Got out in the marsh Wednesday. It was a beautiful 60* sunny day. I got out 44 sets, a combination of 1.5 coils, 220s, and 330s across the marsh. Regretfully I didn't take any pictures that day. Landowner let me use his 4-wheeler again, which was a massive help. He even asked if he bought some traps if I would put them out.

Saw three muskrat huts even, which are extremely rare out here, and vastly more muskrat sign then in years past. Starting to look like reductions in nutria are helping balance with the other water critters.

Saw a gorgeous buck mink that looked to have been killed by an eagle.

First check was Friday.

Another beautiful day Friday. Love being able to use the four wheeler and trailer, makes checking incredibly quick. Landowner even left some of his traps on the trailer for me to use. Changed my marking scheme a little bit to keep better track. One color of flags to mark a set, and another color for catches.



Small ponds, up to a few acres in size, and paths in between.


First set success. Used to be a small trail. Will be a moonscape after a few catches.


Muskrat sign was through the roof this year.


A shy one.


For size reference, that is a 330 filled.


Even when I try to set for mink, nutria plug the sets.


This one was NOT happy, lunging and chomping at me. Must of had a bit of bobcat in him. 1.5 coils work perfect.


Total for the day was 13 nutria, 7 muskrat, 2 pull outs out of 44 sets. 8 of the nutria are skinnable, 5 were tiny. Didn't think that was too bad. Can't wait to see what Sunday brings.


When I was getting ready to leave, the geese were flying to bed. It got really LOUD, so I snapped a picture for perspective of the habitat. They bed in the backside of the property. Took roughly a minute for them to pass. Each black speck is a goose.

Awesome!Love seeing pics of things I want to trap,but can't!

That's cool. Thanks for sharing.

Looks nice! Green grass and no whitecaps on the water. What are you doing with the nutria?

The nutes are wiping out my rats, the rotten buggers. Put out 22 rat set the other day and caught zilch for rats on the first check. I usually get about a dozen a day in this spot. Picked up a whole two rats today. The nutes though, are dying right and left!!! Maybe I can improve the rats chances for next year.

I enjoy these threads

Gomer, is this property near Brownsville? It looks familiar. Especially all the geese.

How long have you had the nutes in your area?

15 years ago there were no nutria south of Coos Bay. I remember playing a prank on NewHouse right around 2003-4 by leaving a "roadhit" nutria on the highway shoulder near the Coquille river. Sure enough the next day he called howling about nutria invading his valley! I think it wasn't too long after that when they started to show up for real. No surprise really as they were already in northern Coos county.

Love this thread, can't wait to see you clean house again. Good Luck

Today was a weird day. On the south side, where 2/3 of my sets are, only had a catch of two. However on the other side, the 1/3 produced 75% of the days catch. Chatted with the property manager and will be scoping out a new section for him next weekend. Everything is currently unset and laying since I will be out of town for work next week.

What a second catch looks like.


A trail set connecting.


A shy one. The long chains on my 1.5 coils are saving a few locations. I may have to adjust the rest. This is the second catch here.



Opposite side of trail from the previous. Second double here in two checks.


This bad boy was a tank.


Second catch here at this double set. Very secure catch.



A couple kick in sets along the shore edge. Made one every 30-40 yards.




Catch today was 8, will probably skin 4. Since they breed year round, many don't make the cut.


Will be looking to get back out to reset Friday evening.

Stay tuned.

Turner is where I am at.

What do you do with the fur from the ones you skin

I will put it up and send it to an Oregon auction.

keep it up. with weather like that any type of trapping is fun!

I wish ours were at least worth skinning

I’ve caught a lot of wild ranch mink around Turner. Coal black. Look for the dry land trails (since every mink set you put in around water will be plugged with nutria.) These mink are so big that IMO a #160 works best for them. If you can find their tunnels in the tall grass all it comes down to is a waiting game. Keep it up and I hope you catch a bunch!

Looking Good Gomerpyle, Keep ON Whacking Those Nutes And Muskrat !!!

w

Saw one giant buck mink that was coal black that an eagle snagged before I got out there. Hoping there will be another.

It is fun with the variety of critters that roam the area, and quite the challenge that I could get any one of them in any set at any time.

Had the day off of work, and some beautiful weather for running around today, although it was frigid with near freezing temps.

Since all of my traps are out, I can run without the trailer, so minimal equipment needed today.



This set produced for the first time this season, nice nutria.



A buck mink in a 220. Exact same place that I got one last year, minus the caked mud.



Mini nutria. Getting tired of these, but a catch is a catch.



Rolled up on something that I had no plan on catching, an oppossum. Big boar to boot.



A pretty scant catch considering how many traps I had out. I thought that the cold weather would really slow down the nutria, but not to the extent that it did. Quite a dandy mink though.



Wednesday is pull day for these two sections. Landowner has a few other ponds that haven't been trapped before to show me.

Stay tuned.