In my township, they put a bounty on pocket gophers of $3. That's about all most guys are averaging on rats after they skin and flesh them. All I have to do is snip the feet off.

Warmer than trapping mrats as well!

Aren't you conveniently forgetting the cessation of the spring non-resident season for rats BEFORE Ice out effectively and purposely shutting non-residents out of the SPRING rat season ?

December 1st to Marsh 15th forces non-residents to start after everyone else, and then quit in the spring on March 15th before Ice Out which everybody knows is the best and most productive part of the Spring season.

Don't play dumb, You know dang well what the real issue is.

w

You should be ashamed to be part of state where you defend the disenfranchisement of your fellow non-resident trappers from out of state and do nothing about it.

Then get butt hurt when you are occasionally reminded about it.

If you haven't done anything about the wrongs of those 13 anti-trappers, and then attack your fellow trappers for bringing up anti-trapping, anti-nonresident rules then you are just as responsible as those 13 anti-trappers.

You can call me a troll, handcuff boy, but you are an anti-trapping troll as well.

All in my opinion.

w

I have no skin in this but WTG walleyed, great post!

And you (or most non-resident rat trappers) would be willing to come here and trap 10 days or so of open water in the spring before the rats tear each other up? Seems like sort of $250 license gamble. As others have already stated, the days of seeing hundreds of rat huts in half a dozen decent sized sloughs is pretty much over. Huts just started showing up in the western half of my county (where most of the close by wetlands to me are located) this year after being gone 6 years. Maybe Law Dog and I can get a bill passed in our legislature (they are meeting now) to get you exempt of the NR closure after Mar 15 for next year so we can watch the famed New York technique of spring rat trapping. Would you come and trap our rats then...?

Who attacked who? LOL A Bully can always justify the BS they pull never seen you as a big helper kind of guy just guy that spreads nothing but manure! Might want to ask the NR folks that stop by how poorly and unhelpful I can be.

One things for sure.

Out of State, non-resident trappers who formerly trapped the spring rat season during the S.D. rat population boom won't be back to trap spring rats until those discriminating laws are repealed, and they are on an even playing field with residents.

New York State has wide open non-resident trapping regulations just the same as those for Resident trappers.

Excluding fellow trappers is a foreign concept to me, and If I don't speak out, nothing is going to change.

How many years have those anti-trapping regs for non-resident trappers been in place ?

What has been done to work towards repealing them by any South Dakota trappers association ?

If No effort has been expended by S.D. trappers to right these anti-trapping wrongs, I'll Keep Whining about it.

w

This is a crazy thread and did it ever go off track.
To those that are mad about the NR trapping, write letters to the South Dakota legislature. Join the SD Trappers Association and be a voice, and if the rat trapping is that outstanding move there - then there would be no issue.
Last time I drove through SoDak there wasn't much water.

we've done our jobs at home for them.

walleyed- did you or anyone you actually know in NY really trap spring rats in SD when supposedly the nr and resident seasons were the same? Where does the legend of fabulous SD spring rat trapping come from?? I just looked up the NY muskrat trapping seasons and it appears that 2 zones close in Feb and 2 others go into April, including yours. If your zone is open to April 15 and the Hudson Valley through April 7, why wouldn't NY trappers who wanted to trap into April head to those zones that were open? Why show up in SD on April 16 to trap 2 weeks of increasing higher percentage of damaged rats? I just don't get it...

So law dog you are willing to let 10's of thousands of rats shrivel up and die because 13 greedy people wanted them all for their self. The residents of your "great state" in no way could of trapped the excess of rats during the SD rat boom. Now you don't have rats in even the good habitat. There is probably a reason why, it sure as heck isn't that non residents caught them all.

For what its worth I stated at the spring meet at the lake south of britton This is the united states of america. trapped along side many out of state guys including phil brown with no problem... my traps were full and hands tired...the total amount of rats caught wasn a poot in a hurricane compared to the ones left to die by nature. was some time later that the season dates got changed for out of state guys was out of my hands, as with any crowd there were some slobs that thought they were owed a catch and get out of there way!
hope i live to see rats like that again so we can fight over it!! but this thread is about bounty maybe they will add muskrats id clip the tail for a nickel.

10 s of thousands would have died if we would have had every trapper in us here. if they would have went into the pasture and got off the right of way numbers in the millions just took more work and couldnt run as fast as just down the road to the next ditch .
i had a honey hole caught my 1000 in half mile stretch of jim river... they just kept comeing.. outta state guys ran outta traps before they got this far west..... my observation of some of the slobs were so worried grass was greener over the fence tore all over the country few traps here few there if they woulda stayed put in a area and worked the ground ,they would have made less of a imprint and caught more.

Super Troll will save the day~ No good will come of it but he won't give up driving a bigger wedge between trappers and not even understand what he could have, I trap the majority of my rats through the ice so the idea others can't do the same boggles the mind. I am too busy trapping predators to worry about rats in the fall maybe expand your horizons a bit.


90+ season right now the only thing holding you back is a ice auger and a little work until it changes if you think you made any advances with your trolling I would bet you pushed some off of the fence the other way. LOL Our biggest fear is ending up where you guys are in NY and the endless restrictions and idiots running the State. I have no hard feeling for the people of NY really it's just a fact been there done that in IL don't want to do it again.


The fact that you worry about us in SD so much and ignore the other States that have restrictive NR rules like it never happens seems odd for a social justice worrier but then it's all about the rats but of course but we are the greedy ones. LOL

The same thing happened here just on a smaller scale they were walking on the roads when they started to freeze out and over populated as the habitat dried up, I would get 3-4 a week in town or walking on the roads. Like I said I never agreed with the 13 I was shocked who it was made up of some guys I would never think would do that.


Just wondered why the NRs would be willing to only save us on the easy rats and not trap through the ice like I did? SD always had a lot more then just rats but we only hear about the rats for some reason. I don't hold a grudge but trash talking gains nothing but expands the gap. Keep in mind you have nothing to offer SD so coming here with our liberal season, no limits, good weather and relaxed trapping restriction is your gain. Come if you want or not until the current rules change that's your 2 options. I don't like but that's the facts.


If you change the rules in your State that you don't agree with easily then let me know how you did it.

Law Dog. I have followed you for a few years but have to take ya to task on the comment. “where you guys are in NY.
I can trap mink and muskrat 10/25-4/15
Beaver and otter 11/1-4/7
Coon,Fox,Coyote. 10/25-2/15
Bobcat. 10/25-2/15
Fisher 10/25(too early)-12/10
And here it is! NO BAG limits on the above
Like all states we have regs but IMO they prolong our right to trap.
Whatever happened to the discussion involving bounty’s in ND?

I would. Get it done.LLL

You will not find a nicer guy Walleyed. Jerry my posts are never an attack on trappers unless they have dirt on their hands which I know you do not. It really surprised me when they passed that regulation. I love your state and the great hunting, trapping and fishing you all have. They usually side with the outdoorsman as well and for biological reasoning and $$$. LLL

playing devils advocate> Seems like non residents only want to come here for muskrats and when it is easiest for them to trap as many as they can out of the road ditches by the thousands. This seems to me to be NON RESIDENT GREED!!!!!!!! Seems the goal is to come in and take as many muskrats as they can in little time when it is easiest too do so... If it was about just trapping for sport you think our current season would be suffice. Just saying not taking a position but i keep hearing about these 13 greedy south dakotans, when the only reason ppl are upset is because in extreme wet years we had a rat infestation and they loved the money they made in south dakota. Don't hear anyone complain about not being able to nail those coyotes from montana. Seems to me that might actually take some work.