need some help with muskrat traps

[pro98]

took my first beaver job as a newbie and got him second day. was pretty fun, however I saw some colony muskrat traps with fluorescent rubber tube floats along side to keep them floating. so I made a couple, wired a green apple in the middle with swinging doors on each side. put one out in water floating and put the other on bank with other end floating and they eat the apple Thru the wire. 1X2" wire. figured I would come back this morning to find full colony traps, any idea's what I could be doing wrong, very much open to any idea's. should they be somewhat under water or level so they have to climb up on them then go thru doors'? also my fur buyer said beaver was only worth $10.00 and the tails aren't sellable. I'm sure I saw people selling tails is this about right or whats other opinions. beaver only weight about 30#. the plus side to this is I get sole trapping rights next season and their was so much cat and red fox sign it looks like a run way for them. should be good. so what am I doing wrong with these muskrats or should I be using different traps. I don't want to catch anything other than rats so no pocket sets or anything that would catch coons. thanks

[wayne]

Around here beaver aren't worth dragging out of the water. And the buyers used to pay by the pound in the round so $10 would be a BIG beaver.
The colony trap with bait works best when there isn't much food around.

[pro98]

plenty of food in this spot. maybe harder than I thought to catch a rat. wow $10 is good for a beaver, in that case it will be the last one unless its a job or I need the bait. thanks

[DaveM]

I always put colony traps in runs, with no bait. They work great!

[trapperknox]

I remember I saw this European style colony trap in Fur-Fish-Game. It's the standard colony trap, but in the middle is this tube of wire that leads to a wire basket. When the muskrat goes to the center it'll fall in the box and drown. It's all mesh.

[pro98]

cool I saw one simular to that, it had a typical colony trap on top but had wooden floor with 3' hole cut in it and they feel into that which was a bigger cage under neath could hold numerous rats. I can see their holes in the banks easily several of them, that must be where I should put these traps. so they come out and go into the colony traps. I could block the opening actually ? I thought rats where stupid and wouldn't be a fraid to go into or out of anything. but tell me is apples and carrots the best things to use for bait

[trapperknox]

Don't ask me. I only got one... in a raccoon set.
Anyways, I always thought those two would work just as good as any other.

[DaveM]

Those are supposed to be the best baits, but the few times I have tried them, not much luck. If there are runs outside of the dens, that is where to put the colony traps. Once you get the hang of it, small creeks have runs in them where you can catch every rat for a long ways withone colony trap.

[pro98]

daveM day four no rats yet. I stuffed colony cage in mouth of rat hole and on bank. I stuck 160 in front of another one. it was sprung but no rat I think the mud slowed it down I will bring a H support for it tomorrow, was told parsnip was suppose to be the best bait going for the rats in washington. I have a creek 2" water ripples down into bigger pond if you will. one rock is like a moute water all around with rat droppings on it, next to that say 4 feet away is a rock that protrudes from land into water with rat droppings on it. I set a floating colony trap thier for 4 days and nothing. yesterday I went out their and set a 1 1/2 coil spring on land next to rock that protrudes from land and shaved some parsnip behind it and no rats. I can't believe a rat can out smart me this long. the runs I'm seeing are going up and down a very steep bank by these large holes in the bank at water level. I'm sure thats their dens, nothing on ground level that I can tell, I see people showing off all kinds of floating rat traps and swear by them but I must be missing something very important with them. anymore Idea's anyone? thanks again

[DaveM]

I have never tried the floating traps.

Can you see any runs in the mud in the bottom of the creek. If so put a colony trap there.

[IndyChris]

I too saw everyone showing off their big catches with the floating colony traps! I tried them last year with not one rat in any of them! I ended up disassembling them and making regular colony traps out of what I could salvage! I use colony traps almost exclusively now, no bait! I don't have much quick water, so I can usually see the runs down the middle of the creek. If I can't find the run, and you have alot of sign like you mention, I throw a colony trap out in bottle neck, then neck it down with sticks or whatever to make the litter buggers go where I want them to! Also make sure that the trap is completely under water, I tried a few where they were only half submerged, one morning, I had a live rat! Tried to toss trap out into deeper water, on my back swing the little sucker saw the door swing up, and there he went! I chased him with a stick till I about had a heart attack, and then decided he wasn't worth it! Hope this helps, Chris

[trapperknox]

Wow, some story there!
Do rats have a tendency to just up and leave whenever they want? There's at least four holes, ones caved in now, that had muskrats. I knew they had 'em due to some floating vegetation. I placed Conibears in 'em before and nothing.

[pro98]

suppose to rain big tonight several inches. so I may not have any trap tomorrow. but if I do when the rain ends I will look for these runs your talking about, I'm not sure I have seen what your talking about. I bet I have, but just dont know it yet. I can easily set in the middle of some of these streams. it go's from ponds to pools to puddles with ripples streams in between them. caught a beaver with a caster mound I made and someone said to do the same for rats. make a mud slick and set a 1 or 1 1/2 in about 1 inch of water in front of mud slick you just made. people righting this feel strongly about them. it worked for my beaver. but I actually dont want to set any coil springs. I want to be target specific muskrats, the rest are out of season and no need educating them yet. sure would like to undestand these colony sets. I'm sure not getting anywhere with these floating bait stations.

[pro98]

okay the more I think about it I deffentally don't no what the runs are. when talking about muskrats, is it the bottom of the stream say the bottom most part of the stream or is it something the rats make in the stream as they go down it, I thought they swam down it so thats why I'm not sure what it could be under water that deep. ? sorry just not getting it. can you explain further someone. thanks

[IndyChris]

The run will look the same as a beaver run, only much smaller. The runs coming out of the dens should look all muddyish, if that makes any sence. Fresh runs are free of all leaves and vegitation, the rats keep them all slicked up. A colony trap set on a den run will, sooner or later catch a rat, if they are using the den. I don't think they are very smart, but can sometimes give you problems. We had very little water this season, on one of my stops there was a little puddle of water that I crossed over everyday. I would stop short of the crossing everyday and walk up to it, had coyote sets across the bridge. Almost everyday I'd scare a couple of rats that were up on the bank. I tried every kind of set I could think of, water was really nasty and couldn't find any dens. After a week of not catching any the water dried up a little more and I found a bank den. Then they came easy. Once you get the hang of them, they are a blast my ten year old loves them! Hope this helps.