How do you stake in water with a bottom of mud and sand mixture?

I would bring something large and heavy so the animal you are trying to trap cant move it and tie the chain to it

i use a wood stake about 16 inch long on all the water traps and sand bottom you have to find something to wire the trap to, whether its a log,tire,root or what ever, good luck
mike

What kind of critters are you aiming to catch?

I usually use 24" rebar stakes. Sometimes I'll use Berkshires Soft Bottom cable stakes. There work good around beaver dams.

I make what I call a "boot stake" which has a 4" square flat head as opposed to a 1/2 inch bar, such as a T-bar. It is much easier to shove in with your foot underwater. I have also used Iowa disposible stakes (or similar types), with a long driver.
One trick I have used is by using a drowner and looping it back into the bank in a u shape. Never had an animal get back to the bank. They will all be out in the current, drown! This is something I came up with for rocky creeks, where you couldn't get a stake in, if you tried.

Well im going after coon but i had a beaver pull out today.

I got into that today. Lots of good locations but I couldnt get anything to hold. I have some disposable stakes i made outa metal conduit that are eight inchs long and they work great in those mucky bottoms but i left them at home. I even tried double stakes with 24" rebar and no way it was gonna hold a beaver.
shane

pogos
2" w/ 18" of cable.
never had a pullout w/ them.

pogo's are all i use..just like coonhusker, i love them and have never had one budge a pogo. also i like it cuz if i can get a bar thru the cable, i can usually pull them out..given a little effort.

Hard to beat a good wood stake. Kinda depends on how loose the bottom is with the sand. Else I like long t-bar stakes

In the right condition...a T-Bar is hard to beat!

true lol. Though I like to keep the weight down and wood stakes are generally lighter than rebar :P Everything has its limits.

lt grey i think ill make some ones like you mentioned with the 4 in flat stock. thanks for the tip.

Pogo's were useless where i was today. Or my 24" were anyway.
shane

double staking is the way to go, get a butterfly double staking device

A DRY wood stake will swell considerably when it is driven and be darned hard to pull.

Lt grey, tell me more about that U shaped drowner, I'm having a hard time getting my brain around it. Sounds like something I could find useful.

the way i understood it was a long piece of cable from one bank to the other looped around something.

The way i took it was both ends of the drowner cable was anchored to the same bank. It would hang in the middle of the cable cause it would have no tension past the middle to slide anymore. And use in current. My take anyway. ketchican, double stakes would not hold either. My creeks are dry with just a little water infront of dams. Mar up to your knees muddy. Only thing i could use today on that creek was log/drags for coon and mink, and driveing stakes thru old logs of dams to anchor snares.
shane

I didnt get the boot stake though. Is the 4"x4" like a cap on the stake or welded to the side near the bottom like a fin (like the things on metal fence post)?
shane

You should be trapping about the same soil type as me (pure sand) I stake with a 48" t top rebar stake. You will lose a beaver every now and then but not very often. You should be able to push the stake in by hand without pounding.