Scouting

Pre-season scouting helps you identify specific locations for sets and make plans for the equipment you will need. By planning ahead, you will be able to:

• Make sets and leave the area quickly.
• Avoid making excessive commotion that could alert wary furbearers.

Try scouting for fur in October.

• Look first in wetland areas: creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, swamps, and marshes. Furbearers are most numerous around water. This makes water areas best for trapping.
• In the fall, also look near sources of food.
• Furbearers fatten in the fall while food is still plentiful.
• Signs of muskrat are common in wetlands near fields of corn. Raccoons often gather in or near cornfields.
• Remember each furbearer leaves some distinctive sign. To scout effectively, you must learn to recognize signs of furbearers.
• Signs include tracks, scat (droppings), food remains, trails, and homesites.
• Places to watch for tracks include soft mud, trails leading in and out of the water, feeding locations, and dens.
• Muskrat tracks often can be recognized by the tail drag mark. Raccoons leave large hind footprints shaped much like a baby’s foot. Mink tracks are usually paired.
• The scat of each furbearer is often distinctive in size, content, or place of deposit. Scat may point the way to good trapping sites.
• Muskrats leave their pellets on rocks or logs protruding from the water. The large scat of raccoons are deposited on logs or drift piles; and they are often filled with corn, berries, grapes, and other fruit.
• Make notes and sketches to record what you see. Include numbers. For example, record the following information:
• The number of furbearers present
• Locations where productive sets can be placed
• The number of traps needed