A wet day ahead!  Some prayed.  Some fasted.  Some crossed their fingers.  And every fisherman I know said a silent prayer and hoped we would get some moisture….Well, it’s happening folks!  Thanks for everything you did to make this moisture come to Northern Utah!

Yesterday I noticed that where I had been walking on ice I was now walking in mud!  Things are breaking up quickly out on the trap line!  The thick ice is not so thick anymore and with these 50 plus degree days and rain, it won’t be long before all the ice is gone completely!  YAY!  Spring!

I didn’t have a chance to give you a P.M. report yesterday, the day was just too full of trapping and other events!  But the day went as f0llows:

I got a pretty good start, leaving town about 8:30 or so and the trip out went without any incidents.  I pulled the 5 traps at Pete’s pond and to my surprise I did finally catch a rat in one of the Conibear traps.  That makes six total rats caught from the pond, a pretty usual amount for that small pond.  I usually catch from 5 to 10 rats.

Out at Bull Run I was pretty excited to check the live traps in hopes of getting rid of some of those lousy raccoons.  My first live trap held a big old skunk!  I don’t like skunks and so I stayed a ways back from the trap as I leveled my 22 pistol in its direction.  One shot was all it took and the skunk died quickly.  However, it did spray and made for a nasty removal!  Having been sprayed directly in my past, the odor makes me sick to my stomach every time I smell it, this was no exception.

Live trap number two held a very BIG raccoon!  One of the largest I have caught to date, and he had been eating well!  Is he the culprit that has cost me 9 rats?  I’ll never know, but for certain, his days are over and he will eat no more rats.

The remainder of the live traps were empty and remained set.

The rat traps produced pretty much as I usually expect,  I caught 5 rats from them, for a six rat total for the day.

Now some might think that the catch rate is too low, but the way I trap is this:  I saturate an area with an over kill of traps.  My thoughts are to get in, catch what is there and move out to other areas.  I set a lot of traps in an area in just a few days and then am on to bigger and better areas with those traps.  I move a lot of steel in just a few weeks time.

So, in this case, I have about 24 traps set, I caught two days of 11 and then one day of 5.  And if you factor in the 9 rats the raccoons ate, I actually caught 16 rats on day one, 15 rats on day two and then 5 rats on day 3.  Day two was actually higher than usual and should have been about an 8 rat day.  The catch rate percentages are usually, 50% of the total traps out on day one, 25% on day two and then a scattering of rats on days 3 and 4 and then I’m out of there and on to better trapping grounds!

After checking Bull Run, I still had an hour or so to investigate an area I have been driving past for years.  I was curious to look at it and see if any rat sign existed.  The area consists of three “seeps” and from the highway you can tell there is some water, but not much.  As I drove the toy into where the fist seep was, I noticed quite a bit of water bubbling up from a spring and immediately saw where a rat had been visiting quite a bit…a substantial pile of rat poop.  The water is not very deep in this spot and the trails the rats have made are all exposed making them very vulnerable to night time predators like owls and foxes, but there was a lot of sign.  Between the two seeps I had time to look at, I quickly set 13 traps, including the two colony traps I took from Pete’s pond.  A remarkable number of traps for such a small amount of water!  I’m hoping to set more in there today, as well as see what seep number 3 holds!

My plan looks like I’ll pull the traps from Bull Run on Monday and move over to the “Trellis”.  The live traps will remain where they are for a couple of weeks.  I’ll pull them when I move out to Big Spring.

So, what will today produce?

Rain and wet for sure!  My hopes are high for at least one more raccoon and NO skunks…I didn’t tell you but I moved the skunk(ed) set over closer to the waters edge where I should have had it to begin with…dummie me!

Bull Run should kick out 4 rats and the new 13 sets should produce 8…so count my hopes at 12 rats and one raccoon.

Ain’t that purdy?

Bears Butt

February 14, 2014 “Happy Valentines Day”

P.M. REPORT

Boy was it wet today!!!!  Everything I own is soaked!  AND my butt is kicked!

As I approached Bull Run, I could not help but see there were no bulls in view, at least not close like they have been.  My thoughts raced to my dream that they had all gone into the area behind a gate I could close!  As I loaded up the toy and headed through the gate by the road, I drove straight to that other gate and sure enough all the bulls were behind it..AND the gate was closed and wired good and shut!!!!  Was I a happy guy?!!!  YES!!!!

THANK YOU PETE AND THE REST OF THE RANCH HANDS FOR MOVING THOSE BULLS, JUST IN TIME!  I was really dreading “going in among them” to set more traps and today was going to be that day!

I headed back to the beginning of my trap line and began checking like usual.  The live trap I had moved yesterday…the one that had the skunk…was harboring another skunk!  One pop from the pistol and he was done for, but the smell was overwhelming!  I gagged and choked my way away and continued to check muskrat traps.  When I got to the last live trap I could see the door was closed and something was in it, but I could not see exactly what it was until I got close…a hawk!  What on earth would a hawk go into one of those traps for?  I was able to open the door and coax him out with a stick.  He was happy to be able to fly off.  Me too.

At the end of the line I had 5 rats but lost 3 others to some kind of critters, not raccoons.  I think two of them were eaten by mink and one by a hawk, I say this because of how they were eaten.  Mink like to eat from both ends toward the middle and those two rats had their heads eaten and their tail end as well and everything in between.  The hides were like wet socks, but damaged beyond use.  I figured 5 good rats was not to bad for those traps and I still had the 13 I set yesterday to check.

Well, I had lots of time and no bulls to contend with and so I set out to set some more traps down Bull Run.  Before the day was over I had set 21 more traps in there and 2 more at the seeps for a total of 23 traps set.  That means I have 75 (if I count correctly) traps out, plus the 7 live traps.

The seeps kicked out six more rats for a total of 11!!!!  I’ll take that!  11 rats, 1 skunk and 1 hawk.

Brek chose not to check his traps today and so his catch today was “0”.

Bob caught 7 rats!

Weasel caught 3 rats!

Updated by yours truely!