heres the million dollar question. once you decide some traps arent connecting do you move them to a different location in the ponds? i have found out that instead of moving the traps but just adding more traps in the pond your gonna get them one way or another..

It must be different in Washington
I find that a "dead" set is a waste of Time for summer rats...

Coon like apples too.

H. Fitzgeraldp-
Welcome to the forum! "The Boss" (Paul Dobbins) has requested that we include our location (at least the state) in our profile. Are you a professional ADC operator (NWCO)? If you have time; please tell us a little bit about yourself and your experiences in the industry. We are all looking for new ideas!!.

Bad PR when the Ladies Golf Club is t ing off at 6.....

What do you mena by "dead set". How do you handle the rats in the summer time. I got to start getting more of the. It's only been a little over a week, but I should have killed more than 3 right? By the way, I'm going to be putting more traps in the ponds. Everywhere I can stick one.

i think VINKE was referring "dead sets" are ones that arent connecting with rats. if the muskrats are super skiddish i would place traps in every hole nook and cranny, that way there is no room for error. thats just me though.

i use to help the federal gove kill rats in a city sewage plant. there was a series of cattail ponds. we incorporated shooting. if thats an option, spotlight at night and look for them swimming across the water and scan the bank. note, their eyes do not shine. so you have to see the actual animal. the light didnt seem to bother most of them. you could get shots from 3 feet to 30 yards..

As requested I will give a message about my trapping. No, I am not a ADC trapper yet. I applyed for my permit three weeks ago. 20 years ago I did some ADC work for the Game Comission. I have aways lived in Pa. I have trapped 53 years now. I am retired and some of you might know,living on a fixed income now days is not good. I am not interested in starting a full time business. My goal is to make mainly farmers and people like me happy so I have a place to fur trap. I learned a lot about PEOPLE when I did ADC work years ago. I plan to be very selective with the jobs I take. My mother had a ADC trapper remove three squirrels from her porch roof and It cost her $250. I would never charge anyone that much money for so little work. As far as this muskrat problem,they are not hard to catch. Dig a fake muskrat den and place a foot trap just inside it. Use a slide wire to drown and hide the muskrat. I don't like or use very many floats. But when I do,they catch muskrats. Just make a tunnel on top of the float. Set a trap at each end. Use use chicken wire and camo cloth to make the tunnel. Drape some weeds over it.
I trapped my skunks in a wire box trap. The trap is inside of a wooden box with a door to be closed and locked after a catch. Now they have special traps for that. I had good luck removing squirrels at times with mink snares. Sunflower seeds or apples in the wire cage traps. As for beaver,just good trapper know how. I have been having real good luck with the grizz traps for coon. I spend as much time in the woods as I can. Henry F.

Mr. Fitzgerald, you and I seem to have something in common. I have also trapped for 53 years and am retired ( which means I still work; just don't get paid for it)
I would have removed those three squirrels from your mother's porch for only $244.00.
If I read this correctly, your aim is to make some extra money by doing ADC work and then lose it all on fur trapping. Why not do ADC work during trapping season too. Then you might really have some extra money!

Mr Winkelman, maybe I didn't explain or it write it correctly but I would do ADC work during the trapping season. I screwed up years ago when I stopped the ADC work and lost several farms that I never got back. Keeping the farmers happy, I may lose a few bucks but gain in the end, really.

Update:

I finally figured out that the best way to catch these critters this time of year is to get them hooked on the bait before I hit the pond with the floats. Granted, one rat makes a lot of holes and there always looks like there are more rats in a pond than there are, but I have learned to discriminate between old and new muskrat sign so I can say for sure wether or not they have been working a pond recently. When I find fresh sign, I bait the pond with carrots for about a week before I put the floats in. When I put the floats in, I put carrots on the trigger wires and around the edges of the floats. At this point, the only place to get carrots is on the float. They eat the ones around the edges of the float, then crawl in to get the ones on the traps and KABLAM!-it's over. I don't remember who suggested carrots, but thanks for the tip. Baiting the ponds in advanve with the carrots has really helped up my take. It's been 4 weeks now and I've taken 18 rats. About half of them with the traps and the other half with the rifle. Another good thing about baiting the pond for a week or so before trapping is that if there are rats in the pond, the carrots will be gone from the first day and every day after that. If there are no rats, the carrots will sit all week. This is a good way to tell which ponds currently have rats and which do not.

I'm going to be wrapping up this job in about 6 more weeks (5 after this one) and I'm pretty sure I've taken everything in every pond I've trapped so far, with the exception of one that jsut won't go near a trap or sit still long enough for me to squeeze the slack out of the trigger. He's been shot at a lot by the residents and I can't seem to get him still long enough for the shot. Other than him, the carrot scheme has been working brilliantly. Once I wrap this up, the customer has agreed to have me come back in next winter for a follow up. THanks for all the help.

awesome man!

Just ordered some #1 longsprings with the guard. I caught a really small rat yesterday that had slipped through and left hair on all the traps and stolen all the bait on them excpet for the last one, which got him. I have been catching them on the floats with the conibears, but the last 2 (one in each pond I'm trapping now) just keep taking the bait. The good news is they are still taking it, both from the floats and some I put back out around the edges yesterday. I'm going to keep them feeding on the edges and get the leg-holds in there to clean up these last 2. Any tips for using the footholds? This will be my first time...

We did a podcast not long ago with "Jonesie" here and his phone # is at the beginning and I am sure he, Ron Jones would be happy to answer any questions you may have on Muskrat trapping since he said he would or just listen to the podcast.

Link to the podcast for those who missed it . My thanks to everyone and their show of support.

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/audioPop.jsp?episodeId=252598&cmd=apop

Actually, this is going pretty well now. I still have a couple of ponds where they are wise to the traps, but I have caught 9 this week on the floats. Had a triple on one float the other day. I have found that pre-baiting with carrots is very important. Also I have found that setting the dogs loose produces more catches. The rats can eat the carrots right off the triggers when they are set tight. Setting them loose makes them swing. When that happens, the rats have to push against the carrot or attempt to pull it to them with their paws to get a bite out of it. When this happens-KABLAM! Thanks for all the help with this guys. I'm going to attempt to post some pics of soeo of this stuff before I stop for the year.

Still catching these rats by the dozens. The carrots work great. Anyone who is trying to do this, here are the basics.

1.) Place carrots around pond edge and pre-bait for 2-3days. Cut up pieces of the carrots and place them about every 10-20 feet in both directions from where you intend to place the float. Turtles will get some of them, so make sure there's enough so that the rats will get some too.

2.) Put the carrots on the trip wires, then bend the bottoms of the wires out. Sometimes, a rat can eat the carrot right off the trip wire. Then, they'll try to sneak by it to get to the other carrots on the float. Make sure to push the carrot at least 1/2 way up the wires then bend them out. Most of the time when I catch a rat on these floats, the carrot was alreay gone when they tripped the trap, trying to go on through.

3.) Make sure the carrot is big. Bait the trip wire with a carrot that is pretty big in diameter. I have found carrots as big as your thumb work best. It's harder for them to get their teetch around a larger diameter carrot. This makes them have to push on it or grab it with their paws toget a bite. Which brings us to #4.

4.) Make sure the dog is set VERY loose. You want the trip wires to wiggle a lot. If you set the dog all the way down, they can just eat the carrot right off. The dog will hold the wires tight enough that they can clean the carrot off without moving the tripwires at all. Setting the dog very loose combined with a carrot as big aroung as your thumb will make it difficult for them to bite it. With the big carrot and the wires free to wiggle, everytime they try to take a bite, the carrot just moves away from thier teeth. This means that they either have to push against it hard or grab it with thier paw to take a bite. This makes all the difference inthe world between catching them or not. Traps that are set tight will be cleaned every night for weeks without a catch. Plus, tight set triggers allow them to pass by more easily. They can slink past the trap and if they do bump the trigger wire a little, a tight set dog will hold it there without tripping.

5.) Use 160's. I'm glad I went with the 160's as opposed to the 120's I started to use. The rats see a bigger opening and thing they can go through. Set the dog light and remember to bend the trip wires after installing the carrot. Even if they do get the carrot, they won't be able to get through the trap without setting it off.

6.) If you have to have covered floats, like I had to have in this situation, make sure you place carrot pieces along the outer edges of the float for them to see. You want to advertise. If you pre-baited the pond as described, the rats will actaully stat looking for these little orange pieces everywhere. Seeing them aroung the outer edges of a covered float brings them right on over. Sure, they get a few free pieces, but muskrat nature demands that they eat them all. Once, they are in the float, they have to try to eat every piece they find. One of the traps WILL get them.

7.) There are 4 runs on my floats. I find that leaving one open with no trap gets them in a lot better. It gives them a way into the cover the float provides. They feel safer and will stay longer, giving you a better shot at catching them.

8.) Covered floats work great for the summer. Keeps scavenger birds from landing on the float and keeps the rats out of the water where turtle can't get to them. Most of the time, the turtles won't crawl into the floats. I've only had 2 that had a partially eaten tail and one with a partially eaten nose.

Thanks for all the help with this. I thought since you guys have been such a big help, it was only fitting that I share some of the small tips I have discovered that made the difference between catching and missing. I will post some pics sometime soon for you all so you can see in more detail how I'm doing this. Thanks for sharing your invaluable knowledge of trapping with a newbie.

Just ordered a new battery for my wife's digi camera yesterday. Soon as it comes in, I'll start posting pics of this job. Stay tuned.

roger, standing by for pictures.

I will try to post a picture later of a "winged" colony trap.
It's worked for me at wide channels.