Might take a bit longer this year....LOL

Unbelievable but pictures due not lie. This is the most muskrats I have ever seen at one time. Congradulations!!

How many traps did you run? How long of a trapline?

AWESOME CATCH!! Did you skin all those or sell in the carcass? I have to skin each day-max like 200 a day-after that my hands and arms both go so numb I cannot do anything.Guess I need to hire a skinner-LOL.

These had to be sold as carcass rats as I ran out of freezer space. I have since rectified that problem. Being away from home makes it hard to find freezers in a pinch.

I skin what I can at the end of the day,but with worn out hands,I find it better to keep catching rats and skin later. Age will do that to you....LOL Seems we are always working with time restaints due to weather or damaged rats in the spring. For me,it works better to have more whole rats in the freezer than quitting earlier in the day because you have to skin. I can skin when I'm home in a heated shed. If I was trapping from home, I'd do it differently,but being out of state and living out of my trailer,this is what works for me.

Excellent post!

I only trap for about a week before we get frozen out,but best season in a 7 day check was a little over 1200,best day 208 rats on about 240 traps.But in all honesty the older I get the harder it is on my hands and arms-set over 200 1 1/2 coils each day and it wears down my hands and arms-to the point where I shake them while I am sleeping because they fall asleep-its weird.

Take your torch and heat up the springs on those traps and setting 100s of traps each day Is childs play.

I read someone else who had posted about torching the coils to soften them up. I ended up just taking one spring off the coil on my 1 1/2's. Even then, I could see how the torch would make it easier. you talking blow torch? Heat up until they glow?

I ran about 40 seconds per spring. But It's best to start out with less time and see how weak you want them.Let cool before trying to set.

Obviously I have to check the regs but I think that I can do it. I am looking into floats and want to buy the same trap that I use for 'coons (non-DPs) for this to serve double duty by having only one type of trap for both 'coons and 'rats. Does anyone do this? I am thinking 1.5 Duke DJCSs. I am also trying to find a small, flat float system for storage and transport. I like to have everything small, uniform, compact, deadly and effective.

I made a pile of floats for the fall season,similar to HuntGods',but anchored differently,and with a nail up through the center.THey dont stack as nice,but they worked.
And I cant believe I didnt take a better picture of them when I had them out.

How did u make these?? They look like a good set up. Is it just foam under plywood? Is the cage easily removed for storage ?
Does anyone have info or dimensions for this set up??

Thanks,
Ryan
R&J Whitetails

Had to re read this and laugh. Fossil's not much of a pic kind of guy. He could care less if anyone believed him or not. People who know him know of his extreme catches for decades. The 500 rats in a day was with he and his son out of the same truck...so a team if you will.

I/m not the pic kind of guy either. Have no idea how to post one...and frankly don't much care to learn at this point. As for sharing, I think I/ve done quite abit of that over the years. Too much in fact. I/m a slow learner but I am learning.

If you make floats make them small so when the rat climbs on to the float It has to stand on the trap or traps. (90% of floats I have seen are way to big.

And of coarse floats don't work In most areas.

As far as I know,from what I've heard,anyway,floats dont work anwhere very well except up here,and only for me.

Mousie how are you attaching the trap to your float?

me too: summer drought, spring floods, tiling and dredging every trickle and flow.

that's what happened to the rats, right there above :<(

floats work great everywhere in the spring, ok most places in the fall. A skilled trapper setting tunnels and runs will definitely catch more than if he tried running footers and floats strictly in the fall. No question about that, speed and efficiency.

That's right Austin,the float cannot be your only set,I put out a few in an effort to gang set an area,to wipe it out fast.