This Daylight Savings Time stuff has really got me out of whack!  Couple it with a scratchy throat and little sleep and it will take me awhile to catch up with everything going on.

Yesterday on the trap line was a very warm one!  Over 60 degrees!  And the rats were somewhat cooperative.  I ended up with 15, but one was a small one we didn’t skin.  And Bob netted 12 on his line!!!!  That was a very good catch!

My rats seem to be a pretty good mix of males and females, but his were mostly males and they are definitely running!  Nature has a special way of telling the critters when it is time to do what and I guess even though the weather has been unseasonably warm, the rats have got it all figured out.  Here we are at the end of our season and they decide it is time to do their thing.  We will take advantage of them while we can and as long as the fur isn’t slipping we will load up.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day out on the line.  Tracker is going to accompany me in order to video the testing of the latest Orbitor rocket boosters.  The plan is to stack all five of the booster rocket motors on top of each other, (parallel) and blast them all off at the same time!  Can you imagine the noise?!?  Over 1.3 million pounds of solid rocket fuel will be consumed in less than 2 minutes!!!  We are in for a real treat and I hope to video it myself and post it up on here.  The Orbitor is the newest rocket that is planned to take people to Mars eventually.

I’m running late right now and have to cut this short, but my expected catch today is 8 rats.  The run effects Bob’s trap lines more than it does mine.  Why?  My lines are pretty well self contained, while his line gets rats commuting from one area to the next.  His line is in an area that connects two different waterfowl management units.  Remember when you were in high school and it wasn’t really too cool to date the girls or boys from your school, but it was way cool to date the ones from the rival school?  Well it works the same with rats.  Those in the Salt Creek waterfowl management area like to date the rats in the Public Shooting Grounds WMA and vise versa.  When they meet up in the crossing zone they battle and cause damage to their pelts.  It’s just the same as high school.

Gotta Go!

Bears Butt

March 10, 2015

UPDATE:

I guess the rat Gods are telling me the season is over.  Yesterday I caught 14 keepers and 1 small toss out rat….today….ONE!  And a coon.

My Granddaughters are really quite entertaining.  Yesterday while just beginning to take care of the catch of the day, in walked in Kenzie and Addie, both with a desire to help with the skinning job.  OK!  Let’s do this!  Kenzie, as we have noted previously has had her hands in the dirty work and did very well at skinning a couple of muskrats and so it was just a matter of getting her dressing in her skinning outfit.  We have to protect the kids from getting anything on their clothes or hands.  So, we dress them well with rubber pants, aprons, gloves and whatever else we need to take care of this.  The one thing we never want to have happen is for them to get cut in the process.  Knife safety is number one.  Secondly, no blood or other stuff is to get on any clothing.  For a mother to come unglued about them skinning rats would not be a pretty sight.

So, back to the scene.  In they walk with the confidence and desire of true sportswomen!  We want to help!

When they got the “OK”, Addie just had to go home and get her own knife!  While she was gone we got Kenzie dressed up with rubber pants to cover her legs, an apron to cover her upper body and rubber gloves for her hands and wrists.  She grabbed a rat and a knife and began without much hesitation.  I looked down at her shoes and because they looked like they could be brand new, I decided she needed something over them.  She agreed.  Looking around the shed, I grabbed the only thing that looked like it might do the trick.

Perfect!

And now you are probably asking just what in the heck are those blue things?

Well, at least they worked.

Addie arrived about that time and showed me her knife.  A really nice knife, but it is the kind used in the woods as an all purpose knife and not a good one for a beginning skinner.  So she put that one away and I gave her another one.

In the shed we have a limited supply of clothing coverings for young skinners and I had to make do to cover Addie adequately.  She donned a rubber apron which more than covered her tiny frame and then I put a burlap bag over her shoes.  Add the rubber gloves and she was ready to go to work.  I told her right at the beginning that if at any time she felt like her stomach couldn’t handle the job, it was ok to put the rat down and leave the room.  She said she would and then began the task.

I instructed her on every cut and move and she did fine all the way through the process.  Never grimacing at a torn belly or anything.

And as the fur came off the body of the rat, it wasn’t long until the job was done!  She did very well for her first ever skinning job…nice ears, nice eyes, nose and whiskers….all in tact!

Now let’s turn it fur side out and put it on the drying rack!

I suppose some folks would consider me a terrible person for allowing these young girls to skin muskrats.  But the way I look at it, they can never in their lifetimes say they have never skinned a muskrat and among their fellow peers they are probably the only ones to have even had the opportunity, yet alone tackled the job.  I look at it as a very good life lesson and it sure as heck beats playing on a Nintendo or Nook.  Besides, they both earned 50 cents for each rat they skinned.  Kenzie skinned two while Addie was learning the job.

Good job girls!  May there be many more!

Bears Butt

March 8, 2015

These dog proof (DP) traps are the latest craze among raccoon trappers these days.  They have a lot of benefit in only capturing the targeted animal and no domestic animals get caught in them.  With me, nothing gets caught in them.

I have followed all the instructions I have been given and even placed a walnut on top and in the hole to prevent the rodents from getting in and eating the bait before the raccoons come along. Yesterday I checked the traps, fully expecting to find at least one raccoon in one of the traps….nothing.  At the first DP trap, the walnut was gone….all the bait was eaten and nothing in the trap.  DP number 2….same thing.  DP number 3 the walnut was laying next to the trap and all bait was gone.

Had I been the one to invent this “piece of equipment” (saying it lightly), I would be taking it out of the field and replacing it with a good old leg hold trap.  But, I am not the one who invented it and I will continue to employ it in my arsenal and continue to catch the very critter(s) who stole about 25 rats from me this season.

Today is sort of a day of relaxation on the line.  I set all the traps I have places for out on Big Spring yesterday and today is just a “check them” day.  I actually got to sleep in a whole hour longer than usual.  I will lazily finish my tasks at home before heading out to the trap line.  A wonderful day is expected weather wise with a high near 60!  Clear blue skies and no wind.  A very good day to be outside enjoying nature.

Expected catch today is 15 rats.  Raccoons will come when ever they decide.  I’m giving up predicting catching them.

Bears Butt

March 6, 2015

UPDATE:

Regardless of my in-ability to catch coons with dog proof traps, Bob gave me the three he was using and I set them as well.  I’ve taken the walnuts and pressed them down into the tube of the trap in hopes of keeping the rodents from getting to the bait.  If a coon comes along they will work it until they get it off.  We will see.

A beautiful day out in the swamp today.  Lots and lots of wildlife, mostly waterfowl.  Snow Geese, Dark Geese, Swans, Ducks of every kind.  Eagles, Hawks….they are all out there.  Pretty cool place.

Rats….Me 13, Bob 3.  A match to yesterdays catch!  We will take it!

Butt

Well, the fur shed is filling up pretty good.  Not only have we pulled down a bunch of finished rats, we also are just about full again on the drying lines!  Our goal of 500 rats is getting very close now and with the trapping season beginning to wind down we should easily reach that goal.

Today, I’m moving a bunch of traps I have out on the Big Spring line.  The top end of the line is dead (no rats) while the bottom seems to have a pretty good supply.  Did the rats move once I set traps?  I don’t know for sure, but I’ve got to get some iron out on that end of the line.  My only problem is the toolies are soooooo thick and laying down it is very hard to get around.  The canopy of toolies lends itself very well for the life of a muskrat, as they can go anywhere they desire without the worry of overhead predators hampering their movements.  When I bust through that canopy looking for a place to set a trap it reminds me of the shopping mall…..trails going in every direction.  Oh, and for you planning and engineering folks out there, rats know just how many bathrooms they need to keep everyone happy.  No lines, no waiting!

On a negative (or positive, depending on your outlook) note, the amount of energy it takes to set even one trap in conditions like these is brutal!  If a fire was to consume those 20 plus years of toolie growth it sure would make trapping a lot easier.  High stepping through that mess takes a lot out of a short and old trapper like me.  For those of you who trap in the snow, someone needs to invent a toolie-shoe!  I come home with my butt dragging and wake up each morning with aches and growns a-plenty.

Well, my exercise awaits!

I placed walnuts on my dog proof traps and it is going to be interesting to see if the mice ganged up on them to move them, or if the raccoons were given that opportunity.  Either way, I placed fresh muskrat out for them and hope to nail at least one today.

The rat line should produce 10 on a light side guess, but I’ll gamble with a 12 today.  Look for an update around 6 tonight!

Pack up the mule fellas!

Bears Butt

March 5, 2015

UPDATE:

With my butt firmly kicked, I sit here writing to update you on todays catch….I managed to pull the top half of the Big Spring line and gave it my best effort to set the rest of the line out to the SE….I hit ice!  It was hard to believe there was ice out there.  We had a cold snap way back in Oct/Nov and then unseasonably warm weather for months.  Ice?!?  Well, I decided with ice holding up my trap setting efforts I would go exploring.  I drove around the swamp and ended up way out by some telephone poles.  Way out there I found a small patch of ice free toolies!  16 traps later, I was coming back to the truck.  I ended up setting 20 traps today.

Back home I counted 15 rats that dumped out of the bag!  Two of them will not be skinned as they are so tiny….baby rats fresh out of the nest.  So my count is 13.  Bob ended up with two and a weasel in transition…White underside and light tan back.  I’ll just bet Weasel will want that skin.

Butt

The old toy horse is going to be loaded down this morning.  Yesterday was going to be my day to set a bunch of traps…..and then the snow came and spoiled it all.  The day wasn’t wasted in my mind as I did get something made I have been thinking about for awhile.  But no traps were put out and now I have to make up for it.  My plan is to set traps early and check the line later.  Depending on how many I get set I also plan to pull the top part of the Big Spring line….it’s dead.  I also expect to have problems finding my sets because the snow will have pushed my flags down into the brush and it will be harder to find them.

What I expect today:

21 new traps and two nights to fill up, I should get 10 rats out of them.  The rest of the line might produce one rat but I’m not counting on that.  Add one raccoon to the mix and there you have what I expect to catch.

I am also going to try the walnut over the opening on the dog proof traps idea!

Later!

Bears Butt

March 4, 2015

UPDATE:

Who’s butt is kicked is MINE!

Set just over 20 traps and pulled nearly that many.  Still quite a number to pull (move).  I’ll do that tomorrow.

And to top off the day….only 6 rats!  Bummer!  But Bob caught 5!  That gives us an 11 rat day!  We’ll take it!

Butt

I haven’t posted on my trapping lately and I need to do that to get you all updated.  I took most of the weekend off to do the archery thing but there wasn’t much happen on the trap line and so it wasn’t worth posting.  I’m not really sure what is happening with the rats this year.  Low water is one thing, but where we do have water there just aren’t the rats moving around like in normal years.  Perhaps they are in a down cycle and just flat out aren’t there to be caught.  (shrug shoulders)

Yesterday I did finally manage to catch a coon but not in a dog proof trap.  It was waiting for me in a live trap that I was planning on moving because of in-activity.  Because it finally caught one I left it where it was.  I moved another one for lack of activity however.  Now I have 5 live traps and 3 dog proof traps all within a 50 yard area.  What was funny was the dog proof traps all had the bait eaten out of them (most likely from mice) and one of them was covered with mud from raccoons touching it with muddy paws.  Even the log the trap is tied to was covered in mud.  They had been all over it during the night.

So, I was reading in the latest issue of Fur-Fish and Game magazine and there is an “I knew that” suggesting I cover the opening of the dog proof trap with a walnut to keep the mice from getting to the bait.  The raccoons will come along, smell the bait, knock the walnut off and go for it!  I’ll take a sack full of walnuts out on the line with me when I go out next….not today because of all the snow we are getting!  (4 inches on the ground and more coming down)

So, without going back and reading what I have written about the number of rats we have caught on a daily basis, I’ll just report to you our total right now.  With the 100 Bob caught last Fall in the freezer, and what we have caught so far this Spring, our total catch is 411.  Our goal is 500, so we should easily make that mark.

I was in hopes of setting a slew more traps today, but that isn’t happening with the snow.  Heck, I doubt I’d be able to even find my traps.  It’s going to have to warm up enough to melt the snow off my flags before I’ll be able to find them.  I remember three years ago it snowed for two straight days and I worked like crazy to find my traps.  I even had to go back the week after I pulled them to find some I couldn’t find the day I pulled from that line.  When the snow is heavy like this is today, it lays the toolies down that are holding the flags and then snows on top of it keeping it down.  Once it melts the toolies stand back up and reveals the flags.

So, today will be a stay at home day….I think I’ll make something fun!

Bears Butt

March 3, 2015