Yesterday I set 4 traps to try and catch raccoons on Bull Run.  This morning I hope to find 4 raccoon in those traps!  We will see.

I also set 18 more rat traps down on Fish Springs.  I now have a total of 71 rat traps out.  The weather is going to be unseasonably warm again today, and last night’s temps were mild and no wind.  The rats should have moved around very much last night.

My expected catch today is 30.  That is saying a lot, but the 18 traps I set should pull through with 10 or more, while the other 53 should yield around 10 themselves.  I have high hopes on the Fish Springs sets and on a rat run during the night coming into the Bull Run area.  I’ll stick to 30.

I’ll post more coming up once I get home from checking traps.

Tomorrow I’m taking the day off from trapping and heading to the big city to spend the day with Winemaker and going to an Ancestry Show and classes on how to research your ancestors.  It will be a fun day.  We plan on taking Tracks to add to the adventure.  What that means in the trapping business is that I will not set any new traps today.  But, believe me, when I get home from trapping today, I have a whole shed full of hides that need to be fleshed and put up on stretchers.

Later!

Bears Butt

February 12, 2015

UPDATE:

It’s late…like 7 p.m.  And to tell you the truth…MY BUTT IS KICKED!

Got to the trapping line about 9:45 this morning, not early, not late….NO raccoons visited the traps last night.  At least not the ones designed to put an end to them.  Sure, wouldn’t you know it, I catch 9 rats in 9 traps and get damaged to the max by raccoons and then I set traps to catch the coon and NOTHING.  My luck.

Oh well, back to the line.  It wasn’t such a bad day, but not exactly what I expected either.  The line I call Bull Run produced 10 rats.  That was about right, maybe a little low and I only lost one rat to raccoons.  And only a couple of set off traps with nothing in them.

The big surprise came over at Fish Springs.  Remember I set 18 traps yesterday and the norm for a one night set of trap is about 50 percent.  At least 50  percent is a good number.  Then it goes to 25, 10, 5 and none.  That is pretty normal.  Well out of the 18 traps I caught 15 rats and had two other traps set off.  Only one trap was un-touched.  Amazing percentage.

So, I ended up with 25 rats while Bob came in with 10 of his own….a pretty good day…35 rats!

We spent several hours in the shed, and thanks to Weasel brushing and helping with skinning, we got all 88 rats processed.  50 stretched and hanging and the rest drying.

My butt is kicked and I’m out of here!

Butt

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

The swamp was hard on this old body yesterday.  I came away as if I had worked a full day on the farm, maybe even worse.  At archery last night I was so sore, I was exercising between ends.  When I got home and settled back into the big chair/couch with a cold one, I could barely get out of it to go to bed.

I slept really well until about 3 a.m. and then the soreness kept me awake until the alarm time of 7.  oooooooooooooooo.

So, here I sit with back aching, sore legs, shoulders letting me know they are there and the thoughts of 44 traps loaded up with muskrats!  During the night (early morning) my dilerium dreams showed raccoons chewing away on the 44 rats, having the time of their lives.  In a couple of hours I will know just how true that dream was.

Goal for the day (raccoon eaten or not), I expect to catch 18 rats and I need to set another 20 traps or so.  There is a new area that I believe is open to trap (open meaning no ice) and I can see two pretty good sized rat houses out in it.  How I am to access it is still to be determined.  I’m too lazy to just hike across country to get to them.  I’ll see about setting traps near them.

More updates to come.

Bears Butt

February 10, 2015

UPDATE:

Left the trapping area at 2 p.m. today, my butt is REALLY KICKED right now!

When I started checking traps, I had decided that if a raccoon had gotten a trap, I would pull the trap.  They remember where they got a free meal and would be back tonight to do it again and with them pulling and tugging on the stake, eventually they get it loose and take off with rat, trap and all.  No sense increasing the amount of loss, with rats about $5 and conibear traps about $10.

Well, my first trap had a chewed up rat it in…I pulled it.  Trap 2 had a chewed up rat in it…I pulled it.  Trap 3, same thing….Trap 4, ditto!  This is not looking good.  As I drove the 4 wheeler down to the stopping point to check the next three traps I was thinking I might as well pull the entire line, but then trap 5 and 6 both had good clean rats.  There is hope afterall.

Well, I didn’t pull any more traps, but as I encountered chewed up rats I put the trap in a place different than where they found the rat.  This is crazy.  And I went for about 20 traps before I came across one that was not at least set off.  I was amazed at how many rats I had caught up to that point.

How is this for a catch out of an 11 trap string?::::

When it was over I had 24 good rats, one rat that might be salvageable and 8 others that the raccoons had chewed beyond use.  That is 33 rats!!!!  Out of 44 traps!  Amazing percentage.

Well, I went to setting some more and managed to set 13 more traps.  So with the loss of 4, I net gained 9 traps, for a total of 53 now out.  Tomorrow the catch rate will only be about half what it was today, but that is normal.  I’m also going to set out 4 live traps up at the head of the spring where I pulled the 4 traps.  I need to thin out the “herd of raccoons”.  Besides, Brek is in the business of catching and skinning raccoons so I’ll help him out.

Back home, Weasel and Brek helped skin the pile and we were done in less than an hour.  Brek timed himself on skinning a rat and it only took him 40 seconds!  Amazing.  It takes me at least 2 minutes.

Tonight I have to go to the archery range and put up another score for the league.  The rest of my week is pretty much booked.

Butt

Guess what time it is?  Trapping time!

Today I’m heading out to see what is in store.  I talked to Bob the other day and he assured me things will be much different this year.  No ice!  If you recall I am usually chasing the ice as I set traps.  By that I mean I set traps from the head water out to a point the ice has things closed up and then as the ice melts off (days later) I continue to move traps out and out and out until such time as it is time to move my whole setup to another drainage.  This year there is no ice anywhere and so, I’ll be able to set traps to my hearts content and then move them whenever I want.

So, that is the positive thing about the trapping this year.

On the negative side is the fact that the run has already begun!  That is not a good thing.  The weather has them thinking it is time to mate and that means we will be seeing a lot of damaged fur right off the get go.  It also means the raccoons will be out in force and we will lose some rats and a trap or two to those stinking little critters.  But, that is the life of a trapper.

Bob has been trapping since October and most of the time his traps have been frozen in.  They are thawed out now and he has a total of just over 70 rats.  The last couple of days have been the best he has had so far.  I know he caught 14 the day I talked to him and I don’t know how many he caught yesterday, I suspect at least 14.  He has a doctors appointment today and so he won’t be trapping until tomorrow.

This will be quite a week.  Between trapping, archery and a trip to SLC on Friday, it will be a week to remember.  Oh I almost forgot, I have to stop by the tax person’s place and sign my tax forms.  I’ll do that on my way home from the trap line.

I’m really glad the trapping season is on as my belly is sticking out farther than it has ever stuck out and that is because of sitting on my butt and playing with the computer and not working outside.  My knees are telling me there is also a substantial amount of extra weight above them that they are carrying.  Trapping will take care of a lot of things…weight, cabin fever and that extra amount of cash in my wallet….gas money.

The rig is ready.  I loaded it up with 60 leg holds and 100 conibears and one bag of 3 floats.  My 22 pistol, water bladder, sandwich, rubber gloves, boots, warm clothes if I need them, smacking stick and chopped carrots laced with anise oil.  Let the season begin!

Bears Butt

February 9, 2015

END OF DAY RESULTS

Who’s butt is kicked is MINE!

I got away just about 9 a.m. and returned about 3:30.  Managed to set 44 traps and came across two broken traps in the bags and 3 others with loose “dogs”.  I was able to pinch the dogs back on but will have to be replaced very soon.  I’ll take some out with me on the four wheeler.

The sign is not what it usually is and there is a whole lot more raccoon sign than muskrat.  I’ll be lucky not to have half my line of caught rats chewed up beyond use.

I was so tired out in the swamp I even fell down 3 times.  That has never happened to me ever before.  The water is way low from what it usually is and that is probably why the rats just don’t seem to be there.  I’ll check these traps tomorrow and set more.  I should be able to get another 20 or so set tomorrow.

Butt

Finally we have had enough cold to make ice!  Safe ice!  Tomorrow we are taking the grandkids out for our first ice fishing adventure of the year.  Going to hit Mantua and hope each one of them tags into a fish….we don’t care what kind.  Just fish!

More on this later.

Bears Butt

January 2, 2015

January 3, 2015

We went on our excursion today.  The weather was almost perfect for ice fishing, very little breeze, cloudy and fairly cold, about 25 degrees.  The hot cocoa tasted good!

There were 5 kids on the ice, plus Weasel and myself.  Weasel stopped by about 9 a.m. and we were off and running.  Oh, we had to go back and get Conners coveralls (note this).  When we picked up Syd and Addie my first question to Syd was “do you have your license”?  And of course she did.  You see, she is 12 years old now and the law requires her to have a fishing license.  She and her dad picked theirs up yesterday.

With girls in the mix, it is important that there be a bathroom or something similar close at hand.  We chose the main parking lot next to the main bathroom at Mantua as our staging area.  A quick trip to the building proved a bad deal….the sign said “Under Maintenance”….another way of saying, “too bad girls”.

Well, we headed out onto the ice anyway and drilled a series of holes, one for each of the 10 poles and one for the fish finder.  By Utah law, we could each fish with two poles if we wanted.  But with limited resources, only Weasel and Squirrel got to fish with two poles.

When the last hole was drilled through the solid 4 inches or so of ice, Conner announced he had forgotten his fishing license….(note number two)!

Weasel had a brilliant idea to call home and find out what his “customer number” is on his license.  He called and after a bit, Hot Spark was able to locate the license and let Weasel know what that number was.  Once that was done, he made the connection with the Utah DWR and got the license information downloaded to his phone.  What a world we live in.

Now Conner was able to legally fish.

All poles baited and dropped in….no bites….longer wait….still no bites….Out came the snacks, drinks, etc. and pretty soon fishing wasn’t the main attraction for the kids.  But sliding on the ice seemed to be the main thing to be doing.  An hour goes by….two….and then the bathroom need really kicked in.

I took the girls to the closest store in town and hoped they would have a bathroom.  Luckily they did, a “one holer” out back.  While the girls went to the bathroom I was able to talk to the lady running the store.  You see, I have lived in this town of mine, only 15 miles from Mantua and have NEVER been into that store.  This was a good time to go in and see what they sell.  Of course they sell all sorts of candy and items you can run out of without realizing you need, salt, pepper, milk and eggs etc.,  but they also sell night crawlers, meal worms, wax worms and spikes.  They only had two more packages of meal worms and then they would be completely out.  They get their shipments in on Wednesdays.  That is nice to know.

Well, she and I talked quite a while as it took the girls a very long time to use that single holer.  You have to realize they were each layered down with clothing to keep themselves warm and all of that has to come off first, and then go back on.  I think we were there at least 20 minutes.  During our conversation, I was informed they are building a much larger store (which by the way is under construction and it is a very large building) and the building we were standing in is going to be their tackle store in the future.  I asked about a restaurant or some hot food and she informed me that she had made quite a fuss with the owners about having and serving hot food in the new store, but wasn’t getting the attention she thought the idea deserved.  I personally think they should have a hot food service of some sort.  A good old home cooked hamburger and some fries would top off any ice fishing trip to Mantua very nicely.  I think they would pay for the added expense of a restaurant setting in less than 5 years.  By the way, they call themselves the “Little Valley Store and Campground”  and are located at  130 North Main Street in Mantua, give them a call sometime at (435) 723-1292.  If you plan on staying in their campground (full hookups mind you), you should make reservations ahead of time.  They also have ATV rentals and the cost is only about $20 per day!  Talk about a sweet deal!  In the summer time, you could camp in their campground, rent an ATV and go up to Inspiration Point and look over the Ogden part of the Great Salt Lake Valley.  From up there you can see all the way into Nevada to the West and Idaho to the North.  There is also a very good chance of seeing a mountain goat, as well as the usual deer and moose.

So, back onto the ice we headed.  And by the time we got out to the fishing spot, Weasel, Conner and Squirrel were all but packed up to head home.  Cody had gotten wet while playing on the ice and now his hands were freezing!

Our fishing trip wasn’t what it could have been, but it was still a fun day with the Grandkids.  Next time we won’t have any other things to do and will be able to stay all day.

Lessons learned on this trip:  1) Parents, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE buy your kids “Good gloves, Snow Pants, Coats, Stocking Caps, Socks and Water Proof, insulated boots”!  With ice fishing you can get by with line wrapped around a stick to fish with, but if you get wet or cold, you are done!  Kids like to play and they get wet and without warm wool clothing and lots of insulation, they just aren’t going to last as long as you out there.  You are bundled up and warm…they aren’t.  2) Always take the ice tent and heater, if for no other reason than to get the kids in and out of the elements to warm up with the heater.  A second use for the tent is to hide while going to the bathroom.  3) Don’t have anything else planned for the day, at least not before dark.

So, fish 1, fisherpeople 0!

Bears Butt

January 3, 2015

New Proposals that will affect Utah hunters:

Proposals

The following are among the DWR’s proposals:

Hunt deer after general rifle hunt ends

One proposal would allow limited entry deer hunting on six general season units, after the general rifle buck deer hunt on the units is over.

You’d be required to use a muzzleloader during the late-season hunt. Rifles would not be allowed. Only a small number of permits would be available.

“This change would give a small number of muzzleloader hunters a great late-season opportunity to hunt deer,” says Justin Shannon, big game coordinator for the DWR, “and it wouldn’t affect the number of bucks on the units much at all.”

Shannon says the hunt would run Oct. 28 to Nov. 5, the same days the general muzzleloader elk hunt is held. Hunting would be allowed only on units that are managed for 18 to 20 bucks per 100 does and that are exceeding their buck-to-doe objective.

The six units that currently meet the criteria are Chalk Creek/East Canyon/Morgan-South Rich (Unit 4/5/6) and Kamas (Unit 7) in northern Utah; Nine Mile (Unit 11) in east-central Utah; and Southwest Desert (Unit 20), Zion (Unit 29) and Pine Valley (Unit 30) in southwestern Utah.

Limited chance to hunt all three seasons

Another proposal would allow a small number of hunters to hunt all three seasons — archery, muzzleloader and rifle — on the limited entry or premium limited entry deer unit for which they drew a permit.

Utah currently offers an opportunity like this to a small number of elk and black bear hunters. “We’d like to give a few deer hunters that same chance,” Shannon says.

About three percent of the total number of limited entry and premium limited entry deer permits would give hunters this opportunity.

Three more days to hunt bull elk

Limited entry muzzleloader elk hunters would have three more days to hunt under another DWR proposal. Biologists are proposing that the limited entry muzzleloader elk hunt run from Sept. 21 to Oct. 2.

Longer mountain goat hunt

Mountain goat hunters would also have more time afield.

Currently, Utah’s once-in-a-lifetime mountain goat hunt ends in mid-October on most units. Biologists would like to extend the season as late as mid or late November on some units.

Urban archery deer hunt in Cache County

To lessen the number of deer that are living in urban areas in Cache County, the DWR is recommending an archery-only urban deer hunt.

The hunt would happen mostly on private land in an area that includes the towns of Clarkston, Trenton, Wellsville and Mendon. The hunt would run Sept. 12–Nov. 30.

_____________________________________

With this I wrote the Northern Regional Committee and told them this:

Folks, I’m not intentionally leaving out other committee members, I just thought the 4 of you could represent my thoughts in the Northern Region RAC meeting.

I just read where it is proposed to create another limited entry muzzle load deer hunt to allow a few muzzleloader people hunt during the beginning of the deer rut.

As proposed, it would include areas that are considered over the buck to doe ratio for those units. I question that reasoning.

I am not against this proposed hunt, in fact if the units were closer to where I live and were not all private, I would be very interested in applying for it.

Buck to doe ratios are usually determined AFTER all the other hunts have taken place and in my opinion are just wild guesses anyway.

I would think you would get more buy in from the hunting masses of the state if you would just have a few tags available for each and every one of the 30 units of the state, or just leave out the units covered by the Wasatch Late archery areas and the late Crawford Mtn hunt, from this new LE hunt.

My thoughts on opening it up are this: If there were a limited number of tags in every unit, say 3 to 10, that would put that much more money into the coffers. A few of the units would not have many bucks in them anyway because of migration at the proposed hunting date timeline and the harvest would be minimal. More tags would be offered in the 6 proposed areas because it is already felt there are more bucks in those units than desired and of course there would be a larger percentage of harvest in those units (more hunters afield = more bucks killed).

So, the bottom line is, offer more tags “state wide”, gain more money from the applications, gain more money from the available tags, have another set of happy tag holders and still not hurt the deer herds very much. I’d love to have a chance at a rutting buck in the Bear Lake area of the state or out on the Pilot Mountain range.

Wynn Zundel

———————————

I don’t know about the rest of the proposals, I guess they just didn’t seem to be very important to me at this time.  You might want to read up on these for yourself and maybe attend the meetings or send them an email of your own.

Bears Butt

Oct. 24, 2014

A while back I wrote a little story about “olfactory overload” and what I was getting at was the fact that when a group of guys go hunting and live in the same trailer for a week or more, they begin not to be able to tell they “stink”!  It’s a fact of life.  Well, I received a comment to that story from the owner and founder of a product called “Nose Jammer”.  Today I went in search of a video that shows you how well that product works on deer.  I’m sure it would work on all game animals that have noses.  Here is one of many that are on the web!  Maybe you will want to pick some of this stuff up and use it!?!

Bears Butt

Oct. 9, 2014

A guy has a lot of time to think when he is out on the trap line and most of my thinking is centered on catching more critters, usually.  That is, IF, I don’t have to contend with bulls….

This year I thought of an idea that I just knew would put more rats in the bag at the end of the day.

We have all heard how good colony traps are, right?  For those of you who don’t know what a colony trap is, I’ll explain right here.

It is a specially designed trap, usually out of wire, that has doors on both ends that will pivot out of the way to allow a rat to enter the body of the trap, but it won’t let the rat go out the other end.  Once trapped inside, they drown.  I have caught as many as 6 (six) rats in one colony trap at a time.

When you are in the business of catching critters this trap is THE trap for catching muskrats!  You can catch a whole colony (family) in one night, thus the name.

Another thing we know about muskrats is they like to climb up on stuff that is floating in the water…logs, dense brush, piles of downed cat tails etc.  I use “floats” wherever I can and have taken 2 rats a lot of times in one night, as the floats usually have two traps on them.  The other day you saw a picture of a rat with two traps attached to him….that was on a float.

In this case the float was nothing more than a board I found alongside the water way.

So, my thinking was, IF you were to combine the float with the colony trap, you could catch multiple catches each night and fill your trap bag quicker.  It made sense to me and so I put my mind to work and made one….a Floating Colony Trap!

I’ll be brief and just say it took a little bit of time to bend the wire and make the “boxes”, but it didn’t take a long time.  Two boxes were made the same length but both boxes were of different depths.  The deepest of the two went on the bottom when I hooked them together.

This is crude I know, but give me a break, this trap was in its infancy.  I thought I would use 1/2 gallon empty milk jugs to float it.  But from the picture you can clearly see a smaller trap on top of a larger trap.  The top trap has the two slanting doors that allow the rats to enter, but not leave.  The larger trap underneath is deep enough to hold up to 10 rats, should 10 rats find their fate in there.  I have wires that will allow you to open the ends of the lower trap and remove the rats from there…I think I’m onto something here, it will be up to YOU to make it work.

Between the two traps is an opening that allows the rats to dive down and/or climb up and out of the bottom trap.  There were some built in discouraging “pokies” I had in place to keep them from coming back up, but later you will hear why I chose not to employ this trap.

This view doesn’t show you much, unless you are a scientific type and can see the “wire through the wire”….

Believe it or not, this shows you the opening between the two traps.  Look closely:

OK…Pokie things hanging down on the left are the easiest to see…study it…well, maybe not as things have changed.

So, as time went on I decided the milk jugs would not do as floatation devices…Unknown to Winemaker, I used the hot tub as the testing area.  I decided to use the foam kids floating tubes and cut them to size…see here:

Oh Ya Baby!  That looks like it will work just fine!

Well, Weasel tried it out on the farm pond…it caught nothing….and then I used it on the Trellis area where the rats are so thick they have to have stop lights to let me continue down the road…and it didn’t work…so….I disassembled it and made two colony traps out of it.

Before I get too far away from my extended idea, the ends of the lower part of the trap are covered with clear plexiglass….to make the rats think they can get away….pretty smart huh?  Well, it didn’t work…Who is the dumbie….ME!

Enjoy!

Bears Butt

February 26, 2014