My Rats

[Deleted]

For those of you who remember my short video showing the private pit/marsh I trap rats on, here's this morning's video.
youtu.be/t22xaZ5kkK0

[stickbowhntr]

Great job and Video....

[bobbrennan1]

Nice looks like your having fun!

[musher]

I really enjoyed that video. Rarely see a hut here and have never seen a bubble trail. Snow kind of gets in the way!
It certainly looks like fun trapping. Thanks for posting.

[bblwi]

Thanks for the good video on the runs. We don't have enough ice here to walk on and it is raining again here today. Not always does one get great clear ice with little snow so one can see all the activity.

Bryce

[Deleted]

Jan 8, 2016 16:18:04 GMT -6 bblwi said:

Thanks for the good video on the runs. We don't have enough ice here to walk on and it is raining again here today. "Not always does one get great clear ice with little snow so one can see all the activity."

Bryce

Me neither Bryce and Musher!  Since I'm trapping canines on the same property I've been watching the ice thickness closely.  Last week we got 4" of icy snow which made for a clouded ice right when the temps were dropping to make ice.  I was very happy to see that during the storm the rats were active through the slush that turned to ice.  My "window of opportunity" may close this weekend with a storm warning for 4"-7" of heavy snow.  Yesterday was 1st setting and with the storm forecast I was spudding holes to beat the band and laying the chunks of ice beside the holes so I may be able to find them AND most importantly the runs/bubble trails.  

The catch ratio is lower then when I set the feed beds in open water BUT I can tell you this Bryce, the spudding was a heck of a lot easier on me then all the wading!!  Never lost my breath or even huffed & puffed!

I'm very glad you folks enjoyed me video!

[Deleted]

Here's a couple of clips I made yeasterday that I wasn't going to make into a video but I changed my mind. LOL
youtu.be/7mb-b7X9dVY

[stickbowhntr]

in this clip I thought I heard you mention you could see your bait on the bottom, What do you like in the ice conditions?

[Deleted]

Notice the difference in the surface of the ice between the 1st video and the short 2nd. The 2nd video was taken the first check and there was a very light snow cover and my ability to see the runs/bubbles was limited. The 2nd check was the 1st video and the temps had warmed above freezing and the skift of snow was gone and all the runs/bubble trails appreared for me. This is the "window of opprotunity" without this happening I'd have to do a heck of a lot of pounding with the spud to find the thin ice OR do a lot of opening holes and splashing water on the ice to be able to see the bubbles/runs.

[trappnman]

its nice when you get ice that allows one to see through it. unfortunately here it happens very rarely.

I remember one year back in the late 50s, going out to the Winona Pools with my dad on ice so clear you could see the bottom in 4-6 feet of water. Like looking through a pane of glass. We could see fish, rats, turtles swimming below.

Dad let us bring ice skates, and while he checked traps, we skated all over those backwaters- one of those days I never forgot.

Dad used to use the old school method of a fresh willow branch, with a strip taken off near the top to expose the green wood, then used a 1.5 longspring that was wedged into a slit in the bark, below the fresh wood. These state were placed into the mud at a 45 degree angle, and were rat catching machines.

Caught lots of rats on those when I lived by the marshes.

[Deleted]

I'd say the principle of your dad's set is the same as the "board" set.  The "board" set is undoubtedly the most used set on the big Saginaw By mashes and olny the Lord knows how long it's been used.

Back in 1974 I had the opprotunity to spend a day with a wildey renowned Bay "under-ice"rat trapper in exchange for my giving him fox trapping instruction.  He had photos showing over 2000 rats all caught under the ice using the board set.  I think I remember seeing one photo with around 4000 rats!  This old boy new how and why rats are caught under ice.  I never pulled so many sled loads of boards and bags of apples as I did that day. 

[redsnow]

Thanks for sharing your videos. Also enjoyed your coyote location videos.

[Griz]

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the coyote videos, but the muskrat one really brought back memories. I learned to trap back in the late '50's trapping muskrats in a long oxbow cut off when they dredged the creek through our area. Open water trapping was at dens you could find, but when we got a "window of opportunity" of clear ice all of the dens showed up with bubble trails to and from them, As you say it was not rocket science and great fun.

[Deleted]

I'm sincerely glad you enjoyed the videos Griz!

[northof50]

Interesting looks like your phragmites are the introduced European species'
Are they green apples or green hockey pucks as bait?

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2016 20:45:35 GMT -6 northof50 said:

Interesting looks like your phragmites are the introduced European species'
Are they green apples or green hockey pucks as bait?

Here ya go North-

youtu.be/2C_jB3nHJFQ

[Deleted]

I've had a couple of folks laugh at my video so here's the story behind it that isn't a laughing matter.

A few years ago while checking beaver traps in a serious backwoods area I saw two trappers pulling there gear off the ice.  Now the marshes they were/had been trapping are not very large, maybe 2 acres with tiny ones connecting a coupe of the 20's.  One Otter sled looked like it was piled with something I didn't recognize and the other I could see rats above the rim.  I'm not a rat trapper but it was obvious to me that they'd done pretty well to be finished.

As I was hiking out I saw the truck leave so I just changed course and walked out on the ice where they'd just left.  Sure enough, they had pulled.  At every hole lay a tag alder which I took for their stake and that was all there was until as I was walking out on their tracks I found this piece of plywood on a hammock.  Now I recognized what was on that one Otter sled, a pile of these pieces of plywood.  The plywood had two nails that I took to be they tacked the plywood to the tag alder stake and a nail head to hang a foothold trap off as you would using a board set.  The most interesting thing though was the 1" square of green florescent marking tape, folded into a square and stapled to the board.  There was no evidence of a "bait nail" so the only attractor had to be the tape and the old lightbulb came on!

The next time I set through the ice for rats and everyday since, I used the theory of the tape with my carrots and found that the combo spanks the hell out of them and I don't even like trapping rats!   BTW, "spanking the hell out of them", to me means I average a 55% catch ratio day in/day out with lows of around 30% and highs of around 80%.

The piece of plywood that I found and led me to using the taped carrots on my baited bodygrips.

[northof50]

Thanks for the advise, it is always helpful being of Scotish background to hold onto things a wee bit before ya let them go.
Mbcooner would have liked to know this because he was going through 4-5# bags of carrots a day with his 650 floats.
My paartnes put in an extra 100 foot row on the first of July for fall rat trapping ,15 Oct, with the predicted prices this fall my only intrest was getting some for the researchers, and all those carrots were yummy. Interesting they were only pinky size in 10 Oct but were 6 inch sweet by Nov 1st, because of our fall.

The phragmites root is a green florescence colour when under water.

[Deleted]

I've thought it was more related to contrast or whatever a rat actually sees for color.  That plywood I found with the tape square was being used in a cattail marsh.

[Deleted]

I reset my rat marsh day before yesterday and I noticed something I forgot to mention a point of interest in my earlier post about my bait.  9 sets out of 10 the rats chew the green tape before they start on the carrot.