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Post by NittanyLion on Dec 28, 2004 20:36:44 GMT -6
Thank you BK, your reply makes me ask another question or two. The idea of lugging a rock away from the bridge sounds like something I should have thought of. Have you made some of your own points for the BE? If so, has that success rate been as good as finding a natural point for the BE?
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Post by dblcoil on Dec 28, 2004 20:45:39 GMT -6
Not askeered of the mink topic, just askeered of that bottom edge set. Man, I cant figure out how to pick a set location for it. By the way the set is described, there could be literally hundreds of places to put the trap. How do you determine "the" right spot? And do you look for open, moving water to put the sets when the rest of the creek is frozen, or just cut holes in the ice when you feel youve found a good locale? I realize that I just need to get out and give this set a whirl. I have a terrible time getting a mink to go through a 110 when its set above the water, let alone totally submerged.
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Post by BK on Dec 28, 2004 21:16:31 GMT -6
Yes Ninny I've done this, and yes it's worked very well for me where I have a vertical bank.
dblcoil, the book is very well written,....... mink go into Conibears under water very well.
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Post by PAskinner on Dec 28, 2004 22:42:20 GMT -6
I don't run a lot of mink sets, but do have a fair understanding of location-I think. These pics may help show BE location. The farthest out point- is "it" but I have some old rat holes, etc set here too-just in case. The hardest place for me to pick location is beaver ponds and swamps-just too many good spots to set them all.
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Post by JLDakota on Dec 28, 2004 23:58:37 GMT -6
Not having found anything to disagree or argue about in the thread and not seeing or reading anything I didn't understood I chose not to write a "me too" post. But beings I was called out, I will add a couple cents. The majority of my late winter water sets are set up to take advantage of things that over time I have found work for me in keeping sets working which is no different I would expect then other water trappers. Over many years I have located sets on several spurs that include ground water springs, tiles, culverts, control structures and drainages that stay open all winter and attract the big bucks when going gets tough and they start running. Sometimes a blind set or two with footholds and/or coni's, sometimes a piece of irrigation tile, and sometimes bait and mink gland lure tucked back in a pocket where the spring comes out of the earth or in the structure beaver dams where water is or can be made to run a trickle over the trap. Deep pockets with a southern exposure baited with half a rat and a dab of Caven's Mink Master or a female mink carcass with glands cut have served me well over the years on late season mink. I want moving water by my pocket diverted either naturally or by my doing with appropriate landscaping. Trap is placed inside the pocket and then the size of the door reduced to force mink over the pan. I try not to let shelf ice get my goat but I usually can find locations for sets regardless. Since obtaining Ken Smythe's book and video when they first came out and having had immediate success, I have located many, many placements over the years which produce year after year. Each year I add more locations and because 110's make up a huge part of my mink trapping I am continuously alert for applications. One thing I do different than most I would expect is 95% of the time I use a Barker 110 stabilizer with 18" wire legs which I push all the way in on BE's. I preset them with the notch on the jaw until I'm ready to push stabilizer in place and run the chain ring on to one of the legs. Pull the spring up so chain and ring don't fall off leg and the last thing I do is set the dog in the notch. I need no wire or stake to anchor as the trap stays on the stabilizer and if it comes off, (maybe 5%) the chain keeps the trap there. The top of the stabililzer acts as a handle to carry and to push the stabilizer and trap into place. I can set the trap at any angle I desire and I'm gone in seconds. When the snow comes I allow the tracks to show me where to put blind coni's on land or edges they may be traveling. On land I use a Barker Stabilizer with shorter legs and anchor with a 12" T-bar. Majority of my 110's are BMI mags and I usually form a circle trigger with the long wires. I camo most of my coni's various colors of dull yellows and brown and some white. JL
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Post by JLDakota on Dec 29, 2004 0:42:37 GMT -6
Beings I'm still awake a little BE story ;D Saw a bridge on one of my water spurs that I had never set up before as it was somewhat out of my way and had a couple homes within 50 yds. I got out to look at it and saw it was set up on all corners with blinds and pockets. It had an 18" cement ledge that ran around the edge of one side and around the corner. I walked on the ledge around the corner and found a blind set where land met ledge. Only thing left to set up was a couple BE's. Beings I was going to be driving over that bridge anyhow for a while, I set one in the middle of the long stretch of ledge and one on the outside corner. Water depth was just about to the top of my gantlet. In 7 checks I had 2 bucks on the corner a female and two bucks in the middle with one check being a double. The last day when I was pulling those sets a guy stopped at the bridge when I was there and told me he was the guy that lived in one of the houses referenced above and he owned the blind set around the corner of the ledge. He said he would come down to check his set every morning before work as well as every other set at the bridge and that he couldn't believe that the only sets that were taking any mink were the two coni's he had to walk by each day as he walked the ledge. He said they always seemed to have a mink in them. Gave him a short demo on what to look for besides the ledge sets,how to set them up, and told him it was all his next year as I probably wouldn't run that line. No doubt in my mind where two of his sets will be next year and no doubt he will always take mink there. His having seen the mink caught will leave him with no lack of confidence in BE's. BTW, every mink was heading down river, swam by his blind and he never caught a mink. I never checked anyone elses sets to see how they were doing. Obviously all mink using that stretch were hunting the bottom and on that side of the river and seldom went over the top. If you didn't walk the ledge you never knew the sets were there and stabizler kept them right down on the bottom. Wish I had a hundred more sets just like it. JL ;D
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Post by trappnman on Dec 29, 2004 8:01:57 GMT -6
I would absolutely LOVE to trap a couple creeks for a season with a BE man- just to see 1 on 1 what happens.
I firmly believe that a good mink man, using blind sets or pocket sets or BE sets or as JL says (an most of us do) a combo of all three.... will take the mink no matter what sets he will use.
for me- 1 on 1..my bottom edge sets do not outproduce my blind/pocket sets.
Part of that is 1) I prefer blind sets with footholds, so naturally set the best locations up that way 2) I don't count 110s in 10 inches of water or less BE sets- they are just conibear sets along edges- something that we did in the late 50s when cbs came out. So- any mink I catch in a streamside cb I do not consider a BE set.
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Post by NittanyLion on Dec 29, 2004 18:51:21 GMT -6
BK, maybe I can save myself from getting a hernia moving rocks. On today's check I had a nice male mink against the bridge wall where I said all the rocks were. I set a bodygripper on top of a semi-flat rock, the area was somewhat void of rocks for about 5 feet on each side of the set. In fact, they were quite large rocks on each side. The trap was under 12-14 inches of water, I used a CoonDuke stabilizer to stabilize the bodygripper. The mink had a toe missing. I do not recall of missing a mink at that location. The missing toe was not healed over.
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Post by dj88ryr on Dec 29, 2004 19:04:44 GMT -6
THAT WAS MY FREAKING MINK!!!!! GIVE IT BACK!!!!!! ;D ;D
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Post by BK on Dec 29, 2004 20:12:23 GMT -6
.......... Ninny I read the story in The TPC about Ken Smithe's BE set before the book came out,..........so I set up a river bank on my line that I felt would be perfect and caught my first BE set mink. To date I've caught 34 mink in a 40 yd section of that bank in BE sets.
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Post by bnolan on Dec 29, 2004 21:56:02 GMT -6
Being new to trapping mink I have a few questions. I already caught two this year and am very greatful for them both. I got permission from a local farmer to trap what look like a great spot for muskrats. I went to this spot two days ago and suddenly noticed the lack of vegetation in the water, but noticed alot of mink sign! Tracks up and down both sides of the creek. I even saw a nice buck running on the ice shelf, it saw me and into the water he went. Anyway I set a few traps and moved on. Today, two days later I missed one, went right around my trap, knocking over my guide sticks. Maybe tommorrow. My questions are will one mink make this many tracks in three days? If not how many mink will work the same location? And if there are more than one or two, how do I know when to pull my sets? I would not want to over trap an area? Or is that not possible with the way in which mink move from area to area? Do mink travel in pairs? Will two bucks travel together? Thansks
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Post by lumberjack on Dec 30, 2004 5:35:29 GMT -6
I would say that after a second mink is caught in one area your chances of any more greatly diminish. I would move to a fresh spot unless you have plenty of time to try for the 3rd one. You may be in a hotspot which sometimes gives up 3-5 mink. If they are easy enough to check,leave them in-I doubt you will hurt the population at all.
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Post by Edge on Dec 30, 2004 5:46:56 GMT -6
Crowhill,you may want to start a new thread with that question;it may sit here a while.
Edge
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Post by lumberjack on Dec 30, 2004 5:49:39 GMT -6
Mink dont travel together like coon do,but they must share creeks or they would be full of bite marks I would think? Huge buck mink must be intimidating to the younger ones but I think they get lazier with age or at least make every hunt count and wouldnt waste the energy trying to catch a much younger,lighter,faster mink. He knows where to go for the easier meals while the yoy are still learning.
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Post by jsevering on Dec 30, 2004 5:55:56 GMT -6
(will one mink make this many tracks in three days? If not how many mink will work the same location? )
mabye, if the food source is there and hes holed up in that area for easy pickins.
if the food is there and its prime habitat could be a few working the same area.
(if there are more than one or two, how do I know when to pull my sets? I would not want to over trap an area?)
wouldnt worry about it, if the area is that good more will move in.
(Do mink travel in pairs? Will two bucks travel together)
as a general rule no, have doubled up on buck mink which would lead you to belive they were running together, but belive in my mind that they were just actualy working the same stretch or hunting out the same doe holed up somewhere near by.
not saying that these are the golden rules, just as how I see or interpit the questions where I trap.....jim
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Post by bnolan on Dec 30, 2004 6:59:40 GMT -6
Thanks All! Got to go check them mink traps here soon!
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Post by trappnman on Dec 30, 2004 8:37:44 GMT -6
regarding your questions on mink, the others have summed it up pretty good.
regarding numbers, I have several locations each year where I take 4-8 mink. This year, its a little slower with lack of snow cover (that allows mink to work the brush, grasses as much or more than the creeks.)
I am of the opinion that mink trappers have little effect on normal populations.
biggest tip in minking- have plenty of traps out.
I should add that Rich Faler was right- gang setting means covering every avenue along a good habitat area or stretch of stream. Instead of 100 locations with 1 trap...better 10 locations with 10 traps.
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Post by Edge on Dec 30, 2004 9:23:56 GMT -6
I have found several streams on my yote line that still arent froze.
Not really anything to do with the thread,but I thought you should know.
Next year I will institute my BE line.It was harder than expected staying out of the water this season.
Edge
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