Without going back through my posts to make certain, I’m guessing I started setting traps at the Trellis about this time last week.  Yesterday was a rather disappointing day in the trapping business.  With such a pleasant night before, the rats should have been running like crazy…and they probably were….what few there are at this place.

I have over 50 traps set on the Trellis and I caught 1 (one) rat and had two others set off with nothing in them.  So that only means a few things could have been the reason:  One, I’ve caught the majority of the rats out of there.  Two, The rats that are there are “on to me” and avoiding the traps and the runs they are covering.  Three, I stink as a trapper and they don’t like the smell of my carrots.

The bottom line is I’m wasting time continuing to trap the Trellis and need to move on.

I have promised Richard, the owner of the bulls in “Bull Arena”, I would move into his place next.  He is located out past Doris’ place on Promontory and the area is not a big area.  Bob has voiced his desire to go with me when I move out there.  Today I’m going to announce to him I’m going out there tomorrow and that today I will begin pulling traps from the Trellis.

Part of my discussion with him today is the fact that his lines, on the interior of Petes’ are “dead” and he needs to pull them.  He made comments two days in a row that his first 30 traps were empty and that he didn’t catch a rat until he checked his 31st trap.  That should be an eye opener to him.  You can’t leave traps in the small springs and expect to catch rats all season long.  It doesn’t work the same way as it does on the bigger waters along the Right of Way.

If you recall from last years daily writings, I went along with Bob to leave my traps at the Trellis for longer than I usually do.  I think I left them 3 days longer and checked them daily and only caught one rat in those 3 days.  I feel I’m at that same place on the Trellis.

With the traps I have on the back of the toy right now, if I pulled 20 or so traps from the Trellis today, that should give us enough traps to cover the Bull Arena tomorrow.

That is my goal for the day and I hope he goes along with me on this idea.

What do I expect to catch today?

One raccoon and 5 rats.

Bears Butt

February 26, 2014

P.M. REPORT

I got away a bit early today and only had two stops to make.  I pulled 21 traps from the Trellis and Arrow Head and then went to checking the remaining traps.  I still have 68 traps out, plus the 7 live traps.  I was pleasantly surprised at the number of rats there were in the float traps.  The rats must have decided to have an open air party last night and get away from the density of the toolies, because that is where I caught most of them.

By days end I had 14 rats and one skunk!

Bob is still out so I don’t know how many he caught and I haven’t talked to Weasel yet about his day.  I’ll update this when I know about their catches.

SURPRISE!  Bob caught 14 also!  A 28 rat day….now nobody can complain about that!

Bears Butt