon bait.

I'm using cat kibble mixed with either peppermint or anis oil or molasses. I don't think skunks are drawn to that type of bait. But It sure works on coon.
Will be making some changes this week.

Thanks

Today's catch was 4 grinners 1 coon and one skunk.

Today I had 6 coon and 4 possum so it picked up a bit. Was fairly calm last night.

Another 4 rats tonight brings me up to 16 on the season. Had about 15 traps out over 10 days, 5 checks. Pretty good size, only 1 I would consider a kit.

That might be the end of my season. Ill be out of town 4 days this weekend and again opening weekend of gun season. Hard to justify resetting for such a short run.

A colony trap covering an underwater entrance to a big hut was my bread and butter. I believe I caught 10 of my 16 in that one set, including a triple tonight.

Low water was the bane of my existence the last couple checks, tonight especially. West wind yesterday blew all the water out of the bay and tonight I did as much dragging of the canoe as I did paddling. Wouldn't have been so bad except the bottom was pretty mucky. Didn't know if the hip wader was gonna come with my foot a few times.

5 gallons of cheap cat food gets 1 pint of fryer oil, 1 bottle of sweet baby rays BBQ sauce, a hand full of fish meal, and a coffee can of lucky charm marshmallows. To compliment that I use a 28oz gatorade bottle that gets 1oz of cavens mooshine, 1 healthy squirt of liquid smoke, 1 squirt of fish oil, 1 squirt of beaver sac oil, the rest is filled with more fryer grease. I keep a 4oz squirt bottle filled from the gatorade bottle and use a healthy dose on and at each set. Always 2 traps or more per location filled completely with bait.
Pretty much any general location will work when it is warm but as temps cool, being as close to denning areas produce better for skunks. 66 DPs and 88 pounds of bait has equated to triple digit numbers of all 3 targets, racoon, skunk, and possums.
If skunks are the target then you kinda gotta forget what you know about coon spots and spend a little time looking for skunky spots. Junk yards, old abandoned bldgs, round bale stacks, dry culverts, rock piles, piles of debris, old log piles, the closer to people with gardens and mowed yards the better.
How you orient the trap for a short animal to comfortably access the bait is also something that will help.

thanks, maurob, good imfo. for everyone

got this yesterday, back of the house, 5-6 one in the last few years,
all white possum, sold for 50 dollars to taxidermy

Congrats on the white possum. Makes it worth catching one.

got back from camping last night, ended up with 6 beavers but I don't have pics

Trapper Dahrigen<
I have a question for this scenario. Being new to the trapping game, where does one sell such items for taxidermy? Do you have a taxidermist that you contact specifically?

Nice job.

78, I have a list from years of selling to taxidermy, taxidermy .NET is a good place to start

pulled line today deer season is coming, we had two nice skunks , maybe I will get to go north in December for martin

Had one coon today. But she weighed in at 28 lbs. Pulled some traps and moved to a new location. Things are pretty slow.

Our deer gun season starts on the 22nd.