Monday I was setting up a muskrat job on a small farm pond. When I came back Tuesday, as I was checking one of the colony traps, I watched the rebar stake quiver and then I saw something shoot out of the trap into the pond. When I checked the trap, the door had simply been forced out. I swapped out traps and reset.

I went looking for the other den that the owners have reported. I find it and am standing there when I feel something at my wader boot. IT WANTS OUT OF THE DEN and my foot is in the way. As I lean forward I put my hand on the bank just above the den entrance. I can feel the ground thumping as something wants out. BAD!!! I manage to get the colony trap in the entrance with the thumper still inside.

The next day I check the traps. In the one that I stuck my foot in, this is what I found:





You do the math. The slots are 1 inch long by 1/2" wide. The trap is 2 feet long. It was still alive and I let it go. Sorry guys, I am just not that fond of fish.

I had a bullhead in a conibear for two days. When I opened the trap, it had more life left in it than I do!

They cook up pretty good!

That is one huge bullhead.

Not a bullhead. Channel cat in spanning dress. They use holes in the banks to lay eggs in.

Caught a lot of fish, bass included, in colony traps, in muskrat runs. It is illegal to trap fish in many states without a commercial license and in many states, not at all.

Yes, even though it was an accident,sometimes, you couldn't keep it.

thats one thing i have never caught in a animal trap. hope i get one like that one day. looks good!!!

The nicest fish I've ever caught in a traps was a 15 inch bass in a 110. I've also caught a bluegill, bullhead and a turtle in a colony trap. Once caught a snapper in a #3 on a drowner at a castor mound.

I have caught a lot of alligator snappers in 330 when doing summer beaver/muskrat work. I have also caught bass and bluegill when colony trapping for muskrats. This is the largest fish I have ever trapped.

will pull up a muskrat job tomorrow. i think i caught more fish than muskrats...

wow awesome catch! this year when i was runnin colony traps pretty hard i caught a few rats that stretched 23" on coon boards not rat boards. one i had weighed and it tipped the scale at 4 pounds. i got that biggen tanned!

What do you do with the Alligator snappers? Are they deceased?
Didn't know they had them in Kansas,,,but then, There's a lot I don't know about Kansas wildlife.
They do have some "secret squirrel" down there however.... Ha!

Not only have I caught that catfish, but I may have caught that catfish 2 more times or 2 others. Plus a bluegill.

LT, not only have he got Alligator snappers, but we get them in large doses. I took 4 out of one pond in 2 weeks last year. Also last year, all the ones that I caught were killed by the trap. This year I have caught 5 and only the one caught in the 660 was killed (biggest one I ever caught, about 12" across the middle). I let them go out at Perry Lake.

I think "secret squirrel" is everywhere!

BUD24- I wish we had them that big in Kansas. Are you sure it wasn't part beaver?

TheRAT-
Will you please post a few pictures of the "Alligator snappers" that you have caught in Kansas. I grew up in Salina and all I ever saw were "common snapping turtles". Even down here, I have only seen a few Alligator snappers; never caught one in a Conibear though. However, common snapping turtles are a PITA!

Here is a picture of a Common Snapping Turtle that I caught a couple of days ago. It is in the "clean-out tank" right now.

If that is a common snapper, then I am wrong. I have been catching the common snapper not Alligator snappers.
Sorry.

haha

http://www.chelydra.org/common_alligator_snapping_turtle.html

HTH