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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2013 15:54:06 GMT -5
Your really making me want to try my hand in the Naples area this year.... Lol
I've seen more road killed rats this spring, than i've seen in several years. Just saw another one today...
God willing, I will hit the triple digit mark this year... I'm more excited about rats than I am for k9s....
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
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Post by austinp on Apr 16, 2013 15:54:50 GMT -5
So where do these "1000" rats go? when water is high enough for breeding to occur (it was not last year) and rats populate the marsh, once water levels draw down in the fall they are forced to crowd or disperse. some go into the remaining deeper flow where they cut each other pretty good... lots of damage from day one of season other rats head up the tributaries and into creeks, ditches and potholes elsewhere. obviously a good number of them fall prey to any number of predators along the way.
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
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Post by austinp on Apr 16, 2013 15:59:05 GMT -5
Your really making me want to try my hand in the Naples area this year.... Lol I've seen more road killed rats this spring, than i've seen in several years. Just saw another one today... God willing, I will hit the triple digit mark this year... I'm more excited about rats than I am for k9s.... you're welcome to come here and trap all you want... I might be there first two - three days or maybe not at all. I have plans elsewhere, unless the marsh is full of rats which ain't likely. We need a wet season late summer and all fall to make that happen. anyways, I don't expect to spend more than the first five days there total, then the bulk is skimmed and remnants left ain't worth my time. Last year three of us took about 100 apiece, give or take. Next year I expect ten or more guys to be here. Four or five were at the public launch opening day, all but me and one other guy left because of nil water. If there is water next year, it'll look like crappie fishing season with so many boats. I'll either skim it quick or be elsewhere from 11/25 on
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
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Post by austinp on Apr 16, 2013 16:16:02 GMT -5
one thing about Hi-Tor most guys don't realize: the vast bulk of acreage under water is tag alder swamps and cattail mats. Once upon a time it was all open cattails because the owners used to burn it off every spring. But once the DEC took over, they let it go natural and now the tag alder and ash have sprawled for decades. Relatively little of the overall marsh acreage can be floated or walked... there are many sinkholes in there filled with decades silt and debris that's over your head. I personally will not walk anywhere in the open marsh without a life jacket on and/or my hand on the canoe gunwale. any of the locals here will tell about near drownings in there due to that. If not the cattail mats, then dense tangled alder growth will drive one insane if you try to walk thru it in the water. Believe me, it's just this side of being water-boarded for torture. If the marsh is filled with water and rats, most of the houses can only be reached and set thru ice. If there is no water, the marsh is dry anyways. If wet, the real muskrat trapping starts with hard ice. That's pretty much the gist of things here... welcome to the jungle
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2013 17:07:07 GMT -5
Lol. Naples is too far for this penny pincher..... Highly doubt ill be there.. Besides, Rufus would drown me!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2013 17:17:19 GMT -5
I'm more excited about rats than I am for k9s.... Oh my! I once remember telling a fur buyer rats were for women and children, I think he would have punched me had I not been twice his size. Rick as my witness
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
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Post by austinp on Apr 17, 2013 6:44:17 GMT -5
the least physical, "easiest" trapping would be fox, followed by coyotes, followed by coon, followed by beaver, ended with muskrat when it comes to pure physical exertion. large effort anything, that's the scale of difficulty. Added to that, fox trapping is by far the simplest and muskrat trapping the most complex when it comes to location and habitat, sets construction variety. With fox, pound in two dirtholes or a hole and flat set on location, repeat the process all day. Muskrat trapping is far different than that, done right
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
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Post by austinp on Apr 17, 2013 6:48:29 GMT -5
Lol. Naples is too far for this penny pincher..... Highly doubt ill be there.. Besides, Rufus would drown me! I'd guess you have more "stealth" rats down there in your general area than we do up here. Whenever I've been thru your section to say West Union west and Ithaca east, that whole general swath has many slow-moving creeks and ditches with grassy banks and spring flow feeds. Those are the places that give up a dozen rats here, twenty there which guys tend to pass up. A lot of those sleeper spots on private ground go untapped, where they still exist. fwiw I have not seen one roadkilled rat anywhere in my county this spring, including traditional places where they are always found. That says something about where you are versus here
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2013 7:11:55 GMT -5
the least physical, "easiest" trapping would be fox, followed by coyotes, followed by coon, followed by beaver, ended with muskrat when it comes to pure physical exertion. large effort anything, that's the scale of difficulty. Added to that, fox trapping is by far the simplest and muskrat trapping the most complex when it comes to location and habitat, sets construction variety. With fox, pound in two dirtholes or a hole and flat set on location, repeat the process all day. Muskrat trapping is far different than that, done right Oh my Austin, sounds like you never skun a dozen stink dogs in a day. lol. I've never experience true rat trapping, just farm pond trapping as a kid, so take it like a grain of salt.
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
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Post by austinp on Apr 17, 2013 7:22:58 GMT -5
never yet skinned a dozen coyotes at night, but I have skinned 40 coon in a pile. This year I'll have me one of those fancy skinning machines like real trappers have! <grin> rat trapping for numbers is just pure physical exertion. To put 100+ in the truck each day takes a lot of rowing, paddling, wading, slogging and struggling thru mud while carrying weight. It's exhausting... but fun
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Post by 2labs on Apr 17, 2013 10:57:28 GMT -5
I was told that Hay Sets work well on rats! Is that true? LOL
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Post by whartonrattrapper on Apr 17, 2013 11:40:49 GMT -5
what rats? I trapped them all out this spring. there won"t be any in the fall. lol
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Post by Lonny Mattison on Apr 17, 2013 12:28:02 GMT -5
what rats? I trapped them all out this spring. there won"t be any in the fall. lol ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
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Post by austinp on Apr 17, 2013 12:52:02 GMT -5
thinkin' about selling all my muskrat traps and focusing on possums next season. I can catch a ton of them at $4 each plus bonus roadkills along the way
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Post by mrlongbeard1 on Apr 18, 2013 0:22:13 GMT -5
Those road killed possums are even worth more and flesh easier if they've been run over with studded snow tires.
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austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
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Post by austinp on Apr 18, 2013 7:41:01 GMT -5
Those road killed possums are even worth more and flesh easier if they've been run over with studded snow tires. Rockwood doesn't even charge for put-up... he'll buy all we can collectively haul to the flatiron next winter. I'm gonna start picking up road-killed possum by late August... teats should be dried out on females by then. I'd hate to see John trying to flesh them belly sides out any earlier than that.
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