Wisconsin 2022 season thread

I guess I get to start the thread this year. Lol
Maybe I'm the only one dumb enough to start already. I've got a lady with chickens that I trap for every year so that's where and why I started. I was going to set a few coyote sets at another farm this evening but my feist got fired up and I had to go back to the truck and grab the pistol. Took a few trys with CBs but I got it lol then a couple coons at the chicken lady's place.

Nice start.

I'm up to 7 coons and 2 possums at one place. Owners want the egg predators knocked back.

This weekend I'll put in a couple muskrat and Mink sets in the yard. Next weekend I'll start another property for coons and coyotes.

Farmers here are starting to pull corn off, should have the coons moving around.

Good hunt with the feist. I miss my cur when in the woods.

I’m up North and got an early start too, I’ve been doing a little nuisance work for people that can’t wait for prime up.

Nice looking dog Witrapper for being early.

Your not the only one Trap Setter I started as soon as the season opened, I'll try to take more pictures just been busy running the line

I had planned to trap mostly mink for personal uses and plan to start as soon as season opens. Got a call about a coyote job in good mink looking country last night. Meeting the land owner here shortly and probably start coyote trapping on Monday and mink trapping on the fifth. Good luck everybody and enjoy yourselves.

Will be chasing Beaver in the Miss Zone when it opens.

Moosetrot

Moose- there was a gentlemen that use to come to the rondy believe it was smokey I bought a bunch of cable restraints from him that worked excellent do you know what happened to him? I was hoping to pick some more up

He moved his business up north, in Ojibwa, just east of Radisson. I was not sure where he wound up either till we were coming back south from vacation and drove by it. He's a good guy!

I don't have any of his contact info but I bet somebody on here will chime in with it.

Moosetrot

Thanks Moose

Thanks Moose

Set one marsh this afternoon. Water level down nearly two feet but rat sign about normal, just tougher paddling. Got 6 dozen sets in so we will see tomorrow what that brings.
No dry land sets yet. Plan to wait until the first weekend in November. With all the sloughs dried up I may have my river lines almost done by then. I usually am quite busy in the water until a few days before our deer gun season. Not this year.

Bryce

Just one today but only 6 coon sets out. Of course he was in a fox set lol

Got started on opening day. Targeting coyotes but can't keep the darn coon out of the traps. 24 coon, 3 opossum, 1 coyote and 1 bobcat. My cat season isn't until December 26th.

I just caught coyote #7 for the year yesterday morning and set a little bit of coon, rat, and mink stuff yesterday. Gunna start hitting coons hard next weekend. I just run a small line, up at 4am and trap my way way to work at 6, I was wondering if this thread was gunna show up this year, thanks! Headed out in the next half hour to go check, tight chains!

Drove by yesterday- Just where Moosie said- on Hwy 27 about 20 miles north of Ladysmith before you hit hwy 70.
(608) 865-0787

looks like a good start guys ,

Thanks!

Hoping for better but 1 coon and 22 rats this morning. Plan to pull tomorrow. River sign is fair to poor from my few scoutings.

Bryce

Number 8 this morning, great color, starting to finally feel like I might have these coyotes figured out, first season with some consistency for me

Nice dog 05.

I had a time today, got a skunk by the back foot in a fox set. He buried himself in the soft dirt and I had to dig him out. Didn't get sprayed at least.

Wow must be a cousin to a badger to dig themselves in. Good to hear the skunk did not spray.

Bryce

Pulled my coon sets from the first property. Put a handful of rat sets in my creek, will run just those until next weekend when I set another place for coon and coyote.

Just 1 coon today, cornfields were getting picked late into the night so hoping for a better check tomorrow

Careful, coyotes can humble you right quick like! Still nice to hear your hard work is paying off.

Slow day 1 ok coyote and a small coon, normally would have released that coon but the land owner doesn't want any released

Pulled the marsh today with 13 more rats. Went to one section of the river today and found 7 marginal set sites in over 1/4 of a mile of river! Not going to be a good year for rat numbers. I did not even go to the other 1/4 m ile or more. Will look at another mile section tomorrow. I checked a section two days ago and that was slim as well.

Bryce

One pullout today looked to be a coon. Could reach a tree and powered out.

Out of the four sets I put in the yard, got 1 rat today, pretty typical for this creek.

Slow news day just 1 gray fox

I have not caught a grey here in the last 20 years. I will tan one if I get one. Only had 9 sets out for this AM. 3 rats, a coon pull out and a really nice big male coon that is not yellow. I may well tan him, lots of under fur.
Several non trapping issues to resolve today and tomorrow so won't set out again till later Wednesday or Thursday. Talking .5 to 2 inches of rain for end of the week and weekend. That will slow down river trapping but the water will be well worth it for the number of rats out their and the price. We had a very high ground water level from 3 years of high moisture that gave us decent crops with over 12 months of very low rainfall and snowfall. We need a lot of moisture the next 6-8 months to get us back to even adequate ground water levels.

Bryce

Put some rat sets out Saturday for the central zone opener. After two nights had 54 rats. Also trapped the first night of the northern Zone and got 25 so in three nights I'm at 79 rats. This warm weather has slowed rat activity but sure is nice to trap in. My new Mud Motor got me into some almost inaccessible public areas. I'm taking a couple days off to fish and catch up on skinning. Climbing in and out of a Jon Boat all day slogging through the cattails isn't as easy as it used to be.

Here's a dumb question, never trapped muskrat what do they turn that fur into?

backs kinda look like mink...bellies are quite soft nice...currently being made into plates for interior jacket liners. and such..Groeny has a good video on it

Put out a handful of rat traps yesterday in the same spot I've trapped the last 4 or 5 years. Water is lower than I've ever seen it, and most of the cattails are brown. Very little sign, but managed 5 rats after a 24 hr soak today. Mostly setting to keep the landowner happy and scratch the itch a little.

Thanks Keets

The current rat market if there is one, has the bellies being used in making plates to use as liners for more expensive fur garments. There is always use for the better backs for hats, mitts etc. etc. The bellies have been more important in the last decade or so, so don't put holes in the bellies if you can avoid it.

Bryce

Coyote #9 this morning, also caught a raccoon and a possum

Good job on the yotes 05.

Hung 7 CRs this morning. The land owner wants them gone and wants a hide. The rest are getting recycled.

Beav, how much different are your set locations with the CRs instead of footholds? Were you setting near or on trails with footholds?

Bryce

What time does your season start?

Dry land trapping started the 15th. Water trapping, in my zone (central) started the 29th. Otter opens Nov. 5th.

Squirrel season opened September 17.

Land trapping started a couple weeks ago mink and muskrat is a split opening over 3 weeks and beaver and otter this weekend. Bobcat has a very small amount of tags and a later split season as well

Here trapping starts Nov. 15 for yotes, coons, and possums

When setting for coyotes I have never set a foot hold In a trail or even near a trail . Just to much junk running those trails. Now with CRs I can just about eliminate any non targets other then having deer knock downs. And I can live with that.
I have over the years created a carcass dumps and I have manicured a few trails leading to those carcass dumps. And over the last 4 years or so I have taken 18 coyotes off of that one location. Then later on when skunks and coon prime up I will set that location with DPs.
I have a few of these dumps set up on several different farms and they always produce some good catches. This year with rock bottom coyote prices I'll wait and set DPs at the other locations just for coon and skunks. There will be a market for those late caught coon.And I have a market for those prime skunks.

Thanks Beav. I have only caught 3 coons so far, today and yesterday. Two big females that appear to not have had litters and a large male. The look well furred with really good under fur. If they go slate when I flesh I will tan them as the fur is really nice but with this market they will dock the H out of them. Rat number will be way down this year. I will start my yote line the middle of next week after the rain. There won't be many sections of river left either.

Bryce

Glad to read you guys are having success.

Yes we ran into one section of a marsh that was full of sign and we set 15 or so traps and caught a dozen kits and small rats. Sometimes things just don't work out like one plans. I dought there is even a quarter for those this year.

Bryce

Lines been dead two days now but I'm not giving up on it just yet. Looks like the weather is going to change coming into the weekend so hopefully I can get a few more chicken chasers and pull Sunday or Monday it's not a long drive and it's a nice way to wind down at the end of the day as well as a good way to run the dogs. Well mostly because I like trapping lol

My low expectations were met this AM. I set out short sections of the river I trap that had some sign. I got 3 rats out of 20 sets, with 15 of those first check.! I pulled the section where I need to 4 wheel over 1/2 mile of newly planted cover crop. With two days of rain coming I don't need to mud through that field. I will pull the remaining 20 sets tomorrow. I sure hope we get 2-3 inches of rain. If I can't trap for a week that would be all right by me. Several other activities this Saturday, Sunday and Monday so I don't want to have a lot of sets out that are flooded etc.

Bryce

I am hoping for a little rain too Bryce. Fields here are so hard that you can't see any tracks, even the grain trucks aren't leaving much for divots in the fields.

Out of those 7 CRs I hung yesterday I got one coyote this morning. A real nice colored female and even the fur looked pretty prime. The land owner gets this one and the rest well they aren't getting skinned.

That dump and those trapper built trails worked like a charm. She must have been by herself since I had 2 CRs in that trail and the other one didn't connect. I always hang 2 loops since you might get a double or one might just get knocked down. Always set so If you have a double they can't get at each other.

3 nice coon today

Are yours primed up yet? I skinned out 2 big females last week, and they were still blue. Just going to be wall hangers, and the fur looks good for that.

Haven't skinned a male yet, not sure about them.

I think I've got close to 30 in the freezer now out of that I think there were only a couple that weren't prime

I'll try to get a picture of the ones I got today before I skin em they are nice and furred up

I have a limited market for some coon. But I'm not going to start till after Thanksgiving.

I'm just trying to improve my home tanning skills for crafts with the coon

caught 2 female mink yesterday....yoy was actually nice and prime...old one isn't even close..but big enough to go on a male board

Nice thread guys

3 coon, 2 possums today. K Snow I took those pictures of the coon but I can't get them to upload even when I cut them down. I'll try to get a shot of these ones to upload

Pulled all my sets today to get a couple weeks off before deer hunting, ended up with a freezer full of fur not to bad for what I call trapping season 1 of the year just got to process it and get reset for season 2 after deer hunting

Last coon in the frezzer today, big but not real prime ah well can't win them all

Looks like a big hoss for sure. DP catch? I'll be putting 2 little lines out tomorrow, coon and coyote, and a few otter sets if the creek isn't too high from fridays rain.

Yeah it's was a big boy in a dp fur could have been better but it will make some kinda craft project maybe part of a blanket? Good luck Snow hope your traps are full, haven't trapped otter yet I'd like to see a picture if ya get one!

Enjoying everyone’s posts and pics.
I just got back from a week up north, temperature ranged from 29-70 degrees, with sun and rain- we fished, duck hunted, bow hunted and trapped. I finished an ADC beaver job and trapped rats. Ended with 11 beavers, 71 rats and 5 mink. I took 9 beavers out of this same property 3 weeks earlier, in addition to a handful of rats- I anticipated a higher catch rat on rats than I achieved, water levels on the pond were low- I did not see one rat house on the pond, plan to hit a few coon this week to see how they're priming up. Here's a few pics from my water line:



Beaver:
I started out 3 weeks ago with foot hold blind sets on takeouts- this last week I set channels with H stands closer to the lodges and made castor mound 330's set from the previous catches with oil sac. Alot of the beavers were dark colored- not what I would consider black but nice.






Muskrat:
I mainly trapped feedhuts, preening stations on the lake and found trails leading to bean fields (that were now cut). I had more success in the ditches running Sudden Valley posted sets with carrot and poplar bud oil- I don't set stop loss traps on post sets, the weight of the trap is plenty to drown the rat and as you can see it's a good use for #2's from my squandered youth fox trapping days.






Mink:
I caught 1 mink in a mink box, the rest were bottom edge sets and this XL Buck came from a crossover between retention ditches- I always set one high in case they run the bank and you can see the distinct trail where that's exactly what he was doing, in addition to rats.



Keep the post coming- good luck!

Nice pictures Eagle Eye. Those old Blake and lamb stop loss traps are my favorite rat trap.

That looks like a heck of a fun trip Eagle Eye great pictures, I enjoy posts about animals I don't yet pursue makes me think about buying stuff to water trap!

I have been trapping a few private and public stops with my truck the past few days picking up another couple dozen muskrats. Only have about 15 traps out but will put a few more out for mink later this week when it turns colder just to catch a few. Went over the 100 mark on rats yesterday and have one damage complaint to trap for a pair of beaver that just moved in. My new slogan this year is take it slow and easy.

No traps out since Friday. All Day Saturday volunteering with our VFW to sell food and beverages. We needed a venue to create funds as our Memorial Day event was cancelled due to the week long bomb threats we had here.
Also our gas water heater sprung a leak Friday night so was shop vaccing and using towels to suck up the water until today they could come and replace it. Also a couple meetings today and givng platelets so will not set today either. Hoping to get to 3 more river secitons and then some 4wheeler coon and canines. We got just a bit over 2 inches here some places 20 miles from me got over 3 inches.

Bryce

Well we went from no moisture and dry as a bone to the monsoon season overnight. Luckily I don't have more than a handful of sets out because the Creeks came up about 2 ft last night and most sets were inaccessible. More rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow and after that it looks like we might be dealing with some ice. I've been picking up a few rats every day and one nice buck mink today. We will see what next week brings for weather.

Yeah Walt the weather has been weird it was 65 here today and humid last night it poured! I'm glad I pulled my sets looks like it's going to drop off sharp after tomorrow. Been getting my wife and my stuff ready for deer hunting, we'll head to the local range early next week to fine tune the rifles and shotguns and be ready to go. I'm hoping she gets a chance at one this year been awhile for her, although she has a monster hanging on the wall the likes of which I've only ever seen in magazines haha

The 2.5 inches of rain, raised the river line a tad too much for me to wade. If we get some T-storms tomorrow could add some more. set out a dozen colonies at some of the small runs that now have enough water after the rain.
Found 3 really hot coon trails so set them up with body grippers. Will see if they are getting better furred. Just very little rat sign in much of my water.

I am fleshing and boarding the rats now that I caught in a marsh. There are onlly a coupl larger rats. Most are medium, large and xl. Don't know where the larger ones went and not many kits either. With the dry weather I have noticed smaller size and less fat on the rats, maybe food sources are down as well. Also on almost all of mly sloughs and marshes all the cattails are brown. I don't know if tlhe 3 years of high water killed many or not, but dead cattails may not have good root bulbls for rat food either.

Bryce

As of today I have caught 117 rats and noticed exactly what you are saying about the size also Bryce, with only a couple of kits and lots of large and extra large. I also have never seen the marsh vegetation as dry as it has been this year in the fall.

I forgot to add that I trap for the most part around the Eau Claire Menomonie area.

Walt I'm just down by spring valley maybe I'll run into ya one of these days

I do a little mink and rat trapping on Gilbert Creek West of Menomonie usually in December or January maybe see you around there.

Let me know if ya need help I don't know anything about either one but I can carry stuff be more than willing to help

Thanks for the offer I will keep that in mind. You can learn a lot at your District Rendezvous if you belong to the Wisconsin Trappers Association.

Freeing up some freezer space and bow hunting- rats are almost drying too fast in this weather. I got in a 10 coon sets , averaged about 3 a day for the last 4 days Full Frost Moon seemed to shut-off fur movement only trapping farmland coon and no water sets. Mainly trapping coon motels and cut corn hedge rows right now, I'll be back to water after deer season if it's not hard by then. Here's a nicer boar- starting to prime up.

Eagleye, nice collection of rats. I am amazed at how similar in size all your beaver pelts are. Nice photos,
Muskratwait, I have almost the exact same number of rats you do and this year I have a collection of the smallest rats I may have ever caught, along with being thinner as well. Not a good year to have increased numbers of large and smaller rats.
I set out a dozen colonies and have 1 rat in first check. Many of these little streams were almost dry and with the 2 plus inches there is enough water in places to submerge a colony but the rat sign is really scarce.
I waited on wading the river due to being high and quite fast with hearing tht it was supposed to rain Wednesday AM and storm today. Well we are dry yet so that is on me. Don't know when I will get out again.
Friday is veteran's day and I am giving a short presentation along with a free lunch and a banquet tomorrow night. Put together some info on the history of the draft in the USA. Politics was around heavily 150 years ago too.

Bryce

nice job everyone !!!!!!!

I'm pulling everything this morning and will bow hunt until gun season- I'm seeing nicer bucks moving now and temps are dropping.
I had an extremely high catch rate yesterday thanks to grinners plugging up the DP's- caught 4 coon and here's a nice silver flanked boar.
When I'm out today- I'll be thinking about how lucky I am to have these freedoms... thanks to our Wisconsin Veteran's and Veteran's across the nation!!!!

Another very slow day on the rat colony line. 1 small rat! .3 of an inch of rain raised the small feeder streams a lot. Muddy water today. One of the 3 body grippers in the trails scored today. Big male. Well furred and about 20 lbs but a C color at best.

Bryce

Eagle that's a nice looking coon, I was suffering possum overload as well

First one of the season. 160 trail set, has produced a raccoon a day all week, then this little (well, pretty good size actually) stinker. Didn't spray fully, just farted enough to make the area tangy.

Nothing today. Lots to catch up on. Water still moving quickly, hope to do a river line tomorrow and Monday. Will put out a dozen or so canine sets for 5 days or so.

Bryce

Well I don't have much to share but wanted to be a part of the conversation anyhow. Had a young guy I met this year catch his first 2 muskrats a beaver and a coon this week. He is going to the technical college and lives in an apartment so has no place to skin so he brought the beaver and coon over last night and we walked through the process. He did a good job no extra holes. Tonight he will be fleshing them so we'll see.

The creeks are going down and the weather has turned real cold. The mink seem to be moving a little as I have caught four in the past few days along with another dozen muskrats. for the few sets I have out it isn't too bad of a catch. One of the buck mink was a real horse. I'm not working very hard at it and enjoying myself. Catching everything in blind or bottom Edge sets with body grips. I am going on a scouting trip to the Mississippi backwaters tomorrow. The season opens up Monday morning on the national Refuge.

I drove to the National Refuge on the Mississippi River on Monday morning for the opener. I only seen and talked to one other Trapper braving the cold snowy weather. Ice had formed in a lot of The Bays limiting where I could set. Some of the channels were open and I put out 35 sets. All were blind pocket or feed bed sets. You cannot legally set within 3 ft of a rat house on the refuge. Tuesday I picked up my traps with 21 rats for the night. Was back home by 1:00 p.m. and ran my short local line and got another seven rats and two mink. A good day on the line. Will be doing some Beaver damage control next on a local creek. It looks to turn a lot colder. Good luck and stay safe.

Got the second biggest beaver of my life yesterday 73.5 pounds.Tough going otherwise.

That's a whopper. What kind of set did you catch it in?

What a beaver, hope it wasn't a long walk out!

This isn’t the set it came out of but pretty similar.Ran about 20 percent catch rate kinda disappointed.

It’s about 2 foot from waterline to top rail of boat.lol

Why? And for how long?

Nimsy I think the rule is in place to protect ducks. the rule is for the entire season. Also you are not allowed to use Colony traps. These rules don't apply on state land only on the Federal Refuge. I am fairly new at trapping on The Refuge and I'm learning as I go. The season on The Refuge opens later than the rest of the state and you are only allowed to set 40 traps which have to be tagged with a special Federal tag.

That's a huge beaver, congrats. I pulled my sets a week ago because of the rain and not wanting to mess up the landowners fields. I had one farm where I had to use his 4-wheeler to run the traps every day. I finished with 37 coyotes, 74 coon, way too many possum and some skunks. I also had another bobcat (my 6th in the last 3 years) that I had to release. I'm going to trap some more coon, otter, mink and rats after deer season. Good luck to all of you who deer hunt. Sounds like the opening weekend will be a bit uncomfortable, lol.

Sounds like you're having a great year so far Lance. Did any of the coyotes have mange?

Dumbest rule besides 3 feet away from a muskrat hut is ending beaver trapping March 15th. Let people trap in the spring, way overpopulated on the river. From Lansing, Iowa up the Minnesota side to La Crescent I can count 75 beaver lodges I can see while driving along the river.

I officially folded my trapping tent on Tuesday of this week. Poorest season in 25 years and maybe Mother Nature knows more about our geopolitical markets then we thought. Will wait now for hard ices. Supposed to warm up next week, might melt some of the 6 inches or so we have. We can sure use the moisture but we have not had this much snow this early for a decade and this is nothing compared to the eastern great lakes. I doubt that 10 degrees this weekend will freeze the ground much or at all with the snow on it. When that wet snow melts everything will be a mud bath.
Not only were my numbers of rats much, much lower their size is much smaller, hides thinner etc. Don't know where those kits came from with that few older rats around. I think a lot of rats in my area moved from all the dried up sloughs and most of my river line is reed canary grass so finding good food may have been an issue. Also all the cattails in the two sloughs I could trap are brown. I don't know what the roots are like in brown cattails. We had really high water for 2-3 years and many of those areas the cattails may have died.

Bryce

Walt,

I didn't have any with mange but they had a lot more ticks than normal. I only trapped the coyotes for 15 days and then switched over to coon for 9 days. I didn't trap in the water at all other than to take a problem beaver out of a culvert. I did catch some red fox this year and I hope it's a result of the 40 coyote I took out of the area last year. You did a great job on the rats. I do miss the rat trapping but I'll do some after deer season to scratch the itch.

Tomorrow is the opener for deer hunting in Wisconsin and I will be in my shed skinning Beaver rats and mink. The last two days I have caught another nine rats and two mink on my little road line. The past two nights I have taken five beaver out of four sets on my damage control on a local Creek. Two were young of the year one 2-year-old and two were the adults. We will see how many are left as soon as it warms up next week. I had a mink eat the head off of a muskrat yesterday so I reset the 150 in the little Channel and today I had a buck mink in the set. Justice was served.

Dang Walt next time you give a seminar I’ll be in the front row.

Got three more mink and four more rats in my bottom Edge sets. The rats are slowing down some. Reset my four traps on the damage complaint Creek for Beaver yesterday and caught two more beaver overnight one adult and one young of the year which makes seven caught out of three nights with traps set. The next couple days will tell the t a l e of what is left. Good luck to all.

I was randomly selected to submit my Fisher jaw for tracking age, status and health. I've participated in these types of, fisher, bobcat and otter studies in the past, you never receive any feedback. It was interesting to see that the letter mentioned that "Age data from your fisher will be posted to your GoWild account approximately 1 year from the date of submission".

Well it looks like there are no more Beaver left on my damage complaint unless a few moved out of the area after I started catching their relatives. I have caught four more rats but no more Beaver sign and have picked all my traps up due to some unforeseen health problems. I will check on this area in a few weeks as it stays open all winter and see if there are any moved back in that had gotten spooked and left the colony. The 7 beaver I caught here came in the first three nights with traps set and nothing in the past five nights. Good luck and stay safe.

I said last year I wouldn't miss another opening weekend again. We'll, I did. Work was busy and with poorer prices predicted than the year prior, a couple bags of muskrats unsold from last year waiting for the next go round, I opted to continue working until the itch needed to be scratched. Yesterday the itch needed to be scratched so I thought I'd place a few traps for otter in a location that always produces. While there I tucked in 4 bottom edge sets on a few points that always produce rats and mink. Checked today, 2 mink and a rat in the bottom edge 150's. The 2 330's set for otter were untouched. Was fun to be out and I look forward to catching some muskrats through the ice with my kids soon.

Normally I skin everything day of or day after depending on species- froze the Fisher during deer season because we were too busy. Got the jaw sample mailed today and she was a healthy female tip to tail base 33"- well beyond a NAFA LRG with a 6-1/2 board. When we were closing up stands, I noticed additional Fisher tracks in the cubbies that had traps pulled and the sardines were gobbled up.... this was really positive for me because I've eaten the last 2 fisher tags I received.

First night in the fur shed this year! My little guy likes it as much as my girls did when they were his age. We skinned a beaver as well and have bait for our weasel boxes.

Couple weasels! Fun with the kids!

Happy and excited kids. There's nothing better.

Picture dump from this fall. Some good times with the boys. 12 and 9 year old.

It looks like you and the boys had quite a fall. Congratulations to you all and keep up the pictures please.

Going to try some rats again today, before we lose too much ice and then late next week with several really cold nights we don't want to be going through that many inches of ice.
We set up an area a week ago yesterday and pulled Friday. I could not go out Thursday as the cold I am getting over really took its toll. We did get 91 rats in the 3 checks. Not many bigger rats or kits, just a bunch of xl rats and larges.

Bryce

B r y c e, when using baited body grips what is your go to bait. Are you using an artificial attractor on the trigger or an actual vegetable type of bait. Also what is your preferred depth when using a b a i t e d body grip. Do you set more towards the top of the water column or more towards the bottom and let's say 3 to 5 ft of water.

I forgot to mention this is for under ice muskrat trapping haha.

We never use bait. We put a strip of duct tape on the trigger about an inch down from the top so it is about an inch or more above the bottom and then v the trigger and center it in the 160. We don't use any 110s now.
We have tried red, green and orange and the orange is by far the best for us. We also took an inch off some of the 160 triggers so we hope for fewer misses. So far it seems to be working. We will have 30-40 out by tomorrow so we will see. No pushups to set so all body grippers. We also set the trap with the trigger on the bottom. About 1 out of 3-4 of the rats are caught by the head so we feel they are biting at the tape.

Bryce

I use parsnips or carrots- I like the duct tape idea.

Those Milwaukees look better then the furs.

I have caught a few muskrats by wrapping fluorescent orange tape around the triggers of a body grip. My bigger question is what's your favorite depth for putting the Trap under the ice.

I set right below the ice - 6” below at the max

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

Once there is ice rats tend to swim right up against it, the exception when feeding or coming or going from the house.Pool noodles in green will work and can be seen from the side.

Yes I prefer no more than a hand width from the bottom of the ice to the top of the trap. You give the rat 2-4 inches and it will swim right over the trap. As stated they swim right under the ice why you see after a week or two of ice those rats are losing the shine on the guard hair by rubbing along the ice.

Bryce

Well we pulled our rat line today. We were losing ice a bit each day and with the forecast for more rain and then heavy wet snow we did not know how long we would have unknown ice conditions even with the real cold coming next week. Went swimming a coupld times but did not get wet. Yesterday and today we caught 21 rats. My rough cold continues to hang on and the virus really saps one's strength! One aches a bit all over.Nice to have all the traps and stakes out and in the shed.

Bryce

Sounds like covid to me Bryce, I am thinking about trapping a couple of ditches next week just to help the farmers out, not much money in it.

I tested negative for COVID but yes this virus is really hanging on. Started a week ago Sunday. Worst day was last Thursday, never left the house. I am getting better but I get a good day and then a set back. Phlem is starting to clear up so I know I am moving past. Just every muscle in ones body aches and the strength is really low. Hope you can help some farmers. I have two sloughs (small) that I could scout. Both have springs and one several with snow on the top now and weak ice I am thinking about letting those few rats enjoy the winter.

Bryce

Is anybody out there? It sure has been quiet on this thread lately. I caught a couple of mink and eight more rats the past week in bottom Edge and blind set body grips but only had a few sets out. I picked up the sets yesterday leaving out two otter traps that are guarding a great spot and will pay off before the winter is over hopefully. I had some company for half a day observing and learning how I do things on the water line during the winter. Bill is a quick study and I'm sure his time with me will be put to good use. This is the first year I have not set a coyote trap in 10 or 12 seasons. I am going in for some needed surgery the second week of January so will have to lay off trapping for probably a month or so. Let's hear some good reports from everybody it looks like there is a January thaw coming up.

Been chasing deer this fall. Shot an otter sled full during the antlerless hunt and then this Sunday finally caught up to a buck with the bow. After this cold breaks, might be time to go catch a few critters.

I'm here waiting for the cold to break moving on to processing my fur and practicing more home tanning with kids, my "second" trapping season got away from me this year too much work and deer hunting with the kids. Got several deer hides I'm going to try to turn into leather hope it works out! Hoping there's enough ice for me to start fishing soon I don't play that game until there's mack trucks sitting on the lake

That's a unique looking Buck Marsh rat. Do you have any idea how old it was?

Wild Wisconsin we might need a Mack truck to get through the slush and snow on the Lakes pretty soon.

Likely 4.5 or 5.5

I imagine this weeks warmup (highs in the 30s, forecasted to be 39° at the peak (Thursday)) could bring out the coons, possums & skunks

I see Pat Durkin did an article about a local trapper in my neck of the woods. Glad to see he was able to get back in the marsh this past December.

https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/bowhunter-crawls-over-600-yards-after-treestand-fall

Possums and coons have been moving here for sure. The slight cool down got the yotes and Mink moving again.

Been looking for spots to fish but boy oh boy it's a mess

Coons and grinners smashed on the road here too stopped to inspect one of the coon hard to tell if it was from getting hit but it looked fairly rubbed

Calling yotes has been more successful than the trapping due to snow depth, storms and what not

I can see your point. I wonder if that would apply to Bobcats too

One determined dude!
Master trapper and Master hunter.

I think that's possible I've never specifically called for bobcats

My two otter sets I've been religiously tending on a local Creek that stays open all winter finally paid off. They were both blind sets with 330 body grips. One had a nice male otter and the other one had a very large beaver which must have traveled a ways to get to this part of the creek. 5 weeks ago I had trapped seven Beaver out of this area and haven't seen a sign of any s i n c e but I thought there might have been other Beaver Maybe a quarter to half mile away Upstream and I think this was a traveler. I also think if I wouldn't have had the beaver I would have doubled up on Otter by looking at all the fresh otter tracks around. It was a good day to be out anyway..

With less people trapping nest thieves, I suppose those of you trapping coyotes and bobcats are getting more skunks, possums and coons in your set

I've been receiving more calls for nuisance coyote concerns- here's one I trapped in a subdivision conservancy this morning, 2nd male this week.

your ground is the wrong color

I'm having trouble keeping coons & possums out of my sets.

What part of the state is that every where around here has at least 12 inches of snow cover

No snow here in Sheboygan County, just mud, mud and more mud. Going to change tonight. We'll have slush and snow on top of mud.

The rain this week washed away the last remaining few flakes and otter tracks. In Winnebago county, we have lots of mud too!

SE Wisconsin- we were supposed to get snow last night, just freezing rain. I can push my Berkshires right into the ground with my driver.

There’s otter in Winnebago county?

I'm kind of jealous I'm getting tired of plowing and shoveling for this winter haha

I trap by Ladysmith the majority of the time, they're getting 1-2 inches and hour right now from what I heard, with a pretty good base already- this winter I trapped close to home, I'm not targeting coons but I'll drop a DP on a trail when I'm checking sets, nighttime temps were mild during the rut.

Those are good looking coon, yeah we're getting some decent amounts of snow right now in Pierce county

Here’s one this morning - he must’ve stepped over the chin up stick and got caught by the waist, running a 10” loop.

I've been running about a dozen weasel boxes. Having a blast. Still recovering from heart surgery but the exercise and fresh air does wonders. Anyway, no snow until today so setting on sign was not possible. Still, my catch is good(22 so far). By this time of year I can walk on the marsh safely but it's iffy this year. Anyway. I'm having fun and on weekends my 12 year old granddaughter comes along.

Walt,

Good luck with your surgery. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Thanks Lance. I had my surgery last Friday and everything went real good been spending a lot of time in the recliner hope to get out trapping in another couple weeks good luck to you also

Got my second otter this afternoon, so pulled all the sets today. Now I will put out more coyote sets and try my hand at weasels.

Congrats on your otter Kent, bottom edge again?

Yes, bottom edge. A point in the creek that is under cut enough to stuff in a 280. Did have some guide sticks to make the trap appear to be an inviting path to swim through.

Congrats on the otter K snow. Sounds like a real effective and efficient otter set.

Congrats on the otter K snow. Sounds like a real effective and efficient otter set.

Here's a diagram of my typical otter set. Pretty much a standard bottom edge. I use the horizontal stake pushed into the bank to do most of the holding. The creek bottoms here are gravel to rock, very difficult to get a wood stake in solid enough to hold. The two upright stakes are put in on the downstream side, one goes between the jaws and through the spring to help stabilize the trap. Sometimes I will add a KB stabilizer to the setup. Not in the lic, I have cable extensions staked up on the bank, in case something fights enough to loosen the woods stakes. The dotted area is soft silt build up.

At times I have added a second trap on the horizontal stake, to have two traps side by side.

Wow, thats a hog. Did you weigh it?

No scale...pretty heavy tho

Congrats on the otter K Snow and that is a huge beaver good to see folks still at it.

That's a Toad- wow!

Sold the seasons catch to Guy in Ixonia today, $5 top on muskrats so get out after them, don't catch small ones, the $1 ones hurt the average, $25 for an otter, I tossed all the coon in the marsh, and a coyote I got this week, way too rubbed to skin.

This is for k snow, 25 cents for squirrel tails

Check your local fly-tying clubs. I get $1.00/tail from the guys there.

A little thinning out may be in order.

My boys an I set traps Saturday am on three streams. Found one lodge and the rest we made castor mounds by areas the beaver were cutting small trees. Checked traps Sunday am and had two, Mondays check had one when we pulled the traps. Tried out a new pack basket I got for Christmas, it came in handy hauling out the biggest one that weighed 58# up a steep bluff

Nice going Wptourist. That basket sure looks like it came in handy.

I'm starting to get Beaver Fever from the pics- great day with the boys Wptourist. Only (2) song dogs yesterday- These two moved Sunday night after our major snowfall, if you squint hard, you can see it in the background. I'm pulling after this morning as I seem to be under increasing pressure to complete my Honey Do list.

Forgot to add that these two were about 20 yards apart and I had two more sets about 30 yards from that dispatch site- on the way to the next check I jumped a nice buck that still had antlers. Not surprised that he held tight with all my commotion but more surprised that he bedded overnight, 20 yards from the two catches

Can’t complain about this January for catching these

Nimzy, that's looks like fun, those rats are about as good as they get, keep piling them up.

Probably take a break next week, Mama getting itchy to fly the coup. Used to trap all winter but market and age has me going when the going is good. Lotsa shiny ice this season, good trapping brings too much skinning!

I finally got back out trapping last week. I reset my two otter sets after having laparoscopic abdominal surgery two and a half weeks ago. I was hoping to catch my second otter of the season. The first four day check drew a blank. Today was another four day check with the air temp around four degrees for a high but was rewarded with a 23 lb male otter the second out of this blind set 3:30. For the most part this stretch of the creek stays open all winter even when well below zero. This spot has accounted for a lot of fur over the years and I am fortunate to be able to trap it. Tight chains to all.

Good job Walt I wish I had a spot like that.

Way to go Walt. I've got a couple creek spots like that that produce otter just about every year for me.

Bottom edge otter! K snow, this is one of those spots that produces every year, just usually doesn't take 2 months like this one did.


Caught a few beavers with my little guy last week too!

Nice going deerfly. Mine usually take that long, seems like I get more action once the ice starts to form good. Good catch on that one, that trap must be tuned nice.

Congratulations, that looks like a fun and exciting day.

With the warm up coming the next few days, I am going to try to get some coons for a local landowner. He lets me turkey hunt if I clean some out. Hopefully I can get the truck to the back of the 80, its a long walk otherwise.

Otters were cleaning out the pond so I cleaned out a few of them.

Very nice. I love seeing otters on snowbanks like that.

Nice

Sign, sign everywhere a sign.

Not sure if it's just the picture but those look like some pretty good sized rats there nimzy

March rats are all growed up

How is the damage on the rats?

There fine here still pretty tight on the ice situation. They haven’t broke loose yet and it probably won’t happen if the weather man is correct

Week before last, the ice receded on a few swamps and picked up 84 rats in 3 days. 1/3 were damaged but glands were plump. Dumped on with 27" of snow yesterday. Spring is not cooperating.

Same chit different place

Trying to get some spring beavers but the water is not cooperating. Either up or down or frozen.

Same here, weather is not cooperating, but still managing to get some beaver. Still no otter, going to have to rethink my strategy. Seeing lots of otter sign after a snow, but they always seem to be using a different route. Had a good time at your fur handling clinic Jordan. Wish I had some stuff like that in disctrict 1 to go to.

Nice pictures WIKA. I'm glad you enjoyed the fur handling and I hope you learned something. I think we will have to do it again next year.

Got to enjoy and struggle at seasons end. It’s a real spectacle to witness our wetlands waking up! What a privilege!

I'm starting my ADC rat line today.

Picked up an otter on a bottom edge set this morning

Way to stick with it and great catch. Really love those bottom edge sets.

Well the central zone beaver season ended today so I picked up the few traps I had out the past couple of weeks. I wanted to catch maybe half a dozen Beaver to sell with my two otter pelts. I ended up catching another dozen beaver and a few more muskrats. At 73 years old I am starting to run out of steam earlier than normal. I might still do some damage control Beaver trapping at a couple spots yet. I have around 200 muskrat pelts in the freezer that still need to be stretched and dried and will try to get them done to sell with the beaver and Otter. My mink pelts are staying in the freezer and will be there until prices come up on mink. Overall it has been a fair season other than the weather conditions good luck and tight chains.

I pulled my few beaver traps yesterday since the weather didn't look too nice today which is the final day of the season for our area. I ended up taking 14 beaver and 1 otter. The smallest I had was a large medium and the other 13 were large medium to super blanket. Was a lot of fun but certainly plenty of work which is always the case with beaver. Hope you all had a great season and good luck to our northern trappers who still have another month.

Good job Lance. Are you still clean skinning your beaver like your dad did or do you use the beam. I sell most of my green Frozen now as working the beaver on a beam is too hard on my shoulders. I put my two otter up and that was enough for a day.

Thanks Walt. I clean skinned all these just for old times sake. Reminded me of sitting in the basement as a kid and watching my dad clean skin beaver for hours. I spent most of my time strainghtening out bent nails, lol. I do remember my sister and I trying to help dad out by clean skinning a smaller beaver when he was working the day ship at Uniroyal. It looked so easy but after we had cut about 10 holes in it we quit. My mother must have talked to him because we didn't get chewed out which we were both expecting. It was a fun season and my wife went with me every day but the first check. After all these years, she's still likes to go along if the weather is nice.

Odd weather, winter, a week of summer and right back to winter