|
|
Post by hartman756 on Oct 21, 2018 19:10:02 GMT -5
Finally at trapping camp, got camp set up, and now got some Jethro Tull cranking . Been a rough stretch once again with doubts about it all coming together as late as early afternoon today. Health issues are once again raising doubts on just how it is all going to play out . Have had several black out episodes due to blood pressure dropping so low it is not readable, as recent as a couple days ago Now things have switched 180 and it is going way high. Spent most of the last couple days, including this morning, hardly knowing who I am or where I am at  . Decided it hasn't killed me yet and no sense living like I am dying so here I am  Docs haven't been a lot of help so far although wile I was recently hospitalized they did just about everything they could do to show it was my heart but the only thing they could find was that I have a hole in my heart . They also are making me wear a heart monitor for a month but so far it really isn't showing much even with the episodes I have had since I have been wearing it . So tomorrow the boy and I plan on hitting it hard to get as much rat sign marked before the season starts in a couple days . We have some big goals despite my health issues and there is a hospital nearby if the need arises for it once again . Was able to hit the marsh for a few minutes before it got dark and it is loaded with rats as usual . Will try to get the boy to take pics to go with the updates I hope to post as things get in full swing . I haven't kept up on here much but I am aware of some of the situation with the deer and CWD regulation changes etc., and decided to let someone else and his son hunt my spot for deer season and just trap as much as my health will allow this year. |
|
|
|
Post by ridge on Oct 21, 2018 19:43:31 GMT -5
I am glad that you were able to get out to trapping camp. I know that it is a high point in the year. The beauty and the sounds of the marsh are certainly special. Making some special memories are also a bonus.
CWD and now the PFAs certainly has to make a person think about his or her deer hunting choices. It can't be easy to give it up. That may happen in our camp, especially with no baiting next year, but so far a few of us are still hunting. If CWD is found in our county that might change our outlook on things. It would certainly make us think about our future.
|
|
|
|
Post by hartman756 on Oct 21, 2018 20:03:22 GMT -5
Thanks for moving this to the trapping board Ridge ! It is going to be interesting the next few days seeing how things go . I have been working all summer planning and getting ready for trapping camp this year as the cancer treatments prevented it from happening last fall so even though Jane is not real happy about it  , I will not pretend I am not somewhat worried myself but gave the boy instructions on what to do if I take a turn for the worse . With fur prices being so low it looks like we will have most of the marsh to ourselves . Brought most all of our gear so looking at racking up some big numbers  . |
|
|
|
Post by ridge on Oct 21, 2018 21:26:34 GMT -5
Have fun and enjoy your time on the marsh!
|
|
|
|
Post by hartman756 on Oct 22, 2018 19:54:21 GMT -5
Been a long day with the boy having issues with his boat motor most off the day . We thought it was a fuel issue( and it was to a point ) and that we had it running right ,but he didnt get very far when we headed back out into the marsh . One cylinder had cut out and it wanted to overheat , thankfully it is an old two cycle motor and hard to do damage to them . Realized it was more than a fuel issue, so swapped the plugs from one cylinder to the other and got it running enough to make it back to camp . Sent him into town for two new plugs he put them in and it ran fine the rest of the day .  We pushed ourselves to the limit and managed to get 110 rat huts marked before dark  Could not have been a nicer day with lots of sun and very little wind . Time to wind down and then do it all again tomorrow ,although we got a big share of the huts available marked today ,so mark less huts and do a few other chores like getting some more firewood cut ect . |
|
|
|
Post by hartman756 on Oct 23, 2018 21:05:19 GMT -5
Today was rain snow mix with the wind blowing hard . We got some wood cut for the stove and did finally make it back out on the marsh . Only got about 20 huts marked but we weren't planning on marking many today so we accomplished what we had planned . My blood pressure has evened out and I am back to feeling like a human again . Tomorrow we plan on hitting the river to retrieve more stakes we stashed there two years ago and do more prep work here in the marsh . There will not be an update tomorrow as once we get done with what we want to get done, we will be getting a couple of hrs of sleep and then we start setting traps at midnight . Going to be a cold night setting as the forecast is temps in the 20s but with calm winds . We will set till daylight then start checking what we got set on the way back to camp . Maybe a nap in the afternoon and then skinning the catch after that . I will do my best to give an update on how it goes once we get done skinning . |
|
|
|
Post by hartman756 on Oct 25, 2018 18:35:13 GMT -5
Rough night setting , it was calm , cold with a bright moon . Everything was frozen over including our reflective chits we use to find what we had marked . Being they frosted over they were not very reflective and very hard to see . The boys boat motor started overheating again so i decided to just run the one boat for the rest of the night . bout five am my back gave out in a big way and so the boy had to bring me back to camp . He headed back out and set traps till just before noon . My back had let up enough that when he got back from setting I was able to go start checking wile he got some sleep . We got a total of 250 traps set ( I set all the huts he missed the night before ) and ended the day with 82 rats on a half night set and 80% of the traps checked . Last night was not a good night for the rats to move but tonight it is above freezing and raining . Perfect conditions for them to move tonight . I always hate to make predictions but I will and predict 100 + rats tomorrow with a full night and full check . The boy has been taking pics but it will probably be a wile before he gets around to getting them posted here . Time to strt skinning !
|
|
|
|
Post by hartman756 on Oct 26, 2018 20:24:54 GMT -5
Well finally done skinning rats for the night! we checked all but about two dz traps and total 102 rats . have a mink working our rat sets pretty hard in one are . It has damaged several and taken a couple so far . Did make one mink set but need to make several more tomorrow to see if we can take care of the problem. Other trappers in the marsh are complaining there is not many rats , I didn't tell them how well we were doing  . The problem they are having is they only want to set the easy stuff along the edges . Another thing is they think using lure is a wast of time . We have several different lures we have found to work real well . We have set a few dz traps with lure and several dz with out and the lured sets catch around 40% more every time we have tried doing a comparison ! Tomorrow will tell a story , if we can do 100 + again it will show there is plenty of rats to reach our goals . If it starts dropping off at all we will have to start thinking about where we are going to start moving things around to . |
|
|
|
Post by hartman756 on Oct 29, 2018 16:12:55 GMT -5
Had a little problem with getting my tablet to charge so late with updates . Other than some minor issues things have been going as planned . Sat we got 87 rats and 3 mink , sun 63 rats and today 72 rats and 2 mink . So the numbers did drop off but we work at it and try and move traps around to fresher sigh and it has kept the numbers steady . I think we have solve most of our mink issues as of today . We were losing a lot of rats to them so we made several sets for them and it has paied off . As I mention we put in a ton of effort and so the hard decision has been made for me to move a bunch of traps to the river . That means a lot of extra effort with pulling the boat out here and putting it in at the river then out and back in here to reach traps we cant get with the boys boat . It also means a short catch tomorrow probably as we pulled traps here at the marsh for me to take to the river tomorrow . Will make for a long day but if the catch is short the skinning will be easier tomorrow night . Have todays catch to skin yet and a few from two days ago , other than that we have kept up on skinning all the rats each night . Been rough on me but I am holding my own for the time being .
|
|
|
|
Post by hartman756 on Oct 30, 2018 20:12:23 GMT -5
The catch rate dropped off a cliff today with only 32 rats . Was able to set about 70 traps in the river today including 6 beaver traps so I expect at least a couple beaver tomorrow. Seems to be rats in the river again this year but they do go real fast . However with the new area set and much of the marsh still set I expect numbers to be better tomorrow . Always hard to predict the river as the level is always changing and so active sign is mostly non existant . A good example is the water has been dropping fast the last week and the rats built huts in some of the bushes along the banks when it was high and now what is left of those huts are two feet above the current level hanging in the bushes . Always do poorer on a dropping water level than a rising one but tomorrow will tell .
|
|
|
|
Post by hartman756 on Nov 1, 2018 20:11:38 GMT -5
Well we are down to a slow grind . Yesterday it was 54 rats a mink and 2 beaver . Today was 53 rats another mink and three beaver . All the beaver are skinned along with all the rats except 11 . The mink I will wait to skin at home . Got a couple more days left to go . We are not going to make our goal we set but should end up with well over 600 . We could hit our goal if we stayed a couple more days but my body just isn't going to take staying past the 4th . We have two more checks and then pack up the 4th and head for home . Total as of today is 545 rats , 7 mink and 5 beaver .
|
|
|
|
Post by ridge on Nov 2, 2018 11:44:29 GMT -5
Take care of yourself. That seems to be a good catch to me.
|
|
. Decided it hasn't killed me yet and no sense living like I am dying so here I am 
Docs haven't been a lot of help so far although wile I was recently hospitalized they did just about everything they could do to show it was my heart but the only thing they could find was that I have a hole in my heart . They also are making me wear a heart monitor for a month but so far it really isn't showing much even with the episodes I have had since I have been wearing it . So tomorrow the boy and I plan on hitting it hard to get as much rat sign marked before the season starts in a couple days . We have some big goals despite my health issues and there is a hospital nearby if the need arises for it once again . Was able to hit the marsh for a few minutes before it got dark and it is loaded with rats as usual . Will try to get the boy to take pics to go with the updates I hope to post as things get in full swing .
, I will not pretend I am not somewhat worried myself but gave the boy instructions on what to do if I take a turn for the worse . With fur prices being so low it looks like we will have most of the marsh to ourselves . Brought most all of our gear so looking at racking up some big numbers 
.
We pushed ourselves to the limit and managed to get 110 rat huts marked before dark 
Could not have been a nicer day with lots of sun and very little wind . Time to wind down and then do it all again tomorrow ,although we got a big share of the huts available marked today ,so mark less huts and do a few other chores like getting some more firewood cut ect .
. The problem they are having is they only want to set the easy stuff along the edges . Another thing is they think using lure is a wast of time . We have several different lures we have found to work real well . We have set a few dz traps with lure and several dz with out and the lured sets catch around 40% more every time we have tried doing a comparison ! Tomorrow will tell a story , if we can do 100 + again it will show there is plenty of rats to reach our goals . If it starts dropping off at all we will have to start thinking about where we are going to start moving things around to .