[Tim B]

We are gettin pounded by rain again...but it is supposto clear by the weekend and give several days of dry weather. Most of my DIRTHOLE SETS are ruined in a puddle of mud. ALL the ground around is saturated. I will be resetting things when the rain stops. Is my best bet to make FLAT SETS and just pound a bed in with a hammer and cover trap with leaves and cut up grass??
Thanks for the input.
Tim B

 

[Asa Lenon]

I don't know what type of soil you have around your vicinity. In my locality there is an abundance of nice Great Lakes type beach sand that holds little moisture. If you have any nice sand anywhere around, dig up a bucket to bed your traps in. Ace

 

[jim-NE]

mud sets

I try to hit the higher ground, or sides of hilly areas, then I look for anywhere that may be a little more "protected" than others such as under a large tree, or dryer side of a large fallen log or hay bale, etc.
Bed construction I include a little drain of sorts out the low end by digging a trench and filling back in only with grass or other non-absorbent material. Gives the water an outlet when things get really soggy.
Other than that, I also tried just pounding in a bed and using non-absorbant material to bed the trap such as chopped up grass, buckwheat hulls, soybean chaff, etc. and that worked OK.
Mud is mud, and there isn't much you can do about it when things are completely saturated.
We can use snares in Nebraska, and I have switched to them when the rain was that bad. Caught a lot of predators off of log crossings that looked more like coon sets than predator sets. In higher water, the log was the easiest route to get to the other side, evidently.