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Post by thebeav2 on Jul 24, 2008 7:43:11 GMT -6
I have a situation
There Is this marsh I can trap 100s of rat huts 10' stakes won't work. You can't get out of the boat any where. I don't like or want to shove stakes In the huts. I can't trap In the hut but I can place traps on the huts. Trapping through the ice has been tried not real sucsesfull. What are my options?
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Post by foxcatcher1 on Jul 24, 2008 8:01:02 GMT -6
Floats weighted with decoy anchors. I have a ditch with very steep side that I have to trap like this.
Don
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Post by garman on Jul 24, 2008 8:52:22 GMT -6
Trap the hut but make floats similar to foxcatcher stated to anchor to. How deep is the slough?
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Post by 17HMR on Jul 24, 2008 9:48:50 GMT -6
The huts are in 10' of water? Man thats unheard of here, always seems to be in 3 or 4 foot at most.
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Post by lumberjack on Jul 24, 2008 9:57:26 GMT -6
I would shove the stake into the hut foundation. With water that deep you would have an iceburg effect to the huts and wouldnt hurt a thing, id think, unless illegal.
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Post by trappnman on Jul 24, 2008 12:26:56 GMT -6
100s of rat houses and no feed beds? then you have no choice .
if feed beds, they are going to be anchored to something in 10 feet of water- tie off to the willows or whatever.
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Post by northof50 on Jul 24, 2008 14:23:40 GMT -6
Must be a floating cat-tail/ peat bog ? Thats where those submarine traps work. Chainsaw the ice and use a float ie log and suspend just below cattail roots 3 or 4 feet. Cable on both ends of trap onto the log. The rats swim below the cattails and see a hole and go to it. Learned this one the hard way when we put a skidoo through the marsh once. Had to dive down and attach a line and haul back through the ice. The rats really work the tubbers on the bottoms of the cat-tails just like rabbits do on emerging carrot tops, and it was so clear to see this under the ice..........but cold in the wetsuit when you came up.
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Post by jwr64 on Jul 24, 2008 14:51:21 GMT -6
Had to dive down and attach a line and haul back through the ice. The rats really work the tubbers on the bottoms of the cat-tails just like rabbits do on emerging carrot tops, and it was so clear to see this under the ice..........but cold in the wetsuit when you came up. That thing would have been there come spring I'll stick with the cottonmouths down here.
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Post by wildman on Jul 24, 2008 16:42:20 GMT -6
sounds like your gonna have to cut some long saplings for stakes. a killer set on all them huts is to punch a dent into the base of the hut just big enough so it appears as a climb out spot or resting place. i do one on each side with a leghold in the dent and both can be wired to the same stake. i use a longer tie wire on each with a good loop in it so it can swivel around the stake and not tangle with the 2nd trap. sharpen your knife beav cause this set HAMMERS rats and swimming mink!!! i would be cuttin stakes..............wildman
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Post by thebeav2 on Jul 24, 2008 18:19:52 GMT -6
Guys this Is large lake and It's all bog with a very deep bottom 12' or more even close to the bank It's over 8' feet deep. The rats must be building their huts on small chunks of floating bog. My favorite set Is the dent In the hut deal catch lots of rats that way.
I thought about floats and long cords or wire and small weights for anchors. I'm not to keen on building a lot of floats. I have been In situations where floats didn't work and In some cases they did. I hate to take a chance. Garman so what your saying Is to set the trap and attache the trap chain to a buoy of sorts. And just let It float around like your jug fishing or a big bobber. I like that Idea. Would a free swimming rat chew holes In the jugs and cause them to sink? I have trapped areas where feed beds are the norm along the edges of the cat tails but In this situation the rats seem to be using the huts as feeding situations and not building normal feed beds. I spent some time looking last year but didn't have much luck.
We can't use colony traps yet and I just don't see how I could place them at the hut entrances. Are you saying that If the trap Is located at the Ice hole the rats will be attracted to the chopped hole and go Into the trap? Is a submarine trap the same as a colony trap?
I tried to trap In the push ups two years ago and It was a compleat disaster. I was out there on 2" of ice In waders no life jacket. I didn't know how deep It was. Got lucky on that one.
Pushed through the push ups from under water and placed the trap It was very hard to find the natural entrance. I did catch a few rats but most of the traps were all plugged with debris. Later I was told to make sure I plugged the hole after I placed the trap. But It was a real pain chopping all those holes through the Ice. I'm a open water rat trapper. Keep the ideas coming. With the right system a guy could easily catch 600 to 800 rats out of there. No one traps It and now I can see why.
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Post by northof50 on Jul 24, 2008 19:42:29 GMT -6
Go to the articles lately about submarine traps, they are different than the door flappers. There are pics. With 2 inches of ice you should have a wet/dry suit on. Once you fall through that ice your weight collapes the other ice and it's a tough climb up. You weigh an extra 70 pounds with the water in the clothes and waders. WI does not allow multi catch traps I presume? With push-ups the conibear is best in below the ice. The plugging was because they saw light and came up with material to plug their hole. You can run 3-5 coni's on a green popular pole down through these push-ups with that water depth, wired 18 inches appart, with a cable running the lenght so no beaver nips it off. Scrape a little bark off around each trap, once one is caught it attracts others over. Trap spring through the pole and 2 shingle nails for support to the pole.Below the ice no damage to those swimmers.
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Post by garman on Jul 24, 2008 20:03:22 GMT -6
. Garman so what your saying Is to set the trap and attache the trap chain to a buoy of sorts. And just let It float around like your jug fishing or a big bobber. I like that Idea. Would a free swimming rat chew holes In the jugs and cause them to sink? Beav it depends, you could fill jugs with foam, make a rat float with wood and styrofoam, use wire to anchor to bottom though. Seen many of my duck decoys float away cause of rats. You have seen those Brahn muskrat floats, something similar to that but just use as an anchoring system for the trap then anchor float to bottom of lake. Just an idea, think out of the box my man. The problem I have seen with just using a baited float they are not very productive, just what I have seen. They have there place but I have more higher % sets for simple rats.
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Post by lumberjack on Jul 24, 2008 20:13:01 GMT -6
Baited conibears on long poles?
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Post by coalking on Jul 24, 2008 20:39:12 GMT -6
Article in the Mar/Apr 2004 American Trapper. Page 28. Sounds like it won't work either. Sounds like what you already do as they talk about 10' stakes. If you don't have it I can get it to you. Coalking
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Post by Drew on Jul 25, 2008 6:27:22 GMT -6
Beav, I have two lakes similar to your set up not as deep but the bottoms are peat/muck so long stakes don't work.
I played with a few different set ups but one that worked well but took some time to make/set..
I made lighter drowning weights, wired them to my footholds then tied small jugs with really heavy duty fishing line to the weight.
I'd set the foothold in a dent on the hut, and set the weight on the hut where it would take a tug or two to pull it off. The jug just floated as a "locator" when the rat hit the trap he pulled the weight out and went to the bottom, you grab the locator jug and pull them up....it's not perfect but it help me take the bigger rats that stayed in the deep water.
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Post by trappnman on Jul 25, 2008 7:05:25 GMT -6
wait a minute, wait a minute- lets not get too wound up in stuff and gizmos.....
if all you have is rat houses, and you can set on them- then thats what you need to do.
if you can't put a stick into the bottom- and don'r want to set the houses themselves- then cut willow poles , slice them at the top so you can put a 1.5 ls in it, and shove them into the bottoms of the rat houses so that the top sticks out, and the trap is just under the surface.
This is the one scenario, where rat lure MIGHT give you better results- I'm undecided on that, but if pressed would say it doesn't matter- that the top of the willow at an angle, provides the attraction.
but I think your indentation on the houses is the way to go- I'm sure oyu do it the same way- make a groove so that you can set te trap on a ledge underwater with the top of the fresh groove going up the house 8-10 inches. I'd set 3-4 on every house, run them 3-4 nights and move on.
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Post by garman on Jul 25, 2008 9:04:38 GMT -6
T-man you are greatly upsetting me, you must not be a true Red-Green Northerner!! It is all about gizmo's and gadgets along with duct tape.LOL
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Post by billmeyerhoff on Jul 25, 2008 10:22:37 GMT -6
I'd use liquid laundry detergent bottles and jug em, a little extra weight tied on the trap chain should put them down quick. Might need to use Teflon tape when screwing on the cap to keep them from leaking, much tougher than milk jugs. Tie a rope on one and string them, tow them behind the boat when setting up.
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Post by Bigfoot on Jul 25, 2008 11:22:07 GMT -6
I think Drew has the right Idea I don't see how it could get any simpilar than that . As long as you don't overdo the weight or float ( you are trapping rats here ) . I'm thinking twelve or sixteen oz sinkers and 1 or two litter pop bottles or sections of swimming noodle Pieces of light weight painted drift wood .
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Post by garman on Jul 25, 2008 11:52:18 GMT -6
problem with plastic sometimes is they get chewed by rats then they sink, my duck decoys even did from time to time. But may work.
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