Oh my God, every year I seem to forget how much work the first day of water trapping is. Not too bad of a start though. Between visiting farmers, getting stopped along the road, packing the truck, and all the little stuff I managed to get 64 sets made by 4:00 today. Eating lunch, then back out to get about another 25 made on a gardening center irrigation pond.
All my scouting this fall has made me come to a single conclusion. Dang, I love setting traps. Because there isn’t going to be a good number of catch this year. The very dry summer has kept the drainage ditches around here completely empty. The rats, and all the predators that follow are nearly non-existing. I did find a lot of coon slides, so I shifted gears and figured I pound on them for awhile.
By the time I’m all set, I figure to be running about 200 to 225 traps between wet and dry sets. I don’t get into K9s until after our gun deer season (after Thanksgiving) so until then, I am all out running and gunning for high numbers.
Often I’m asked if I’m a long liner – short answer is no! Short line of group setting in high percentage ares is my primary focus. I do run a high number of traps, but why not – I’m already there!
So, here’s a breakdown of day 1 of my fur season.
All my traps were dyed, waxed, and sorted into milk crates back in early Aug. I did a few drive-by long a few creeks to get a plan together of where I was going and what route. Started packing the back of the truck in the reverse order as I would need things around 7:00am.
Around 8:00, I changed my mind on with traps I was going to run in the creek beds. With the very dry summer, the grass and vegetation has grown more than normal. So Sleepy Creek 1-3/4CS and Sleepy DLS11’s for max holding strength.
Also with the water being so low, I opted to add chain to all my traps so I could stake at normal water levels is we get more rain this fall.
By 10:00, everything was packed, modified, and ready to go. I drove to the furthest south end of my line, and started to work upstream. Still seeing very little to no signs of rats, I just sought out coon locations. I’ld drive my truck back up and unload between 4 and 8 drown rods, traps, bait bucket, turnip bulb digger, and anything else I knew I needed. On the tailgate, I quick linked my traps to the drown locks, and down the hill. Punch in a pocket and ram a rod 2′ in on each side. Stake, set trap, bed, and off to the next. Once the were all set, I would walk by, bait, and tweek anything i saw the set needed such as guide sticks, cover for “sight from above” bait… then up the hill and onward with the truck.
Since the coon have moved off of grapes and on to corn, water is a major necessity. Easy to tell at any culvert location. With all the slides and scat, it was easy to tell the locations that warranted more sets.
By noon, I was done at my first 2 farms and got some visiting in as I was working.
At 12:30 I pulled up on a pond that I hit hard each year. Its a big “U” shape and kind-of a pain for set-ups. Fortunately, the coon have been coming down in the vacinity of some rat dens, so I gang set the area with sets intended to take either rats of coon. With a line of 6 sets made, I had PVC pipes for bait as a coon attractant, and a few guide sticks for the rats. While I was finishing up here, the land owner pulled up and informed me a den problem he had behind his house in another little creek – How could I say no to that?? I finished the 28 sets I made on the pond, and drove over to his house.
Prety obvious to see where the den had been. He sunk his tractor in a hole that was about 6′ wide by 4′ deep. I followed it out to the creek, and the coon sigh was very obvious. So again, I whipped out a half dozen drown rods and made another gang set.
Leaving his house, I decided to stop by his neighbor and ask for permission. I noticed a culvert over the creek in his field and knew it would be another high percentage spot. With no hesitation, i was informed to get rid of every one of those %$$%$##$#&$&^&&$%^ coon. Hard to say no to that… There wasnh’t as much sign of the coon slides by the culvert, so I only made 4 sets there and pulled out.
After being flagged down by a few guys I know around there, I was off to my last location. Its a pretty secluded section of field that has drainage tile into a ditch. I mostly scout this for coyotes, but taking the rats and coon out keep me in good grace with the owner. After checking out about 3/4 of a mile section of creek, I was a little bummed out. Didn’t see much sign at all, but figured i would throw a few hail-mary sets for the heck of it. This was the largest time consuption as I was making a lot of blind sets on what appears to be dead ground. I’ll make a few checks here over the next few days and pull everything if they come up empty.
Got hungry and thirsty as I realized I had been out all day on only 1 mug of coffee. Drove home and pulled into the driveway around 4:30. Off with the wader, downloaded the camera, and threw lunch in the microwave. Now that I posted this, its time for a cold lunch and off to get a few more sets made where I need to work after business hours.
Enjoy –
November 3, 2011 at 9:35 pm
#210464
