Local golf course here, one which I am a member of, has a muskrat problem. If this was the winter time, I wouldnt have any problems because I wouldnt have to worry about golfers or maintenance staff and the local geese and ducks so I wouldnt be restricted in my trap selection.

As of right now, I am limited to colony traps or cage traps. I have seen the rats swimming up and down the drainage creeks and culverts which are fairly shallow which means the colony traps would be exposed and often not deep enough for drowning and I have seen little luck in any situations with the traps being exposed without substantial camouflage. Dens have been hard to find as the soil is predominantly clay and the ones I have found show no activity though I did catch a rat in the act of going into a den under an algae bloom yesterday and luckily had a colony trap located fairly close by, I was playing at the time so I fished the trap back out with a club and reset it at the den...hopefully I have something when I get there today.

I am thinking of getting a couple of the rabbit sized cage traps and maybe cloak them heavily with cut vegetation and a bit of rat gland lure since the there is no shortage of grass at the moment for baits to be effect.

If anyone has some ideas I would be appreciative.

Off to go fix some cage traps that a few nasty tempered groundhogs have attempted to destroy.

The creeks or culverts would be the best , you could build new colony traps that are only 4" tall , you could place a board across the culvert causing the water to come up some , no need to camo the traps , you could take a shovel and dig a channel down the center , colony traps also work good wired together to make a wider trap , , in the ponds there could be sea walls or a straight down bank , both good spots for wall sets , just lay them right along the wall , rats will run this bottom edge along the wall , you could also sit back and watch the rats to see we're there dens are , muskrat pelts are also selling up to 36 bucks each now so save there skins , how deep is the water in the culvert ? How deep is the water in the creek ?

Deepest culvert the water is about 8 inches....the rest of them are less than 4. There are 2 drainage ditches that feed into thee creek that are about 10 inches deep and the culverts running between them are nearly dry. The main creek isn't more than 4inches deep.

So then just slide the trap in the culvert , culvert colony trap sets are as good as it gets , if the culvert is wide just fill the bottom all the way accros win traps , muskrat like to migrate. A lot so there most likely coming down the creek . How big are your colony traps , I use 6+6 and 5+5 I tried some 8+8 dint work good . I built some 5 + 8 and that worked , when Im fur trapping rats I some times wire up to six traps all together , and stuff the culverts , also blind set mostly very little bait till the ice comes , baited conibears and board sets

This is a couple culverts I have setup. They haven't moved through yet.

Loose the wire and add 1 more colony trap side by side then wire together so they don't flip the. Over and do the same on the other side , that wire is messing you up and not needed

Pesky, that wire is to keep the golfers out of the culverts.

You also could add a gang of colony traps right were that pool turns to creek , put them just were there submerged at the end of the pool , I caught 840 muskrat last season witch was mostly one of the best catches in the whole state of Michigan seeing are numbers were so low , I'm sure there were larger catches I'm not saying I'm the best because I know better rat trappers than me , just in case you think I'm nuts

Pesky, towards the center of our state is Horicon Marsh. ( The largest cattail marsh in the USA ) Every year they auction off eleven sections of the marsh to trappers. Last year they got $23,100.00 for the 11 sections which produced 24,299 muskrats. One guy caught 5,470 muskrats on his section. I don't think they have to skin any either. The furbuyer picks them up every day.

I know that articale in trappers world blow my mind , wow , I would consider that the best muskrat Article if ever read , it's also the reason I've turned to baited conibears under the ice , they don't even use bait , they use his orange disk thing , would like to try that , here in Michigan we have lost most of are great spots due to low water , are numbers were also way down last year for some reason , ya a man could of made a great living just rat trapping there this year there , with top lot at 36 bucks holy cow , wonder what the may sale will bring

36 dollar top lots mean squat if you don't have a rat in that lot , the average is what counts , sniper just get your shovel out and deepen the water so you can use the colony traps

I know my average was higher on my rats than my coon

mine too lol

Ya it wasn't funny at the Clair auction I just walked away and let my boys finish up , seems like everybody had a pile of coon, I think they seen that may action last year like I did

I did well on coon my rats wernt even half of what my coon brought but the coon are twice the work!!

You have to count all the coons not just the triples and up

That's all of em even the small early ones! My lowest was 6 bucks and highest was 40, All of them sold! We have smaller rats up here tho!

Wow 40 , you did good then , the most I seen was like 24 at the auctions , my lowest was 1 buck and tops was 18 , I had some 5x too ,

Well did you catch rats today hmmmm

Pesky, I thought you wrote in a thread on the luremakers forum that you took 1000 rats this past season. That was you wasn't it? If it was there is a large difference between 840 and 1000. If it wasn't you then I apologize for being mistaken.

I would have got my thousand but the ice keep me out and couldn't walk on it ether , I've never wrote anything on lure maker , I still have my action tickets as well if you like I"ll copy them and send them to you , what's your address ,you also could call the president of the Michigan trapper and he would tell you all about my catch this past season , I don't lie about anything and never have ,you ask any body I know , I don't except being called one ether

I guess your right K9 I did ask how much rat glands sold for on lure maker but I never said I had a 1000

I stand corrected, you did say you had "almost" reached 1000. I just reread that post prior to coming here. And I never called you a liar. I asked if you were that guy over on the luremaker forum who said that.