Bait and lure for muskrats

What bait do you guys use for rats? I'm thinking of using pumpkins, apples, and carrots this year and was wondering if anyone else had tried these. Also going to be running Rat Checkmate and a few other random lures with the bait and was wondering how you guys stored the lure while driving around in the truck. Thanks in advance!

-TheYouthTrapper

For lure I found poplar bud oil works
I store the lure in my coat pocket while trapping

Always just used a 1/4 of an apple on a stick. Used a drop of Hawbaker's oil apple (don't know if it's even made anymore) on the slice for a while. Not sure it was necessary or helped any more than just the apple slice.

I've used carrots before on triggers of 110s under ice. I've always used lenons or carmans mcl100 as my lure and just keep it in my wader pockets

Not sure I ever caught a muskrat using bait or lure, I seldom used it. I probably tried it when I was first trapping 65 years ago. Once I learned a little about trapping muskrats I found it wasn't necessary.

Spearmint toothpaste

I just cut a hole out in the bank sit a trap in front of it Collect the rat next morning

In most situations its not but sometimes it is when you're in scenarios where you're not setting dens and runs because they don6 exist or not practical to find

Had good results when using floats for rats with dried field corn. Best rat lure I used is Lennons Muskrat super call. (my 2 cents).

A freshly made mud slide seems to be the best lure. But the boys and I often add a little toothpaste to the set - mostly to make us feel like we are doing something.

I've never had much luck with muskrat bait of any kind.

It might be different where you live but if I use any kind of lure on a rat set a coon will be there the next morning, and have the area around the set destroyed. I learned this years ago. I don’t really think my take has been hurt at all by not using lure and it’s one less thing to mess with.

Here's the way I see It.
You find a rat toilet or feed bed and you set them. Now your only going to catch ONE rat at those locations. But If you make several lured sets close by those locations your going to catch more then ONE rat. Those feed beds and toilets are being used by more then ONE rat.

I love Poplar Bud Oil on a Q-Tip and I also use Peppermint- the Beav posted a few years ago on melting lard in a small crock pot until it liquefies and then add peppermint extract. It makes a paste and I also use Anise Oil ... great on pocket sets, remembering to always stake for coons.

I very rarely need lure to catch a muskrat. The problem with lure in my area is that any lure that attracts muskrat attracts beavers, and beaver season isn't open most of rat season.
And usually, it's easier to just drop a conibear in a run. Lenon makes a dandy muskrat lure but coon love it too, so fasten your traps well if you use it.

No lure needed. Just scrapped carrot or parsnip or sliced apple is bait and lure itself.

Youthtrapper send me a message with your address and I will send you a couple jars of Lenons I have more than I will use as the rats are not nearly as abundant around here as they uused to be.

I trap tidewater, can’t find burrows or runs, apple on a stick works great. I’ve found that semi dried gravenstiens work best, with a tiny bit of rat gland.

X2 Get the cheap stuff at the dollar store.

Open water marshes I use neither. On rivers and streams where I find the longer feed beds under the overhangs I use a homemade lure dipped in a Q tip. I put Q tips in a container with a lid and pour in some lure. I can carry several dozen that way. Under ice body grippers I use colored duct tape, orange works better for me than red, green or white.

Bryce

Apple and bread and butter lure

I was assuming people stored it in their wader/coat pocket but just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing it wrong.

I'm going to be using mainly apples and I'm the same way, I use both bait and lure even though some people just use bait.

That's what I've seen quite a few guys on youtube running for under the ice.

I can't find the runs or feedbeds since they just don't exist, I just found my first exit and crossover a couple days ago and that was a surprise.

Do they think it's a culvert or are they just drawn to it?

I would love to find a 10$ coon in one of my floats or hagz sets. The coons have so much food around that they won't go after it unless they really need it.

That's how I see it as well and that's if I can find a feedbed or run which aren't very common around me.

I've seen people using surveyor's tape for baited conibears under the ice and it seems deadly.

I keep it very simple, in Spring I snip tip of apple tree branches and put several sticks in peanut butter jar.

No issues with catching coon and the rats go for it in no time. It is cheep and it works.

When setting under ice, I use a carrot on 110 and 120 and set two to three inches under ice surface. I have also set under ice with a piece of carrot wired to pan of on leghold traps (along edge) and also caught them this way.

I don't bother using lures for rats.

Hunter 1

Must be different rats over there, Beave. I catch rat after rat on feedbeds and toilets (no lure/bait). I'll take a feedpad over a house any time. Yes, some are one or two (like huts) but just as many are 3 or 4 or 5 rats using that pad. And if that one runs dry quick, another one has usually popped up so it's just a matter of moving the trap. A feedbed is usually much faster to set than a hut, too.

By the time you dink around with rat lure, you could have set another trap. Not to mention tracking down coon that are also attracted to rat lure (probably more than a rat is). And be sure your rat lure doesn't have castor in it (some do). Then you have the issue of beaver in your rat traps.

I quit using rat lures years ago. My catch didn't go down, it went up. That said, every location is different. I see a few places every year that a rat lure "May" help. But those are also coon locations...sooo.

PM me for the best float bait I've used in the dakotas Youthtrapper. Nobody has ever touched on it here. Carrots are a poor rat bait, IMO. They do attract rats, but rats really don't like them once they bite into them much...which granted is usually too late.

Around me we don't see very many toilets or feedbeds, so a lot of the time you have no choice but to use lure/bait. Pm sent.

[quote=TheYouthTrapper]What bait do you guys use for rats? I'm thinking of using pumpkins, apples, and carrots this year and was wondering if anyone else had tried these. Also going to be running Rat Checkmate and a few other random lures with the bait and was wondering how you guys stored the lure while driving around in the truck. Thanks in advance!



A farmer that grows pumpkins dumps some near a creek & muskrats chew holes in them so they like them. I personally dont use lure for muskrats anymore because it draws too many coons

A lot of guys seem to have issues with coons and muskrat lure, luckily they hang out in the tree belts and stay away from sloughs most of the time.

Take your boot and stomp out a spot along the water's edge that will hold a number 1 long spring put it on a slide wire to drown and throw a hand full of field corn on it. You will catch both rats and coons

Under ice or underwater I have used slices of peeled potato on 110 triggers

Most baits like potatoes and apples lose their color pretty fast once under water. Sure they work but a better choice would be using some of that plastic corrugated sign material. It slides right on to the trigger wires and It's water proof and holds It's color well.

Like what the political signs are made out of?

Yes

That's a good idea, I know some people use them to make mink pans but never thought of this.