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Post by BK on Mar 28, 2005 21:06:58 GMT -6
Ninny is turning to the BE set more all the time.
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Post by dj88ryr on Mar 28, 2005 21:11:25 GMT -6
A lot of our problem here with the BE is our water clarity, most of the time it is like chocolate milk, when it does flow clear, the spots jump out at you, but when it is cloudy, it becomes difficult at best, a lot of times what looks good from the top, ain't so good under water. Now I can't wait to get back to NH, with the crystal clear water, they should be way easier to pick out, even during high water there, it is mostly clear water.
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Post by PAMINK on Mar 28, 2005 21:51:16 GMT -6
Steve Come winter time there are no similarities between where the Lion lives and where I do. If he gets a dusting on the ground I'll get a foot of snow. We still have 18" of ice on our lakes here. True - high water is high water no matter where you live.
I hope I didn't give the impression that the BE set is the only set I believe in. They all have thier place.
I'm sure NL worked his nuggets off keeping those sets in working condition. Terry
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Post by trappnman on Mar 28, 2005 22:01:48 GMT -6
Terry- I have no doubt about that! I'd hate to check his length of line everyday!
don't misunderstand me- I make and use bottom edges sets- but I like blind footholds better
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Post by Rick on Mar 29, 2005 5:20:20 GMT -6
Terry, that was helpfull.
Steve, I'm not planning on running a strictly BE set line. I'm curious about the set because I've never really given it a shot, and believe that if I could make it work, enough to develop some confidence in it, it may be just the ticket for the conditions I face. I'm looking to add it to my bag of mink trapping tricks, which right now is not very full. So not a "BE" line.......but probably a 100% conibear line....or very close. Bank holes, 'rat holes, any faint little trail, bridge walls, and certainly any collapsed 'rat tunnel would get a trap.
BK, I'll order the book and read it 4 times. But don't be surprised if I come back with more questions after I'm done....I'm not terribly bright.
Rick.
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Post by BK on Mar 29, 2005 5:45:27 GMT -6
It's money well spent.
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Post by trappnman on Mar 29, 2005 6:41:09 GMT -6
get a copy of Falers Mink book- its the most comprehensive mink book i've ever read. Don't agree will all of his stuff- but in a 200 page book, there are bound to be some differences.
BE set is a tool like any other... no more, no less. Its not the magic set ("leave your footholds at home") but what set is?
PS- somehow, since this little book was published, any 110 set set touching water is touted as a BE set...
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Post by dj88ryr on Mar 29, 2005 11:07:19 GMT -6
Rick, IMHO, don't bind your hands by only using 110s, yes you could, but you will do much better using both 110s and 1.5cs,
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Post by trappnman on Mar 29, 2005 11:13:14 GMT -6
exactly..I set 100 or so 110s for mink/rats each season...and 125+ footholds....
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Post by 17HMR on Mar 29, 2005 12:16:39 GMT -6
I the Nebraska Regs. the mink is listed as along with furbearers that you can hunt how would you hunt mink other than just come across one?
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Post by Steve Gappa on Mar 29, 2005 12:32:02 GMT -6
mink used to be hunted with dogs around here. My dad used to tell of hunting mink a lot on the marsh edges with dogs- treed them.
must have been an effective method- since its against the law to now hunt mink with dogs here...
mink may not be taken by digging or with the aid of dogs from the MN handbook.
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Post by Rick on Mar 29, 2005 15:53:56 GMT -6
The conibears are what I'm most familiar with. Like I said, I don't catch many mink......50ish.....lifetime. But every single one of them was caught in a 110.
Now that I got this thing in my head about taking the mink a little more seriously, it still seems conibears are the way to go. Naturally, I would lean towards the 110s, 'cause that's what I'm familiar with, but also, as PAMink put it, because it looks to me like tending a line of foot-holds would be a "nightmare."
BUT.....like I said......I'm no mink trapper.....but I'm a trapper. An accomplished trapper, reader of critter sign, and guesser of where he's gonna go, and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to bed a coilspring in a spot that was screaming for it. So let's not call it a "leave the foot traps at home" line.....as much as a leave the foot traps in the truck line.
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Post by trappnman on Mar 29, 2005 16:15:49 GMT -6
went out to check on a gopher farm...got aturkey o nthe way out with the ford- lckily, it was running and not flying- ran righto ut of woods i nfront of us- no option...
then, coming back- high in the flat btweeen some pretty nasty coulees- at least 7-8 miles from any water...big fat old mink crossed the road....
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Post by Rick on Mar 29, 2005 16:40:14 GMT -6
...big fat old mink crossed the road....
Did I mention that a good deal of these conibears would be set on land?
coulees
Steve, can you help out a Northeastern flatlander and tell me what that word means?
Rick.
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Post by 17HMR on Mar 29, 2005 16:50:53 GMT -6
ya steve what are they? Been wondering for quite a while.
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Post by trappnman on Mar 29, 2005 17:36:30 GMT -6
Coulees are what the earlier French fur trappers called our steep ravines and small valleys. The French first explored this area in the late 1600's and actually built a fort right down the road from me in Frontenac
most of the major coulees are named- Hell's Coulee, Big Coulee, Handshaws Coulee, etc.
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Post by Rick on Mar 29, 2005 17:50:35 GMT -6
Now a steep ravine around here would have water at the bottom of it. You SURE that mink was 7-8 miles from any water. A trickle of water is water. Not pickin' on ya (much), just trying to get the lay of the land.
A good portion of those not-too-many mink I mentioned before were caught on land....but close to water. I've never caught one in a fox trap, but seems most everyone I know has, sometimes considerable distances from water.
When I first started trapping mink at all my favorite places to catch 'em were the nooks and crannies of beaver dams and old abandoned beaver lodges. That's no longer an option here because if I had a 110 conibear guarding a 2" hole coming out of a 10yr. abandoned beaver lodge, and one of the DEC's imaginary otters came out of that hole......I might kill him.
Rick.
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Post by trappnman on Mar 29, 2005 18:44:14 GMT -6
I pretty much know every trickle around here- and there was none anywhere close. These coulees are dry washes for the most part... they are what I trap the most from hill coon.
I don't think this is necesarily unusual- I've long believed big mink travel far from water and in fact are gone from water for long periods of time in late spring and summer- hunting the easy pickings in the meadows and fields.
just odd (to me) this time of year.
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Post by BK on Mar 29, 2005 18:57:04 GMT -6
Rick leave your foot traps home if you set a BE line,..........Then you can form a fair opinion of the set , you know how well you do with foot traps now. Jacking around with foot traps will just slow you down, KISS you'll be happier and have more free time. Next year you can go back to what you're doing if your're not sold. I gotta go skin for a while now Steve. ;D Rich Faller is a wannabe,................
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Post by NittanyLion on Mar 29, 2005 19:16:07 GMT -6
Someone said the Lion works his nuggets off. It is not work if you enjoy it. I try to go balls to the wall. Blind sets, pocket sets, and bottom edge sets all catch mink. I feel this way about it, if I stuck to all pocket sets, I would miss a fair amount of mink, if I stuck to all blind sets, I would miss a fair amount of mink. If I stuck to all bottom edge sets, I would catch very few mink lmao, just joking BK. I need to study the BE in more detail and make more sets before I promote it or condem it. The way I look at it, it gives me another tool. I need to get Hern to go along and show me the way or the dry sets. The past two years my trapline had high water and more high water.
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