Nov. 1, 2010 Muskrat trapping starts

Muskrat trapping season opened today. Just after we got everything loaded into the car and the canoe tied on the roof, it started to rain. Oh well. We still went out to set traps.

In the front of the canoe are the traps. Carrots for bait, in the white bucket. The poles are for anchoring into the cattail matts to attach the traps to.

I took my fishing pole along and spent some time casting while we were "parked" and Steven was setting traps. Not even a nibble. I'm starting to forget what fish tastes like!

There's Steven with the canoe.

You can see raindrops on the water as we paddled along, looking for likely places to set traps.

As you get familiar with it, you can see the muskrat trails all through the cattails.

The trails and feeding beds have increased dramatically since we trapped last year.

Pretty soon they would start starving themselves out of food and begin fighting each other.

Muskrats don't have many predators, other than mink and the like, and they are prolific procreaters.

Steven kneels in the bottom of the canoe to set a trap.

It's cold work, putting your hands in the cold water, kneeling or sitting on the wet bottom of the canoe, and feeling the cold water through the bottom of the canoe.

The paddles get wet, and hands get wet, and clothes get wet, especially when it's raining!

The body-grip traps kill almost instantly.

No suffering, or chewed-off feet.

More humane than the feedlot animals sold in the grocery stores.

I took this picture of me by holding my left hand up over the side of the boat.

My right hand is holding the canoe paddle into the mud to keep the canoe in place.

I'm sitting in the bottom of the canoe so that the center of gravity is lower while Steven sets a trap, so we won't tip the canoe over.

I happened to look down and notice that I looked like the circus had come to town:

Orange coat, yellow and blue life jacket, and a red fleece blanket over my bluejeans to keep my legs from getting wet and cold in the rain!

I still got wet and cold, but it took longer, and there was a kettle of hot water on the woodstove when we got home, for hot chocolate! Yay!