# Favorite Muskrat sets, traps, lures etc?



## backwoodsman

Thought this one might be a good topic since one of our members has nuisance ones galore? Easiest way to catch rats if legal for you is den, pushup, hut/house sets with a 110 conibear. We use floats also if we're not hiking in a long ways. Any foothold will usualy work on a float as the rat dives off the float and drowns. Actualy the bigger/heavier the trap the quicker they drown. For foothold sets without a float we always set for drowning with either a slide wire or long chain and tangle stick. If we have to/must set an area where the water is too shallow for confident drowning sets we use "guard traps" that have a 3rd jaw to hold the rat etc away from the trapped member. One of my favorite rat sets is the fake slide. Just use your boot to make a slide up and down the bank about 1 or 2 feet long down to the mud. Foothold set at the bottom in 1"-3" of water and a twig with lure at the top of the slide is all thats needed. Some use bait instad of lure and a chunk of apple or parsnip will work too. If the water is too deep at the bottom and its not feasible to build it up with mud, rocks etc you can build a platform out of stick shoved into the bank and set the trap on a hair trigger. This set will catch ***** to so be aware of that ie: strong trap, open season(?)etc. Pocket sets and PVC sets will take rats too but **** and mink are drawn to those sets so if you wishing to exclude them that is a consideration to address. I prefer Russ Carman lures(Still Water and Hudson Seal has sealed the fate of many rats)over all others Ive tried but we use some other commercial brands with some success. We use a few of our home made recipes and one a new lure maker distributes that really piled the rats up this year for us. Its his Cherry lure. I think you'll catch more rats with lure then bait but some prefer apples. parsnips, any fruit and some vegetables ie: potatoes, carrots, turnips etc. No.1 size traps work best for rats if mink and ***** are excluded. No11 is perfect for all 3 and we set alot of these as they pull double duty for mink and **** lines too. No.1.5's work but are a little big as the rats front leg is thin/lightly built. Discontinued Blake and Lamb no.1 1/2 longspring guard trap is my all time rat favorite but hard to find. Some new manufacturers are making guard traps. I buy alot of used traps off auctions sites for our rat floats. Any size and type of foothold can be found on our floats. My favorite 3 standard sets for muskrat, **** and mink are Pocket sets, PVC tile sets and Tinfish sets. All 3 catch the "big 3" mink, **** and rats. Ive got several favorite lure recipes if anyones interested.


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## blufford

Not knowing anything about trapping, I've heard that the ratters (in Delaware and Maryland) put some peanut butter on a cracker to lure the muskrat. Your best trappers don't use bait at all simply setting the trap in the access paths of the critters. After trapping they always cut off one of its paws so as not to confuse them with real rats. Here is a link to a restaraunt I worked at when I was a teenager.

http://blogs.delawareonline.com/secondhelpings/2010/02/02/muskrat-dinners-are-back/


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## backwoodsman

Muskrat has been popular for food/consumption for a long time. Its just been the last 3 or 4 decades that they fell from favor in trendier restuarants. We cooked a muskrat and old laying hen friday night into dumplins and noodles. Fried is my favorite though. Any live rats(very few)we collect thru the season are skinned asap. We save a few that are dispatched when we arrive but Im real picky as to water temp, amount of time before we can process them and how long they been in the water. The first 3 decades of the last century they were called Marsh Rabbit in restuarants and were shipped by railroad car in iced barrels from all areas they inhabited to all the major cities. My grandfather hauled their 'rat carcass's to Jacksonville and Louisiana, Missouri every 3 days or so when they trapped the marsh's etc along the Illinois and Mississippi. He said Louisiana's buyers usualy paid more(.05 to as high as .20 each)then the ones in Jacksonville? Depending on the habitat/terrain etc blind sets can be awesome but for trapping big numbers in this area most use a bait or lure. When we trap the ice covered marsh/ponds etc along the river we set 110's or footholds in the houses/huts so most of those rats are taken in "blind" sets. Most houses/huts have two holes so you can set a 110 over each or a foothold on the mound between them. Some like wire but I prefer chain on all our footholds so 3'-6' of chain is added to the majority. We drop the chain outside of the hut or pushup(more on them later)and wire/wrap it around a stick/limb etc so the rat cant drag the trap and chain down and be lost. Houses/huts are used year round, pushups are on top of the ice usualy with one hole. Rats use them as a covered feedbed for the winter. Ive heard of peanut butter for muskrat bait and its good for *****, possums etc in cage traps or as a change up too. I know they remove all but one paw from **** etc carcass's to prove they arent a domestic cat etc when selling them but why remove one paw from a muskrat? I can see removing all but one back paw? Blufford you ought to give trapping a try. Very fun and rewarding sport. One of the few you may actualy make a dollar or two. Some auctions 'rats are bringing over $10 each now.


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## blufford

I don't know where you are posting but around here the muskrat are all in marshes. The several times that I have tried walking a marsh I have ended up chest deep in mud and almost had to leave my boots behind. However I have watched the oldtimers walk a marsh, jumping back and forth to find a good foothold. It seems the trappers in their 80s do a better job walking than the young ones. I woked in a butcher shop in the early 1970s who called them marsh rabbits. I wonder if you ever get used to their smell.


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## backwoodsman

If the marsh's are frozen over its alot easier. Small boats or canoes help with the open water ones. Sometimes just pulling them along behind us for gear etc is a big help and if you do get stuck they help in extracting you. Ive never noticed muskrat having an unpleasent smell/odor? Of course Ive been around them all my life also so maybe Im used to any odor? Maybe if the marsh is stagnant they pick up an odor from it?


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## blufford

I meant their smell after they have been skinned and ready to cook or sell. Our marshes are tidal water with most of the mud being covered with water during high tide.

From Delmarva Now Link Below

*"The muskrat season ends in mid-March, but not before a really warm day or two comes to the marshes. There is nothing like being among the golden reeds on a day when the sky drips blue and the biggest, boldest, puffiest white clouds dance above pines."*

http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100307/lifestyle/3070332/The-marsh-carries-the-fragrance-of-


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## pheasantplucker

I haven't trapped since I was a kid maybe 14 years old or so. Lots of people knock muskrat meat, and they've never tried it. It's actually incredibly delicious. Muskrats are clean vegetarian animals...no problem eating them. :thumb:


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## gunseller

I like the #1 jump trap. I have tried the #1 coil but it does not hold ***** as well. For under water runs or den openings a 110 is very hard to beat. For bank slides a #1 jump, #1 LS, #11LS or any of the #1 1/2 traps will work. I use a small stick with lure on it about 1 foot up the slide from the trap and the trap staked in as deep of water as can be reached. For under water runs just set the 110 in the middle of the run.
Steve


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## backwoodsman

I never could hold many ***** in a no.1 jump. They are a fine rat trap. We've got some old ones mounted on floats. Gun are you out west, east etc? majority of footholds I buy new now are no.11's, miniature bear traps there! Favorite foothold for fox and smaller. We've been trying to modify some for yotes but the jawspread just aint enough alot of the time. Wonder if the offensive odor is before the glands are cleaned/cut off? Iv never noticed a smell to fresh carcass's. Let those belly's get green though and eww.


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## gunseller

I am in Iowa but I have pinched a few toes in other places. I have had good luck holding ***** in 1 jumps. I will admit to using mostly 11 LS when 1 jumps stopped being made. I have used 11s to catch fox and a friend has used them on a few yotes just to say he had. The biggest thing I have snaged in a 11 is a 50 pound beaver and that was by the side of his back foot, no toes in jaws.
Most animals get a bad oder when left too long. Rats never smelled bad to me but I like skunk smell.
Steve


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## backwoodsman

Well you got big ***** then. Down south they got smaller *****, 20lber is rare. Skunk smells like money to me, lol.


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## backwoodsman

Almost posted this as another topic/thread. Heres a home made muskrat lure that we use "as is" sometimes and with added ingredients sometimes. Everything is available at your local grocery store/wallys etc. 1/2c Herbal Essence shampoo original or green apple, 1/2 cup any green apple shampoo(generic cuts the cost considerable), sm. bottle of Anise extract or Oil of Anise(cheaper here) and 1/2c melted lard. Heat ingredients to just warm to touch, pour in lard, mix, shake well in plastic containers ie: clean ketchup bottles, maple syrup etc. Its good on *****, skunk, possum, grey fox etc too. You can use it as a base and add things to make it more appealing to other critters. Buddy adds beaver castor and claims it works good as a switch/change up for ole chiseltooth.


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## fishhead

I used to like simple lure sets for rats if there was a solid bank. Just put some lure on a stick over a trap and stake it out deep with a drowning stick. I also liked to set 4 traps per house in open water. Lots of times there would be 4 rats waiting.

I think if I trap rats again I'm going to make some cage (colony) traps for the runs.

Lure prices are so high that a recipe like the one above sounds pretty good. Thanks.


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## backwoodsman

Your welcome, Ive got more. Ive used colony traps before but theyre illegal here now. If legal for you they are the cats meow for muskrat trapping runs/dens. Some dens you can catch the whole pile of occupants in one night. Cheap and easy to make, even store bought ones arent too high. We've had them so full of rats we had to cut open a side to remove the catch. I think or as far as I can rememebr 5 was our best catch in one. Had a mink several times and several times a mink and a rat or two. Our rat houses have 2 holes coming up thru the bottom. A foothold on the spot they meet or a 110 coni in each hole produces for us. Bad thing about the commercial lures is the initial outlay of cash at $4.50/oz-$16/4oz's. A good commercial lure will pay for itself but not all are equal. You can stretch lure out with glycerine or corn syrup if its a sweeter lure.


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## backwoodsman

Has the muskrat topic ran its course? Anyone want a new critter to talk about? Any ideas? Any preferences? We've covered coyotes and skunk. Anyone having problems or headaches with any kind of critter?


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## IndianaWoodsman

I have never had good luck with colony traps. I like 110's in the runs. Picked up several mink over the years with those sets as well. A #1 long or coil on a feed bed works well too.


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## backwoodsman

110's are great where colony traps ar prohibited(here). When we could legaly use colony traps you have to make sure the rats cant get around the trap. We would wedge one end in the den/run entrance and block the opening/gaps with sticks driven/pushed in those spots. Colony traps are alot easier to set and deal with then 110's. They are safer for younger/beginner trappers and older trappers with weaker hands.


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