Rain and Traps

How many of you trappers cover their traps in heavy rains ? pros and cons of doing so ?

to many traps to cover ,I think your talking about ,something like a bucket

Mostly I drink coffee, ponder the wonders of the world, and wait for the rain to stop. The ground permeates pretty good up here.

where i live the soil is clay. so rain is no good for traps. mostly i sit in my house and throw shots of hard liquor while cussing and shaking my fist at the sky.

i'm just forgin ahead goin what rain.gonna set traps today before the rain.

Pros - you won't need to check those traps.
Cons - you won't need to check those traps.

set or not a trap has to be checked every 36 hours by law.some co's look the other way and some love the chance to get the pen out.

I dont I run Zaggers pipe dream set and on my flat set I bed the trap in the same way. His bedding system can take a take a whole bunch of rain.
J

seems like when it rains that is when I catch the most. Why do you put them out if you are going to cover them.

The hard part of lots of rain is the getting around. My country is clay gumbo, and the farmers around don't like ruts cut in their fields and pastures. Four wheelers work, but you can't carry much on them, and side X sides are just one step better! Both are ok if your snaring, but to run much of a line, you need to carry a lot of stuff! My yota is just barely big enough, but when it's like this, it even cuts ruts! I hate rain, but the critters move good in it!

The only time I ever covered them was if I had paying quail hunters or going to be gone a couple days then I just laid a 2'x2' 3/8 plywood over them. Couple times I had yotes dig in from the side.

I just got back from checking a few snares and my tire set. If It wasn't for chopped corn fields I never would have made It. Even then It was mud slinging time.
IT's going to rain all day and all night here. I don't know why I didn't knock down those sets. I don't think AAA does off road recovery LOL

Lee answered your question. It's the same for me.

I check my line with my little Ram 50. Most of my line is on tractor lanes or the edge of crop/hay fields with no lanes. I depend on firm ground to access those areas, frozen ground is the best.

When we get heavy rain and warm temps it becomes impossible for me run my line without doing serious damage to trails and fields. Rutting up tractor trails and field edges would get me kicked off most of the properties I have permission to trap on. So when I know heavy rain and warm temps are coming, I cover my traps. It's more efficient than snapping everything off and resetting.

I covered everything this morning.

Warm rainy weather might be good for coons but I'm a fox trapper. I do best during periods of cold (below freezing) dry weather.

I wouldn't be able to trap without my atv, our season started with rain on first day, and got worse as time went on

I typically deal with a lot of moisture here in CO, it freezes my line down almost every time we get rain... Got a quarter inch yesterday and I'm still up and running, luckily. Does anybody used waxed dirt? I have wanting to make some for a couple of years now and haven't gotten around to it due to my laziness and the amount of effort it takes, BUT I will not go another season without it. Looking for some insight in it though positive or negative!

What’s a tire set?

I use straight peat here in PA. Sets thaw and get wet during the day then freeze up at night. Without peat or waxed dirt most of my line would be inoperable most of the time.

Lugnut, do you bed in peat and cover with it too? I have always bedded my traps and completely covered them in dirt as well so I am having some trouble imagining how this peat works. LOL. but I need a way to combat the moisture cause I HATE having a froze down trapline

i'm playin with straw chaff in this stuff and so far so good.

Yes, I bed and cover with peat. I make my bed the same size as my Northwoods 1.75's and about 3"-4" deep then I pound two indentations in for the levers. I put my stakes (double stakes now that I catch about one yote a season LOL) in the bottom of the hole.

I throw in handful of pre-sifted peat and wiggle the trap in. The levers and jaws are supported on the edges of the bed and some part of the frame sits on the stake heads. It's hard to describe but the trap gets rock solid. There is only a thin layer of peat under the levers and between the jaws and damp ground to keep the steel from freezing fast.

I set the night-latch then throw a few more handfuls of peat over the trap, 3/4"-1" maybe. I brush it out level and make a dip right over the pan (invites them to step there when sniffing or looking down the dirt-hole).

These are red fox sets and they seem to like the eye appeal of the different colored peat, I never blend them.

I never had much trouble with wind blowing the peat off the traps. It happens occasionally and I just throw another handful on and brush it out.

The peat will take a lot of rain before it soaks it up. Even when the top gets soaked and freezes I can just flip that frozen peat-pancake off and put a little more on. Conditions have to be pretty bad before the traps start to freeze down. It happens but not often.

This system works very well. I do the same thing. The only thing I do differently is add glycol around the trap. I either add strait glycol to the trap or a 50/50 mixture through a spray bottle. When trapping grey fox I have to blend somewhat also.

Started using Peat Moss here last year also & use it on most every one of my sets now. Just too much rain & freezing temps this year. Of course, it's going to be 60 here today but it's been raining since last night & going to continue into tonight. Sick & tired of all the rain this year!

Almost exactly what Lugnut said worked for me. The dusting below the trap helps keep it from sticking down, then fill in and around with peat. I would toss just a little dirt on top to blend the color and hold down the peat. I also would cover/blend with grass clippings especially if rain was coming. Done that way the set would stay in service with up to about 1/2" of rain. The biggest problem was the top cover getting wet and freezing. That keeps the trap from firing and you have to fix as Lugnut described. Sometimes, if I knew a lot of rain was coming I would cover with enough foliage to keep them dry enough to be in service after I removed the foliage.

i'm about to see how my straw chaff worjked last night.rain and windy bad last night.

and never thought of it Lug but when it gets like this,having the ground be 90 percent rock can be a good thing.40 new sets,wish me luck-stealin wifes picture thingy.

Yeah, I never thought of that solid layer of shale a few inches down up your way as a good thing but I can see where it might be in these conditions!

One of the townships I trap in is called "Rockland" for the obvious reason. Fortunately, most of the rocks have been removed from the fields over the centuries and used to build fence rows, houses and barns. Still, I have a pile of rebar stakes pounded into S's from trying to beat them through rocks.

Good luck with the pics, post some up.

I'm sitting this monsoon out, might do some smoke-poling this afternoon after it quits.

Thank you for the info Lugnut! I will have to get me some peat and start messing with it on a few of my sets while dry so I can get the process figured out. Bedding the trap solid was my biggest concern about it, but sounds like I just need to dig my hole more carefully. Is peat consistency kind of like dirt? Is it packable when bedding the trap? I will need to blend some dry dirt into the top layer as I am after coys exclusively, so blending is crucial, but I do carry dry dirt with me so that shouldn't be a problem.

It's much lighter and fluffier than regular dirt. I buy it in compressed bales so it is somewhat packable I guess. Remember, I'm primarily a red fox trapper so that question is above my pay grade. I don't pack the peat at all for reds.

Maybe a more experienced coyote trapper like PCR can advise you about using peat for yotes.

what yotes?2 reds is all today again.not complaining but i hope our snow comes back tonight.if i use peat this time of year,i'll spray it with glycol and try to compress it in,otherwise in warm temps i like my peat damp so i can pack it better.

okay, I have some glycol I can spray to help. I wish I had more reds in my area but unfortunately I am mostly in coyote territory where I trap. Only catch a few reds a year if I m lucky. which is mainly why I am interested in waxed dirt as it will be easier for me to use and work with, but harder to obtain.

What's a lot of rain when it comes to peat moss? After this week I've decided I need to know how to trap in wet conditions in the future. We got like an inch and a half of rain a couple of days ago and will b in the teens tonight..

Wax dirt is the ONLY thing I have found to be freeze proof in winter. All other options in my opinion bare freeze resistant. Just my opinion. If I am going to make a coyote set I want it to work long term without worrying about it. I don't have a huge population nso traps can set a month without a visit.

Thanks for the feedback guys, some good ideas out there. Good luck on the lines .

another trick is to drive a stake under the trap a few places and wallow it around and pull it, so the water has a place to go

Even my waxed dirt fails when we have a heavy rain or major snow melt followed by a hard freeze. But if the moisture event isn't too drastic, the waxed dirt works beautifully.
We use an old cement mixer. Put in a bunch of sandy dirt, get it tumbling, fire up the weed burner and direct it against the bell. When the dirt is warm, dump in the flake wax.

DO NOT DO THIS IN AN ENCLOSED AREA! The petroleum vapors gassing off are explosive!