Trap problems

I’ve been trapping muskrats for about a month and I haven’t caught a thing I can see the tracks going in to the water and I put the trap in the water right below the traps and stake the chain down with a stick down in the water but I can’t seem to catch anything. I’ve also had some traps disappear and idk if it’s a person taking them or what


Any tips

Jack

What type of trap are you using?

Post some pictures of your set

If the set looks like you had something but it’s reset then someone is probably stealing your critters but post pic of set

If you're using footholds and staking them by just pushing a stick through the rings, your missing traps are probably from coon getting caught and pulling your stake.

Or, slipping the ring OVER the end of a short stake.

I've used mostly victor 1's

It could be people taking your missing traps, but like some of the others posting i'm more concerned about your staking methods. A 'stick ' may not hold a coon or other animal. Look into getting some re-bar stakes or at the very least wire off to something solid like a small tree or exposed root system.

As far as not catching anything try using some sort of bait such as piece of apple. Muskrats love those.
You have the right idea setting up on sign and trails going in & out of the water. Your traps should be level with stream bed & a bit under the water.
Also, are you offsetting your traps to one side or the other to catch a foot & not in center of a trail to catch chest hair resulting in an empty fired trap?
It's meant to be a joke, but remember an animals legs are on the sides of it's body not in the center of it's chest

There are good books out there, and videos on youtube, on muskrat trapping. Welcome to trapping !

Unfortunately tracks for muskrats aren't always the best thing to set on , especially if it's on flat banks. If there's defined trails(slides) going up the banks, those are better spots to set.

I know a lot of marsh trappers love the #1s, they're terrible for creek trapping. 1.5s are the superior trap for muskrat.

Are you wiring the trap chain to the stake out in deep water?

No I was doing that but I lost a couple traps because my wire was too thin

Post a pic or two of your sets if ya can.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I always used at least 16 gauge wire.

Careful!!!!!

Last time I checked Utah wasn’t a very marshy state, muskrats??
This looks like a real good opportunity for some local outreach.

Well, I looked up the Utah rules on rats. Apparently they’re considered a nuisance animal open year-round no bag limit. Whoodathunkit.

Close to Utah lake is very marshy

OK JR I’ll try and help go to the top of the homepage click on forums when you get to forums scroll all the way down to archives go through the archives click on water trapping, starting on page 5 there will be serval pages on trapping muskrats types of traps, types of sets, how to set the trap how to anchor the trap wealth of information
Hope this helps

Thanks

Welcome

Here’s my set

dont leave your trap out of the water,

This here but don't set it to deep either. Fence the trap a little so they have no other place to go but over your trap.

I would see if there is any toilets on that bank. I set toilets 40% of the time, bank dens 40%, then culverts the last 10% of the time. Those IMO have the highest catch rate.

Toilet video --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DboybOYr9E0