A Muskrat Story

Hi Trappers,
I am recalling the late fall of 1948 on a farm slough in the S.E. corner of North Dakota. Its about a week after Thanksgiving and my brother and I set 25 traps in Muskrat houses. After the last trap was set we checked the first set and, yes we had caught a Muskrat. We kept checking all the sets and every set had a rat. This went on for a week and we caught 275. The water froze clear and we could see the Muskrat swimming beneath the ice. We used a hay knife to cut a 6"x6" wedge shaped cube right above the floor of the house. We used coil
spring traps that were waxed. We just set the bare trap on the living room floor of the Muskrat house and extended the chain through the cut hole and drove the stake into the frozen house. We had to set the wedge back carefully otherwise the house would freeze up. The traps had a 1/2" diam. x 12" steel rod stake with a forge shaped sharpened end and a forge shaped eye for the chain ring. (made by my father in his fathers blacksmith shop). We sold the rats for $2.00 skinned and $1.50 unskinned. That was a lot of money for two young North Dakota Boys in 1948. We bought a mail order "Comet" motor scooter from Minneapolis with the money and we used that to check the trap route until we got too much snow. Those were the good old days. The following year there were very few Muskrats because we really cleaned them out. The slough was about 2 feet deep and there must have been at least 50 houses on it. Good trapping days to all of you.
NorthDakotaBoy

Thanks for sharing...that was a very good story,,,i wish i could find a honey hole like that.
WAt

very good story!

wow thats a great story! have a spot like that but can't trap it, kills me everytime we drive pass it. again thanks for share that story

Great story!!

great, great story! thanks!!!

Great story.

great story