Some rats and a cold swim.

April 23-26, 2014: Dakota and I returned to check on the pond and creek system we'd previously set traps on. The first pond we returned to was dead. We'd removed the beaver from here last year and none had moved in to replace the ones we'd taken. Without beavers to tend the dam, the water levels dropped and whatever muskrats had decided to stay for the winter, had been frozen out. The beavers will eventually come back though, and with them will come the rats.

Disappointed in the dead pond, we packed up all of our gear and headed off to our other location on the creek system where we'd previously set three floats and five Conibear sticks. With much of this area still under ice (the lake is completely frozen over), we weren't expecting much but were still hoping to see something caught in one of our floats. However, it wasn't to be; nothing had visited our floats and of our five Conibear sticks, only two held rats. A disappointing check, but as other parts of the creek system open up, our catch should increase.

A Conibear stick pulled up from under the water.

On our next check, we were concerned about water levels, as it had been raining hard for two days and the forecast had been calling for as much 60 mm of rain. We discovered that all of our Conibear sticks were completely under water and none of our floats had been visited. However, we still managed to catch five rats in our Conibear sticks before they had become submerged. Water levels had increased nearly eight inches. We reset all of our traps to their proper heights and then returned home to start some skinning.

Five nice sized muskrats. We averaged $11.23 on our rats from last year.

 Our next trip out we were happy to see that our floats were starting to pay off. The first two we checked held three rats and the next two also held three more. Our Conibear sticks were also producing and in total we had nine rats, giving us 16 on the short spring season. We could load up the area with a pile of muskrat traps and hit them hard, but I prefer a much more conservative approach and would rather only remove a select amount to keep the population healthy.

From there, we added four beaver sets. Two on the creek system and two on another pond on the ranch. We don't want to catch too many beavers as the return on them isn't worth the effort. However, we do need some bait for next season on the trapline and beaver makes excellent bait for just about everything, so catch a few we will.

Our first muskrat caught on a float. This is on the ranch side of a road that borders another property we trap.

Two more float-caught rats, directly across the road from the above photo.

Dakota with eight muskrats.

On the creek system, there is a large beaver house that wasn't accessible last year because of the water being too deep. This day, however, I was suddenly standing chest deep in water just a mere 20 feet away from it. While the water was still too deep to get right to the beaver house, I was now closer than I'd ever been. I was able to get there because of a submerged ice flow I was walking on. The ice moved up and down with my weight on top of it, but everything was going good. That was until a piece of the ice I was standing on decided to break off. The next thing I knew, I was standing on a much smaller piece of ice that was slowly sinking. Suddenly, I found myself dog paddling back to safe ground with my chest waders filling up with ice cold water as I went.

On safe ground and completely drenched from my shoulders down, I realized that I had somehow lost my brand new trap setters; they had been claimed by the pond! I slogged my way back to the truck where Dakota was putting away gear and tending to our rats. Needless to say, Dakota had a good laugh at my misfortune and an even bigger laugh when I had to drive home in my underwear.

These muskrats are almost ready to come off their boards.

We'll be back on Monday to check our traps once again. The spring season only offers a very short window for trapping beaver and rats. The beaver become rubbed and start losing their underfur, making them useless as usable fur. And the rats begin their spring ritual of mating and with that comes intense fighting. Muskrats are savage during their breeding season and bite themselves full of holes, rendering their pelts useless as well. The season where we trap usually only lasts about three weeks. We will be done most likely by next weekend or shortly thereafter.

Until next time!