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Post by rn on Mar 30, 2006 14:26:03 GMT -6
What is your (anyone who care to share advice that is)favorite most efficient method of securing your foot hold water traps (coon, beaver, otter)? Is it the drowning slide wire, a long chain and a stake or the long chain with drag attached?
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Post by Kyle on Mar 30, 2006 16:38:34 GMT -6
For coons, I usually use one 3/8"x24" rebar stake, or else I use one 1/2" x24" rebar stake. And I use wood stakes too.
For a mink blind set, I usally use a RR tie plate, sometimes I will use two if there is coon tracks of poop nearby.
And for rats, I use either a lathe or a long wooden stake.
For beavers, I had a snare anchored with one 24" long rebar, and they pulled that. Still got the beaver though. I have used wire, and wired the conibear to a tree on bank, that held 'em, and a drowning cable has also worked for me.
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Post by foxtail on Mar 30, 2006 17:51:35 GMT -6
I stake all of my water sets with a good strong stake or weight strong/heavy enough to hold a beaver or a lab.
Think this is overkill?
Ask Wendt what he thinks. (will agree)
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Post by Mike N. on Mar 30, 2006 22:47:39 GMT -6
I use cable and Iowa disposable stakes where there's not much for water depth to drown. For drowning w/ sliders I use the Iowa disp. in the deeper water and a wooden stake on the other end by the bank. A trap and single stake is quicker than the sliders but I try to use whatever the situation calls for. Usually, I end up setting about 1/2 and 1/2. I have on occasion wired to big rocks and whatnot where there was a concrete bottom (bridges).
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Post by trappnman on Mar 31, 2006 7:15:27 GMT -6
If you want anything bigger than rat or mink to drown consistently, you need some type of slide.
If you use wire, I'd use nothing less than #11 ga wire. anything smaller, you WILL get the occasionally kink in the wire and then you have problems.
Went to cable for slides a few years ago, and much prefer them over wire.
On deep water, I prefer weights. For applications where I have to walk, I use chicken wire cut 4 X 4 and make wire baskets and fill with rocks. A little time consuming, but rocks aren't a problem here in the creeks.
If I'm road trapping beaver, I use concrete blocks or 4-5 window weights tied together and use a few RR plates.
Close mesh bags are nice if only small pebbles, sand, dirt are available- all work nicely.
I always stake top stake with rebar, if using weights or a bottom stake. Tried disposables in water, in my type of bottoms, don't like them at all. In water 4 feet or so- a common depth for my coon- I use rebar. Start it with my gauntlets, push it flush with my foot.
If using stakes- always angle them away from the pull- so top stake angled toward the bank, bottom angle the opposite. I just grab the coon and or cable, and pull the bottom stake- easily done when pulling with the bottom stakes angle.
On real sandy bottoms, I pull the stake every 10 days or so if I haven't had to because of no action or being able to slide trap back up w/o pulling the bottom stake. If yo don't pull and restake occasionally, I've had bottom stakes after 3 months that are impossible to pull because of silting.
My favorite way of "staking" coon in shallow creeks without possibility of otter/beaver, is with wooden drags made out of long branches. Setting your sets upstream from driftpiles or blowdowns, makes finding coon a snap. Very, very seldom does a coon leave the water, and the drag "marks" are easy to find. Another method btw of reducing and/or eliminating chewing.
I've been using a few more long chained grapples on coon, and in the spots I use them, I like them.
If you are staking coon solid, it doesn't hurt to double stake. Give a coon access to land, and hes going to BE on land- pulling and pulling and pulling (and chewing, but the bmps knew that)... so is soft creek bottoms, they CAN and will pull a stake. I use double couplers and that does the job.
BTW- in liquid mud, sand- 2 double stakes are what I use on the tops of slides as well.
Rats and mink- easiest if possible is to use a quantity of wire, chain- and stake so the stake is flush to the bottom. Forget tangle sticks- I sometimes think they do more harm than good.
If you want a tangle stick- weld a washer 3-4 inches down on the rerod- so when you push it flush to the bottom, the top sticks out. This will easily tangle them up where you WANT them tangled- on the bottom.
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Post by bigbrad115 on Mar 31, 2006 21:03:24 GMT -6
Most of my water trapping has been for coon and muskrats. For coon along thick,brushey creeks I use a two prong coyote drag on about 5' of chain. They usually don't get too far. On the creeks with more open banks I use Berkshire cable stakes. The creeks in my area have heavy,clay,banks and bottoms,so I don't worry too much about them pulling the stakes out. For muskrats,my foot traps have about 4' of chain attached. I use cable stakes on them also. Stick them in the bank or creek bottom.
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