A day on the line is in order and the weather is going to be very cooperative…high near 60 today, sunny and mild.  Not the typical early February weather here in Northern Utah, but one in which we have to work.  It will be a day of lots of water intake.

My butt is sore from the last two days afield, but not as bad as yesterday.

I have to make this a short entry as my time is running out (my self made schedule).  I have 53 traps out, the raccoons are also out and I’m sure the word of free lunch in the swamp has spread far and wide among their ranks.  I expect to catch 15 good rats today and have 5 damaged from raccoon behavior.  I’ll post up the results of the days trapping later.

I also have 4 live traps I plan on setting in the area where I lost the 4 rats at the beginning of my line yesterday (Raccoon highway I call it).  Whoever was the first one to introduce raccoons to Utah needs to know….WE DO NOT APPRECIATE IT!

Bears Butt

February 11, 2015

UPDATE:

Wow!  What a day!  Extremely warm for February.

So, I set 4 live traps for Raccoons and skunks…I don’t like skunks, but they are there too.

Then I hit the trap line.  Unlike yesterday the traps were pretty empty.  At the beginning of the line, if there was one set off, it was obvious a raccoon had been visiting it, got caught and was able to pull free.  I did lose two rats to those miserable little critters.

The line was pretty uneventful until I got close to the end and suddenly they began filling up with rats.  By the time I hit the last trap I had 18 good rats in the bag!  A good day of trapping in anyones book.

As I sat on the 4 wheeler contemplating what to do next, I looked at my clock on my phone….12:45….there is still time to go check out another trapping area.  And off I went toward the truck.

I munched a sandwich on my way to the Trellis area.  Once there, I decided I didn’t have a lot of time left to set traps, so I would take a short trip out to Fish Springs and look around for signs of rats.  We have not trapped there for a couple of years and the last year we did trap it, Bob stayed pretty close to the main highway.  Upon arrival I found a hole in the bank with a trail leading out into the water.  I figured, what the heck, I can set a trap there and check it tomorrow really quick and be done and ready to check other traps elsewhere.

With that trap set, I drove the 4 wheeler a little farther down the water course and noticed another run.  When I set that I could see three more and so I set them.  Before long I had set 18 traps down the course and I ran out of traps that I had with me.

By the time I got back to the truck it was almost 3 p.m….Time to go.

I stopped up the road where Bob was checking some of his traps and helped him with that ordeal.  Then headed home to get to the skinning task.

Bob almost beat me home as I had to gas up.

He had 11 rats!  Great!  A 29 rat day!

Skinning took until 6 p.m and we decided to wait on the fleshing and stretching of yesterdays catch and todays until tomorrow.  We will have more evening time tomorrow than we do today.  Besides, both of our butts are kicked and I have to go to archery lessons tonight.

Butt