TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season

With the season fast approaching and only a week away. I'm opening up a thread for pictures and updates of my season. This is where I'll post catch pictures, fur shed pictures, updates, catch reports, new sets I've tried, etc. Have a good night y'all!

-TheYouthTrapper

Good job, can’t wait to follow along.
Jim

Following along ! Can’t wait to see some reports !

As excited to see your catches as you are! Good luck!

i will be following


good luck

Believe it or not, just starting out combined with your age will make next few seasons the most enjoyable and memorable of your life.

Love your enthusiasm and drive young man. Excited to follow along. Good luck!!!

Well just finished tagging and checking through chains and swivels again on my 8 dozen traps that I'm setting on opening day. I have 5 dozen footholds (muskrats), 1 dozen colony traps, 1 dozen 110s (blind sets on land), and 1 dozen 120s (also blind sets on land where a mink maybe). Really excited to get out there on opening day and get some steel in the water. Only running mainly mink and rat traps for now. Not shown in this picture is my small boat that's going to be used to set traps or my 6 ft fiberglass poles for my footholds.

Go get em kid!

Awesome! I'm looking forward to watching your season unfold!

I'm riding shotgun! let's go. Good luck and stay safe.

You can tell in our responses you have all of us fired up and ready to go.
That’s the trap line spirit. Love it when someone comes on here locked and loaded, ready to roll.
I pray you have good weather and an awesome season. Can’t wait for updates.
Jim

Go get em', I'll be following along

Is opening day this weekend for you? Make sure to include photos of your boat. I like seeing peoples setups

Looking forward to your trapping adventure.

Not this weekend sadly, will be working to catch up on 5 yard cleanups then my list is done. On Tuesday I will be setting since that is opening day, scouted my starting spot over and over, and have a loop of it in my head. Will be sure to have pictures of the boat.

Will be watching this thread since we have very few rats this year do to very dry weather. Only seen a handful of mounds so far this fall.

I have only one slough out of 5 that may have enough water to trap. Can't paddle through mud. Those areas got over 120 rats the last two years. This year maybe zero. Water is down 2 foot or more in most. Did get a 133 in two checks with my fall canoe trip rat trapping partner. May be the best we have this year.

Bryce

Anyone hear any rat prices?

Same as last year for me, 1.5$ on the carcass, no clue on finished yet.

Found some more beaver sign today with a friend. Beaver has a tree cut down maybe 20 yards away from his lodge and the other one we saw while we were looking for other sign. Hopefully, they're still around during Thanksgiving break so I can focus on them a little more. At the first lodge, we saw coyote, raccoon, mink, and obviously, beaver tracks everywhere. This is awesome because these are the 2nd and 3rd colonies of beavers I have found this year and I would like to catch one. Hopefully, I can trap a few and expand to a little bit more gear for beavers. These were not the only slides, one of the lodges had 5 slides and I saw 4 more on the other lodge so plenty of spots to put traps.







Here's the second lodge

Man, all those fresh slicked up mud trails. Active beaver locations they practically put up neon flashing signs pointing to where you should place traps.
Have fun bud!
Jim

Looks like you have a lot of nice places to set! Go get em!

I'm so excited, never trapped a beaver before so this is all new to me. Have 3 #3 or #4 DLS and 2 330 conibears to start with and a few slide cables.

Good spot there. Have at em'

Good traps and good sign so your already ahead of the game. Just make good sets and eat a good breakfast the next morning cause you'll get a good workout hauling beavers the next day!

Well, the time has come upon us, only about 12 hours until I'm hitting the road to go set some steel in the water. I'm missing school tomorrow to do something that I love and couldn't be any happier. The truck is loaded with all of my gear; all that's left are my waders, gauntlets, and myself.

Looks like fun day for sure.

Enjoy the day! I'm a teacher, but I will even cut you some slack for missing tomorrow! We also missed school on opening trapping day years ago.

Go get'm!! There are alot of things you learn trapping that school can't. Good luck!

I will! By the same time last year I would have missed at least a week and a half of school but this year I have missed 0 days so this is a little treat to myself. Been working hard the last 2 weeks on yard cleanups also so going out and doing what I love will help me more than anything else.

Funny story though, I was walking back from the bathroom during lunch and the principal/super intendant stopped me (they watch over lunch). She said what great of a job I had been doing keeping my grades up (Not hard for me and should be a given) and how I haven't missed any school. I told her that I was missing tomorrow and she asked why so I said "I'm going trapping". The look on her face was priceless, luckily all of my teachers know what I do during this time of year and have been nice to me about missing tomorrow. My art teacher is the most supportive because one day while I wasn't feeling like doing my work, I talked with her about trapping, and over the next few weeks I have been telling her the days until the season. Today I told her I wasn't going to be there tomorrow and she was so excited that It was finally time for me to go set traps. Anyways that's my story of the day but I need to keep working on getting caught up on homework.

Thank you! The plan is to get the 8 dozen traps I have set aside set tomorrow and the first check is on Thursday.

Excellent, following along.

My senior year of high school and I wanted to take the first week of trapping off from school. Talked to the principal the Monday before and he said to let him think about it and stop back Friday after school. Meanwhile I got all my homework done and things cleared with my teachers. Friday finally came and when I went into talk to my principal, he said no as if he let me go then he would have to let everyone go. Poor excuse as half the school was gone when it came to harvesting or deer hunting but I had a plan. Monday morning when I got to school I reaked of skunk! My teacher sent me to the principal's office and he sent me home. My plan worked and I spent the rest of the week trapping. Friday the school called and told my parents I hadn't been to school all week and wondered why. That evening I got home and was confronted by my my parents. I just came from my fur buyer and pulled out a fat check that was more than both my parents made in a month combined! Nothing more was said at home or school. Now, like I said go get'm!!

I don't know if my measly fur check nowadays would have the same effect and I'm not too willing to try.

A great story! Wish I could have trapped when fur brought real prices

Well, 32 sets in today in 7 hours, very poor numbers on my part. I would walk up to a hut just fine and there would be 6" of water around the whole hut, not near enough water to drown them in. Little bits of vegetation in 6 ft circles around the feed beds took 10-15 minutes to clear just to set a couple of traps. At least I put in 32 good sets and not 96 hail mary sets.

Ended up getting permission to hunt coyotes on some guy's land though after he had a coyote come out of the trees after the ball that he was throwing for his dog. Which turned into me getting trapping permission for all of his ground. Found a beaver colony in one of his stock dam/sloughs which will be the 4th colony so far found. They have caused lots of destruction already and have at least 5 of the 8 or 9 trees that are surrounding the slough/stock dam starting to get dropped. They're at least 2 of them there but most likely more.

Also was cruising down a road that has a lake on both sides and I saw something sticking out of a pile of reeds so I stopped and checked it out and pulled out a spinning rod and reel combo that still works. And not 5 feet away, there was a mimic minnow. So that helped me cheer up a bit after having a harder day of trapping.

I would have liked to get 96 sets out but not everything always works out and it wasn't from a lack of effort. I enjoyed being out on the sloughs and I learned way more than if I had been in a classroom for the same amount of time. Lots of pheasants out and I almost had a hen land on top of me, it would have too unless I had yelled "Hey"!

Bottom edge set I put in



One of the three colony traps I put in, wasn't much of anywhere to put a foothold leading up to the feedbed but there was a slight run.



Here's the picture of me just arriving at the slough, boat did very well and was handy for setting the traps on.



Videos posting after this

Here's a spot where there were two runs going into trails from the slough that the rats were using to get to their bank dens and the mink were following. Both are set with 110 conibears on wooden stakes.



Here's one of my favorite sets of the day, halfway submerged 110 conibear on a wood stake in a heavily used run/trail.

Here's one of the toilet/feedbed sets that I did, had to scrape out vegetation for 10 minutes with the potato rake just to get the water open enough to drown the rat.

Will be checking the traps on Thursday so will keep you guys in the loop of what I catch!

Awesome job bud. Keep at it. Sometimes it takes me a few days to get the whole line up and running.

Gotta respect the hustle!

Yeah, going to bring some more of my 110s that are rigged on Hagz spring clips and some carrots. I need to experiment and see if they'll go after carrots since I would like to get more traps out.

Might also experiment with some lure and see if they'll come to it too or not. Lots of places to put traps but no feed beds or toilets and the huts have very little water by them.

First catch/haul of the 2022/2023 trapping season! 1 mink and 13 rats, the mink is my first caught in a trap, and a colony trap at that. I'm so excited, I got the wood stove in the fur shed drying the rats to be skinned tomorrow night. Didn't set any traps today but plan to go out tomorrow and check/set a whole bunch more since we're already going to get some ice this weekend and maybe some snow next week.

Rats and mink! Way to start things off!
Good job man!
Jim

What a great start to your season. And a Mink to boot, congrats.

Keep posting, we like to see updates. Make sure to post some put up fur also.

Nice catch. You are a fast learner.

Looks like your hard work is paying off on spades! WTG!

I love trapping rats more than anything, learning how to trap mink this year though. Thanks!

Will post put up fur when I get to putting up, got the rats from today drying in the shed now to be skinned tomorrow night after I go set more traps. Need to make a drying rack, was thinking of a 2x4 frame with chicken wire stapled on top, so the air can go below because right now I have them sitting on cardboard on the floor.

It seems to be that way, first time trying blind sets and it worked!

Yes, it is, going to set more traps tomorrow since I saw a lot more feed beds open up today on the same slough. Also on a slough just up the road to the north, I saw some rats while checking a blind set 110 I had set up.

Good job! Your doing great!!

Nice job!

Bang up start young man.
Good job.

I made my wife a frame just like that for drying wool fiber on after washing. It has also served double duty as a drying rack for rats, mink and otter.

LIKE!

What a start! Way to go!

Good deal!!! Keep em coming!!

Another day, another check! Went out and checked and set some more traps. Got another dozen or so out but would like to get more out since I'm still only trapping 3/4 of the slough. Changed out two of my conibears for colony traps since I decided they were active enough for it. Might pull the bottom edge set since it hasn't caught anything yet. Set a 110 on a spring clip in front of a random hole in the middle of the slough. It's most likely a rat den but no clue.


This little bugger was waiting for me at my first foothold of the day. Looked like a rat and I was pumped since that set didn't produce during yesterday's check. Pulled the chain and cleaned off vegetation and a nice mink was waiting for me! I absolutely love being able to finally catch mink after 3 years of targeting but no catches.



Here's the catch from today, 8 rats and 1 mink. One of the rats tried to wring out of the 1.5 coilspring but ended up staying so his leg is all sorts of messed up and then he has a few holes by his front left leg luckily he was a smaller one that can be used as bait and I don't feel as bad. I would have liked to skin him out but something got to him first.



Really itching to get beaver traps set but still have at least 3 weeks. I'll be content trapping rats and mink until ice up though which may come early this year.

I have good beaver and coyote trapping where I'm at and would gladly trade that away for rats and mink. I've only caught a handful of muskrats and mink. I would love to have a good rat and mink slough or two.

Great work which has paid off in success. Congratulations!
Be cautious about warm temperatures drying the animals, green bellies can develop quickly.

The season is off to a good start, keep them coming. I've been looking at your updates, helping to take the edge off a bit while I wait to set traps here.

What type of set did you catch the mink in?

Wish we had mink round here
I mean, we have some but not enough

Are you doing all footholds?

The first mink was in a colony trap and then this mink was in a 1.5 coilspring set on a rat toilet. I'm very surprised with my recent success with them as I have never caught one before these two.

Have 6 or so colony traps out, 6-8 110 conibears out in runs/ dryland, and then probably about 35 footholds. I haven't really counted traps but will today so I know how many I should be picking up when I pull.

Great catching there. The mink are nice to catch along with those muskrats. Keep setting. I will be riding along with you. Again good job. Just an FYI 1980,81, and 82. All my classmates took off of high school for deer hunting. I took a week for trapping. I know that look you got from the principal.

Good job young man!!! I’ll be following along.

Well, not the best catch in the world today, Only 5 of them but 4 of them are pretty big rats and 1 is a little puny guy. A friend was supposed to come ride along with me and I gave him quite a few warnings that I was going to go check but he never came. Sometimes I wonder how my generation can live with themselves when they stand someone up like that. Does any other generation want to adopt me? Going to try putting those rats up tonight if they dry quickly enough. Might be trapping through huts soon enough, 1/4 inch of ice on the slough but the boat did wonders breaking through it. Had 41 sets out and only 5 rats which is an 8.2% catch rate but I'm having fun doing it so it doesn't matter for me as long as I catch a few. Ended up putting those other 20 rats into the freezer on carcass since I couldn't get my heater to start this morning to skin them. Y'all have a good night now!

Man! You are on a heckuva roll, Bud. Stick with it and keep us updated. By any chance, do you take the time to keep a journal of your trapping? I started keeping journals of hunting/trapping/fishing when I was 11 years old. Now that I'm an old-timer, it's really fun to pull out those journals from 50 years ago. I really encourage you to do so.

Jack

Great job ! Those rats could be hung up to dry. Also if you always lay them on their backs they'll not spoil as quickly as laying them on belly.

That's good advice from eedup...hang by the tail or back foot and put a fan on them. Great job! Keep at it...you are rolling now. We don't open up until the 10th.

I used to keep a trapping journal last year but ended up losing the time to write in it. I'm going to start another one tomorrow and keep with it.

I had all of them laid on a piece of meshlike chicken wire and it was working well, they would have been skinned this morning but I couldn't get the heater going to keep me warm.

Well, I'm really embarrassed to show this but these 4 rats are my first attempt at putting up rats. I skinned out all 5 from today but one of them was too bad to even put on the stretcher. I couldn't get the face to come off of the head. I feel really bad for these rats but I know there's a learning curve and hopefully, I get it sooner rather than later.

Keep the nose pinned at the top of the stretcher. Rats are measured from nose down so you are losing a lot by having them pulled so far down the stretcher. Otherwise, keep up the good work!

I’m pretty sure the nose eyes and ears are still on the carcass.Don’t be afraid to use your knife once you get to the ears and on down to nose.Pretend your a taxidermist intending to mount the rat even if it takes 20 minutes.Once you learn how to do it right you can work on your speed.

You can use several clothes pins to keep the nose(or what's left of face) at the top of the stretcher. Then hang it nose down. You'll get it ! !

Wire drying rack is fine, just always try lay them on their backs.

Look on YouTube for coon creek outdoors. He has some very good fur put up videos. Just take your time and go slow. Spped will come with experience.

You would be correct, the eyes and nose are still on the carcass, I got the ears on all of them. I was using my knife quite a bit when I got down to the face, I definitely need to watch some more videos and take more time.

Russ Carmen has a trick I have used on muskrats and mink. After your catch. Wrap them in newspaper. You would be surprised on the way home. How much water the newspaper will absorb from the fur. Good catch. Yes keep those eyes ears and nose on the hide. Helps keep the hide up. We all started some where. You will get the hang of it. Just keep trying and don’t give up

I would have tried again if I had caught any today but it was too windy to run the line, luckily we have every other day check here. We don't get any newspaper so can't try that trick but having that fan and heat on them worked great.

Well, today was a bad day for trapping. The day started off with me waking up and seeing it was too windy to get check rat traps, so I naturally look for things to do and got some beaver traps ready for Thanksgiving break that went quickly so I hung out for a bit in the house. Went back out to the garage and started tagging 3 coon boxes and 6 dogproofs for me to go set. I got it all done, the truck loaded, and headed out to the spot. Got all of the traps but 1 coon box out and I found a nice enough looking trail to put it by. I started setting it and was about to set the 220 when I see a guy coming through the ditch to where he thought he saw me enter. So I assumed he was looking for me and I stepped out of the tree line. He came up to me and asked what I was doing so naturally I said I was trapping. He asked for what and I said coons, opossums, and skunks. He asked what traps I was using and I told him conibears and dogproofs. He said that I need to pull all of the conibears since he has cats and dogs that run around there. So I said I will pull this one box and he proceeded to say that his cats and dogs run the whole tree belt not just this part. So I said I'll pull them all and I walked up to the truck with trap and box in hand and put them in the back end. He walked up to me as I was closing my topper door and said that he had called the landowner ( I had permission), and he said that the landowner said no to conibears. I went and pulled into the guy's driveway turned around and went and picked up my 6 dogproofs and 3 coon boxes and said goodbye to that perfect spot. I understand that I need to be careful while using these 220s and I assumed I was far enough away from any houses. I may have been in the wrong but I don't think I was, was I? Sorry for the long read but I really need opinions on this to make sure I didn't do anything wrong.

It’s a game of learning. Call the landowner or go to his place to confirm what the guy told you. Sometimes it is BS. Just saying. Don’t let it get you down. I have 4 counties I run. 4 different game wardens. Come trapping season I will get at least two calls. All BS but the wardens have to follow thru on a complaint. Running into the public is always a possibility. But sounds like you handled it very well. Chin up young man. Keep plugging away.

You might not have been wrong, I am not familiar with SD regs. But I think the guy will be a problem down the road. I assume he felt it was ok to be on the property you had permission to trap, and felt comfortable enough to call the owner to complain about the 220s. He would be watching every move you made. I think you were right to pull those traps; I would have done the same thing. Sometimes its not worth trapping a spot even if you are in the right. Maybe others here will give you a different answer, but I would have handled it just like you did.

Doing good, say at it.

Keep at it, you will get better. Mad S, has good advice!

First time in 3 years that I have had a run in like this. I'm just going to stay away from that area from now on and just leave it at that.

I handled it the best I could even though I was mad. If I had left the dogproofs, the next thing I would have to deal with is probably the sheriff because the guy heard shooting. I even hung out at the truck for about 5 minutes before I went into the tree line and he could have approached me then.

It's better to give up an area than deal with drama. Drama in trapping=much less enjoyable. Take the time you would have spent running that spot an invest it elsewhere.

Yep, going to maybe set another rat spot and check one spot one day and the other spot the next day.

Another day, another check! 1" of ice on the slough this afternoon means it's time to pull. I pulled and will organize all of my gear and get ready for snow on Thursday and Friday. Probably going to set some weasel boxes, mink boxes/sets, and a couple of coon sets this weekend. Had 4 rats and 1 coon this check but no coon sets out. I caught the coon in a feed bed set for rats. Set with a Duke 1.5 Coil, 6' fiberglass pole and it didn't escape. Had to run a 1/2 mile - 3/4 mile in waders back up to the truck to grab the gun to dispatch it. Got it dispatched, pulled the last few traps, and loaded the truck to come home. Ate some dinner and sat in the garage getting the gear out of the boat and unthawed. Still need to pressure wash them to get some of the reeds and sludge off, that slough water dyed those traps a nice dark black. Have a good night y'all!







This is the boat with quite a bit of the gear removed and catches out but still very messy.




Also here's a side note, an air compressor with a spray nozzle does a very good job of making rats dry enough to freeze without them sticking to everything and it makes them fluffy.

Oh I bet that coon is a dirty little bugger You held him. Nice catch there

He's not very dirty surprisingly, just a little wet. Very surprised I held him though. Not a bad catch but this weather really messed up my trapping.

Lost a 110 conibear while I was pulling traps yesterday and I looked and looked for it and couldn't find it anywhere. So I drove to the North of the slough I was trapping and I counted 5 rats on one hut and then over 5 on the other side of the road. They know when the traps are out. I'll be back for them though.

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/Y8DNvWCXCtk?feature=share[/video]

Nice work bud!
Jim

Now you know why it's called trapping and not catching. Your learning fast about the ups and downs of this sport/hobby.

Yes, I am, especially muskrats. With this weather moving in I'm going to start prepping for spring rat now. I'm going to outfit all of my 1.5 coils with Wild River Mink Pans since they seem to make that catch rate go way way up.

Here are the rats from the other night, all dried and stretched. Had one really big rat and it's a shame that I wrecked it. Hopefully, I'll be able to trap a few with baited conibears through the ice and get more practice before spring.

Gotta start somewhere. Practice makes perfect.

One trick to try next time is to use the cloths pins hold the lips of the rats around the stretcher. They look good otherwise, nice job fleshing.

You are getting started. That is what counts. Liked the video. When it starts freezing and a front moving in. The muskrats know it is going to be a long winter under the ice. Keep plugging away

There are no lips sadly otherwise I would have. Thank you, I got all the fat near the saddle while leaving the saddle. That wiebe scraper is amazing!

Just set out 2 mink boxes, a 110 blind set in a run under a half-submerged log, and 2 baited conibears. Got out of school early today because it was supposed to be icy roads but it wasn't. Found a beaver lodge within 20 yards of the 2 mink boxes and blind set 110 so will set that on Saturday when I go check.

Has anyone ever looked at Mink and Muskrat Trapping by Stanley S.Hawbaker? This set was in it and I was wondering if anyone here had given it a try. Seems like an odd ball set.

Here's a video I took of 2 muskrats watch me prep baited conibears, hopefully, they're caught on Saturday. They look big! (Sorry for the music, had to upload from TikTok)


[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZwpRT2dZ9Fc[/video]

Nice video. Not saying one way or the other on the ice box set. But if the ice gets that thick. With little to no snow. I personally would be looking for feeder and grooming huts. A lot easier. More productive. Not sure if you have done any hut trapping when everything is froze?? Hope you score on some fur tomorrow. I am enjoying your thread

Be careful on the ice.

I'm still going to bust huts but just thought it would be a cool little set to try out. I've never done any hut trapping but it seems pretty straight forward. Went out to set some more tonight and put in a pocket/dirthole set. Hopefully tomorrow I have some though. Ice is able to be stood on now so it won't be long till I'm able to trap huts.

Going to the fur buyer's place in the morning. Will take a picture when I'm loading up. No catches today and no catches yesterday, got 2 mink boxes out, 2 baited conibears, and 1 pocket set. The ice should be ready by next weekend. Hoping to get these 3 rats thawed by tomorrow afternoon so he can teach me how to skin them correctly. I just wish I could have 1 rat just this one check just in case these 3 don't thaw out.

Well, went to the fur buyers. Got 35$, and have 2 mink and a coon that are getting tanned. 35$ for 28 rats, 7 of them put up, 3 of which were done there. Averaged 2$ put up and got 1$ a piece on the carcass. Figured out how to skin out the head, will need some more practice before I'm really good at it. Checked traps today and got nothing, set up a weasel box with weasel lure and muskrat meat where I saw that weasel the other day. Also, set a 1.5 longspring in a hut so I can actually start catching fur again. Coyotes were just some that my dad shot while thermal hunting but got nothing for them so they're going to the dead pit.

Good job, get some more rats so you can practice on the skinning.

Trying to, ice is a little on the thin side yet but by this weekend it should be ready.

Carry a bunch of newspapers in your truck. Wrap each rat or mink up in about 3-4 pages. You will be surprised how quickly it pulls the water out of the fur. Won’t be completely dry but will speed up the process immensely. Newspapers are also THE BEST method for drying your boots- loosely crumple 6-8 pages and stuff them in each boot. If you had a mishap and filled them with water, you may have to change the newspapers out 2-3 times. Will wick out all the moisture and will have a nice dry comfy pair of boots ready to go for your next check!

Skinning technique- once you open up the back legs and get pelt loose from the tail, sit the rat on his rump, grab the pelt on the top side of the tail, put your right hand on the rats face and push in with right hand while pulling pelt towards you peeling it off the back with your left. Your right hand will end up inside the pelt. Pelt should pull off the back up to the shoulders pretty easy. Pelt will still be attached on the belly. DONT start pulling from the back! Starting on the side along the ribs, pinch and pull the pelt loose from the rib cage. Work the front legs through- I usually just pull them without need of a knife. Next gently pull pelt loose from the belly from front to back. Then pull pelt over the head till the ears appear, cut the cartilage at the base close to the skull, continue pulling till eyes appear, cut the eyes and nose loose and then work pelt off his mouth.

Couple of tricks to make it easier- mount a vice grip to your bench and clamp the rats tail in it and pull each leg tight as you make opening cut from heel to base of tail on 1st leg then again on the other. Same clamp works well to allow you to keep tension on the pelt as you’re working on the ears and eyes- keep tension on the pelt by pulling it away from the rat with left hand as you are cutting the ears/eyes/nose with your right. Keeping it pulled tight is key to getting nice ear and eye cuts!

Hope you found something useful in my post!
Once you get the hang of it you’ll be peeling them in a minute or two.

Good luck!

Glad you got some fur sold. Yes time to start pulling more in. Good Luck. Keep up the hard work

Sounds like you have plenty of territory and rat populations. You are fortunate to have decent rat numbers. Now get a system worked out to suit your goals. The newspaper trick works very well. As soon as rat is removed from trap, slick it down nose to tail with your gloved hand to expel mud from the rat in and out of the water. Too bad you don't have newspaper as it works so well wrapping each rat to help dry rat which checking rest of traps then driving home. Then hang each one from a wire high enough so the dog can't get them. I do run a fan on them a few hours say overnight and they will be nice and fluffy the next day after you run a gloved hand over them.

Well brought a friend on the line today and was hoping for once to have something but it disappointed me again. The ice is already too dirty to see any bubble runs. Pulled 1 weasel box, 2 mink boxes, and a dry pocket set to the way north today since none of it was producing. The hut had a tripped off trap but no sign of anything else, the plunge hole was still open. Set a 110 in a run but the water was too dirty so couldn't see if it was close to the bottom or not, ice was 2-3" thick on the rest of the slough but in that run, it was maybe .5" to 1" thick at most. Set a weasel box and a mink box right by a culvert where I saw some sign. Mink pans for the 1.5 coils come today and put 3 of them on my bridgers before I fell asleep on the couch.

Keep at it, everyone experiences lulls.

That's the plan, I have to teach someone how to trap now. Going to pull all my traps tomorrow since it's going to warm up a bit this weekend and the ice was already a little sketchy yesterday. Found a spot for coons about 10 or so miles away. Off the main road so I'm able to use 220s. Going to set my few 220s in boxes/trails, some dogproofs, and maybe a couple of dirtholes till the ice gets better. Hopefully, I start catching some stuff so I can show this friend some catches and not just empty traps. He's riding along tomorrow as well.

Was a sad day pulling the remaining bits of the rat line. Got the bigger one in that conibear I set yesterday in the run and the smaller guy in the hut. No ride along today, he had to go do something at home. Bad weather, snow blowing in every direction, got into the slough that was lower in elevation and it was way less visibility. Going North it opened up a lot but the ride back South was a take it slow type of ride. I'm going to go set out some coyote and coon gear tomorrow since it's supposed to warm up for the next week or so. Already got those two rats skinned out, got a little bit more of the face this time, better than last time but still not the best. Took advice from my fur buyer and bought hook blades for box cutters and it's way better for the opening cuts, and way easier also.

Keep going and keep learning bud your doing awesome!

I admire your work ethic! That's what makes a good Trapper. Its not a secret lure or bait its about getting sets out in good locations and keeping them working. It is a great sense of accomplishment when it all comes together! Enjoy Each Day!

Thank you! It's a very big accomplishment when everything comes together after a week of not catching anything.

Thank you, going out on a guy's line with him. I met him when I went to buy some colony traps and it has just stuck.

Well, today was a doozie, I did my usual go after school Friday to set traps, and little did I know that my trapping spot drifted in severely. I got the truck loaded and headed out, luckily I had put a shovel and a couple of scrap pieces of 2x4 in the bed when I went to go pull traps because I thought it would be way worse than it was. I had started to travel to the spot and I was about a mile south of it when I saw the first small drift, nothing big about 1 foot. I continued down the road following a set of tire tracks from the guy before and went another .5 mile to .75 mile up the road where it was starting to get to 1.5 feet to 2 feet of drifts. I was taking it slow but not slow so I would get stuck and I round the bend in this road since it goes around a lake and it goes to 2.5 feet, then 3 feet, then the guy tracks run out. Where the guy stopped it was at least 3.5 to 4 feet of drift snow. I start backing out in 4 wheel drive and realize that I'm sliding so I try correcting it but just get stuck. I hopped out to figure out what was going on and I slid into the ditch grass where there was no snow to compact and keep me up and then the snow had packed under the running boards and behind all 4 wheels. I went to the bed and got the shovel, started digging, and when I was done. I threw the shovel in the bed and began to back out and I was good to go, I had to go forward a few times but other than that I was home free. It was not the most fun, I luckily didn't lose any trim or pieces of plastic. I had gotten stuck at around 4:05 and was out by 4:30 so not having much time to set when it gets dark around 5:30 so I decided to call it a day and go home.

All part of life's little moments. I'm glad you handled it and didn't damage your truck

Keep plugging away Youth Trapper. Sometimes that is all we can do. Enjoying your thread. Keep trapping

I'm glad too but it just made me realize that I should have probably walked the road before driving it, usually it doesn't drift in this early though.

Going to hopefully get out tomorrow and put in a few yote sets, maybe a few coon sets.

Well, today I didn't wake up until 3 pm for some unknown reason and slept through 5 different alarms. Still got out and put in 1 dirt hole with a duke 550 and 2 dogproofs. Hopefully, I have something come Tuesday.

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/bxB720LJzi4[/video]

I got another dogproof and 1 step down dirt hole set today, baited with mountain man bait with a chunk of wool blocking it, and 40 below by Tom Krause as a call lure. Fox urine sprayed about 2 feet away on a shrub.


[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/V5FTjb1mmj8?feature=share[/video]

That's good stuff Youth Trapper! Keep plugging away experimenting with stuff...its like taking trapping instructions but Ma' Nature is your teacher!

Sweet location youth trapper.

Keep on going. Keep setting. Enjoying your thread

Yes, it is, also has a slough with a small colony of beavers on it and a small pond with 4 or 5 rat huts. Got permission on it a couple of weeks ago when the guy was throwing a ball for his dog and a coyote ran out of the tree line to grab the ball. Got the text the next day that we had permission so we went out and met the guy. Dad has thermal hunted it a few times and now I'm throwing some steel in the ground.

Keep us posted on your catching. Hope your out at it young man

I wish I could say I have had a lot of luck but sadly I haven't. Been feeling crappy since Monday and my sinuses have been acting up this whole weekend. Pulled everything off of that one property and haven't got anything else out yet. No clue where to go next.

Well. It happens. You will figure it out. Sometimes it is best to take a break. Rest. Then go back at it

Rest up and go at it when you feel better(which I hope is soon) Plenty of season left.

Well felt a whole lot better today but did a bunch of nothing. Threw my rabbit fur and muskrat meat back into the freezer out of the sled and sloshed it out with water in case the fish start biting hard. Found a nice Ion auger on Sunday and picked it up for 150$ with the auger head, charger, battery, and extension. Pretty much brand new and will give me something to do when I get some time over winter break. Also going to use it for some beaver trapping/muskrat. Might venture out tomorrow and check the ice on the sloughs and see if it's safe again yet. Looks like freezing temps for most of the next 10 days. Teachers are still assigning a whole bunch of homework and I've lost quite a bit of motivation on doing it. Going to still do it because I won't let myself not do it, still have straight a's luckily. Hope you guys have a good night and I'll keep you guys posted on when I'm getting traps out. I'll leave you guys with a quote.

"I'm a trapper, that's all."
-Marty Meierotto

Well, ice is 4-6" thick and is good to be walked on. I even got to use my new to me, Ion, today for some checking. Going to get the sled loaded and ready to go for tomorrow. I plan to bring a dozen longsprings, half dozen 110s, 1.5 dozen fiberglass poles, and a few weasel boxes.

Stay focused on your school studies for sure. Trapping comes second. Good luck tomorrow. Hope you find a bunch of sign to set.

Well, I got 11 sets total out today. 5 1.5 longsprings in huts and 6 110 conibears in runs baited with carrots for extra appeal and because I need to use them up. My new Sitka jacket I got kept me nice and warm and the wind wasn't an issue today. Might be addicted now. Got some water in my glove and then it froze within 20 or so minutes so I started calling it quits and heading back while putting more sets in.

Way to go. Sounds like a great day out on the slough. The baited 110s in the runs sounds great. I never tried a 1 1/2 LS in a house. But I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I use 1 1/2 coil springs with about 2.5 ft of chain. Then a small fox drag to anchor on the outside of the house. Around some cattails. The chain length allows the muskrat to go down the entrance hole when caught. Drowns. I have learned to do that. When I trapped up in northern MN. Timber Wolves like to hunt lake edges. If you had a live muskrat. The wolves would tear the house apart getting the muskrat. Muskrat and trap would be gone. But you don’t have Timber Wolves. So you should be good to go. I bet that long spring would act as a killer trap. Good luck. Keep us posted on the results. Remember never give up Youth Trapper.

I would have used guarded/stoploss traps as they're more common practice around here but I don't have any. And I considered using a 1.5 coil but all of them are still getting the new mink pans put on, but the Bridgers are being a real pain otherwise they would all be done. I'll take some pictures of my setup on Friday when I go check. I have about 2-3 feet of chain on most of my traps but I need to get more chain this summer and do about half of my muskrat traps and then they'll all be about the same.

Sounds like you have a plan. Can’t wait to see the pictures

Well, the itch got the better of me and I had to go check traps today. Luckily I had 5 rats though. I caught 3 of them in conibears and 2 of them in huts. I also had a muskrat wring out or something, the leg meat and foot were there but the rest of the rat was gone. Probably going to go check them again tomorrow if the wind stays down.

Im enjoying your posts!! Im 50 years old. Trapped coyotes for last 35 years. And im setting here at sheep camp. Waiting on fog to clear. And still can’t wait to get at it!! I am 99 % certain their want be a coyote here. The otherday rode = 64000 acres and saw 2 coyote tracks. BUT I still find myself looking out the window waiting for the fog to clear. So i can go check traps and snares. Lots of people talk about = us old timers getting burned out ? Its never happened here. I will NEVER be rich. But I almost always enjoy trapping everyday. Sure. Like any job. Their are always days on coyote jobs. I want to quit. But when you do something you love. You never really work a single day. SO from 1 aging coyote trapper to 1 new trapper. Keep up good work. And have fun !!!

Success Youth Trapper. Way to go. Your on ‘em. Hammer time!! Thank you for the posting. As far as that muskrat that was gone. Mink do hunt under the ice. I wouldn’t be surprised the mink got that one from you. If it was pulled down thru the hole. Good job on the muskrats. Hope you get a few more

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised much, that was my number one guess.

Well, I brought my dad out with me today. The first time he has been on the line with me this year. Taught him how to find runs and set in them—taught him how to trap huts. Got 7 rats, today. 1 of them was small so I threw him in the freezer because I'm going to get the same price for it put up or on the carcass. Also, threw 2 others in the freezer with broken legs. So I have 9 rats to skin tonight. Was really crappy out today but that new Sitka jacket I got is amazing for wind and cold protection. I think I'm sold on this Sitka stuff, have a hoodie coming sometime within the next few days and then I'll really be warm.

Yeah, I may never be rich either but at least I'm happy. There have been a few days I just want to quit that day I got iced in badly and was out until almost 8 pm at night pulling traps. Luckily that was only a temporary feeling. I wish I could get on the coyotes like you though.

7 more rats. Your a high roller now. Good deal. Your hard work is paying off. Good day for you and your dad out there. I bet your dad is proud. Keep it up. Looking forward to see tomorrows catch

Put up some rats and hung out in the fur shed tonight. Finally got the noses to stay on the faces! I only had one slip of the blade where I missed the right cheek of the rat but that was the worst of it. I had another trapper sharpen my knives while he was teaching me about coyote trapping and they're very nice now. Just need to get it figured out on my sharpener.

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/EnElGfFIwBk?feature=share[/video]

Your put up is looking good. Liked the video. Good job.

Well, today was a day. Woke up at 9:30 am after not falling asleep until 3 am. Helped dad put some new flooring in our guest bedroom. Went out to the fur shed and got some more wood on the fire, took the dry rats off the wall, and moved the wetter ones where they would dry better. Started burning some of the old bamboo wood in the fire pit, which happened all day. Split some more wood for my wood stove, and put that in the cabin. It was about 16-20" wide by 2' tall so a decent amount. Then went and ran the line. Reset the conibears that wouldn't stay set yesterday and while I was working on getting the first trap of the day set, I hear a bloop, imagine surface tension is broken and then something going back under. So I quickly look and there was nothing so I assumed it must have been a chunk of ice, and as I'm getting the conibear set to put into the hole in the ice, I see the face of this muskrat right up by the farthest edge of ice watching me. It was a cool experience, I was a little scared to put my fingers back in the water to put the conibear in but I did check the conibear on the way through and he was not in it. So I continue down the line and come up to my second hut set and go about breaking it back open to get to my trap, and I realized the hut was really fluffy inside I thought it was weird but wasn't too concerned. I got the hole opened up enough and pulled the chain and here comes out this muskrat screeching and clawing. I drop the trap and run back to the sled, I luckily keep an axe handle in there because of hearing about this and gave him a couple of whacks on the head, he was out in seconds. I caught 8 rats today out of 14 sets since 3 out of the 17 weren't working. I also set one more hut today. Then I got home and had 2 small rats that would have had no difference in price if I skinned them or kept them on carcass so I froze them. I luckily had 6 more to dry. I hung those by the tail to dry and set out on skinning the 2 rats that were fully dry while the others from yesterday got finished out and the 1 rat from today that had to get bopped with the axe handle. I was doing really good and got those 3 skinned with a breeze and the other rats from yesterday had finally dried out. I felt the knife was a little dull so touched it up on my work sharp belt sharpener and felt I had done a good job. So I pulled out the biggest of the few since I was all warmed up and ready to go. I was doing fantastic on the opening cuts and everything and got it down the front legs where I had a bit of an issue but got it figured out. I got to the ears and got them cut then got to the eyes and it struggled cutting but I got it and moved onto the face and it was going good but then it wouldn't cut at all so I ended up leaving the lower jaw fur and the front of the cheeks. It hurt a lot because that was the biggest rat of the season. It still turned out good enough to be sold but doesn't look very good. But the good news is that the 4 rats that I skinned out yesterday were ready to be taken off the stretchers and they all look to be 2$ rats so that's nice. Anyways, sorry for the long read but I will post pictures now.


This is a #1 Sleepy creek stretcher by the way and it almost filled it out, almost had to grab my Victor 1.5 stretchers. This is the big rat.

Here are the videos from today.

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GND36ELPsDg[/video]

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dSKj8w8_vq4[/video]

Good job. Your catching those muskrats. Your put up is much better for sure. You’ll get the hang of the heads. It takes time. Just keep plugging away. Your muskrat count is piling up for sure.

Well, today was a big day. Didn't wake up until noon, tried getting up at 9 but fell back asleep. Got up finally and sent a text to the guy who was going to help fix my knife. He said he would be around in an hour or so. I went to the fur shed and made sure it was still running and made sure the fan was blowing. Went to the garage and started putting together my conibears with spring clips on them. Took the chains off and made sure they were all set. By the time I was done with that dozen I went back to the fur shed and stoked the stove, grabbed my knife, and started heading to the guy's house. Got there and dropped the knife off, came back home, and loaded the sled up to go check traps. Checked the traps and put 2 more conibears in. Got 9 rats today, would have had 10 but I'm pretty sure I ripped one's leg off while trying to get it out of the hut, couldn't find it and I tried everything to get it out. Started heading home and texted the guy who was fixing my knife to see if it was done and he didn't respond so I drove around for a bit hoping he would text me while I was still up in that area. Headed home and as I'm about 100 feet from the driveway I hear my phone go, bing, so I pulled into the driveway. I checked the stove and threw some more wood in and got back in the truck. I drove back to the guy's house, picked up the knife, and headed back to the house. Got home and got all 5 of my rats skinned with no problem. Won't check the line tomorrow but will put up these 7 rats. Up to 61 for the season, one fifth of the way to my goal.

Here's the video for today.

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xU7EAQhMhZc[/video]

Good job Your catching. I saw your temperature on you thermostat. Drying muskrats and mink you want it really no warmer then 60 degrees. The animals don’t have a lot of grease. If you dry to warm to fast. The leather can crack and tear easy. Try it you will see the difference. Raccoon on the other hand 80 is a great temperature. Doing a great job though. Keep up the good work. Enjoying your videos as well

Yeah, the wood stove is kind of go hot or go slow, haven't found an in-between yet where I can keep it cooler. It's usually only 80 for about 10-15 minutes after stoking the stove then it's about 65-75. It's still plenty hot but like I said the stove is a little overkill for that small of a building.

if youre busting huts for rats, you need shoulder length gloves. open the hut, make sure the rats not sitting in there waiting for you. pull the chain tight with your left hand, and follow it down the hole with your right, til you feel the rat. pull him out by the head, not the trap. front leg bones are like tooth picks and will snap off easily. always pull up the rat, never the trap. rats are great at tangling the trap/chain around anything thats under the hut.

Yeah, I've figured that out.

Pretty chill day today. I got home from school, did a few chores in the house, and then went out to the fur shed. I emptied the ash out of the wood stove and dumped that in our fire pit. I built up a new fire and got that rolling. Then I took the rug and my piece of cardboard out of there so I could sweep. I swept the floor really clean so I got all of the mud and pieces of shrapnel from the wood. Put in a new sheet of cardboard and the rug after shaking it off. Then stoked the fire some more and split a whole bunch more firewood. Started skinning and it went quickly on 7 rats. Got 4 of them fleshed then I got called in for dinner so I went in and ate. Got back out and fleshed the next 3 and started boarding them. I took the others from yesterday night off the stretchers and put them in the postal box since I don't have a fur hanger. So I came inside after that and ended up falling asleep after making cookies. Posting a video in a little bit after I do my homework.

Here's the video.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ag5BT0a0ESY

Nice. Sent PM

Fossil2. Good advice Tim. Punching out a couple hundred houses a day. A guy learns real quick. I also wore chest waders. The trick is to stay clean and dry as well. Amazing how wet and dirty a guy can get ice trapping rat houses. But fun. YouthTrapper. I really am enjoying your muskrat trapping thread.

Yeah, I do get a little dirty but even with my normal length gloves it's still clean and that Stika jacket I have stays really warm and dry.

I checked my traps today and got 7 rats, could have had 9 but they wrung out somehow. I got home and put them in the shed, and cranked the wood stove up. Took the other rats off the stretchers and did some rough grading. I figured in the 20 rats I have put up, I have about a 2$ average. Put up a couple of the rats from today's check and they looked small hanging but they look to be medium on the stretchers so maybe my mind is playing tricks on me or something. I may as well put up the other 5 rats tomorrow and get it done with then check the line Thursday. It's really hard for me to determine which one to freeze and which ones to skin but I'll get better. It has been a good couple of days on the line though. Going to try and make a video of me skinning this weekend but I need to get a gopro or phone mount figured out first.


Here's the video from today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dcdCOtGKc

youre getting way too many wring outs. when you open the hut, clean out any loose material first, then widen out the plunge hole to as big as possible. reach down the hole and push any debris away from the underside of the hut. when the trap fires, the rat should dive immediately without anything hindering its trip down the hole. a rat can often times climb back into the hut with a #1 sized trap, but a 1 1/2 coil usually holds them down, after they dive. some huts will have a plunge hole thats actually too small for the trap to fit through. either widen the hole or skip that hut.

stinky pete,,,hey wayne,,,hope you and the family are all doing well. i miss busting huts too,,,its been a while. we always wore waders too, neoprene. dont know how many times we fell through the early ice. brent and i were cracking huts years back, on a lake with around 800-1000 huts of all sizes. no competition. we had a blast, and were catching so fast that we couldnt afford to take a day off. one day a blizzard hit, and occasionally we had to hunker down behind a big hut and warm up. bad winter and very deep snow, and the deer were starving. when we'd crack a feeder hut, the deer would come and paw out the wet vegetation we plugged the hole with. a farm a mile away had about 200 bedded in their yard all winter til the snow melted off. on another lake the carp were winter killing, and they would swim up in a hut and suck air. we pulled dozens of them out of the huts. another spot we found a carp floating but still alive. an otter had eaten the tail end up to the stomach, and the poor thing was just floating around and couldnt swim w/o a tail. ive seen alot of strange things trapping winter rats. hope our rats come back someday. this drought has really hurt them bad.

Tim, good story! Around here the 'rats take a beating in the marshes, ponds and lakes from hawks and now eagles. We are seeing more eagles showing up.
The creeks still have rats but limited numbers. Everything wants to eat muskrat...snapping turtles, mink, otter and raptors. I'm surprised we still have 'rats...lol

Muskrats are very good food for humans too. Just get a fresh rat and fry like a rabbit. Serve with gravy.

YouthTrapper. Your stretched muskrat put up is looking much better. Good job. The way it sounds. You are about the only guy in the country with water and muskrats. I am jealous

mchewk,,same thing here. too many eagles and other raptors, and otters. ive seen otters clean out a slough in a matter of days. almost no rats in our creeks anymore either. we'll need 2 good wet years to bring back any numbers of rats at this point.

Well luckily I do otherwise I wouldn't be catching anything. Rats are my favorite thing to trap no matter the day. I have also really enjoyed putting the fur up, I just wish I had a bigger space to do it in since that little shed gets a little crammed.

I figured I was getting too many. I clean out most of everything I can reach and always clear the plunge hole. I'm using 1.5 longs right now since my 1.5 coils are still getting the new pans on them. I've been a little lazy about getting them fixed. I would use my #1 coils but I stole the chain off of them to put on my 1.5s since they were really short. This summer though I'm going to get all my traps fixed and chained appropriately.

Well, I came home from school yesterday right after 7th period and slept for a solid 6 hours. Stayed home today all day and slept until around 12:30. Had to check traps today so I went out and checked around 2. Got 2 rats today, made my conibear holes bigger, and fixed up some of the huts a little better. Put up both rats and made a video about it but I can't get them to merge so I'll try again tomorrow to get them fixed otherwise I'll just have to upload 4 different parts. Had another two wring outs. One was caught by the toe and the other by the whole foot. So yeah, stay tuned for a muskrat put up video tomorrow or so, I'll make sure I put a post in here about it.

today was a 50% loss in wring outs. sounds like your 1 1/2 longsprings arent fitting down the plunge holes, and theyre holding the rat inside the huts. those traps are over powered for a rats front foot. the weight is nice for drowning in open water, but a poor choice for inside a hut. youll be setting new huts soon, so just use a few of your 1 1/2 coils for now.

Yeah, I need to fit those pans tomorrow night. I'm going to scout farther to the south of this slough but it's still connected to see if I can find any more settable huts otherwise I'll switch to one of my other spots.

Here's the put up video, hadn't skinned a rat in a little bit so cut me a little slack. Also I just realized the knife scraping the skull so that's my bad, didn't realize I was doing it till I watched.

Only 1 rat today and I didn't feel like getting the wood stove running for only 1 rat so I froze him. Going to pull traps tomorrow until Friday since we have snow moving it quickly. Going to work on some projects for the time being. Need to put up some more firewood since I still have a couple of months of needing it and I'm getting quite low.

Once you get your opening cut done place the rat on the table and you can hold the belly while pulling the pelt off and you won’t rip the belly open as often.

I read your whole thread young man and your doing a fine job, I like trapping muskrats almost as much as I like trapping beaver. Keep up the good work, I like your positive attitude, and your work ethic, this country would be better off if we had more young people like you.

I need to clean my table first, it's full of slough grass and mud from brushing the rats. Will try it when I have some more rats.

I love trapping them too, sucks that there isn't a little bit more money in them. I wish we had more people like me but I'll take what I can get at this point.

Well forgot to post yesterday. Caught 2 rats and pulled all my traps, and started skinning them. Skinned out the smaller one first and did fine, got to the bigger one, and got to the head. I messed it up badly and didn't finish the cut on the one eye so it got all messed up and I had to scrap it. It was just one of those nights yesterday. The bigger one was alive when I go to the hut too and he was feisty and tried taking off with the trap and fiberglass stake. I don't think he realized that there was a 6' drag behind him while I dug out my axe handle. Then today I went to a family friend's house who fixed my knife and cut some firewood. We have a local arborist who drops all the wood off at this guy's house since he has a wood boiler but it's hundreds and hundreds of cords of wood so he lets me snag a couple of dozen logs every now and then. Got most of it split tonight but will have to split the rest tomorrow and cover it with a tarp since we're already looking at getting some snow tomorrow. This load of wood should last me a couple of months hopefully.

Well put up and stacked/piled the rest of the firewood today. It should last me a couple of months and now I already have people messaging me for snow removal jobs so I'll be busy even without traps out.

https://youtube.com/shorts/nRuegt2NWAk?feature=share

No school today and no school tomorrow. Will still be holed up for a while though. Still looking crappy out, just been working on mink pans on the 1.5 coils these last few days. Only have about a dozen left and then I have to fine tune everything. Once I'm done with that, I'm going to see what I need for parts for my broken traps and then start seeing what I need to sell to make my trapline a little more organized.

All this snow is making me go a little bit crazy. I feel like I have eaten more food in the last week than I have in the last month. I shoveled the sidewalk about 50% tonight while the dog decided to take her sweet time running around. I wore my Sitka Traverse hoody and Duck Oven jacket and I was sweating by the end with the wind whipping and snow everywhere. Hopefully going to get traps out Saturday if the roads aren't terrible still. Got all of my 1.5 coilsprings with the new pans checked over to make sure they still set and everything. Now it's time to put tags on them and put hagz brackets on the ends. Been thinking of ways to streamline my traps and I have found out the best way so cataloging traps that I want to sell/keep. Been a busy few days, haven't even started fixing my traps in the broken bucket yet.

12-17-22: Well got tags and brackets put on all the 1.5 coils yesterday. Those finally went back out to the garage after months of being in the house. Been cataloging and collecting traps that I want to sell/trade. Went through my bucket of broken traps and only had 2 that were actually broken. One of which I'm selling anyways, so I'm just going to sell it as a parts trap. The other is a 1.5 longspring I broke while unloading the truck after pulling traps. I threw it on the ground to get rid of the ice on it and it bent the jaw enough that it popped off entirely. Probably going to end up being a parts trap too.

12-18-22: Went out today scouting around 10 am. Found a good spot where I have permission but it was right off a highway so couldn't find anywhere to park where I wouldn't get stuck. So I abandoned that spot against my better judgment. Headed back to the house, went up north to where I have been trapping and decided to check out the road that has the slough I have been trapping for the last couple of weeks. Well ended up busting through two drifts and decided that was enough so I was going to turn around at the next wind tower road (the guy had wind towers in the middle of his field). So I was braking to turn and of course, I'm at the top of a hill when I start braking it was pretty slick out and I ended up sliding down the top of the hill about 20 feet into a big drift that buried the truck up to the frame. Started shoveling for about 20 minutes and tried everything. I was just getting ready to call my dad to come to pull me out and the landowner pops up over the hill and luckily stopped in time. I had a chain with me so we got me all pulled out and that wrecked the day for me. Went and drove around and couldn't find any tracks really. Went out and scouted with my dad after I got home and we couldn't find any either. Found one slough with a good couple of huts and some random tracks so I'm going to go set that tomorrow. Plan to set out a dozen weasel boxes so I can maybe catch a few before the season closes at the end of January. So yeah, it has been an eventful day, plan to go to bed in the next hour or so, and hopefully going to get up around 10 am again and get some traps out after being stuck at home for a week with no skinning to do.

Well, got a couple of sets out. One weasel box and 1 trap in a hut. Not very confident with the trap in the hut but if it catches, I'll be happy. I would really like to catch a weasel before the season ends. Will probably pull these Tuesday when I go to check them since we're supposed to get up to -51 degrees windchill on Thursday. Might be stopping the trapping for a few weeks or months until spring when I'll get at least 100-150 traps out in road ditches.

Nothing in the sets yesterday. Losing a little bit of hope that I'll get a weasel this year. Going to hope for Sunday when I can get a decent line out. Really would like to catch a mink or weasel in their own dedicated sets. Got early Christmas presents since I knew what they were. Got 1/2 dozen Bridger 159s, 1/2 dozen Bridger 160s with stands, 2 things of truckload coon bait, a 64 oz jug of coon potion kibbles bait, fur comb, an F&T hat, serrated pelter, a replaceable blade knife, a jar for my antifreeze. Also got my trapper's post today and realized this was the edition I got put in for Youth Trapper. Just reading it and realizing how much has changed since when I sent it in June is crazy. My thinking has changed so much.

TYT, it was a good article. All of us grow and change some things on our lines over time. I still learn and change things up and I am 71. It sounds like you had a good haul for Christmas gifts.

Nice haul, keep it up!

Thank you, I realized reading it also how much I would have changed how I wrote it from then to now. I've changed a lot of things this year. I got a pretty good haul so far, have to wait 3 more days to see what else I got.

Thank you, hoping to get out Sunday and start putting out a small line again.

Went out Saturday and got 2 weasel boxes, a mink box, and a blind set 120 out. Pretty good spots, saw tracks for mink near the box when I pulled traps earlier this week. Saw tracks in the culvert where I put the weasel box and then a hole through the cattails where I put the 120.

Went out today just to get out of the house and got nothing but luckily I went because both of my weasel boxes were snowed in and my blind set 120 was almost gone so I marked everything with lath and tape. Let's hope that this doesn't come back as 4 stolen traps.

No stolen traps yesterday, just a bunch of drifts and nothing to show.

Went out today and pulled traps, got a mouse in my weasel box and then something got in my other one and tore the muskrat meat to shreds, blood everywhere. Everything is starting to thaw out finally so maybe the weasels will be able to smell the meat now. Hoping to get the boxes out tomorrow again. Went out and set up a spot where my dad saw 3 coons the other night while thermal hunting. Put 10 dogproofs and 1 160 conibear out, going to bring my boxes out tomorrow and put those in the house. Going to the fur buyer's tomorrow with 25 put up rats and 15 carcass rats.

Nice weasel box!

Thank you, they have worked so far, haven't caught a weasel yet though.

I read your article in the trappers post. Keep up the good work.

Let's see those put up rats! Need to see how you've gotten better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dcdCOtGKc&t=23s Here are some that I put up on the 5th of December. Put a couple up on the 6th but other than that I haven't been able to catch any since.

Well, the day isn't over yet but I have nothing else going on so I guess I'll type up my daily entry. Went and checked traps today, had nothing in the 10 dogproofs I set yesterday but a cottontail had found its way into my 160 blind set. So looks like I have some fresh weasel bait for a little while. Set three conibear boxes inside the house, 2 with 220 conibears, and 1 with a 160 since the spring popped off on the other 220. Headed to the fur buyer after that since my spot is halfway between the house and the fur buyers. Got to the fur buyers and brought my fur inside. Had 15 carcass rats and got paid I think it was 0.25$ on the medium carcass. And then it was 0.50$ on the put up medium rats. Not too good but I ended up getting 40$ for the whole lot of 40 muskrats so 1$ average with carcass and put up fur. Overall a good day though, hoping that next check I have a couple of raccoons since I got those boxes put in. Now here comes the pictures and videos.



Here's my setup for coon boxes today.

Nothing in the traps the last few days so I decided not to bore you guys with me ranting about something or another. Put out 5 weasel boxes the day after going to the fur buyers and my rat traps were being finicky so I just switched out to #1 longsprings till I have time to mess around with the rat traps. Get out of bed today and drive to go pull traps since we have a snowstorm moving in again. Make it to the first weasel box set in a little roadside slough. The snow was packed on top of the reeds when I set so obviously when I walked in there it stomped them all down. I go in there to check my box and just messing about I grab it and the piece of lath and realize it's a lot heavier than when I set it, so I open it up and there's a short tailed weasel in my #1 longspring. Its head was sticking out of the hole and I didn't even realize it. I was way too excited I had finally caught one after 3 years of trying, losing a few weasel boxes to thaws, and just normal trapper luck. I packed it in the truck very nicely, making sure it was away from any dirt and stuff. It had made my whole season though after a 3 week's dry spell of catching nothing. I got down to the coon place after pulling the other boxes along the way, nothing in them. Got to the coon place and didn't have anything but let me tell you, I had the workout of a lifetime trying to get rebar stakes without T's out of the ground. I'm now going to get T's welded on top of them. Now time for pictures and a video of my reaction to catching my first weasel.

That excitement in your voice is priceless!!!

Yes, it is, 3 years in the making finally paid off. \

Set out 4 weasel boxes yesterday after the storm. Lots of new snow cover. Set up a different line, it's about 16-20 miles round trip from the house. I plan to set out some more stuff tomorrow when I go out. Talked to some other guys about other ways to trap weasels and this one guy said that he uses rat traps wired to cattails and then wires a piece of meat to the trigger. So me being me, I went and made some using wooden stakes so I don't have to mess with cattails. Now I have a half dozen rat traps screwed to 2 ft wooden stakes. I'm going to set a few out tomorrow and see if they work any better. Hopefully, I have a weasel or mouse tomorrow, These spots are looking really weaselly, didn't find any tracks though.

Interested. When I first started trapping weasel years ago, you wired fresh meat to the bait pan and hung it on the side of a tree or something. I don't see why your idea wouldn't work. Good luck!

Yeah sadly all of my meat is frozen rats since it's a little hard to keep bait unthawed when it's always below freezing outside. We don't have many trees here but the guy I talked to said he used cattail clumps. I thought I would make it one step easier and use a wooden stake so I don't have to mess with wire as much.

Nothing in the traps today, put out one more box in a culvert under 3 feet of snow. Then I proceeded to bust through a bunch of drifts on a random road since I didn't want to get stuck going backward or attempt to turn around and get stuck in the ditch. So I continued down the road and saw a big drift that had a muffler laying about 2 feet away from it, got through that one fine though. Saw a 4 way up ahead that was in the middle of nowhere and I planned to turn around there I kid you not, I got stuck 10 feet from it after my passenger side front wheel slid into the ditch. I dug and dug and dug, tried 4 low and 4 high, tried jamming 2x4s under the tire, and finally, I gave up and called my dad. Of course, I was in the middle of nowhere but luckily for once I had cell service, I couldn't really figure out how to explain how I got there to my dad so I started heading towards the nearest most populated road and I saw him coming down said road. I asked if that was him and he turned down the exact same road that I was walking on by chance, sadly there was a drift where he couldn't get through otherwise it would have been so easy. I did guide him back to the road I took with my truck and we went through so many drifts, I didn't even realize it until then. We got to my truck and he got turned around and yanked me out and then I did a 15 point turn to get spun around to get back through the drifts we came through. Then as soon as he went into the drift where the muffler was (the drift was quite tall), he got stuck so I had to yank him out but luckily after that, it was easygoing. So yeah caught nothing but ended up getting stuck for an hour. It wasn't a bad day though, stuff happens and when it does, you just fix it and go on with your day.

Nothing in the traps today, pulled the 5 I had set out and moved 2 of them back north of town. Going to get out tomorrow and set out some more, hard to find tracks since the snow is really crusted over and sometimes I can even walk on it without busting through. Didn't get stuck today though.

Nothing in traps today, relured the first box of the day since it had been a minute since it had fresh lure. Ordered Lenon's weasel super all call a couple of nights ago should be here in 5 or 6 days. Set out a weasel box and mink box near a bunch of rabbits tracks and what I thought to be a mink track since it was a clear as day paw pad. Here's how I hope it goes down if I get activity, I hope the weasel gets caught in the weasel box and doesn't mess with the mink box. Then I hope a mink comes along and goes in the mink box, but you never know how it might turn out.

If your mink boxes are big enough, you can always add a snap type rat trap inside doubling your chances of catching both at one set.

They're newspaper mail tubes so I suppose it could work, just wonder if the mink would set it off after it got snapped since the snap type are touchy.

I set up some squirrel traps near the house yesterday since they have been running around with this warmer weather. Baited with corn on the triggers, I just used a conibear mount nailed to the tree. I got home today after school and I saw a squirrel by the tree where my trap was so I left it and decided I would check it in a bit. I go up there with my dog after getting chores done and I can't find the trap anywhere. The wire that was wrapped around the tree a couple of times is gone everything. So I look for 5 minutes and I hear this faint jingle and then snow crunching. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a red flash, and then I turn and see the squirrel. So I call the dog onto it so that way it can't get away. The dog goes onto it and after about 30 seconds I call it off so I can assess the situation apparently the squirrel decided to get its foot caught in the conibear somehow. So I grab the wire which was about 2 feet and wrap it around a tree. I grab my trusty axe handle from the truck and got it dispatched. So I decided that I should skin it and see how difficult it is. So I get the wood stove started and started skinning. I got the tail and everything but once I got down to the front legs, it was a mess, the shoulders popped out. So I finish up the fur and I only made one eye hole a little large, perfect otherwise though. I end up using my thumb and fingers and eventually get both front legs done. I figured I could flesh it now since there was quite a bit of meat still stuck on it. Well, it didn't fit on my muskrat beam so I pull out one of my mink stretchers and my fleshing tool. And let me tell you, that meat was not wanting to let go. So I get the good idea to use my scalpel blade knife to trim it off, I was doing good and had only put a few holes in it which I could pin up and no one would be the wiser. I start another strip and instantly it get a big hole in it, so I try to save it but in the end, it ended up not being able to be saved so I turned it inside out and threw it in my carcass barrel where it'll freeze. I'll bring it along tomorrow and cut it into strips for visual and put it in my weasel and mink boxes. So yeah, learned something today, squirrels are hard to flesh, don't use a knife to flesh, and squirrel trapping is pretty fun.

Yup, pesky things keep getting into my neighbors corn bins and make a mess of everything. I put out a few mink boxes and pick up a few now and then. Yesterday I picked up a black (grey)one and a red squirrel. Neighbor was happy!

Very nice! I usually leave them alone but it's nice to have some fresh bait for the weasel and mink boxes.

Well, I don't even know how to explain today. I got out of school and checked the squirrel traps, but nothing in those. Headed out to the trapline after stopping and talking to a buddy for a bit. I got to the first weasel box and I hop out of the truck instantly I see weasel droppings at the front hole. So I think awesome, I have one. So I open it and there's this pair of black eyes staring at me and then I hear this screech. So I drop the lid closed. I opened it again to assess the situation more and yep, I had one that got caught by its leg. So I walk up to the truck and grab a rat trap on a stake and my axe handle. I climb back down into the ditch and swing the lid entirely open while this thing is screeching at me. I set the rat trap and first try got him right on the top of the head. So that was done, I reset the trap and covered the box back up with snow, didn't re lure since I figured the weasel being in there would bring more in. So I put him in the truck in a small tote so he didn't get all dirty and I drive to the next spot. and the mink box and weasel box were a bust so I head to the box about 150-200 yards away. And I got another weasel! This one was dead luckily, he was frozen in though so I just put a rat trap in there. Relured the set since he didn't make much of a disturbance. Went up the road and saw a brush pile next to a slough so I set up another box there and turned around to head home. I headed home and It ended up that my Lenon's lure came a few days early so that's nice. I also decided that I would put up a weasel today, so I got all set up and it went fine and dandy except for when I didn't free the tail up enough with the knife and it popped off. I'll have to remember that for the next one. I also harvested the skull, glands, and pecker out of it since I figured I might as well since I already had it skinned out. So yeah I learned a few things today and now I'm up to 3 weasels for the season and I still have about 3 weeks left to go. So yeah, pretty good day today, going to have some Youtube shorts to post here in a second.


[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LDuJwdyWASE[/video]


[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sTcqcagkthM[/video]

I have seen where maybe the weasel is worth more when it is frozen whole. Just a thought.

Talked to a fur buyer this past weekend and asked about weasel. Told me $3 put up. Skull and glands might get me another $1. Or I can get up to $20 for a whole frozen on the taxi market.

Don't plan on selling any this year, plan to tan them all.

Yeah, maybe next year. I'd prefer to have these hung up since they have taken so much work to get.

Checked traps yesterday since I had no homework and that was the only way to not sleep after school. Had nothing in the traps. Will relure them tomorrow with Lenon's lure, hoping this chunk of ground will produce a couple more weasels before I move to a different spot.

Just caught up on reading your posts.
Congratulations on the two weasel day!
Keep working at it like you are, experience is the best teacher.
Just a little advice- watched your you tube shorts and saw you had the bottom lip pinned up on your weasel. Just cut that off all critters it has no value and can easily taint on some critters. If you need a pin put one threw the nose on top of you drying board.
Stay at it young man. I'm enjoying you thread. Good luck the last couple weeks

Thank you, it was a surprise for sure to have two weasels.
I just left it on since I figured I was getting it tanned anyways and it would look nicer.
I'm hoping to catch a couple more before the end of the season. Then it's on to spring muskrats and beaver then raccoons for the bounty until I catch 59.

Nothing in the traps today sadly. I did re lure all of the boxes with Lenon's weasel lure. Set out one more box by a small patch of willows type trees with a good 5 foot wide chunk of slough grass in front of them. Also a big slough and stock dam behind the area too. Seems like the perfect place for a weasel. Lots of rabbit tracks around. Baited it with a hind quarter of a rabbit.

Went ice fishing last night up north of my line so I left my trapping gear in my truck and checked the line on the way back into town. Nothing in the traps, I don't know if it's because nothing is moving or if the rat traps are making them scared. Dad did see some coons out tonight though so critters are moving around. The plan is to go set up some 330s under the ice with bait sticks tomorrow in a spot where the beavers were chomping on trees earlier this year. The only problem is that there's no lodge or feed bed, I suspect that they may have moved into the lake across the road before freeze up. Another suspicion is that they are living in bank dens in the pond dam. Looks like I'll just have to wait and see tomorrow.

If they are in a bank den, be careful b/c the ice will be thinner at their entrace.
If there isn't snow on the ice, look for a bubble run and you'll see where they're coming out of the bank.
Be safe handling 330s.

Yep, I'll make sure to spud the ice in front of me, I'm not a fan of cold baths.
We're about 2 months past the bubble run stage which really sucks but oh well.
Yeah, I already snapped my foot today but luckily it was just my boot and one spring.

Well didn't get any traps out yesterday. Also didn't have anything in traps. Just one set off with some white fur on it and then one of my pieces of bait obliterated to the bone. I don't know how much I like these rat traps compared to long springs. I came back home and my buddy texted me and said "hey, I just shot a beaver in the middle of a field. Do you want to skin it"? So I said yeah and he said its tail was all chewed up like they had been fighting. So now I have to learn how to skin a beaver. The only problem being is that I don't have a good fleshing knife or a stretching board for it. So I'm wondering if I should just freeze it till later this spring and put it up. My buddy wants to get it tanned so going to try not to butcher it. So came back home today and checked the line on the way back, but nothing again. Going to pull this line on Wednesday and focus on finding more rat huts since I feel I need to do that some more since I just bought a dozen Victor round pan stoplosses. Most of which have readable pans still.

Freeze the beaver pelt till you have a good fleshing knife. As for drying any piece of plywood will do. Doesn't matter if it's nailed perfectly circular or oval. If it's tanned for yourself and not selling to buyer. Most go for hatter market and are sold by weight anyways. Watch a few videos and read the archives you're on a good path young man. Keep it up your doing fine

Yeah, I just froze it, will bring it to the fur buyer's with me when I go to drop off my weasels since he can flesh it and send it to the tannery.

Well, got home from school and texted my buddy to come over. Got all set up in the garage and cut all the feet and tail off. My center line was a little crooked but looks fine still. We both worked on skinning it out, I worked on the harder areas like the tail and face. He helped by popping the legs and keeping the skin tight for me as I cut. It took us about 30 minutes and we didn't have any problems with cutting holes in the hide surprisingly. I went to go remove the castor and since I hadn't watched a video on it, I had no idea how to do it. I should have stopped and watched a video, I was just really excited since it was my first ever beaver and it had no holes. I ended up cutting into the castor glands and had to scrap them. Then I got the skin ready to freeze and threw it in the freezer. I then got a bag for the meat and started cutting it for weasel bait since I have heard it works a lot better. So yeah, 10/10 would skin one again. I just need a stencil, plywood, and a good fleshing knife to put them up myself. Will probably just buy them all at this fall convention or NTA if I have the funds saved up for it.

Don’t scrape the cut castors. Save for your own lure or bait.

Yeah, you always chop castor up fine to use in lure anyways. Just save for your own use.

Good job.

I sadly don't have any use for it. I have jars upon jars of commercial beaver lure already.

Thank you!

Well, today in school was rough. It was actually fine until art class, I'm a perfectionist, so art isn't my thing. We were drawing hands and I just can't for the life of me, just draw and be happy with the end result. So I was a little frustrated after that class being as I couldn't figure out how to draw a detailed hand. So anyways, after a short assembly for some random thing, I got out of school and headed out to the line. I was pulling the line today no matter what happened. I got to the first box and had nothing. The second box I walk up and hop over the fence (I have permission), and I saw a weasel butt sticking out! So this box had now taken two weasels in the span of a couple of weeks. Went through the rest of the line and had nothing else sadly. Got home and skinned out the weasel perfectly fine and even had the tail this time. As I was boarding, I was looking for the other leg and couldn't find it. Well somehow, I must have cut it or pulled too hard and it tore the fur all the way so it was only hanging out by a thread. So I figured that it would fall off during tanning anyway so I just cut it off. There's always a learning curve to this stuff. Now I just got done doing my Algebra homework and will hopefully be in bed by around 10:30 or 11 pm at the latest.

Idk about sewing weasels, but I've patched other things that otherwise wouldn't have been presentable.

Yeah, I figured it wasn't worth the time since it's a wall hanger anyway. I'll get better at skinning though. I still have to do spring rats and beaver this year.

Going to go set out my newly bought dozen stoplosses and some other traps tomorrow on the first slough I was trapping rats in the huts. Hoping that it will produce a little better this time since I did some quick numbers and the number of rats just isn't adding up. Ice is really thick, augered a hole in for a baited conibear and I struck right into the bottom of the slough. The blades are really dull so I need to get new ones. Also found about a dozen or more huts on a little .5 acre slough, hoping to get permission for that since most of the huts are trapping sized huts.

Got out 7 traps today. All of the easy to trap huts froze solid on the inside, had to go to the bigger ones where almost every time it went past your elbow. Almost got new blades for the auger but they were made for the newer model, not the older one like mine. Hoping these sets will catch a few more rats since they have been quite destructive in this slough. Will pull these in the first half of the week and hopefully set the new spot around Wednesday or so.

You might be able to sharpen the auger blade you have if that is the problem

Keep after those rats

Yeah, I was hoping to get new ones and then send these in directly to Ion to get them resharpened. I'm planning on hitting rats as hard as I can for the rest of the winter then it's floats in the spring. Didn't matter if I had them sharp now anyways, I can't find the fish.

Well, went out and checked traps today and I proved myself wrong. This slough doesn't have the numbers I was hoping for. Out of 7 sets, I only caught one rat. It might barely make medium, I have it stretched and drying right now. Used my new serrated pelting knife for it and the head was way better, just made one of the eye holes a little bit but went well. The stoploss didn't break the leg or even mess it up at all, I don't know if I got lucky this time or what, somehow the other leg was broken though. Going to pull these on Tuesday when I go to check and then set up the new spot on Wednesday. Hopefully, this week will go by a bit more chill since last week between all the homework was a bit chaotic.

Your rats are looking better all the time and shows your learning fast! Keep up the good work!

Here's a tip that works for me on eyes. Instead of slicing down towards the nose. I flip the knife over, pull the skin down (or out) and poke the knife into "the eye" (I don't actually puncture the eye ball) and make swipe towards the butt. That opens the skin so then you can flip the knife back over and slice towards the nose. Hope that's clear as mud! Lol

Love those serrated pelters for rats! Hope you get some more to try it on.

Yes they are, I think the eye was only messed up because I'm not used to the serrated pelter yet. Will be skinning them quite fast by the end of this spring.

Going to hopefully set a new spot with no trapping pressure on Wednesday. Going to pull these 7 sets tomorrow.

Ok, I usually don't mess them up but this new serrated pelter has a really thin handle and I'm not really used to it yet.

I'd say keep at your way then, I've never used one of those.

Well, went a pulled the line today. I got 3 rats and had one wring out. Was getting to the last trap thinking how lucky I was that I didn't have a live one yet and low and behold. I get to the last hut and see that the plug for the hole is really wet still like it's thawed. So I start chopping in and it went really far in so I reach my hand in and start grabbing wet material and piling it up. All of a sudden I feel this bite and pull my hand out. I check myself to make sure it didn't go through the gauntlets, it didn't. So I know I have a rat now, so I go in with the axe handle and poke around until it frees up then It finally comes out. Of course, it goes straight to my axe handle and stays there. So now I'm playing quick hands with this muskrat trying to get my stake to drag it off the handle, I grab it and pull him off and drop the stake. I grab the axe handle and it was not cooperating for a good hit. After about 30 seconds, I get lined up and it was over in less than 10 seconds. So I can officially say I have been bit by a muskrat. Got home and put up all 3 rats of the day and they all looked good but the best one was the alive one. Also had a couple of females today which I figured out while skinning, I think these might be the first ones of the season. Going to set the new spot tomorrow and check Friday, I have some really good news coming Friday. Will post here before going out to the ice shack. Anyways here are some pictures, no pictures of the other two rats put up or caught since I never thought about it.


Here's the picture of the alive one, I love having them fluffy, makes them easy to skin.



Back of the alive rat



Front of the alive rat

Really nice job on the put up. BTW I have not had good luck using a serrated knife on the eyes. Use it lots on wringing legs.

Thanks, yeah I don't like it one bit, really nice for the ears but all my eyes have been messed up to some degree. Just going to use my Wiebe replaceable blade knife for the eyes forward.

Well, that new spot with around 12 huts was a bust today. Dug into 5 huts and not a single one had a cavity, couldn't even find ice. Went back to the old reliable (the place I just pulled traps from) and set up 5 traps in the same huts as last time. Going out tomorrow to put more out but I won't check the ones I put in today since I can legally wait till Friday to do it.

Well went back out today and put out about 5 huts and marked another for setting tomorrow. Didn't check the ones I put out yesterday but it was definitely an urge to want to do it. Was heading out onto the slough and saw about a 3-3.5 inch diameter hole coming out of the snow with a line of tracks coming out of it. Looked exactly like weasel tracks, set out 2 boxes lured with Lenon's Super all call and rabbit fur with muskrat meat shoved in the back for bait. Hoping that by having 2 out that I won't have to deal with a mouse clogging one up and not being able to catch the weasel. Hope that I have one tomorrow.

hole that size in a slough is most likely a mink. theyre hunting under the snow, in the cavities under the drifts. with sub zero temps coming, be sure to seal any huts that you opened. use wet vegetation and cover with alot of snow to insulate. best to not open huts in these temps at all.

When doing the eyes on the muskrat, cut higher on the body. You will eventually see where you need to cut. Some of my muskrats still have the eyeball in hide when I put them on the board. Also while the rat is still on the wire, run your hands up the hide, this will put the saddle back into place and same with the belly side. Keep up the good work!!!!!

You do not need to do this, but I cut off the bottom lip and I use a large zip tie with tape on the end of it to pull the arms back into the fur.

Well, Friday I caught 3 rats and Mark Steck came along for the ride. He said he wanted to record me running my trapline so we worked out a schedule and he came out on Friday. It was a fun experience being with him and his cameraman. It was a little slower paced than I usually like to run but overall a good experience mixed with two very good people. I met Mark at the fall state convention and we talked from there.

Didn't check traps on Saturday since I ended up ice fishing all day. Got a couple of walleye but nothing special.

I went out today to pull traps and caught nothing so I'm done trapping this spot until spring and I'll only run a couple of floats at most. I think I'm going to shut down my season until spring thaw comes and then I'll be back at it for a couple of months.

Is Mark as cool in person as he is on his show?
When does your rat season close?

Yeah, he's a great guy full of information and just as full of energy as on his show. We had a guy come behind us on the road and usually I don't have a problem with that since the road is only a one way due to drifts, but they must have been taking care of something at the house. I said that I'd go move the truck and Mark volunteered to do it, 5 minutes later and here he comes back on the slough. Still as energetic as before.

Rat season closes East River April 30th

Haven't been doing much the last few days, just hanging out mainly. Did bring my floats in from the shed and scraped the sparrow poop off of them. Need to put foam on about 18-20, most of them need little things here and there like bait holders, random bits of wood taken off since they don't fit my traps, and some sides replaced. Looking for a good way to attach my traps to the floats since using them fence stapled right to them last year was not too much fun to take them off, thinking of using the spring hook carabiners with the threaded lock. Went out and finally tested my auger and it cut like butter, had the blades upside down, and also brought my rod with me and some waxxies and caught 5 perch in about an hour. 6-8" was pretty normal, the first hole too so I must have dropped right in on the school. Fished out of the truck so I stayed decently warm, had to unthaw my line twice but luckily I had a spare rod with me. Might start splitting some more wood here soon or go walking around.

use an eye screw on the end of the float, and a carabiner snap to attach the trap to it. the carabiner can stay with the floats when not in use so nothing on the trap chain when its used for something else. our snaps were about 2 inches long. dont use the tiny ones. ours are spring loaded but not threaded. keep it fast and simple.

if 2 traps on a float, attach each trap to opposite ends. when the second rat gets caught, you dont want him hanging next to the first rat, as itll chew the first one caught. lots of unnecessary damage that way.

we staked floats with a 3/8th inch 4 foot fiberglass fence post down through the float. float can rise with the water if flooding happens. fast and simple.

we used no bait, just a smear of musky lure on the highest point of the float. after that the rats climbing on the float will keep it well scented. fast and simple.

good hut busting weather coming starting saturday. hope you have a few more spots to go to yet. good luck.

I usually use a fence staple and attach trap with a circle of wire.

Ok, I just figured the threaded one because then I could use them on other traps too. Was planning on using a fence staple to attach them to since most of the floats already have them.

Yep, got that figured out last year.

I just used rebar electric fence posts last year but will probably use my fiberglass posts this year since I'm also going to run hagz and hangman brackets. They're 6ft tall

I like using the bait since it gives me a place to put the lure so that way I don't stick my hand in the lure.

I'm done busting huts till spring, no more spots with visible huts. Got too cold the last time anyway.

Was thinking about using these, no clue what size to use though, I have a few on my 220s for coon boxes, will need to measure them.

I considered wire but I would like something I can use for other applications as well and be reused year after year.

be sure the carabiners will fit through your staples before you order them.

in the spring, everything in the slough will smell like rat musk. if you use a different smell, or most any bait, youll most likely attract coon. you dont want that. if you think you need something for a lure, just toss a handful of smelly slough mud on the float. we lured our floats once, and they were rained on, snowed on, etc, for the next 4 weeks. the catch never slowed down.

the rat isnt attracted to your float by bait or lure. hes attracted because its another spot he can crawl out of the water and deposit his own musk. luring more than once is a waste of time and lure, same with bait.

I think that was the quickest project to leave the back entry. I got it done in about 3-4 days and they're back outside under a roof. All have foam under them, good pole supports to keep them from floating off, and fence staples that will fit the new carabiners. They're all ready for this spring. Here's a picture of most of my designs, I have one more but it was buried under the rest and I only have 2 of them. I have only built a dozen floats and that's the one closest to the right boot.

I finally got some action. I went out for a drive today and went to the lake where I had seen the colony of beavers earlier this year and was driving around the lake when I saw some fresh cut trees. So I stop and hop out of the truck and look around and I find a muddy trail heading up the hill, and about 200 yards to the North and South. About 10 yards from the first tree was a breathing hole, about 18" x 18". I think I have finally found where they are feeding from or have some more bank dens. I know where one of their other ones is but no chance to get at it since I can't find the runs much with the snow on the ice. Going to set it tomorrow after this storm rolls through. The plan is to drop a baited 330 down the hole and then another one about 10-15 yards from that one. I might also try to construct a snare pole too since I have some beaver snares that I got from a guy.

I like finding spots like that, good job!

Yep, first time finding one, best part is I can drive within 10 or so yards of it.

Well, nothing in the trap yesterday but I did switch how I had it set up. I had it on a stick before with the springs spread out to keep it in place but the water was too shallow for that and made the springs freeze. So yesterday, I just took a branch and a good piece of wire and had the springs going up and down and then I put the piece of wire through the ends of the springs and put the stick through the U of the wire. I then dropped it down the hole and wired the chain to another brace going across the hole. I also took a small glob of Dobbin's Backbreaker and put it on a broken off piece of driftwood near the hole.

So I go out there today and pull up to the hole with my dad. It's frozen over again like yesterday so I chip it open and I see that one of the springs is tripped. So I pull and pull and see fur through the water. Well, the hole wasn't big enough when the springs were set off, so I had to use the setters and set one and then chip the hole out some more. The result was a small maybe 10-15 lb beaver, my first ever being caught. I reset the trap the same way today and hopefully, I'll have another soon.

Good job!

Good job Youth Trapper.Looks like winter there somebody dropped a truck in here last week.

Thank you, yeah we still have at least a month or so before it starts looking a little less like winter. Was thawing for a few days and then we got snow on Tuesday. Now there are 3 days of snow in the forecast for next week. I pulled the trap today since it was about 40 degrees and the ice was making some weird noises.

Went out today and checked, and pulled the trap since the ice was being weird. Will wait to set another one until later next week. Nothing in the trap today but it was set off and had fresh chewings near it so I think a beaver might be a little more trap smart than it was.

Why not just leave it set? No extended underice check time?

5 day check on traps under ice in SD.

Well, forgot to post yesterday but better late than never. Went to the fur buyer's and he fleshed and stretched my beaver for me. Just stood around and talked for a while, usually how it goes but I enjoy it. Here's the picture of the beaver on the hoop (he uses wire hoops instead of plywood).





And then today I started working on another project, which was a dogproof storage/set box. I wanted to have a way to keep dogproofs organized but also be able to preset and prebait them. I plan to get a wood plug or some type of plug for the top so the bait doesn't spill. Now all I have to do when I get to the set spot is pound in the anchor, set them, and lure them with a trailing scent or gel type lure. Here's what it looks like, haven't looked at plugs yet but I have a good idea of what I need. I'm running stock chains with cable berkshires attached to them, Most of the Bridger T3s have flat stakes on them though.

if you want the dog proofs preset and baited, a wooden dowel about 1" diameter will work perfectly. cut them 4 or 5 inches long, bait the trap, compress spring, and insert the dowel, then release the spring. youll still have to set the trigger at the set location, but youll save alot of time at the set, and only have to compress the spring a tiny bit to set the trigger. traps cant fire while bouncing over bumps in the back of your truck.

Yep, that's the plan. I couldn't remember the diameter of my shovel handle; it was still in the garage last night.

Well, today was pretty relaxed. Got some 1" dowels for the dogproofs and now that project is done. I will have to keep the lid off the tote when they're baited and the plugs have tension on them since they're already kind of bulging the lids. It's still better than how I had them, in a pile in the back of the truck.

looks good. when resetting after a catch, push down the spring and insert a dowel to hold the spring down. much easier to reset the trap that way.

I have an old trapping shovel I got from a guy who only has remnants of his trapping gear left and the handle of it is perfect for this. I plan to use it since it's harder to lose a big shovel compared to a small wooden plug.

sounds like the perfect tool for the job. when resetting, we use an 18" dowel, painted orange.

Wow, we got a lot of snow! I was hoping to get back out on the ice for beaver but I have no shot of it happening. Might try and drive on the ice tomorrow and see how far I can actually go without getting stuck. Been shoveling and snowblowing snow here the last few days. Made around 235$ and worked about 8 hours, overall not bad money and a good restock for spring rat trapping gas money.

Well according to last year's start time for spring rat, I only have a month left. I'm hoping by April 1st I can start getting most of my floats out. I haven't been able to return to beaver lake with the truck yet.

Today gave me some hope of maybe getting some spring floats in. It finally reached 40 degrees outside after 5 months of snow, cold, and ice. Worked on some Bridger 160s since the Bridger triggers are junk. I just replaced them with Belisles and they fire sharply now. I bought the Bridgers because they had a bit better safety than the Dukes but after this, I will never buy another one unless they're really cheap 330s. Before next fall, I will have to replace the triggers on my 159 Bridgers too.

Get a 1/4" round file and file the dog on the Brider 159 and they are good to go. I had the problem with trigger slop and that cured the slop. I also cut the trigger down approx .1 " and put a double ferrule on the wire.

Well, I finally did it. I finally was able to get some more traps set out. It didn't happen easily though. Had 4" of ice in some spots before I could even touch the ground, those spots didn't get an earth anchor but instead got cable extension onto a nearby log. This area is quite a bit open on the front side where most of the snow is melted, so I'm hoping that I don't have a bunch of shot up traps or coons. Was able to set a few traps on sign but for the most part, just set where I thought looked good since the snow is still way too tall for coons to have trails. Broke 3 Berkshire disposable anchors and bent the ear on a wolf fang. Put a big ol' bend in my wolf fang driver, will probably have to fix this one and use my spare for now. Put my brand new Berkshire driver through a tree root and took about 20 minutes to get it unstuck, good to know that it won't go anywhere. Got 8 traps out and hopefully, the coons will move before this big snow storm that's coming through. Going to check tomorrow and then dig out for Saturday. My loop is about 10-15 miles in total, so If I catch a coon, skunk, or opossum tomorrow. That will have paid for my gas for the last 2 trips.


Broken Berkshire

Sheeesh, I hope your perseverance pays off! Gotta give you credit for toughing it out at the very least!

Good luck, you are having quite the winter to be working through! Admire your perseverance!

Thanks for the kind words, Yukon and Bison! This winter definitely hasn't been easy for me but you'll have that sometimes. I just hope I can still have time to set a few floats out.

Had nothing in traps today. Heard something about freezing rain which will hopefully not be the case. Supposed to be 8-10" of snow, which will put these out of commission till Saturday. Luckily most are tucked by trees or under cedars. Hoping they will move tonight and through tomorrow, so I can have full traps Saturday!

Looks like another tough week for your area of SD. We got lucky down here nothing but a little rain, which is welcomed. Another System next week!

Yeah, another two days of it next week. No school today and nothing in traps. Hoping to get out tomorrow and fix my sets. Was supposed to take a robot baby home this weekend for one of my classes since I knew that I didn't have trap shooting practice this weekend. Well, now I have to find a different weekend to do it, so that's just great.

Welcome to a lifetime of spending money LOL but all the memories are worth so much more and you will do and see things that most people never even knew existed. good job young man and hang tough.

Yeah, it's not cheap but it's still a little cheaper than a lot of other habits it seems that kids have these days. Still haven't caught anything yet which is really surprising with the amount of habitat that's there. Quite a few of the cottonwoods have coon scat at the base of them. Did find a couple of sheds today while I was out, both in the ditches, the first one I found was when I went to go pick up garbage and it was about 2 feet away. The second was just laying in the ditch outside a tree row just like the first one.

Well, everything that got robbed is now rebaited. Nothing in traps today but I did see some geese around. I used a lure called Rat Checkmate, it glows in the dark. I know many guys use rat lures and catch coons on them so I figured I'd give it a shot. Anyways here's a picture I took today. Also, have a storm blowing in so I might have some luck tomorrow.

Well caught no coons but I'm finally done with my robot baby assignment. So I can get serious about trapping again. Hoping the sloughs will be open by the end of the week.

Well good news, I finally saw some rats out on the ice. Actually, it was my dad but we have permission on the land too. So I'm going out once it gets light out and seeing if I can put a couple of traps in.

Well got 3 floats set and 1 hangman bracket. All with Duke 1.5s, baited with apples and lured with Lenon's Super all call muskrat lure. While setting 2 of the floats, I had a couple of muskrats watching me. I hope I have some tomorrow. I have trap shooting practice from 4 until 7:30 tomorrow, so I'll have to run my line quickly and hurry up and get there. Anyways, y'all have a good night!

Hope you have luck today on the rats!

those rats watching you are probably already in your traps. if you want to use bait, carrots usually work better than apples. use a tater peeler to shred them on the float. lots of scent that way.

Well, had a pretty good day. Went out and checked floats right after school and the water had receded about 3-4 ft so my floats that were originally 5-6 ft off the road were not about a foot off the road. Tried to get them in farther but there was still a lot of frost. I did go back later with my rebar electric fence posts and hammer them in a little more but the rest of them are buried under 6" of ice. Note to self, don't put stuff you need under a garage roof where water drips. Did get 1 rat on a float, didn't have any bait on the floats but will probably add some. Shot decent at my trap shooting practice, 25 hits out of 50 shells total. Going to need to practice by myself a couple more times before next Tuesday so I can make that better. Checked traps before going to trap and left it in my topper until about 7 and it was dry by the time I got home so I skinned it out and go the glands out of it. Should be a good 1$ rat. Here are a couple of pictures.

Checked traps today and pulled them, had 2 rats. One in the big culvert spillway and one in the same float as yesterday. Put them up and surprisingly had a female on one of my floats. Packed up the truck today because I'm going to set my main line of about 3 dozen floats, as many colony traps, and as many hagz brackets as possible. Anyways here's a photo dump from the last 2 days.

Well started trapping at 3 today and got about 6 or so miles from home and the phone went to 10% battery so ran back home and got the charger. Started trapping again and the phone would charge for a bit and then wouldn't, well it finally died a couple of hours before I stopped trapping. Got 24 floats out, 2 colony traps, and 1 hagz bracket. Had a rat caught before I came in for the night but it had got itself caught between both traps and couldn't get off the float so I stopped and dealt with it and flipped it off the side of the float until Saturday. Also, have reports of a beaver moving around near where I trap. No pictures today but the first check is Saturday and I'll get the rest of the floats out too and as many hagz brackets as possible.

Good luck YT, I didn’t trap rats this spring, first time in a while.

Way to go YT. Hope today's check is plentiful

Well, today was a good day. Figured out my line is 45 miles in total. I have 32 floats, 1 hagz, and 2 colony traps. Moved my big 10"x10" colony trap to a culvert that fit it better. Put in 4 new floats on a chunk of the road I must travel to get back to my house. Still have 3 floats left in the back of my truck. Had a double on a colony trap and dumped them out but couldn't grab them both quick enough and lost one, I searched for 5 minutes. Got 33 rats today that I actually brought back home, never found that 1 rat, I think it got sucked into the culvert. So yeah 33 rats on a 45 mile line in 4.5 hours, seems like a good time to me, out of 67 traps. Have photos but they're too big it says so I will have to find some other way to post them.

50percent catch rate. Sounds like you're having a good trap line time. Lots of people here can tell you how to resize your photos

Great day Youth Trapper!

Well, 42 rats today out of 32 floats. Wasn't the most fun check since the wind was blowing and it was cold. Also put up 39 rats today, heard of good prices so I will most likely sell whatever I can put up but the overflow will have to be sold on carcass since I only have so many stretchers and time. Going to run the line again tomorrow and most likely have to sell whatever I have left over from today's check and tomorrow's check. Also got a dryer for drying my rats now, tried it on 6 of them and it worked great, made them fluffy and wicked most of the moisture off of them. Hopefully, this will speed up my put up process. Got my pictures resized so now here are the pictures from the last two days. That rat really wanted that carrot with Lenon's Super All Call Muskrat lure on it, the lure is amazing, the jars could be built a bit better though, cracked the lid in one spot and broke it in another. Here are a couple of videos from the last couple of days too.











https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FyPK1Z9Kkdc


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Famx38Cvx74

Good job. Sure looks like fun!

Nice catch.. Our season just ended.

Get that fan blowing right on the hides. That'll dry them faster. Skin and freeze the rest. They don't take up much room at all in a freezer. Then you can put them all up your self when time allows and stretches are freed up
Great going. Stay at it. Wish I had rats like that around and a spring season.

I blow mine off with an air compressor.

Yep! I'm going to pull them off the stretchers tomorrow after I get done checking the line. I honestly don't have the time to skin and freeze them to put up later, I have too many irons in the fire. Also SD makes it so you have to report any fur that's left over 10 days after the season and I'll still be in school when that happens. I love my water trapping, that's for sure.

Yeah, I tried that because the guy I bought all of my traps from said he did that too and it does a good job but I still find quite a bit of moisture in them. With the dryer, there's very very little moisture and it's less time hands on so I can skin other rats while the dryer runs and then do it that way.

Well, today was the windiest day of them all. Did I ever mention that I hate the wind with a passion? Had white caps on one of the sloughs I was trapping, that was fun. Also with the wind, the ice moves around. I lost a hagz bracket setup yesterday and wrote it off. I lost a float setup today about halfway through my line and I get to where I lost the hagz bracket. And I'm driving back to the main road of my line and I see my fiberglass pole sticking up. My whole setup was still there! Hoping to find my float sometime since I know the general location. Anyways, 31 rats today, I only saw 1 rat out on the way to the fur buyers. I think the wind is keeping them tucked away right now. Sold 67 carcass rats and only 3 of them went small. Also sold 3 put up rats from earlier last week and got 3$ for 2 of them and 2$ for the other. Got 145$ in total, still have the 37 put up rats in the fur shed. Going to bring those in on the next load. Here are the few pictures I have from today.





Here's what the rats look like after going through the dryer

You're doing well.

Nice looking bunch o' rats!

good job.

Those are nice and fluffy spring rats! You might consider getting some tanned. You did well if you caught 31 in that wind!

You will be alright with fur after the season, that won't be a problem

yeah, I thought about getting some tanned for thank you's to landowners but should have done that with winter rats. Oh well though, I always have next year. Yeah that wind was not ok at all, nice day today though.

It finally happened, this whole year I have been scanning the slough bottoms hoping to find an old float. Well, I was at the spot where I had lost that float the other day due to ice and had just gotten out to reset the last float and I saw this piece of 3/8" rebar sticking out of the slough about 3 feet. I got over there thinking it's a farmer's way of marking a culvert. I look down and I see a weird looking object that looked to be like a tray and that's when it dawned on me. So I raked it up onto shore with my potato rake and didn't see any traps but I did have wire, chainrings, and a couple of links of rusted chain. I start raking the bottom and find one right away hooked it through the spring of the longspring. The other though took about 5 minutes to find, both are Victor #1 Longsprings. No trap tags if there were any they're long gone by now. This float had been there a while. Now I need to figure out a way to display the float and traps since this was a bucket list achievement for me. Anyways enough with my rambling about old traps and rotten wood.

Here's how I did on the trapline today, 27 rats, 3 or 4 smalls. Got home, and dried them in the dryer (best thing ever). Skinned them out and got 26/27 skinned out without a mishap, had one that just ripped to shreds so I threw it in the carcass bucket. Only have them skinned now but will finish putting them up tomorrow after trap shooting practice. Also had a buddy drop off 2 beavers for me to skin that he wants to be tanned so now looks like I'm the friend group's custom skinner, more practice for me though. Here are the pictures from today. For some reason can't upload the photo of the float but I'll figure it out tomorrow when I have time.

Well, shot 25/50 on the trap shooting. The gun fits me a lot better. My biggest problem now is that I let them get out too far and I only have a modified choke, going to try to buy a full one soon. Got the 26 rats put up and they look good. They will be a great addition to the other 37, pulling trap tomorrow and going to try to put up all of those. Plan to leave a note on a guy's floats that are next to mine to ask him how his season is going, hopefully, he responds. Hoping to set out another line on Friday if I can find somewhere. Y'all have a good night!

Well, pulled the line today with very few issues. Waves came up and lifted one of my floats over the fiberglass pole, ended up with the float on the bank. Also had fence staples pulling out of my floats so I'll have to address that as soon as the season is over. Caught 30 rats today. Only 53 rats left before I hit my goal of 300 for the season. Hoping to get a line out Friday and have my goal by the end of the weekend, starting to see little biting on some and lots of others. Anyways here is the picture of the catch today.

Looks like you’re having a great spring season.

53 to go-you got this Youth Trapper don’t let us down.

Yep, only my second season doing it too.

I'm trying so hard to hit it hopefully by Monday I'll be done.

Got the rest of the rats put up and the dry ones pulled off the stretchers. Definitely need to get more next year since I can very easily run out after 2 days of trapping which is how long I dry them for. Scouted out another line that I'm going to set tomorrow and hopefully have my goal of 300 by Monday. The plan is to put up all of the next ones I catch since it should make for a great second spring trapping season picture, also going to be a pretty good check if I do get them all done.

Hope you hit your goal before they're bit up to bad to trap

Nice dog! You spend lots of time with and you can tell its happy and healthy. Nothing like having a good dog.

I hope so too, I've had a few bad ones that will most likely either get tossed or sold for very little. Any of them that are too bad though get thrown in the carcass bucket which has been 2 so far.

Yep, I try to spend as much time as possible, she usually comes along on the land lines. She goes shed hunting with us, drives around, and runs down dirt roads behind the truck. She loves anything and everything outdoors.

Got another 22 floats out today, only have 13 left to set. Ended up passing most of the sloughs I was planning on trapping because of how hard the wind was whipping today. Hoping to be done rat trapping by Monday. Going to go beaver hunting tomorrow and come back home and check the rat line and hopefully get the rest of the floats set.

No rat check today, ended up beaver hunting with a guy from around 10 am until 3:30 pm and then put up the only beaver we got. 41 pound female, he's going to give it to me next week at the SD spring convention. Also borrowed his stencil for beaver boards and one of his 330 stands to copy off which I will return next Saturday as well. Only one step closer to putting up all of my own fur. Hoping to have about 30 rats tomorrow and then another 30 Monday since I will set those other 13 floats. This will mean my rat season is over for the year, I'll transition over to beaver and coon trapping since beaver are worth a bit and coons are still worth 10$.

$10 coons we haven't seen here for a long time now.
All our seasons have been over for a long time. You have quite a lengthy season where you live.

Yeah, we have a tail bounty here for nest predators. Most stuff is year round except for mink, weasel, and muskrat. And those run from Nov. 1st until January 31st and then Nov. 1st until April 30th for Rats.

Today checked the line and had 16 rats out of 22 floats, set a few more floats out. Going to be pulling Wednesday more than likely. Haven't put these ones up from today yet but they're in the fridge. I think the wind kept them in yesterday. Went and bought some traps today, bought 1 belisle 330 with about 4-5 feet of chain on it, and 3 MB-750s brand new for 80$. Now I have 3 330s and 3 complete drowning setups. Really excited to start trapping beaver.

Great job young man
Long hair guy also, and have a shepherd.
Even have two boys that are gingers

Yesterday: I caught 15 rats, put up 30 out of the 31 for those last 2 days, and was up until 1:30 am in the fur shed. Nothing too exciting that I can remember

Today: I caught 9 rats, I haven't put them up yet, still have them in the fridge, and I am going to put them up tomorrow with the others. Caught one rat by the head today in a 1.5 Bridger, had only done that in a #2 square jaw a few times. Only 13 rats left to catch, going to set a new spot back up north around where my 45 mile line was since I want to be done before Friday since I have a convention on Saturday and want to sell on Sunday. Going to pull this other line tomorrow since it's more miles than I would like to put on to only catch 9 rats. Will be doing a lot of scouting this summer since I enjoy this spring trapping a lot. The next thing is beaver and coons.

Nice job, I could tell from your early posts you had what it takes. Congratulations on a good season!

Look at some of the pictures that Saskles has posted on hanging rats in the back of 1/2 tons so they air dry when you drive. System is boards with loops that they hang and you pick up the board and 15 rats hanging when home.
Before the season gets too far behind you make notes on a poster size board etc, locations best spots, land owners etc, more freezer room !!!
Good luck on the trash bandits egg robbers catches.

Thank you, If I say I'm going to do something I usually get it done.

Yeah, I thought about that but it's a lot easier to do it this way with the dryer. I have Onx Hunt that I use for marking my spots and such. Thanks, I have quite a few to catch.

Yesterday: I caught 9 rats. Nothing too exciting happened, set a new line and pulled the old line. Put up fur until 1:20 in the morning and got all caught up.

Today: I caught 8 rats, out of 8 floats, and had a couple of doubles. Saw a mink bounce across the road in front of me about 10 yards, and stopped for me to get a video. So that was cool, lured all of these with Mark Steck's Laughing lady lure so I hope it'll do well. Started making some beaver boards, making 3 of them and only did the 2 parts where you don't have to flip it since it's covered in spray paint, will paint them tomorrow the rest of the way. I have to return this stencil on Saturday since I'm just borrowing it. Will probably end up buying one this summer when I go on FNT and see something I want. Anyways, I have to go skin these rats and hit the hay.

With all the rats where are the mink or are they not in your area just curious

I've seen them while running the line but haven't caught one. I'm running all floats and while they have been known to go onto a float, most of the time the road is closer since I'm only trapping ditches. I saw one yesterday right by where I had 3 floats and didn't have him today. Will go back next year and try to catch him.

Today was a bitter sweet day. As much as I like trapping, running as hard as I have for 2 weeks straight has been tiring. I finally pulled the line today and stored the floats away for the year. The traps will need to be pressure washed, scrubbed, and then painted/dyed before I store them for the year. This check yielded 7 large+ rats. Got them all put up and now I need to head to bed since I'm heading to the convention tomorrow. Ended the season with 311 muskrats total, and 230 since April 10th.

Well done young man!

Good job!! Hope you do well when you sell.

Well sorry for not updating yesterday, I got home and did a bunch of yard work and just random stuff around the house. I went to the convention with my buddy, he had a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to everyone who came and talked to me. I bought a few 330 stands, talked to Pete Harper about his rat lure, and sold some 110s. Got my beaver from beaver hunting too. Ended up going to the fur buyers today, and sold 153 rats at 1.80$ average and made 272$, sold the beaver for 1$ an ounce, so 300.75$ in total. Made about minimum wage. Was worth the picture though, now I'm back to work on yards, hopefully, be done on Friday, and then back to coon and beaver. Here's the picture.

Great job!

Enjoyed your thread .
Like your attitude.

Congratulations and great pic. That's a pile of rats

Great work and keep going. Reminds me of my son 30 years ago. He is now a shark, opps I meant lawyer.

Thanks, guys! Just decided I'd update you guys on what I've been doing. Well, I've just been working on getting caught up on yards so that way I can go back to trapping. Got a welder yesterday and messed around with that a bit. It's just a little Lincoln weldpak 100 but perfect for anything that I'm going to ever do. Dad also found a speedglass at work from someone that either died or quit, I didn't ask since it's not really my business, he knew him pretty well though. Probably going to end up making some stakealizers when I get the chance. Anyways, I'll put some pictures in here if I end up making some. If anyone has any other recommendations for other stuff to build with it, let me know.

Well been a good couple of days, I did nothing at school today since it was track and field day so I spent most of the day outside. Been working the last couple of days, been pretty good pay. Shot a 28/50 at yesterday's practice and then a 36 at today's. I've started to shoulder the gun quicker and not worry about pushing my cheek in, just holding it tight and aiming. Apparently, it works well. Haven't fired the welder up again, but hopefully going to this weekend since we have some rain coming and I can't really do yards in the rain otherwise I rip them up.

I haven't been doing much the last few days. Been nuisance trapping coons out at an old trapper's place who can no longer do it because of health problems. I'm pretty sure there are 2 litters of babies unless the mom has them split up. Haven't caught a coon yet, been set up for 4 days. For the last 2 days, I have seen/heard the mom in a shed. Of course, I haven't had anything to deal with the problem because I don't expect it. Hopefully, I'm done tomorrow and then it's on to figuring out where the babies are and getting them out. Then closing up the building she decided to live in. I also have 2 mink, 1 coon, and 2 weasels back from the tanner sitting at the fur buyer's, I just need to go pick them up. The 2 weasels are from last year when I bought traps from a guy he had them and didn't want to make the trip.