Carp's 2015/2016 Trapping Season

[Humptulips]

White patches under the chin of mink are pretty common it seems to me. A little less so on the belly.

[Carp Commander]

White patches under the chin of mink are pretty common it seems to me. A little less so on the belly.

Yes, that seems to be the case. I always see chins and sometimes throat markings but not between the back legs. May just keep this one for myself!

[Carp Commander]

Muskrat numbers were horrible today so I pulled the line! Not sure what I would do without my Otter Sled.

I call it the S.S Rat-Slayer

[Carp Commander]

Still learning about these rats. I had this obvious feed bed in deep water. I made three sets on runs (pinch points) coming into the bed using double colonies in each set. That's six traps committed to this one feed bed. I also chopped up an apple, put one chunk in each colony trap and then placed the rest of the apple on the feed bed. 

On the first night every trap was empty but the apple from the feed bed was gone. Could be that just about any critter ate the apple but I was convinced it was muskrat.

Now normally I would have pulled & shuffled but this just looked liked to good of a spot. I re-adjusted the same three sets and placed a 7x7x24 single door right on top of the feed bed. I baited it with apple and some cherry extract.

[Carp Commander]

The feed bed

[Carp Commander]

Today I was surprised to have a nice big rat in the single door and twice as surprised that all the colony traps were empty. Now how in the heck did rats come and go from this feed bed every night for two nights without catching one?

[Carp Commander]

Two more beavers today. Neither very big and based on the one I skinned yesterday they are still pretty blue.

The land owner was so happy he tossed me some gas money and said I had access for as long as he owned the place. That is as long as I come back every year and deal with those "@#$%% beaver".

[jasnt]

I been having same troubles with rats. I had one area set with 3 colony's (all access oints ) and no rats but it was obvious the area was getting plenty of action. they learned to fly

[UrbanTrapper]

Do the carrot baits work pretty well for you?  Apples worked pretty well for me in the past but birds and maybe mice ate them all consistently last year.  Do you use lure with the carrots?
 

[Carp Commander]

Do the carrot baits work pretty well for you?  Apples worked pretty well for me in the past but birds and maybe mice ate them all consistently last year.  Do you use lure with the carrots?
 

I really don't think there is any bait or scent that works better than others consistently. I catch just as many rats in my mink traps baited with muskrat or beaver as I do with apples. I only used apples because I have them in surplus right now. I have tried apples, carrots, parsnips, turnips, potatoes and many others. Nothing works consistently.

I have had the same experience with attractants. I have tried spearmint, cherry, vanilla, catnip, anise and a whole host of others, again without consistent results.

[Carp Commander]

I scouted a new area this week looking for skunks. I am only going to commit 4 traps to skunks and wanted to put those traps on confirmed locations so I put out a trial camera. I got some good video but was surprised that there was only one of them working this set. Looks like the same skunk came back three nights in a row.

[Machias]

He's a fatty!!

[winslow]

He's a fatty!!

He's almost rolling around!

[jasnt]

Idk why but I can't see it and my phone won't load it manually.

[Carp Commander]

Idk why but I can't see it and my phone won't load it manually.

Not sure what is going on. Hope you get to see it. I think its a pretty neat video. Its no bobcat but still pretty cool.