How to Build a Floating Muskrat Set

Muskrats eat water vegetation such as cattails and shore grass. They will collect the food and then drag the pieces to a feed bed in the water where they will sit and eat it. Feed beds are evidenced by flat matted vegetation covered in partially eaten food. Muskrats will also climb up on anything above the water. A floating set is an imitation of a feed bed. Traps are hidden on each end of the float and bait placed in the center. Muskrats will readily climb up on the float for the bait.

Things You'll Need

  • Pressure treated board, 2-by-10 inches, 24 inches long
  • 2 - Eye screws, 1/2 inch eye hole
  • Plastic tomato plant stakes, green color, 4 to 5 feet long
  • Steel traps, size No. 1 underspring or longspring
  • Bait
  • Muskrat scent lure
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Instructions

    • 1

      Screw an eye screw into the long side edge of a 2-by-10 inch two-foot long board about two inches from the end. Screw in a second eye screw on the opposite long side edge of the board two inches from the opposite end of the board. Turn the screws so the eye holes are parallel with the board.

    • 2

      Set the board in the water. Slide a four or five foot long green plastic tomato stake through each of the eye screws and push the stakes into the river bottom. Push them down until they are solidly holding in the bottom with at least two feet of the stake above the water line.

    • 3

      Drag wet water vegetation and cover the board, draping it over all four sides into the water. Drop the trap chain ring over the top of the tomato stake, allowing the chain to hang into the water. Place the trap in the vegetation six inches from the end of the board with the spring pointing toward the mid-point of the float.

    • 4

      Place a second trap on the opposite end of the float in the same manner as the first trap. Cover the traps lightly with just enough vegetation to hide the trap. Place bait in the center of the float between the traps along with a twig dipped into a bottle of muskrat scent lure.