I was wondering if you guys can give me some input on colony traps. I trap a small river in back of my house in Iowa. Colony traps are legal for muskrat here. I have one 1.65 Bridger coil spring trap that I catch one muskrat in almost everyday. I have only taken 5 as I am very new to trapping. I was wondering if this would be a good place for one of these traps and how you would make the set. I currently use a pocket set with the trap under water about 1 inch using light colored grass rolled up in the back of the pocket out of the water and a muskrat lure on a stick stuck in the back. I don't want to take to many rats but would like to improve my catch. Another question is that I have several 120 conis set in a pocket in the same manner, but the oni is just even with the water same attractor and lure but not one hit on any those sets. Any ideas on why not?

The colony traps work better when you have huts or can find their bank dens in small creeks or ponds. Can't tell you on the problems with the coni. I had about a dozen stoploss and 2 #110's on a creek and those 2 coni's had a rat everyday, go figure. Try cutting up an apple or potato and buy some peppermint or spearmint extract from the local store and change up your other sets. Hope this helps and puts more $8 rats on your stretchers.

try to find the runs the rats are using ,how deep is the water and what kind of bottom and weed and grass cover do you have ? if you can tell me these things mabye i can help you find were the runs are

the water level average where im trapping is about 3 feet. Some spots deeper. I'm setting pocket sets right at the water and bank. It might be about 2 feet or so where my traps are. The bottom is mostly mud with leaves on it. One spot close by my traps is a sandy bottom. There are a bunch of cockleburrs on the bank with green short grass and some taller light colored grass also. The white stuff gets pretty think in places but I can't really make out any trails. I also cant find there feeding areas or toilets. There are a bunch of trees with debris tangle in them also scattered around.

Try to find a spot where the creek narrows down, set the colony trap and narrow it down to the width of the trap, put dive sticks, or grass is what i use on both ends of the trap on top of the water. every rat swimming that creek will dive under your dive sticks and into your colony trap, this set has worked very well for me.