We all know how it feels to set out steel and wake up early to see if we caught anything.  Well, it all started about a year ago when I was helping my dad clean the basement when I came across a sack full of things poking out.  I carried the sack out in the light which felt like a hundred pounds and I found out they were traps. I got a tickle of excitement when my dad told me how he and his friend use to trap muskrats for money during his high school years.  He then stopped trapping when he went to college.  Well, I talked him in to setting a few traps last year but did not have any luck trapping and did not catch anything, but still had my hopes up to take a whack at it again.  Over the summer I bought 2 #110 conibears for trapping season and went to the fur convention here in New York where I got my first pack basket.  I was ready, had my traps, my basket and I was full of pride.  When the season came around the corner we set some traps on a stream that I got permission to trap that summer.  I set one under a bank that had a hole in it and set one in the middle of the stream (the stream was about 4 feet wide) that would catch any passing rodents.  I did another one of these sets up the stream a bit.  The last set I made was set under roots that was about 13 inches above the water.  it looked like a good place for a set,  so I set a #110 conibear there with a stabilizer.  I could not tell if it was a den or just a runway.  The next day I woke up to go rabbit hunting with our hunting buddies.  My dad and I decided we would check the traps on the way home.  We got there and it started to snow.  It was Christmas Eve.  The first set was empty, same with second and third. As we were approaching the last set,  I did not see anything.  It looked like snow was covering the trap.  I was on one side of the stream and my dad was on the other.  He started to poke the trap.  I was waiting for a conclusion when he picked the trap up and in the trap there was Mr. Muskrat.  I was so happy, it was the best Christmas present.  My dad showed me how to skin it and put it on a wire stretcher.

Thanks Buckshot for all your help and good luck to you all on the line.