Under ice muskrat sets

[Dubious]

Hoping to get some muskrats this season. Was thinking of using belisle 120 with carrot on the trigger wired to a long stick near their push-ups as well as some subs in runs. Being my first sets is the 120 going to be the best bang for my buck for muskrats? Or should I go up in size for use on other game I’m just starting out and dont have the cash flow to buy one of each size for each species and am hoping for some economy of effort with traps.

[South west trappin RG]

110 is all you need for under ice rats. I have a bunch of them an 120s you can have

[TrapperMike]

Nice to see you helping out new trappers Rod.

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by South west trappin RG

110 is all you need for under ice rats. I have a bunch of them an 120s you can have

I would really appreciate that.

[dugh]

I use 120s on Hagz clips, just take the safety off one side. They are a little more awkward but do the trick.

[Dubious]

time for an update;

South west trappin RG has helped me out a lot and set me up with some traps and showed me how he would set them. I really appreciate the time he spend showing me and the traps. thanks again rod! Wolfman1875 has also also offered me some great advice and some colony traps, thanks for the advice and the offer on the traps. both of these guys have been super helpful I hope I can pay it back one day.

as for traps in the water ive struggled a bit at a ducks unlimited site, local bird watchers have been less excited about my activities leading to a few uncomfortable one way discussions, that paired with really thick ice ive not been able to find a suitable spot to put the traps in. most of my spot has been frozen to the ground ive walked about 15km drilling holes every 200 m trying to find liquid water but unfortunately its been 1-3" of water under the ice at best and all the lodges are frozen out, ducks has reported the lack of Prussian carp in this particular location and suspect heavy ice may be the cause.

The ducks contact has been a dandy and has filled out a wa19 from for another site that he thinks may not be frozen to the ground. im going to try out there this Saturday and hope to post a picture of a first catch before the end of the weekend.

thanks again AO community especially to rod and wolfman.

[HunterDave]

I’m glad to hear that people are helping you out.

I’d like to offer you another option for trapping rats during the winter. Look into trapping their huts and push ups. You can make a lot of sets in a fraction of the time that it takes to find runs and cutting ice. It does however involve using footholds in a drowning set (legal).

Pushups are simple. You lift the top off and inside you’ll find a hole that they come up from and a ledge that they rest on. Set your foothold, place it on the ledge, secure the trap and replace the top of the push up. That’s it....done. The rat gets caught, goes back down the hole and expires.

Huts are pretty much the same except you have to remove a plug of hut out the side and replace it once the trap is set.

Imo, this is the way to go if you’re going to set a decent amount of traps in the winter. Setting traps and doing your checks is quick and easy. In the Spring footholds work great on lathe sets (redneck Hagz) and, in my experience, better than 110’s on float sets. Easy to check too. You can see a trap missing from a float from a distance.

There are videos on YouTube showing what I described. Have fun!

[TrapperMike]

Dave I also trap the pushups and houses but I use belisle 110s. They fit in both houses and pushups and no chance of rat pulling off a foot. In a large house I have put in as many as 10 traps and had 10 dead rats in the morning.

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by TrapperMike

Dave I also trap the pushups and houses but I use belisle 110s. They fit in both houses and pushups and no chance of rat pulling off a foot. In a large house I have put in as many as 10 traps and had 10 dead rats in the morning.

My 110’s weren’t AIHTS certified for trapping muskrats on land so I had to use them in drowning sets. I thought that using them in pushups and huts as a drowning set was a little iffy.....lol. After missed catches with 110’s on my float sets, I sold them all and switched to footholds. Much, much better.

Trapping pushups and huts sure beats cutting holes in the ice all over the place, imo.

[Whitetail200]

All great on the methods mentioned , X 2 on Belisle 110 & 120 . No body mentioned the preferred side of the house to chop into thus creating a plug to put back in place to stop freezing so to gain access to their runs to the nest. SOUTH /SOUTH WEST worked well for me . Also ones method to determine if house is active or not . Steel Rod method etc. , push down in house on the side & pull up , moist or wet then house is active . No moisture signs on rod then off to the next one . Saves a lot of chopping . This of course determines if theirs ample water depth . This being said I've had medium size houses which I've done the rod test , no moisture sign on rod but being a good size house I thought to investigate . Finding one of the entrance hole's I could see signs of activity coming in , made a set , caught a rat . So they were able to move using their runs under the ice going to the house which wasn't frozen down . But overall the rod test worked well .

[TrapperMike]

I also use the rod technique to find out if house is active. I have placed as many as 10 traps in a house opening holes around the house. I pull loose vegetation at each hole to help reseal the hole.