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Post by jaredskillen1 on Jan 16, 2013 9:02:55 GMT -6
How do you guys set up your fish stick sets?
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Post by trapping24 on Jan 16, 2013 9:13:28 GMT -6
I'm sure some body has a pic. they can post for you but i can tell you how i do it...take your re-rod stake place it off the bank in the water so that when you place your trap next to it that the trap is under about 1/2" or 1" of water! The trap goes on the bank side of the re-rod and your fish goes on top of the re-rod, make sure to wire your fish on so they have to fight to get it off!
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ranger
Active Trap Talker
Posts: 55
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Post by ranger on Jan 16, 2013 9:44:40 GMT -6
Becareful where you are setting them, Iowa has laws pertaining to exposed bait for the prevention of catching large birds.
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Post by jaredskillen1 on Jan 16, 2013 10:58:24 GMT -6
Can they be set under bridges?
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Post by notimeforit on Jan 16, 2013 11:28:26 GMT -6
It's by county. I think bemer is good, but check first.
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Post by trapping24 on Jan 16, 2013 16:51:19 GMT -6
Yes you can set them under bridges!
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Post by TRapper on Jan 17, 2013 11:56:22 GMT -6
setting one today with 2 traps and using carp for bait, only got about 3 places with open water, and only one i will set for coon cause of the friggin otters
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Post by 4fur on Jan 17, 2013 16:20:59 GMT -6
Lot of stuff in the archives, Jared but here is the cliff note version: Like trapper24 said, place trap(s) between fish head on an electric fence post and the bank. I use the FS to catch mink so I set in shallow water or build up a trap bed so I can solidly bed the traps in <2" of water. If you are targeting coon only, set in deeper water but your post might not provide sufficient holding power if only 24" is in the creek bottom. Some use Pogos to anchor their traps. The ideal location for a FS is along a bank where animals are traveling with a shelf of shallow water to bed the traps and a drop off to deep water right behind the FS. So the animal must approach the carp head over the trap. Here is a coon from this morning in such a place. The water is 18" deep and fast behind the FS so it required no backing... Much more common is a location where the animal can approach the set form any direction, so bait theft is common. I have reduced bait theft to about nothing, but it's a lot of little things I do. The biggest way to avoid theft is to use backing to block the coon's approach. Good coon habitat always has trees so grab a few sticks and branches and stick them behind the set. Not a great picture but here is a location from this morning... OK, if branches aren't available, grab some weeds like these marestails that grow every where in Iowa... You can set fish sticks virtually anywhere the is open water. They shine for mink, but around here there are few places a coon won't find your set first. Here is one... You can see the traps are on each side of the FS with a little blocking up and down stream. I wadded up some grass and placed it below the fish head. I do not normally do this but wanted to illustrate that this grass could be placed above the fish in a restricted zone. In this case, I'm trapping mink and the grass makes a nice lure hold for a good mink lure... Fish sticks are most effective late season but can be used all season. Much like Dave Plueger explains in this month's Fur Taker magazine, pockets were not an option on my line this year due to the drought, so I did not dig a pocket all season! You look carefully at my picture, and you will probably notice some of the little things which prevent tripped traps and bait theft. Like no chains showing, sticks guarding the dogs, etc. Good luck with set and please do not use beaver or muskrat meat as bait.
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Post by bone hunter on Jan 17, 2013 16:28:27 GMT -6
and i still can not believe all the open water you have,, hell your even 2 hours north of me!!!
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Post by ~ADC~ on Jan 17, 2013 17:20:49 GMT -6
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Post by jaredskillen1 on Jan 17, 2013 17:57:58 GMT -6
Thanks for all the help guys and Adc looks like you got skunked
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Post by jaredskillen1 on Jan 18, 2013 11:11:11 GMT -6
Well I checked this morning I put more sets in last night and I only have to fish sticks out. Both were pulled out and fish was eaten. going to go put another trap out and move the fs farther from the bank
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Post by 4fur on Jan 19, 2013 22:08:06 GMT -6
The good news is, thieves are usually big coon. Bad news is once you educate them they usually come back first thing each night and rob you again! Be sure to bed traps solid, bury the chains in the mud and use the blocking and guide sticks to show them where to step. Here is a remake today where I did have thew bait stolen from the set upstream. Same coon? Probably... Here is the "horizontal" fish stick I made today targeting mink at a beaver dam. Dam is built on the concrete spillway so it is impossible to put the post in. Got to wire a stop in case a coon jacks the stake... The set... Not a great picture but you get the general idea. I have stuck these in big snow drifts, in between large rocks and even stabilized them by placing rocks on the post where no other set would work. Yesterday I had this coon at a tile dump on HWY 30... I always take a mink or two here but never a coon so I just used one trap, no blocking and laid the trap on some slew grass I piled in the water. Go figure! Hope you catch the thief, Jared. With the really cold weather expected, just dip the fish in water, splash some water on the post and it will freeze on making it tough for even you to pull it off!
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Post by ~ADC~ on Jan 19, 2013 22:51:23 GMT -6
Good post Wayne. You ever try a piece of tie wire on your fish sticks to help prevent theft? You can see it on Doug's skunk picture I posted above. Wrapping around good below the head then up over the side and a couple wraps on top.... seems to help.
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Post by Griz on Jan 20, 2013 7:57:20 GMT -6
Yet the fish head is gone.
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Post by ~ADC~ on Jan 20, 2013 10:21:58 GMT -6
Yet the fish head is gone. but not stolen without getting caught. lol
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Post by 4fur on Jan 20, 2013 22:21:02 GMT -6
Wire didn't work for me, Jayme. I am almost always using frozen fish heads which make it tough to get the electric fence wire or even 14 gage through. And it was tough to secure the head tightly to the spade. I guess my biggest problem with it was it kinda negated the biggest benefits of the FS, quick and simple! Some more pictures from today. A tile dump right along the interstate on-ramp that is always good for a mink or two really surprised me with this coon... The bottom is really hard so I can't get the post in very far. Maybe the elevated position is the way to go because I used no blocking. The remake. Notice the coon foot sticking out of the water in the upper left hand corner (he is in a Beslisle 330 that I use to dispatch ever FS caught coon)... The water in this little pool is all about 2' deep so I pull grass to make a trap bed for the traps. Something I learned from Iowa Tiger when he used to be on here. I like using the 330 because it is bloodless and frozen blood sucks in my truck and on the fur! I hit them with the 330, stand on a spring while releasing them from the trap and hold their nose under water while I remake the set. What the big bodygrip doesn't get, the water gets by the time I head up the bank. FS caught coon are always wet and often muddy. I wash them up in the creek as best I can and rub them in snow to help dry and clean them... Day 2 of stolen bait at this set. Had a coon in the other set but have a feeling it wasn't him so I set a cage to find out... If it is a bait stealing expert, he might be on to cages too so I wired the bait in back and stabilized with a T stake... Did you see I baited the FS with a marshmallow? I tried the big marshmallows on one set earlier this season but had no luck. This will be a better test at this location where I catch a coon or two every night... A closer shot. Added some Boars Delight, persimmon/Night Bandit/molasses and a teaspoon of MTP coon and mink bait... Another remake at a location which should stay open... Know the open water spots is about like knowing the perennial denning areas, you always are looking to add a few more each year because they are money that make long drives between sets worthwhile.. All but the best on my line will freeze out these next few nights. But they will be the first to thaw. The animals know that and so do I.
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Post by TRapper on Jan 20, 2013 22:36:52 GMT -6
we got about 2" of new snow today, so will maintain my line out and put in some FS sets at some open water
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Post by iowabuckeye on Jan 21, 2013 7:37:47 GMT -6
4fur - instead of running the wire through the frozen head, try wrapping it below the spade then above the head.
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Post by ~ADC~ on Jan 21, 2013 12:56:21 GMT -6
Wire didn't work for me, Jayme. I am almost always using frozen fish heads which make it tough to get the electric fence wire or even 14 gage through. And it was tough to secure the head tightly to the spade. I guess my biggest problem with it was it kinda negated the biggest benefits of the FS, quick and simple! Not sure you understood the method we use Wayne. Not suprising since its a bitch to try to describe stuff like that with out a picture. So here... ~ADC~
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Post by skunked on Jan 21, 2013 14:30:26 GMT -6
Nice pic ADC. This wire could also help hide the bait in the restricted bait zones as the grass could be quickly inserted in the wire. It may even work better to wire sturdy below the bait, put a couple loops around above the bait, and wire sturdy again below the bait. That would hold the grass in even better.
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Post by LLLTrapper on Jan 21, 2013 15:05:40 GMT -6
I have tried doing exactly as your picture shows and they still will steal the bait. The problem is having the animal come from the back or side of the set unlike the pocket where you have one way to aproach it.
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Post by ~ADC~ on Jan 21, 2013 17:30:37 GMT -6
I have tried doing exactly as your picture shows and they still will steal the bait. The problem is having the animal come from the back or side of the set unlike the pocket where you have one way to aproach it. I never said it was 100% but its going to make it harder for them to get. The more they may have to struggle with it the better the chance of them stepping in your trap. Carp heads especially are tough to pull off from the side. Fish chunks seem to tear off much easier as well. At least with the wire they can't just lift it off the top and run, they have to work at it a little. ~ADC~
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Post by paulb on Jan 21, 2013 17:55:27 GMT -6
I have tried doing exactly as your picture shows and they still will steal the bait. The problem is having the animal come from the back or side of the set unlike the pocket where you have one way to aproach it. I never said it was 100% but its going to make it harder for them to get. The more they may have to struggle with it the better the chance of them stepping in your trap. Carp heads especially are tough to pull off from the side. Fish chunks seem to tear off much easier as well. At least with the wire they can't just lift it off the top and run, they have to work at it a little. X2..........it works for me,,,,I use 2 traps at each set,,,,next year I plan on less locations and will try 3 traps on a set,,,I got plenty of traps ~ADC~
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Post by LLLTrapper on Jan 21, 2013 18:46:03 GMT -6
I agree with you but if I can dig a pocket or set a cubby I will be waaaay better off. LLL
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Post by 4fur on Jan 21, 2013 18:57:14 GMT -6
Yes, nice picture Jayme! I have tried that method but again I was using electric fence wire which is not very malleable. And because fish sticks are almost exclusively a cold weather tool for me, I am always wearing half frozen gauntlets. Like LLL said, I still had problems. No action on the marshmallow sets but not much action any where on my line. 1* was a good excuse for them to stay home. I had a mink chew on a carp head as he stood on the ice covering my traps and a coon set down in front of my baited 220 for a while before refusing it. I did catch one coon in a box which may pay for my gas if tjk sells him for me! Here is today's tailgate shot. Notice the carp head frozen on the post behind the coon... It will need to warm up some for me to get it off the post. I think it also needs to warm up some before bait theft is a concern again, too. Oh, I also cage trapped TWO skunk last night... Don't know but I have always suspected a skunk caught on a cold night like last was kicked out of a ground den or brush pile by a big, horny boar coon. Why else would they be out? Speaking of skunk, I think I have a real good chance of getting skunked tomorrow!
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Post by TRapper on Jan 22, 2013 11:11:56 GMT -6
ok, got an idea, (i am full of things like that), with the fish stick and to my defense, it is an idea since i have only used a fish stick set a couple of times.
but if bait stealing is a problem then why not tack weld on the side of the fence stake triangle piece a small 1" steel tube to hold a paste bait/lure under the fish. this way if the fish is stolen and the culprit not caught, at least there is something still there to get the attention and aid in making a catch. and with coon the smellier the better
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Post by trapdog on Jan 22, 2013 20:17:05 GMT -6
You are without a doubt full of something, Josh ;D
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Post by TRapper on Jan 23, 2013 10:12:58 GMT -6
You are without a doubt full of something, Josh ;D at least i don't let my picture be taken of me wiping down tables
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Post by trapdog on Jan 23, 2013 20:43:29 GMT -6
I will get you back for that some day!
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