Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Trapping

I just read the forcast for fur prices this Fall. If the market holds up, the prices will be high. Fur is coming back in demand. So, if anybody has problems with raccoons, muskrats, beavers, etc. and want to reduce the problem, I think that if you contact a local trapper, he'll be happy to trap your pond this Fall/Winter after the furs prime up.

They are predicting $12 muskrat.......

Wow. $12 muskrat.......I'll have to dig out my 110's

Here's what FFG says:

'rats average $8 they closed at $12 last season. Driven by sky high ranched mink prices.
Mink top out $25-$35
Nutria $2-$3
Beaver Open at $30-$40
Red Fox Bright, heavy grade $50-$60 down to $25
Greys $15-$35
'yotes Northern Prairie "snowballs $90-$110 Easterns $30-$75
'coons Northern Heavy $25, coat grade $6-$8
Large Striped Skunk $5-$8
Mink tops $25-$35

For you northern guys:
Wolverine rug quality $350-$500 others $250-$400
Wolf Big pale to extra pale Arctic type $500-$1,000 possible, others $350-$100 depending on quality
Canadian Lynx average $150 with $250 possible
Lower 48 Lynx $1,000 to $100 depending on the Russian market, which is tied heavily to oil prices.

I could pay off my house with M. Rat pelts!! Lol... I have been popping off at least one every evening so far this summer... They love my pond for some reason... I honestly think its my lotus tubers that they are after..... I have planted lotus' in shallow pools that I have dug out just for the plants around the pond and they always seem to nest under or around the lotus'.... I may start freezing them from now on!!

The pelts are only good after they "prime up" which means they get their winter fur. When skinned, if the skin side looks blueish in color, the fur isn't prime yet. That happens around mid to late November here.

I haven't heard of prices like that in a long time.

There is a lynx on our property. He can stay for as long as he likes in my opinion. Muskrats on the other hand...

In Ontario here the rule of thumb is any month with the letter R in it muskrats will be prime.

Don.

Bocomo, if you have a lynx on your property it escaped from a zoo. Now a bobcat, that is a very real possibility!

My father trapped over 150 muskrats last year. He's been working hard this season to line up more places to trap. When he's running his lines, it takes him over 6 hours to check all his traps. Then another 2-4 hours to skin the catch. It's not easy work!

I was kind of joking about freezing them... I am killing more this year it seems than in the past... CJ- I'm not sure where you father lives but if it's anywhere close to me (or anyone else for that matter on this forum) he is more than welcome to trap them here... Also, when you say he "run his lines"... What do you mean? I'm not too informed on trapping them... I have a small trap that I set for racoons and stuff but Ive never set it for muskrats... I was actually kind of wanting to try and trap them instead of sitting out here and shooting them... Im starting to feel like Captain Call in Lonesome Dove going out every evening with my 22.... Lol...

Geeze, I may have to dig out my old Victors and boxes of paraffin. I wonder if old Victors are still legal?

When I last trapped -- back in the 60s, we were getting $0.50 for stretched muskrats and $2.00 for mink -- at the top of the market!

I've still got scars from where those darn 'rats bit through my leather mitts. And, there is nothing like the sweet smell of skinning a mink.

Ken, you gotta wait until they are dead before you grab them. I had a 110 set in a run, and I no sooner got it set when a 'rat squirted out of the den. I thought I might as well grab it as long as I was still standing in the water. I got lucky, the 'rat bit between my fingers. I dropped the trap and waited 'till it died before I picked it up again.

Mink aren't bad at all, try skinning a skunk. You are VERY careful with the knife! You'd think they could spray without getting it on themselves, but it doesn't work out that way............

A bobcat is a lynx!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx#Bobcat

We have also have mink, but they're the top predator for muskrats so we let them be, too.

Well, yes and no. It's a member of the lynx genus, but if you take a bobcat in to sell you won't get lynx prices. Lynx are only in the far Northern range of the United States and Alaska, while bobcats are even found in the deserts of the USA.

If you tell someone you saw a lynx, 99.9% of people who know the difference are going to be thinking of the wrong animal. You may call it whatever you wish though...

I noticed this weekend lots of little, 0.50" dia, pine trees nipped off about 10" above ground. I looked but can't see any den entrances. Maybe I need to camp out on the dock and keep an eye out for critters. What is the best time of day to spot what I think is going to turn out to be a muskrat? Dusk?

-RFL

I see more of them moving around here either right before the sun comes up or right around night fall... Sometimes I see one or two swimming around during the day.... But it's mostly right before dark...

Muskrats and beavers are mostly nocturnal when humans are around.

So then I guess BoCoMo did see a lynx. Specifically a lynx rufus and not a lynx canadensis.

Thank you for the clarification Boone County!

If there are deer around, at 10" above the ground I'd bet on deer nipping the tips off. Too tall for a muskrat, and beavers won't eat conifers unless they are starving. They prefer softwoods like aspen/cottonwood, etc.

Here in Ontario our ministry let 500 lynx go to cut down on the wild turkey. They are the wild turkeys preditor. If you have wild turkey you should naturally have lynx.

We have one and it is next to impossible to ever see. We have a few game cameras and still no luck getting a picture or video. If we do we will post it. It keeps dropping by around 1:00 am and 2:00 am every other night or so and sets off the dog. Then for about an hour the dog and it screams and bark it out. The sound the lynx makes is the most chilling sound I have ever heard in my life. Once you hear one you will never forget it. The way I would describe its sound would be something letting out a guttural howell as it is dying.

Don.

Down here Bobcats prey on the Turkeys, along with coyotes. I shot a coyote last year at 20' while turkey hunting.