Rat Floats-How we do ours

[backwoodsman]

Heres how we try to do most of our rat floats now days. I use lure on mine the majority/all of the time. Usualy/occasionaly I use bait too. The best bait last year was leftover's from our jelly and jam canning. I froze the scrap's in butter containers, the 3lb(?) tubs. We canned strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peach's, apples, huckleberries and plums that I can remember. As of right now the rats dont seem to have a preference. The floats I made up this year/repaired I used cake icing containers, the tall white ones. I put two in/on each float. I screwed them both down thru the bottoms and on one tub I drilled 1/4" holes thru the whole thing/float down thru the bottom. On the same one I cut a few holes in the top/cover to let moisture/dew etc get down to the bait, it wash's a little bit out thru the bottom of the float causing a "slick" for lack of a better term. In the other one I put my lure, I cut/drill holes all around the sides of the container so the lure odor can get out easier. I pack about half a container of lure holder, in my case its cotton batting stuff I got on clearence at wallys craft dept. If im using straight lure that hasnt been mixed with glycerine etc I use about 1/4+/- a 1oz bottle or 1/8+/- a 2 oz bottle. I like to bait and lure them heavy on the initial setting so its quicker to run them. If there isnt a catch I'll leave them for a week or two before I pull them in to check them. Seems at least 4' out from the bank is needed to keep coons off of'em. I like my floats to be in about a minimum of 2' of water to keep coons from messing with them. Some years I only have to lure the floats once and there has been many occasions at the end of the season I can freeze the lure holder/lure/container and reuse it a season or two. One other thing I like to do is put a finishing nail for each trap on every float and put the trap on it thru the hole on the base plate(if they have them if not we drill a small one), seems to help with tripped traps? Hope this helps someone. Good Luck

[white316]

I would like to show you's a picture of my floats but there all out on the line=i never bring them home,however i am going to make some new ones and i will post a pic.

[fuzz269]

I would like to see some pix of your floats fellas, I have made about a dozzen diffrent moddles and have yet to catch a rat. Maybe you fellas have a better set up than mine were.

[backwoodsman]

I had some pictures in photobucket. I'll see if my wife can work them over to here or something.

[Cam]

If anyone wants to post pics of there floats i will archive them.

[white316]

mink & rat float.

[backwoodsman]

Nice White. Ever try 2 traps with your setup? Do you catch many mink on floats? I dont think we have in the last few seasons now?

[white316]

Jul 31, 2010 21:04:20 GMT -5 @white316 said:

mink & rat float.

I have made a lot of designs over the years and i like this one best.never made one for 2 traps.have caught a few mink but not in the pvc ones.i make the same float with a wire mesh cabin on it that i cover with hay [grass] and bait with meat or fish

[backwoodsman]

We have a few single trap floats we still use but most are 2+ traps now. We had one out last year right before the flood that had 6 on it but we never caught more then 2 on it before we got flooded out. Good looking float. Never thought about the PVC. Ive got some smaller scrap's too that are too short for PVC coon sets.

[mohawk]

Here is my latest design, minus the chicken wire top. I got the idea out of the Trapper and Predator caller mag a few months ago. It seems the trapper was battling water level fuctuations so he came up with this style of float that rides the stake.





I am not a rat trapper yet, caught my first 2 last season so anything you see that could be better would greatly be appreciated! Thanks!!!

Here is last years attempt at a few rat floats, this one was top heavy.



This one floated pretty well but I didn't keep it. Plus the fact that I needed a tractor and hay wagon to get it to the pond. ;D



So as far as I am concerned the rat float building learning curve swings long and wide and I am hoping that I get it narrowed some this season.

[willow]

I like to have the rat step between the jaws of my trap not over them on approach.

Willow- --

[mohawk]

AHA!!! That's what I was looking for! Thanks for catching that oversight Willow, I knew there was something that was amiss but just didn't see it. I knew that little fact from reading one of Catmando's mink trapping books (it sure ain't from catching them). I will make that adjustment.