throwing in the towel.....

[Deleted]

Im not trying to rub it in. I had my best year ever on water and land,done really well on coyote ,cats,and coon. The weather here was to the advantage all season for me. Although will see with the market.im not a big number guy but reach triple digits for total catch.

[mustelameister]

Pulled a couple beaver sets yesterday, scored a two-year old and a large female otter. My second incidental otter by the way. Warden was called before I pulled the trap. Don't know if the river will open up before the end of March or not. I see 40s in the forecast for next week, but it's thick out there. Maybe get some floats in by walking in a few places. Don't know if I'll be able to launch the boat. Beaver closes the end of March.

'Rats and mink closed the end of February. Had a good time with wandering males in February. Probably my highlight of the entire trapping season. Here are the last seven traps, all set within 10 yards of each other. This was immediately following that 40-degree heat wave we had towards the end of February. The ice the traps are setting on was fresh ice formed during the preceding two nights. All bottom edge sets.

[RdFx]

Nice pic Mike, how are your shins fm the ice? Sometimes it smarts some....when you try to break ice with shins instead of chisel....

[trappnman]

I'd have stayed out longer, if I would have had the rats to do it-

if God is listening- just a normal spring and summer is what I need here for next fall to have number recuperate

[RdFx]

I dont have any spring creeks here, everything is froze up solid except for little spring seeps that have wet areas. Snow is three foot deep also on creeks and bvr ponds with overflow a couple times with layers. Mike your lucky to have what you have down there close to the Mississippi, you too Steve. But with no fur , doesnt pay and if you do you better have snowshoes. I know you get good snow by you from your pics Steve too along your trapping creeks, Fun!.
As far as coon only a few creeks have trails of boar coon honeymooning....skunks are out and getting some calls to remove. Pelts are still beautifull, but soon the long hairs on tail start to fall out. Slow melt this spring and ground soaking up would be nice.

[mustelameister]

Mar 8, 2014 8:17:37 GMT -6 RdFx said:

Nice pic Mike, how are your shins fm the ice? Sometimes it smarts some....when you try to break ice with shins instead of chisel....

Brought hatchet along to cut fresh ice, and did wear snowshoes most the time. If you didn't, you'd go through the soft stuff, then through the ice if it wasn't thick enough, then sink to your knees in the muck.

Most of the catches came in little rivulets like this one, where the 5x5s were set side by side. Now I'm not sure how the DNR regs view this as legal or not, or if this constitutes a navigable stream, but I set it and we teach this in trapper ed, so be it. They do work this way.



In some of the wider rivulets I've gone to a colony on either side, with one or two #110s on KB stabilizers in between, staggered.

This was quite a producer. Must've been a 'rat motel as there was almost always a 'rat in one of these two colony traps. You can see two tobacco lath staking the colony traps in place.



Big surprise on the last day when I pulled the trap on the left.





Getting ready for next year already. Tinkered with some new ideas this year and both projects came up looking real promising for committing to a larger scale. Figuring 'coon and 'rats will be just as thinned out this coming season as they were this past season, I'm looking to expand the three different river lines. Might even go to a fourth line and run a four-day check on all drowning sets. We'll see.

[mustelameister]

Mar 8, 2014 11:14:32 GMT -6 trappnman said:

if God is listening- just a normal spring and summer is what I need here for next fall to have number recuperate

Ain't that the truth. What we need is a g-r-a-d-u-a-l spring up north. Please.