A.M. March 13, 2012

Nasty wind all night and is expected to increase in intensity today even up to 30 mph….grab your trap flags fellas!  Tighten down the bilge ropes and hang onto your hats!

Bob is going to set his first trap on Club 41 today.  WOOPPEEEE!!!  I hope to set another 50 or so and then up to Big Spring to pull the remainder of traps up there.  It’s going to be another butt kicker of a day today.

Expected rat catch: 20 for me, 10 for Bob.

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

A windy but warm day on the trap line.

Bob got a phragmiti stick poked into the base of his thumb and between his thumb and first finger about two weeks ago.  It has been giving him fits lately by swelling up and hurting real bad.  He has been soaking it in Epsom Salts every night for at least a week.  Well today, he had signs of blood poisoning traveling up his arm above his wrist.  He had to go to the doc.  No trapping for him today.  The doc lanced it to relieve the pressure and get some of the infection out.  Tried to find any slivers, but found nothing.  Then sewed him back together.

In order for him to go trapping tomorrow, he has to soak it in Epsom Salts for an extended time tonight and then in the morning he will have to put on a waterproof bandage and wear rubber gloves.  He should be alright to set traps because it was his left hand that got injured.

I was able to pull all the remaining traps out of Big Spring and only caught one rat and one kit out of all those traps.  It’s a good thing I’m leaving that area, as it is dead.

I set 22 more traps on Club 41, but most of them are not what I call “good sets”.  But as they say, a trap in the truck ain’t gonna catch nuttin.  So I now have 66 traps out.  Tomorrow I’ll set more.

Todays catch 21 rats!  Toss in the one kit and 3 other set off traps and it was a pretty good day in the field.

My butt is once again “kicked”.

Bears Butt

A.M. March 12, 2012

Daylight Saving Time has me in a fog this morning.  Last nights sleep was nearly non-existent and today will be a fun day.

Setting traps on Club 41 is the priority of all priorities.  I picked up the key to the clubs main gate on Saturday (Thanks Matt).

Bob has chosen to sleep in today and only check his road line.  He will enter Club 41 tomorrow.

Today my goal is to set as many traps as I can and still check the Big Spring line.  I plan on pulling the top half of the Big Spring line today as well.  And then tomorrow, set more traps on 41 and pull the rest of Big Spring.

A hefty goal for today…it’s 8:30 and I better get a move on!

Later folks!

Bears Butt

P.M.

Who’s butt is kicked is mine!  Bob’s too.

I managed to set 44 traps on Club 41 and then move over to Big Spring and pull 43 traps.  I checked the line from the far end to the near end and pulled the near end traps.  Tomorrow I hope to get the far end pulled and then we will be completely out of Petes place.

Bob is a happy guy today, having kicked my rat catch by double!  He caught 14, I caught 7.

The thing about my line was I also caught two more kit rats, two field mice, a bird and had 5 other traps set off with nothing in them.  Including these:

Little Pond, one set off trap and one rat!  Big Pond, nothing.  Stein pond, one trap set off, no rats.

All three set ponds have been pulled for this year.

With daylight saving time, my day ended at 7:10 tonight.  We put up 48 rats after trapping all day.  I lost weight today for sure.

Bob is excited to finally get to set some iron on Club 41.  I showed him on a Google map I produced where my traps are set and he will begin his sets at the other end of the club and work toward the middle.  We will have a better strategy tomorrow, but my plan right now is to cover all the peripheral areas and let him cover the ones close to the main road through the middle of the club.  He will have plenty of areas to put traps and I will zip back and forth across the road and cover the outer edges and some places I have always wanted to explorer but never had the time.

Plus there is Doris’ pond and Steve Petersons springs to trap as well.

The season will wrap up quite nicely.

Notes I took today about Club 41:

It is pretty much the same scene out there as where we have been trapping so far.  Not as much water as usual and the rat sign is WAY DOWN.  If Bob and I collectively catch 100 rats on Club 41 it will be a successful year.

Second note:  There are raccoons  scouting all over the club.  This is not a good sign for us as they find a rat caught in a trap and if they cannot pull the stake and take off with the rat and the trap, they eat the rat right there.  I hope all my stakes are firmly placed.

I’m ready for a few cold brews, a good rub down, a soak in a hot tub, supper and bed.  Am I getting old?  Answer:  Yes!

Bears Butt

Highs near 60!  Wonderful Spring day ahead.

Today is only a half day on the trap line…gotta do some ditch cleaning first.

Goal:  Pull the remaining traps on the Goose Club line and check the traps on Big Spring.  Those two events will take about 4 hours to accomplish.  One neat thing about it is I have 10 or 12 of my new ideas out on the Goose Club line that I will be testing during the “pulling”.  I’ll let you know how that goes later.

I did not go trapping yesterday and so my catch should be pretty good today.  Yesterdays weather was great as was the night before and then last night.  Rats should have been running all around the swamp.  Expected catch today 20.

Now, you are all saying, “that’s what you said the other day and only caught 6, what gives”?  Well, remember the locals said the wind blew all night the other night.  So to catch 6, plus 2 kits, a bird, a field mouse and have 3 other traps set off is pretty good for a windy night…that could have been 13 big rats.  I’m sticking to 20 for today.

Then the excitement builds for our Club 41 lines coming this week.

Trapping season is just about over for this year.  Rats are beginning to show some signs of fur slippage so to be hitting the club now is perfect.

More to come later.  Check back after 6 p.m.

Bears Butt

Holy smokes!  My mail box is full of complaints!  I did not post up a P.M. report last night.  My excuse?  Tired, rear end kicked from a morning of ditch cleaning and an afternoon of pulling traps and checking traps.  Sorry folks!

A.M. report of the P.M. report

It was a very beautiful day out in the swamp.  T-shirt weather.  Lots of birds singing and chirping.  Ducks paired up and jumping from the swamp around me.  Geese, swans, Sandhill cranes, crows…lots of wildlife to see.

Little pond captured no rats.  Big pond surprised me with one rat!  And Stein pond had nothing.  It’s time to move on!

The rest of the line ended with 8 rats that count, three kit rats and 5 set off traps.  What gives with the set off traps and nothing in them?  Oh, ya, a duck was caught but only by the breast and it flew away when I released it.

I met up with the President of the Club 41 and got the key to the gate.  Monday Bob and I will begin to set traps in there.

Speaking of Bob, he was very happy to announce to me that he caught 12 rats!  That is 3 days this season he has kicked my butt on total rats caught in a day.  Good on you Bob!  Keep it up.

I now only have 61 traps out and plan on setting a whole bunch tomorrow on Club 41.  Today (Sunday) I will mentally plan my route and tonight will dream about setting rat catching sets…it is the final days of the season and time to make the big move on catching those pesky little fur bearers.

Bears Butt

A. M…..March 8, 2012

March is marching right along!

What a beautiful night it turned out to be.  Lows near 30 and todays high is expected into the 40’s…rats love this weather and so we expect to do some substantial catching today.

I put a call into the Club 41 president yesterday for a key to the gate.  It looks like we might be moving into there as early as Monday.  There are two things about moving into there…one:  A new area to capture unsuspecting rats and two:  I culminates our trapping season.

This year will be Bob’s first year trapping on that club and he will learn a thing or two about how different the rats are to catch.  They live differently than most other places where rats live.  I have learned they like to live in tiny openings in the clay banks.  Tiny like holes just a bit larger than ones that mice live in.  I think they make their den openings small in order to keep the raccoons from discovering them…what do I know?

With 93 traps out, my expectations for today is 20 rats.  Yesterday would have been 18 if the 6 set off traps would have captured their intended prey.  So in reality, 20 is not a high goal.  I set 2 colony traps yesterday that could easily catch 6 rats each…wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants?

More later!

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

The weather today was perfect for doing most anything outside.  Wonderful day.  Our problem on the rat-line was the locals told us it blew hard all night long.  BOOOO.  My catch showed it….6!  That is awful for this time of year.  However, and on a bright note, brother Bob kicked my butt with 9 rats!!!!  That’s twice this season he has out caught me.

I also had 3 other traps set off with nothing in them, caught two “baby” rats, a bird and a field mouse.  The colony traps came up empty!  Another BOOOO!

As for the three ponds that Stein helped me with…all three came up zero with Big Pond having one set off trap and nothing in it.  I moved three of the traps, one on each of the ponds.  We will see what happens the next time I check them.  I have high hopes to catch at least 2 more rats from those three small ponds.

Check this near catch out:

That pan is down and the only thing that kept it from catching a rat was the rust that built up on the dog…1/1ooth of an inch and that rat would have been mine!  OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I was in a bit of a hurry today to get the trapping done, but I still managed to set 5 more traps out on the end of Big Spring.  My hope was to have enough time to go into Brigham and gas up the rig for Saturday and also to get a hair cut.  I managed to do both.

I love my new “do”.  Instead of looking like a “bald hippie”, I look closer to just plain bald…Thanks Brent!

By the way if you want to hear some B.S., go to Wyatt’s Barber Shop at 25 East 700 South in Brigham City, Utah for your next hair cut!  Great barbers at a Great Price…Tell them Bears Butt sent you and you will really get an ear full of B.S.  Discount on the hair cut?  NOPE!  Just good old home town B.S.

Tomorrow I am taking the day off trapping and going to a funeral and then to a granddaughters show at school.  Both are more important than trapping.  Bob will kick my butt again tomorrow on the catch, but I’ll kick his on Saturday when I pull two days worth of rats out of the swamps.

Bears Butt

A.M. March 7, 2012

I lost a day this week.  Winemaker informed me this morning that today is Wednesday!  It is also Windy’s birthday.  Where did yesterday go?  When did it arrive and what did I do?

The weather yesterday must have affected my pea brain.  Oh Well!

Today the weather is starting off somewhat OK…Well…A whole lot better than yesterday afternoon…I hope my flags are still upright in the swamp.

A warming trend is starting which should make for some great trapping the next few days.

Today, since it is Wednesday, I will begin to pull traps from the Goose Club line.  I’ll pick up the top end today and the rest tomorrow and Friday or Saturday.  I have a possible snow goose hunt in the wind right now and also a cousin passed away and so there is a funeral on Friday.

Expectations for a good catch today is not very high.  Maybe 7 to 10.  As I set traps yesterday in that high wind, my thoughts were not so much on trap placement, but rather, put the trap in a run and let’s get outahere.  I will find out how well that thought produces rats.

Later folks!

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

Boy, the older I get the harder it is to do stuff.  My rear end is kicked right now.

Driving out to the lines, the road west of Corrine all the way to the point of Little Mountain was so slick and the north wind was blowing very hard.  I thought several times I was going to get blown across the highway and into the barrow pit.  20 mph was as fast as I wanted to drive that stretch of road.  When I came back I saw where there must have been a very big accident as I saw lots of painted stuff on the road.  People driving too fast for the conditions is my guess.

I managed to pull the top end of the Goose Club line and check all the other traps.  The wind blew all day long and it was cold.  Not nearly so like yesterday, but cold none the less.

Little Pond had one of the two traps set off with nothing in it.  The other trap un-touched.  Big Pond…no activity.  Stein pond the same..nothing.  I will leave those traps until Saturday and then pull them for the ride out to Club 41.

Todays catch…12 (not counting a baby one).  6 other traps set off with nothing in them.  I wish I could figure out how to get that to stop happening.  Any suggestions?

I was able to set two colony traps and 4 conibears at the end of the Big Spring line.  That completes that line for this season.

Butt

A. M.  March 6, 2012

Slept in.  I guess as I get older my body just can’t take the stess of setting a few traps and going like gang-busters in the swamp like I could in my younger days.  I wanted to be on the road by 7:30 today, but right now it’s 6:45 and there is no way possible for me to be out of here in 45 minutes.  I have not even had a cup of coffee yet.

The wind blew hard last night, you know what that means to the rats.

Goal of the day:  Pull the traps I have been tending on the Trellis line and get them re-set on Big Spring.  So, I will park on the Trellis, drive to the far end of the line and pull traps as I progress back toward the truck.  Then load up, drive to the Big Spring parking area and check from Stein sets out to the end of the Big Spring line as far as we got yesterday and then begin setting the traps I pulled from the Trellis line.  If there is enough time left, I will check the Goose Club line.  If not, they will get checked tomorrow.

The weather is calling for rain today and snow tonight and tomorrow.  Lots of winds upwards of 35 mph.

Talking with Bob last night, we are planning on pulling out of Petes and setting the Club 41 line no later than next Tuesday March 13.  Between now and then I have to contact them and get a key to the gate.  I also need to call Doris and make sure she leaves the loaded shotgun behind the kitchen door.

Rat catch expected today….20.

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

The day started warm with no breeze as I headed to the end of the Trellis line to start pulling those traps.  An hour later, back at the truck, the wind was blowing about 10 mph and the temp had dropped 10 degrees.  I headed for the west lines.

Wanting to get those traps reset, I checked the Big Spring line out to where Wapiti and I had ended yesterday and then began to set the 21 or so traps I had to put in there.  I could have set 100 easily if the weather had cooperated.  But as it was the wind continued to get stronger and stronger to a point my hat kept blowing off.  The temp also dropped another 20 degrees and by the time I set the last trap I was ready for some warmth.

The three ponds that Stein and I set went like this:  Little pond..2 traps..no rats.  Big pond..2 traps..2 rats.  Stein pond…2 traps…no rats.

I did not get out to the Goose Club line to check any traps today.  The total catch for the day was 12 with 6 other set off traps.

It was blowing snow when I left the line today and the winds must have been 40 or maybe even 50 mph.  I don’t think there will be much rat activity tonight.

Bears Butt

I told you all that Stein accompanied me on a day of trapping the other day.  I forgot to introduce you to him.

Stein and his father Brad, called me last Spring (2011) about the possibility of catching a raccoon.  Stein wanted to catch a nice fat fully prime one and then have it tanned.

My assumption was that he would make a rug out of the tanned hide and hang it on the wall.  That was an assumption that did not come true.

We set ourselves a “trapping season” and began our attempt at catching one.  Days went by and our experience was not very fruitful until the last day of our season.  That is the day Stein did in fact catch a very nice male raccoon in full glory.  I must admit it was a very nice raccoon.

I gave him a lesson on skinning the animal and he helped by skinning down one side while I did the other.  A fun day for sure for us both.  Maybe even mom, dad and sis had a good day as well…I don’t know for sure.

Anyway, Stein’s tanned raccoon hide came back in the late summer or early fall of last year (2011) and his mother quietly made a hat out of it.  A finer job of making a raccoon hat could not have been done.  It is beautiful, as you are about to see…..Folks, I introduce you to Stein Waddups……

He may be only 14, but he has very big dreams and I’m here to tell you, I believe he can do anything he puts his mind to doing!

Thanks for going with me that day Stein!  Oh, and thanks for offering me some of your jerky!

Bears Butt

March 2012

A.M. –March 5…Spring time in the Rockies!

Weather today mid 50’s!  It’s going to be a very nice day.  Then tonight the winds of change begin and continue through Wednesday.  Tomorrow and Wednesday 30 to 60% chance of rain/snow.  If that isn’t Spring, I don’t know what is.

Wapiti is heading out with me on the trap line today.  Gotta check all 105 traps and need to make a record of the number of rats caught in the 6 traps Stein and I set on Saturday.  I am hoping for 6 rats in those 6 traps…we will see.

Goal for the day:  Set at least 20 traps on the Big Spring line.  More would be better, but we might run out of day.

Expected rat catch:  14

More to come later in the day.

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

What an incredibly beautiful day it was.  Warm, nice, sunny, one could not have asked for a better day…but wait!  There was some incredible things that happened today that you need to know about.  Mostly just how wonderful a trapper Bears Butt is.  Read on!

Wapiti and I hit the swamp fairly early and when we arrived at our first park and unload station, there was a vehicle blocking our way…OOOOO.

We had to park someplace close but not where we wanted and then that added to our “drive time” to get to the first trap.  Why would someone park directly in front of a closed gate and then leave their vehicle…I’ll tell you…they were college students.  A guy and a gal…what does that tell YOU?

Well, they were in fact college students working for USU and doing a study on the effects of the ATK blasting of rocket motors and the corrosive effects of doing such as that.  I told them they were behind the ball, and that the big blasts have been done for months and years etc., but the guy re-assured me it was science in its best form that they were studying….she on the other hand seemed to be agreeing with me.  I can tell you right now the results of their study will clearly show “no ill effects or corrosive matter is coming from the rocket testing at ATK”.

Back to rat trapping.

Checking the trellis line we did not have one set off trap…sad deal…I need to pull those traps…but wait…I promised Bob I would leave them and check them every other day until we were done so that Bob would show me that the “run” will cause those traps to fill up regularly.

Tomorrow I am pulling those traps…I have already informed Bob that it is a waste of my time and his pocket book that I keep those traps active in their current places.  He agrees.

Back to the Goose Club line…..It’s almost a dead line…by that I mean I have caught all the rats that live near that area.  Ya, there may be one or two, but I need to be thinking about moving away from them and let them have kids and grow to be a big family for next year.

I caught 4 rats out of 75 traps on the Goose Club line.  Poor percentage, but there is one very important thing that came from that.

Me, being so very good at catching numerous rats, every year, had set a leg hold trap on a very good place.  Today there was evidence of a catch at that trap.  The rat, had torn up the swamp weeds and toolies very much, before he luckily pulled his toe off his foot.  DANG!  Close but no banana.

But, being so wiley a trapper, I had set a trap down stream some 50 yards or so, and near the very end of my checking of the line.  What did I find in a trap at the end of the line?  A rat with only 4 toes!  AH HA!  Trapper extraordinaire!  (that’s me)

And so the story goes.  We moved quickly up to the area where Trapper Stein and I had set 6 traps last Saturday.  Stein…this is for you!

Little Pond.  Two traps.  First trap set off with nothing in it!  DANG!

Second trap…filled with a rat!  Wooopeeee!

Big Pond.  Two traps.  First trap…empty….Second trap….Filled with a big old rat!  YAHOOOOO!

Stein Pond.  Two traps.  First trap…set off with nothing in it.  Second trap…big old rat!   Halaouya Brother!  Another rat!

That is 3 rats out of six traps and two others set off…it could have been a 5 for 6 day!  But fate let two rats learn a valuable lesson!  Thanks Stein for the lesson on where to set those traps!

So the rat total for me was 7…..I learned later that Bob caught 5…a good day for us.

The rest of Wapitis day and mine was setting traps and we did a pretty good job of setting Big Spring with 37 traps.   Wait until tomorrow folks…a VERY BIG catch tomorrow.

Bears Butt

P.M. Report!