I went out today on a little "scouting" mission and brought along 50 floats and a few colony traps. Ended up running my whole loop that I plan to run for at least the first week or so of the season. I found some other trapper's floats and equipment as I was putting mine in and driving through, so good to know that there are some other people out. I'm going out again tomorrow to check my floats and also bringing out another pickup box full of floats to set out. I built another 69 floats for this spring and bought another 2 dozen 159's to put to use as baited conibears since I'm doing some testing with them during the spring. I have 186 floats total this year and plan to keep setting them as more of the ice goes away. Hoping to have at least 25 rats tomorrow, but figured I'd throw an update out to let all of you folks know that I'm trapping again.

I follow all your threads TYT, get at em' I love your drive and enthusiasm

Good job! keep after the rats.

I started Monday on my ADC job Got 25 rats today and one beaver. noticed where my willow stakes were stripped clean of bark. So, I took my fiberglass poles with my Hagzs brackets and zip tied a section of willow on the stake. Will see what happens on Wed. I did put some popular bud oil on the willow.

Good luck in SD.

Great idea Beav, let us know the results!

Got another 50 floats set today and a couple of colonies. I caught 30 rats today, so a little over 50% catch rate, which is something that I'm okay with, especially when I'm not seeing a whole lot of sign where I'm setting. I did set some really good looking spots today with lots of sign, so hoping that tomorrow is way better than today was. Got the rats all put up tonight, as the wind had dried them by the time I got home. I have been using up some random lures that are partially full, but after these are used up, I'm switching back to my High Water by Mark Steck.

Nice looking pile.

Nice work!

Smart man. Go get em!
I’ll be hitting them ASAP too.

Looks like you are off to a great start. Hope your catches continue. Thanks for sharing.

Keep after em' TYT! Looking forward to your updates.

Jelly!

Good work! Keep it up.

Nice work. Let us know how you like the 159s… I think they are more work, I have one dozen of them.

Fella in the area that shared mink chasing stories with me years ago. He ran #110s for years. When the #159 became available he added a couple dozen the next season. The next summer he replaced all his #110s with the #159. Played a bit with the trigger/dog. Said this was the ideal BE trap for both mink and 'rats.

I bumped to all #150s. Thought the #159 was a bit overkill. But he certainly believed in 'em.

Pulled today ended up with 49 rats and 2 beaver. I did catch one rat In the willow set with the Hagzs bracket. I did get a picture, so I'll try to get it posted.
Some of the rats are stretching at 18". There Is some damage to a few but not too bad. $10.00 rats and $50.00 beaver. Now I'm headed out to skin the beaver I caught yesterday and the 6 rat I caught today.

I have noticed that my rats and my beaver all have these shrimp looking critters in the fur. Is that a common thing? I know that the rats In ND had them and so did the ducks we shot.

scuds, or fresh water shrimp are an indicator of water quality. when we had rats and ducks we had shrimp everywhere. not any more.

So, when we have good water quality, we have what you call scuds or fresh water Shimp. That good news because all these rats and the 2 beaver are being caught in wastewater treatment lagoons.

I trapped in 6 different swamps here in WI this winter till close. The one with the least amount of rats had those, shrimp. There were quite a few ducks tho. The one with the most rats was full of snails. (Unusual observations)

IMO one can judge the condition of the marsh by the condition of the rats, size and shape. Couple days after break up all bets are off
If I could figure out how they can loose that much weight that fast, I wouldn’t have to trap.

Might have to throw out some rat traps along this creek, less than 24 hours.

That is interesting. Nothing like making a new toilet station that is handy. What is that old saying about a port in a storm.

That is a nice pile of muskrats TYT! Keep after em!

I'm guessing that fella was not well liked in his community.

Well, figured that I finally have some time to spare and I'm not in the fur shed or on the trapline for 12 hours a day. Here's my update since I last posted.

2nd check: 86 rats today and got another 32 floats out today, got a bit of a late start and ran out of daylight to get the last 18 set. Not seeing any small rats, all of them have been pretty big 2x and up.

3rd check: Another 80 rats today out of 131 floats, got another 30 floats set today, and if I end up going out tomorrow, I’ll get the last 20 set. Been getting late starts and not having enough light. Also caught a small northern and a really chunky one today in a colony trap.

4th check: And there it is. My first ever check over 100 rats. Specifically, 105 was not a fun time today at all, and it was very windy. Had to find a lot of floats on the banks and set them up again. I think I have 160 floats out total right now, and I only had to grab 2 and bring them home because they weren’t going to stay put.

5th check: 122 rats and a beaver today. Everything went smoothly, and the weather cooperated. Pulling all of my gear tomorrow since we have 5 days of snow, sleet, rain, and ice coming.

6th check: Another 74 today, and got all of my Floats pulled. Going back out on Sunday, just have to wait for these few days of weather to pass by us.


On the 4th check, I had a brake line blow on my truck as well as getting a flat tire, so that day was pretty eventful. Been catching lots of northerns in the one colony trap, but otherwise they have all been doing well. Almost lost one about 20ft into a culvert, and the wind and waves pushed it in, but I got it back after connecting 5 of my fiberglass poles. Also caught a small 15-20 pound beaver in a couple of floats, so that was a nice surprise. Although the season has been plagued with breakdowns, late starts due to things I can't control, and some unexpected things. I have 530 rats so far, and plan to get back out on Sunday to set again for the final 430. The fur put up has been going well, and so has the carcass processing. I still have about 200 rats to put up and process the carcasses before Sunday, seeing lots of 2x and 1x rats, which is good for me because I have a 4$ basis this year, making a 2x a 4$ rat and a 1x a 3$ rat. I'm hoping to catch enough rats this year to pay for a 12-14 foot flat bottom jon boat for hunting, trapping, and fishing this summer and fall. So if anyone is looking to sell one, please let me know.

What is the reason for stopping at 960?
(530 caught plus "set again for final 430") or was that a typo?

We don't have muskrats down here but we have nutria rats

Also curious about "carcass processing".

Is that part of your $4 basis or is it bringing money in on top of the $4?

Congratulation YT. Great season so far! Your work ethic is spectacular.

How have your baited conibears been working? How are you setting them up? Good job, you've obviously got a lot of rats, but anytime you are hitting triple digits on a check, you are working at it.

That is one heckuva season!

Just awesome.
Bet you can skin a rat fast now

Excellent job, that's a bunch of muskrats.

Saving the glands i hope, and have a buyer lined up.