That's nothing. Wait until you need a pelting knife, a necker knife, steel stretchers, wood stretchers, a fur comb, a fleshing beam...

MUSKRATS

It would be accurate to say the North American fur market is in a depression these days. People just aren't buying furs anymore. These days, we trap critters in the United States, and sell them through the Canadian fur auctions to Chinese sweatshops that turn them into fashionable garments for wealthy customers in Moscow. You can blame PETA, or Obama, or the economy in general, but that's the reality.

The one exception is, surprisingly, muskrat pelts. At a recent Canadian auction muskrat pelts were bringing over $8 a pelt, and prices of $5 or $6 were common last season. That might not seem like much until you realize that even novice trappers can catch several muskrat a day, and you can easily skin, flesh, and stretch half a dozen muskrats in the time it will take you to process one raccoon or fox pelt. In short, you can make money trapping muskrats, even in this market.

I used to tell people I never used lure for muskrats. I was lying, of course. True, when muskrats are plentiful, you really don't need it and have little time to use it. However, eventually that colony of muskrats will be reduced enough that they become harder to catch. You should probably pull your traps and place them somewhere else, but you just don't always have the time or inclination to do so. Using a little lure will keep the muskrats coming until you're ready to change locations.

And, when your knees become a little too arthritic to climb down into creek beds that you once navigated with ease, a good lure will call them from where they're at to where your traps are. Still other times, the muskrats are located on land that, for one reason or another, you just can't trap. Again, a good lure will help you out.

Wherever muskrats are, there's a pretty good bet that raccoons are there too. I almost always have some sort of muskrat-raccoon combination set wherever I have muskrat traps. Later on, I'll have some recipes that work for both muskrat and raccoon. But for now, I'll just have some straight muskrat lures.

In most cases, I use just sweetflag, peppermint, or spearmint oil for muskrats. However, they just don't always work (and I'm at a loss to explain why). When they don't I use one of the following lures. All of these are old and famous, and one has even become legendary (partly, perhaps, because it can't be found anymore). Without further ado, here they are.

A LEGENDARY MUSKRAT LURE

This consisted, as near as I can tell, of 16 parts catfish livers that had been rotted for two years in the dark, probably in a shed or barn, 16 parts muskrat pods that had been sun-dried and preserved in moonshine (not rotted), and one part cherry oil. Grind everything together and leave in a large batch for a while to allow the odors to blend, then grind again and bottle.

For decades at least, someone in Louisiana was supplying the catfish livers and muskrat glands. Then, nearly sixty years ago, mail sent to them started being returned. These folks had apparently always been secretive and, as far as I know, never advertised what they were doing. And suddenly they were impossible to find. Among my grandfather's papers was a letter sent to these folks, ordering $10 of their lure. The envelope was marked "Return to Sender."

Old-time lure manufacturer R. E. Burt supposedly traveled to Louisiana to find out what was up. Some say the locals refused to talk to him, others say he was warned away at the point of a shotgun. Some say the owner of the business was sent to prison for murder, or manslaughter, or tax evasion, or moonshining, or is alligator bait in some bayou somewhere. Some say he never recovered from a broken heart after his son was killed in Korea.

So, nobody knows what happened to the folks who provided the ingredients for this lure, and I don't know of anyone who tried to copy it. I'm not saying that no one is making it; I'd be willing to bet someone is. But whoever it is, they're as secretive about it as their predecessor.

If anyone knows where I can get this lure today, please send me a PM. I promise I will not post the details here.

MUSKRAT LURE #2

Put 6 oz. of glycerine oil in a clean jar, add 1 oz. ambrette musk, shake well, and let stand for two weeks, shaking it again after about a week. Then add 1 oz. sweetlag oil, 1 oz. carrot or fennel oil, and 1 oz. catnip oil. Shake well, and let stand six weeks to age.

MUSKRAT LURE #3

2 oz. glycerine oil
1 oz. fennel oil
1/4 oz. ambrette musk
1/4 oz. tonquin
1/4 oz. catnip oil
1/4 oz. carrot oil
1/4 oz. beaver castor, ground finely

Let stand six weeks, shaking once a week.

MUSKRAT LURE #4

1 oz. sweetlag oil, 1 oz. beaver castor, 4 drops catnip oil, and 3 drops ambrette musk oil. Shake well, and again at the set. About 1/8 ounce at a set is plenty.

MUSKRAT LURE #5

1/2 oz. beaver castor, 1 oz. sweetflag oil. Shake lightly, and shake again at the set. About 1/8 ounce at a set is more than enough.

The best part about the last two is you don't have to allow them to age. They're ready to go whenever you are.

As always, questions, comments, criticisms, and even rants are welcome.

Onward and upward,
airforce