Set my Rat traps this morning

[Macthediver]

Well I got out on the river today for the first day of rat trapping. I guess I knew the river was high while duck hunting. But man it made it hard to find a place to set traps with the river up and the rats just swimming every where. I set mostly all bank slides so I'm thinking I didn't have as much trouble as the guys out there with only 110s. Going to be interesting in the morning see what I have. I'm not going to expect much even thought it seems there are a lot of rat houses. My guess is the reason there are so many rat houses this year is because of the high water? Little buggers got to build their own dry place to sit.

Mac

[RdFx]

Mac  , not many rat houses on my line , they didnt build  houses till middle of October.  I saw houses on the Mississippi back  at the end of Sept already... Getting more rats than last year but have to work for them... Everything is prime... nice white skins and long hairs on pelts   mink, rats, and coon.

[Catfish]

Rats are definatly hard to trap in high water, but to you do what you have to do. In high water yu go to the slides and runs and has the water goes down you move your traps to where they are getting in and out of the water.

[bblwi]

Moved into some good rat habitat today. I am hoping for a few good rats tomorrow. My wadable rivers are coming back in rats. I have trapped about 1.5 miles of stream the last 3 days and caught 42 rats 1 mink and 15 coons.  Did not set early for coon this year, so numbers are way down but fur quality is better.



Bryce

[Macthediver]

First check of my rat line this morning and I'm ok with the results. Here on the river we are only allowed 40 traps so I was please to do 50% today and caught 20 rats. My son had the day off work so he went with, which means he can be the official picture taker.

A Rat in my goofy round traps








Mac

[Bogmaster]

 Always figured a 50% catch rate was good for rats and beaver.
 Thanks for the photos Mark, now you got me wishing, big time.
 Tom

[Macthediver]

Tom
The numbers held good again today and I should have had 18 rats. Should have had because mink ate two rats leaving pretty much a mess for me. I reset the one trap and used the half rat for bait. So maybe when mister mink comes looking for left overs he'll get smacked? I moved some stuff today and plan to move most or all that don't hit tomorrow. Maybe the numbers will hold if I keep moving to new ground. I won't even try to guess on a end game total, just wait and see when I pick up Saturday.
So far so good!

Mac

[bblwi]

Pulled my rat line yesterday. The last two sections of the small rivers were still down in population like the last decade. With the warm weather the coons were not running much either so I will do some trapping now after our gun season. My wadable river line which is about 3.5-4 miles gave up 102 rats 5 mink and 28 coons in 7 days.

Bryce

[Macthediver]

I ended my 6 day run on the river with 73 rats should have been closer to 80. I lost several to coon, mink and birds of prey. I got some more days off the first part of December and I'll decide then wehter it's fishing, hunting or trapping. Heading north tomorrow evening for four days of gun deer hunting with brothers and a friends.

Mac

[Bogmaster]

 Good luck Mark.
 Tom

[Packerfan]

Nice photos Mark. Hold on to a few of those rats, prices seem to be climbing.

[Macthediver]

To late I sold my rats the day before the big snow, I had 72 for the week I was out trapping. I don't think I did to bad, I had I believe without going back and looking a $4.17 ave. I didn't get the normal 4 pile deal while he graded. Just two piles one at $3.00 and one at $5.00 and I had one dink and one mink eaten that he gave me .50 for. I played around with the math and it's funny how if you throw out the 2 junkers and the $1.00 I got for them how it changes things.
Anyway I would have like to hang onto them but I had the time to get them all off the wire and gone. So I got them out of my way.
From what I've heard so far I'm in the ball park for what guys are getting. He did say that rats weren't coming in like he figured and if I was going back out he could use more. The cold and snow hasn't shut everyone down. I seen stakes on my way home form work today around some rat houses along the road.

Mac