This is a picture of yesterday’s catch…45 rats, one raccoon!  What a day!

Today is Tuesday and my goal is to pull 9 or 10 traps off Bull Run and move them over to the Trellis.  Doing so will spread out my line and require three stops to check them.  It’s all part of the way I trap.

Our goal of putting our rats up intending on netting top dollar at the auction requires combing the furs before they get put on the stretcher.  Weasel has taken that task on and is doing a top notch job.

We are well on our way!  Great job Weasel!

Last Saturday I stopped along the road to B.S. with Bob as he was checking a group of traps he has in that place.  In so doing he needed a little help with one of his bait sets and had run out of bait.  So I got my bag of bait out of the truck and took it to him.  As he was baiting up the set, I noticed a run that didn’t have a trap set in and I told him he needed to place a Conibear in that run.  He smiled and then told me to go get a trap…which I did…and I set it.

So, yesterday I stopped to talk with him again in that same place and I mentioned the Conibear set….he said…”I’ll bet you a beer there is nothing in it”!  I said, “It’s a bet”!  Then he went on to say the beer had to be paid tonight in the skinning shed…I was OK with that and told him he would have to stop at the store to buy me a beer….he laughed.  As we approached the set, sure enough there was a big old giant rat caught solidly in that trap!  MMMM, that beer sure did taste good!

A 25 ouncer I might add!

So, that was yesterday!  What about today?

The sky was pretty clear last night and so the moon was shining pretty bright.  I expect one raccoon and with 20 newly set traps they should yield 10 rats by themselves, the rest of the traps should kick out 10 more, so I’m saying 20 rats today and I hope Bob does as well!

Bears Butt

February 18, 2014

PM REPORT

A pretty long day afield, but worth it in the long run.

Pete got the fence fixed the the bulls back in where they need to be…I liked that.  Checking the live traps yielded nothing, not even a set off trap.

So, off I went checking rat traps and pulled the first 8 I came too working down Bull Run.  I think I’ll leave the remainder there until maybe Friday, there was some activity and I did catch a couple of rats, AND it was my first day without losing any rats to other critters!  YEA!!!

I was also able to set about 21 traps on the trellis and down Arrow Head seep.  I drove out to Fish Springs and it is almost empty of water.  A good 15 feet of mud has to be traversed before you get to the waters edge.  No sign except raccoon down there, so that place is out.

Arrow Head seep has very little water as well and I only set 6 traps in there, where normally I can set over 50.  It’s all about the water and I have no idea why the water is not there.

By the end of the day, I caught 18 rats and Bob 19….He is a happy guy knowing this is the second day he has kicked my butt.  Weasel and Brek report zero rats.

Bears Butt