Those little mounds are called pushups and they are trapping gold for a rat trapper.
Easiest thing in the world to set.
Take an axe, swing at the mound from one side, parallel to the ice, as close to the ice as possible. What you want to do is pop the mound, (frozen vegetation wad) free of the ice below it. Kinda like taking your hat off.
You want to wind up with a wad of frozen vegetation shaped like a hat and a bare spot on the ice next to an open hole, made by the rat.
Place a #0, #1 or #1 1/2 trap centered on the depression next to the hole, with the chain coiled up under it. Make sure the trap is stable, does not rock from side to side.
Run the chain to the outside ring of where the pushup was, then place the pushup cap back in place. You want it to appear as though you never touched it.
Tie the trap chain to a drag of some sort. I use a couple foot long stick stout enough to hold a rat. If you have some snow around kick some over the mound to help keep it from freezing down, and on to the next mound.
What should happen here is the rat will come up to do his feeding above ice, or just to have a few good breaths of air before continuing on his way.
He'll climb out onto his bed and end up getting caught. What should happen next is he should dive, a natural response to danger, and the weight of the trap will hold him down and he'll drown. That's why you want the chain inside the hut.
I know some old school rat trappers who would replace the chain with a 16 to 20 inches of 1/8" aircraft cable with a noose at the free end end.
Much easier to coil under the trap, more then strong enough, plenty long enough for most ice conditions. Some chains are too short for the deeper ice conditions. And the noose can be passed over the end of a stick and close firmly much quicker and easier then the chain can be.
The whole thing should take only a couple of minutes once you catch on to doing it.
Muskrat help
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