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  #61  
Old 03-23-2015, 06:24 AM
braggadoe braggadoe is offline
 
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filthy,,,,,,,,just filthy.

i've yet to break the 100 mark in a single check.....today might be the day.
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  #62  
Old 03-24-2015, 01:54 AM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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Funny, 137 yesterday? Well 133 today! Is that consistent or what? I'm going to have to get a little creative to manhandle these littl creatures!
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  #63  
Old 03-24-2015, 04:11 AM
braggadoe braggadoe is offline
 
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up early, try to get the skinning done so i can check again.

didn't break a 100. had 60 something at lunch time. pulled and reset another couple of virgin sloughs.



wish i had bigger pieces of water. alot of puddle jumping around here. picked up another couple dozen on the way home, at the end of the day.


maybe today.
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  #64  
Old 03-24-2015, 08:05 AM
nube nube is offline
 
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Way to go Brag, your hammerin them
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  #65  
Old 03-24-2015, 08:42 AM
bill9044 bill9044 is offline
 
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Quick question what is your sets vs catch ratio. As in if you are catching 60 rats do you have 120 sets out?
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  #66  
Old 03-24-2015, 08:52 AM
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PCP_ECOM PCP_ECOM is offline
 
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Default rats

another check in yesterday,not as impressive as you Brag but 26 putting 4 check total at 90,pull out of there tomorrow,congrats Paul
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  #67  
Old 03-24-2015, 10:25 AM
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Good catches everyone! I am still plugging away trapping through the ice, production is slow. Hoping for some open water edges by the end of next week possibly. Can't complain though, big under ice spring rats will demand a good price at sale.

Spruce
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  #68  
Old 03-24-2015, 10:43 AM
gman1978 gman1978 is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by braggadoe View Post
up early, try to get the skinning done so i can check again.

didn't break a 100. had 60 something at lunch time. pulled and reset another couple of virgin sloughs.



wish i had bigger pieces of water. alot of puddle jumping around here. picked up another couple dozen on the way home, at the end of the day.


maybe today.
Good Job, looks like you got a heck of a rat area. Most of the good rat sloughs in my area have been drained or have been dry for the last 5 years. Still a few holes with rats but no big numbers.
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  #69  
Old 03-24-2015, 01:17 PM
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I dont catch many rats in a year but I'm done for the year , last 2 were chewed so bad they had no value .. Maybe rats on big water would still be ok , but on my tiny creek they are very concentrated .
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  #70  
Old 03-24-2015, 02:10 PM
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Quote:
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I dont catch many rats in a year but I'm done for the year , last 2 were chewed so bad they had no value .. Maybe rats on big water would still be ok , but on my tiny creek they are very concentrated .
Get em in the fall Cam
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  #71  
Old 03-25-2015, 06:46 AM
braggadoe braggadoe is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bill9044 View Post
Quick question what is your sets vs catch ratio. As in if you are catching 60 rats do you have 120 sets out?
thats the beauty of rat trapping with colony/funnel traps. for easy math. 60 rats coming from 20 traps would be slow. after i skinned and counted the rats from the pic/day above. i had 89, which came from 13 colony/funnel traps and about 24 foot traps. three 4 trap/float, four 2 trap/float, the odd lathe set. thats one line. i'm running 2 different lines so i can check the sets ever 48 hrs.

you get them all right away. its alot of work, because you are constantly moving every thing. this is not a great rat area. isn't much for water around here. all but one slough i've got accsess too, are very small. most are good for 20-30 rats.

think i'm going load up the 5th wheel and go on a rat trapp'in road trip next week. just to hit some new water.

should be good out there today!

Last edited by braggadoe; 03-25-2015 at 07:07 AM.
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  #72  
Old 03-25-2015, 07:53 AM
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You boys sure pile up the rats !!! Congrats on the awesome hauls 👍
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  #73  
Old 03-25-2015, 12:40 PM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Last week I figured that I'd be putting out sets about now.....then came the colder snap and snow. Hopefully this time next week I'll get going.

A question for you fellas that have bigger lines and only check your sets every 48 hours.......What kind of problems do you have with green belly?

I've only ever done 24 hour checks at the most and even with that, last Fall I was getting rats with green belly. Towards the end of October the water was darned cold but I'm wondering if the cold Spring water slows green belly down enough that a fella could get away with 48 hour checks if he had to. Thanks.
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  #74  
Old 03-25-2015, 02:00 PM
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Default Clear Lake

Well did final check today,so drum rollll please 5 checks 110 caught,pulled this area,258 for year total,another 42 and i'll call her quit's,back is starting to tell me something so i'm thinking i'm gonna try some of the NUBE sticks for a change up to get last few,got some beaver to remove as well,had good friend out on Monday,last catch was 20,so 22 a check avg.And left offering to the Rat Gods of all carrots that were on floats,hope it keeps them happy and coming in years to come LOL
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  #75  
Old 03-25-2015, 02:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HunterDave View Post
Last week I figured that I'd be putting out sets about now.....then came the colder snap and snow. Hopefully this time next week I'll get going.

A question for you fellas that have bigger lines and only check your sets every 48 hours.......What kind of problems do you have with green belly?

I've only ever done 24 hour checks at the most and even with that, last Fall I was getting rats with green belly. Towards the end of October the water was darned cold but I'm wondering if the cold Spring water slows green belly down enough that a fella could get away with 48 hour checks if he had to. Thanks.
I only run 24 hour checks, max. Green belly would be an issue, chewed up rats would be a bigger issue, wring offs due to live animals would be the biggest issue. at 48 hours you would also have predator issues, hawks, owls, mink, etc.IMO

Spruce
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  #76  
Old 03-25-2015, 02:34 PM
braggadoe braggadoe is offline
 
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strong work peter!!

i get issues with green belly when they're back in the shed, drying them out. not from a 48hr check in cold water.

can't say i've ever had a ring out with 1.5's.can't say i've ever had owl/hawk dive into the water and eat a rat.not alot otter or mink around here it seems.

one of the draw backs to colony/funnel traps is that they will bite up each other.
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  #77  
Old 03-25-2015, 02:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by braggadoe View Post
strong work peter!!

i get issues with green belly when they're back in the shed, drying them out. not from a 48hr check in cold water.

can't say i've ever had a ring out with 1.5's.can't say i've ever had owl/hawk dive into the water and eat a rat.not alot otter or mink around here it seems.

one of the draw backs to colony/funnel traps is that they will bite up each other.
No wring offs,green belly on one that I saw,had one rat get hooked on pole,and it looked like something tried to scalp it,other than that,most part pretty clean and big rats,there is the odd one don't get me wrong.last spring a got 100 and sent last part of them for this up coming sale,only had 9 that went damaged,pretty darn good if you ask me IMO,Paul your racking them in as well
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  #78  
Old 03-25-2015, 02:57 PM
nube nube is offline
 
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You guys are killing me. I am jelous you have open water. I went out today because of it and looked over some spots. Asked permission in a spot I had last year and someone else stole permission first this year. Darn. Got one beaver set in today and found a couple other houses. Still might just try and shoot some this spring when water opens up. Not going too crazy on the rats this spring but hope I can nab a couple hundred
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  #79  
Old 03-26-2015, 10:51 AM
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Default Rat set

Here is a good clean catch! Really like the way this set functions, and produces. Going to have to drop in another dozen or so of them.


Spruce
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  #80  
Old 03-26-2015, 02:25 PM
braggadoe braggadoe is offline
 
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  #81  
Old 03-26-2015, 03:52 PM
pikeslayer22 pikeslayer22 is offline
 
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Wow the skinning shack must be busy Brag!
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  #82  
Old 03-26-2015, 04:09 PM
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Nice work Brag. You gotta be getting close to that season goal by now! Are the rats starting to fight there yet? I usually don't get much of an open water trapping window for them here.

Spruce
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  #83  
Old 03-26-2015, 04:31 PM
braggadoe braggadoe is offline
 
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its been a good year! really enjoying this resident trapping.

i caught rats in mid feb that had bite marks. some spots are worse than others. hasn't been a show stopper yet.
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  #84  
Old 03-27-2015, 05:51 PM
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KegRiver KegRiver is offline
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Great thread. Love it!

I wish I had photos to share unfortunately for most of my trapping carrier I didn't have a camera of any sort. I couldn't afford such luxuries back then.

I do have this one, but it doesn't really show what the spring hunt was for us.
It was big. One of the biggest events of the year, right up there with the fall harvest.

Here's a small glimpse.




That's my bud skinning one of more then twenty we took that day. It was a slow day.

We did two types of spring hunt.
The hunt that produced these beaver was our river hunt. Every spring the two year old beaver leave home and go looking for a mate and a home territory. They leave the colony and head down the nearest stream to the bigger streams which they then follow for a ways before heading up another feeder stream.
We would set traps along the main river and every other day from ice out to the middle of April we'd make a run along the main river checking traps and shooting any beaver we found along the way.
On a good day we could bring home upwards of fifty beaver. Twenty in a day was okay but not great. A poor day we'd get a dozen or less.

Although the numbers where high the quality was not. Those travelers would get to fighting when they met and by the second week of the hunt the pelts would be starting to show large wounds from the fighting.
By the end of that week they would be too chewed up to be worth going after and they would be getting sun burnt from not having a lodge or hole to spend the daylight hours in.

Our preferred spring hunt involved finding a group of beaver colonies close enough together to hunt from one location.
Then as soon as there was any open water on those colonies we'd set up a camp at a central location and each morning and evening we'd each choose a colony to hunt.
If we got four in the morning and two in the evening out of one colony we'd move to another for the next hunt.

Six to eight beaver a day was about average but the quality was usually close to the best of the year. What I like the most was the time in camp fixing hides, telling stories and enjoying the great outdoors.
And the adventures. Oh the adventures.

There was the evening my big brother had commented that he hadn't seen a bear yet that year. Big mistake!
You want to see bears says our friend, I'll show you bears. With that he reached over to the campfire and took the frying pan we'd cooked a mess of bacon in that morning and he upset it over the hot coals.
A blue cloud of oily smelling smoke belched out of that fire and drifted off down the stream beside our camp.
An hour later the first bear strolled into camp. The second was a few minutes behind him. The third wouldn't come in but we heard him arrive about half an hour later. At dark they were still coming. And they were getting bolder by the hour. By nine that night we were firing shots into the air every time we heard something move in the bush.

The last two showed up just after midnight. We were running low on ammunition and our nerves were about shot as well.
We had decided that if we were to get any sleep that night we'd have to shoot a few to convince the rest to leave us alone.
We had no artificial light but big brother and mr. frying pan figured they could see well enough by moonlight to make a killing shot.
They set up on a beaver dam that crossed the steam next to camp.
The plan was to catch the bear in the open and silhouetted against the moonlight reflecting off the water. They figured that would give them the best chance at hitting their target.

Well it allowed them to see sure enough. They saw well enough to see the hump on the bear crossing the dam in the moonlight.
That's when they decided that maybe they didn't want to shoot a bear in the night after all.

That was the second to last bear to come in that night. Turns out it was the second to last bear we saw on that trip.
We didn't get any sleep till the next afternoon.
Who could sleep with all that excitement. With dozens of beaver drying on hoops (bear candy) outside our tents and bears wondering among the tents we felt more like swapping stories then like sleeping anyway.
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  #85  
Old 03-27-2015, 06:42 PM
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Awesome story as always keg ! Thanks for that !
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  #86  
Old 03-31-2015, 10:11 PM
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Water has really opened up around here the last two days. Picked up five rats today. One in a 330 that I'm really trying to get a beaver in, having a hard time getting that beaver!
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  #87  
Old 04-01-2015, 06:35 PM
Tfng Tfng is offline
 
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Great story Keg!
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  #88  
Old 04-02-2015, 01:12 PM
braggadoe braggadoe is offline
 
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Old 04-02-2015, 04:27 PM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Game on! Tuesday I put out 23 float sets in t-shirt weather and latter that night we got a snow storm. Due to the lousy weather yesterday, I didn't do a check. I wasn't expecting too much today given that the slough was frozen over but I was happily surprised to have caught 14 nice Spring rats. The fun has begun!

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  #90  
Old 04-02-2015, 05:40 PM
nube nube is offline
 
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^^^^^^ like^^^^^^^
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