Video: How to Trap Muskrat

Video: How to Make a Castor Mound Set Trap for Beaver

This beaver trapping technique has been around for a long time, and for good reason. There are few more effective ways to attract beavers toward a trap than by finding one of their telltale slides, creating a scent mound at the base of it, and topping it with a rival beaver's castor. Beavers have castor sacs and release castoreum in combination with urine to mark their territories. This scent is strong and lingers around marshy areas where the...

Video: How to Make a Pocket Set Trap

Pocket sets are a versatile trap setup that you can use to target species like raccoon, mink, and muskrat. First, pick a location with animal tracks near a cut bank and shallow moving water that won’t freeze. Start by digging the pocket into the bank about 14 inches deep. The back of the pocket should be above the water but far enough back that whatever animal is going to check out the bait really needs to spend some time to get in there and...

How to Trap Crayfish

With water temperatures too hot to do much trout fishing in Southwest Montana, I found myself looking for ways to hit the river while leaving the fly rod at home. While I lamented the lack of after-work fishing to be had, my friend and Supervising Editor Sam Lungren suggested we go poke around the rocky shallows of the Lower Madison in search of mudbugs. A few hours later we were loading a handful of pots in my pickup and heading out with a...