The other day I was watching a Youtube video on muskrat trapping and saw a set I’d never seen before. The young trapper in the video made a baited set with a 110 conibear, but it wasn’t bait he used on the trigger – it was a piece of flagging tape. The tape works as a visual attractor and its bright color resembles some sort of food under the water.
I found it hard to believe that just a piece of flagging tape would catch a muskrat, so I decided to head down to the marsh and give it a shot myself.
Here’s the set. A simple piece of white flagging tape wrapped around the trigger of a 110 conibear. Coni is gripping a lath, which is stuck into the mucky bottom and holds the trap a few inches to a foot below the water surface or ice.
And two days later – the results. The set works! It probably won’t be my go-to under ice muskrat set in the future, but I’ll be sure to experiment and see how it stacks up against other sets. Flagging tape makes cheap bait! Just goes to show you can always pick up some new idea or interesting tip here and there.
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