Has the muskrat population ever recovered in the marsh?

I read a back issue of Fur Fish Game (March 2002) about Horicon's Heyday written by Chuck Megan. The article gave some history on the population of muskrats in the marsh. From 1975 through the spring of 1981 an average of 27,645 muskrats were taken annually. The official harvest was 17 muskrats for 1989-1990. I was just wondering if the marsh has had a good population of muskrats since the early 1990's.

Send a PM to nimzy. That’s been his stomping grounds for quite a while

At the FTA a few weeks ago, the gentlemen in this video (Wayne) stopped by the booth and we spoke for quite some time, needless to say, I am quite envious for those that get to trap it. Not sure how the population is now compared to days past, but he seamed to do quite well... any ways, thought you might enjoy this video he shared with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiQx6wfGTn0

Thanks for posting HAGz

That was a neat video-thanks for posting

Just take a look at the current satellite view of Horicon on Google maps. I know it isn't up to minute current, but it should give you a pretty good idea about the number of musquash. 1000's of huts.

The heck with the rats tho, see that banded honker in the video!!!!!

Cool preview of the marsh for sure!

they still do good out there thing about horicon is they dont start till december first puts the smack down on open water fall but the catch is they can trap it into the spring most of the guys ice trap it though one of these days ill get a spot out there maybe this year...

Rat numbers appear to be going up with catches in the 4 to low 5 figure range on the federal side. There are two halves or portions of the marsh. The southern roughly 40% is state owned and managed and has more area that is drier and thus fewer rats. The federal portion, the larger portion has more wet cattail area and more rats. The federal portion has several dykes and pumps so that several areas can have the water raised or lowered for vegetation management. The principle management if for waterfall and rats are a secondary managed species and maintaining a healthy rat population helps manage vegetation for waterfowl. Also several acres or hundreds of acres are routinely burned to control vegetation debris and also spur growth.
One issue that concerns many trappers is that bidding takes place in early October and there can be considerable change in water levels when the season opens in early December. Daily records of traps set, catches etc. are required if you are a successful bidder or you were drawn for the free senior area or the youth area.
there are several dyke units and you can trap earlier out to 75 feet from the dyke during the early season. The early season is to protect the dyke roads from the rats digging into the dykes etc. You can now use 4-wheelers that outfitted with flotation devices otherwise you need to cover your bid section on foot. Some of the sections are as large as 2,000 acres. Most are between 1,000 and 1500 acres with a couple smaller.

Bryce

Kudo's to Horicon management for waiting until December until allowing rat trapping. At least the rats are beginning to grow a little underfur by December. It's not realistic to expect rats anywhere to be decent until then.

There are dykes in Horicon??

Interesting.

Jim, the Horicon is alive and well.

Someday I'll get to trap it. Hopefully my old buddy Nimzy is still able to get around by then.