austinp
#3 Newhouse
the next fur season is never far from our minds :)
Posts: 3,008
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Post by austinp on Oct 2, 2014 17:35:59 GMT -5
well, not 3 months of non-stop action... maybe a couple - few weeks if the water is either wide open or iced thick enough to walk. The in-between times you are blocked out from rat trapping. Each day there requires gas back & forth, too.
the total expense does not end at the successful bid, and if it's a tough weather year like last season there aren't too many good days of easy trapping. Not to mention there aren't rats stacked on top of each other any more, that was one certain unit and this year it is drained bone dry. Everywhere else has varying populations but nothing like the one unit had before.
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Post by bill1960 on Oct 2, 2014 21:48:07 GMT -5
Austin how many of those that paid the big bucks last year reported what they actually caught 400 rats sounds pretty low for the unit your talking about probably they got more like 1500 and just reported they got 400 so that a new guy wouldn't want to bid on it
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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 Oct 3, 2014 4:29:17 GMT -5
well, I don't want to speculate on who might do what with their mandated government reports... nor do I want to question the skills or actions of any other trappers out there. But the fact is specific unit in discussion here was grossly under-trapped for at least two if not three seasons past. That allowed rats to build up to a point where they completely cleared several hundred acres of vegetation into one open water eat-out.
I lived thru NY in its all-time historical peak muskrat population and I saw eastern North Dakota two years ago during the same. But never in my life have I seen so many rat houses per acre in an area like that was last winter. In addition, it has to be the all-time easiest ice trapping area I have ever seen in my life, too.
The area used to be a few hundred acres of muck farm fields bisected with shallow drained ditches in the typical squared fashion you see anywhere. When the unit was diked and flooded, the fields became shallow water habitat and the ditches were +/- three feet deep. Muskrats exploded in that habitat, clustering houses in 18" to 30" of water across the former fields while using those drainage ditches as I-90 expressways.
The high-volume approach to mass catches quickly there is ignore the houses and feedbeds, those are secondary set locations. Carpet-bomb the drainage ditches with bodygrip traps spaced ten feet apart the entire length... and run a 10-day check. Then pull stakes, wait a month or so and repeat the process after surviving rats from the first massive haul dispersed thru the area again.
Open water, under ice or both... that approach would have hammered the over-population and filled truckbeds with catches. But whatever else did or did not happen, the rats clear-cut every single cattail stalk above water last fall, were not trapped nearly enough last season so the several hundred acres of totally denuded wetland were drained this spring to let vegetation regrow. At this moment in time, it is still almost bone dry.
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Post by Lonny Mattison on Oct 3, 2014 5:22:20 GMT -5
Austin, with all those rats out that way, seems like you and Walleyed would team up and whack them...then you guys could whack all those reds jumping all over the place out your 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 Oct 3, 2014 6:42:28 GMT -5
Lonny, remains to be seen just how many rats are within my reach this year. None of those were in the past... nearest I could legally get to them was a longing gaze from roadside :<(
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Post by Lonny Mattison on Oct 3, 2014 6:49:53 GMT -5
If given the opportunity Austin, would you go after them at Montezuma?
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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 Oct 3, 2014 7:20:33 GMT -5
sure, but I think the bids in few good units will be far higher than make sense for me. I've always been out-bid each time I tried, from a little bit (at best) to double the prices that made sense for me
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2014 7:55:51 GMT -5
Don't let money get in your way Austin. Liquadate some of your stocks and enjoy the season.
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Post by kirkwooder on Oct 3, 2014 8:24:37 GMT -5
Austin If you had to, you could save a few bucks by building a reed hut( like the rats do) out in the marsh some where. Live in it, eating nothing but marsh rabbit stew and cattail roots, Thus saving you the travel money! Think "Jeremiah Johnson"
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Post by bill1960 on Oct 3, 2014 21:12:56 GMT -5
Austin when they drain the swamp were or what happen's to the rats do they just move to another unit the river or just die from lack of water
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Post by proratman on Oct 4, 2014 8:36:53 GMT -5
I totally agree with nyredfox statement about the whitetail hunts. Trapping is exciting. Is it less exciting to catch a $50.00 otter than a $90.00 otter? Of course not! How much money do you make when you go deer hunting? Trapping is a total connection with the outdoors. The fur market is down, that is not a reason to not trap. You don't have to go out and kill yourself and pile up a ton of fur. Get out there and enjoy this beautiful time of year and live everyday to its fullest.
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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 Oct 5, 2014 5:53:11 GMT -5
I totally agree with nyredfox too... and there are literally thousands of places both public and private waters across the state where one can smell the roses and enjoy the great outdoors while chasing muskrats. But for me personally? If I consider purchasing a season lease for $2,000+ cash money, it is going to be a bit more serious efforts involved. Otherwise I'd keep the 2G's in my pocket and dabble with a dozen rats daily somewhere that's free to access.
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