Today is Friday and whatever traps I get set will be all for the week.   I’ve learned not to set traps on Saturday, as I don’t check traps on Sunday, therefore any rats caught in newly set traps (which are always the best producers) are then given two days for other predators to find them and destroy their furs.

My plans for the day is to finish pulling the traps at Bull Run and even though I am catching a rat or two from there and am still seeing some sign, it just isn’t worth my time to continue going in there for that few of rats.  I have 22 traps still in there and after this morning the only traps will be the 7 live traps.  I will leave those live traps out until I move my lines to Promontory.

Beginning next week sometime (probably Tuesday), I’ll pull the traps form the 3 seeps.  Seep one did not produce anything yesterday and only seeps 2 and 3 produced the 11 rats.  Today, those two seeps will probably only produce 4 or 5 rats and by next week all the rats in there will have been caught.

At the Trellis, there is rat sign everywhere!  And Craig wants them ALL caught!  I don’t blame him one bit as they have destroyed the trellis as a roadway and he has had several dump trucks of gravel dumped in the areas where they have tunneled under the road.  There is so much rat sign in this area I highly doubt we can completely wipe them out and the water is so deep in the middle and on the trellis side, I’m going to have to pull out my “wizard” techniques to catch any rats at all.

I set my newly created floating colony trap yesterday in the deep water and if it does not produce by next Monday, I’ll take it apart and make two colony traps out of it.  I also set a float in this deep water as well and may have to move in more floats to catch rats.  If I had a canoe or kayak I’d use it in here to help get out to the rat houses that are so plentiful.

Expected catch for the day?

After yesterdays success I’m not so sure there are any more raccoons at the top of Bull Run, but I’ll go out on a limb and say I will catch one raccoon today.  The rats will play out at 2 from Bull Run, 5 at the seeps and 10 from the Trellis….17 rats today.

Bears Butt

February 21, 2014

P.M. REPORT:

The weather today was sure different.  Early this morning it was calm and very balmy, as the day went on the wind began to blow and the temperature dropped quickly, and then it warmed back up about 2 p.m. to a reasonable temperature.

I managed to pull all 22 rat traps from Bull Run and caught 2 rats….It was way past time to pull those traps (3 days).  I did catch one more raccoon as well and left all 7 of the live traps in place.

The rest of the trap lines, Seeps, Trellis and Arrow Head were not too friendly….I ended up with only 15 rats total for the day, and only two other traps set off with nothing in them.

I did manage to set another 25 traps on the Trellis.  The Trellis should be a good producer until about next Wednesday or Thursday.  Normally I would begin setting traps in the Big Spring, Goose Club areas, but with my agreement with Richard Nichols, I will have to wait until March 3 to set any other traps.  Perhaps I can explore some new areas around the Trellis.

So, while I was enjoying some not so good rat catching, Bob was doing pretty good on his line…He came home with 17 good ones!  Weasel had a zero day again and I think Brek has pulled his line.  So a total of 32 rats….that is NOT a bad days catch!  We are now sitting right at 330 rats total.

Bears Butt