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Post by MickMcLaughlin on Aug 31, 2005 20:16:40 GMT -6
I am going to work real hard at doing things that I haven't done before and catching a mink is one of them.I have trapped coon on the rivers and water ways around my house for over 30 years and have never caught a mink.I know they are rare,but I also know that there are a few around,I have seen them and I spoke with a man at a fur buyer about 15 years ago who had caught 17 in one season.Keep in mind that looking for tracks or sign in my area is limited,the ground is hard and rocky and the river levels fluctuate.Any mink guru's out there?
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Post by Mike N. on Aug 31, 2005 21:28:18 GMT -6
I'm not a mink guru by any means at all but have caught a few in the short time I've been trapping (going into my 5th season). I didn't start catching them until I set for them. No incidentals in coon or rat sets. First one I ever caught was after a heavy snow, followed tracks to a hole in the snowbank and put a 110 in the hole, had a big male the next day. Most of the mink that I've caught have been in the snow. Snow just seems easier (until you get things figured out). Last season I made my first catches w/out snow in footholds on drowners and think I'm starting to figure some things out. First time I saw that bushy tail floating in the water was a great feeling. Mike
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Post by foxtrapperwoman on Sept 1, 2005 1:51:31 GMT -6
Sounds like you have mink in only a few areas, not alot of them, what did that guy take to get 17? Was he longlining coons and stuck a few mink specific sets in at each location( BE sets,etc)? I am surprised you did not get 1 mink in any of those coon sets, to not do so means you have a low population. I assume these were pocket sets with fishy baits? Or were you using sweet baits? Blind setting for coons along bank edges would also yeild some mink catches in normal curcumstances.
I would try small streams and where such streams enter bigger ones, and where bank cover is heavy, providing habitat for the small things mink like to eat such as small birds and rodents. Look for crayfish holes and live crayfish, as well as frogs and deep pools with fish in them. This should make good mink habitat, it sure does here where I am! I guess for you to catch a mink is akin to me catching a coyote here, not many yotes about my area so it would be hit or miss.
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Post by MickMcLaughlin on Sept 1, 2005 6:23:03 GMT -6
Well FTW,the old man that was trapping mink caught the majority of them in a small area,infact he caught alot of them in a stream on the same land as the city wastewater plant.I know mink are rare hear,as are muskrats ,but they are here.For years I would always throw a few blind sets or pocket sets with fresh bait in just for a mink,but for the last several years my water coon sets have been pocket sets with just fish oil mixed w/shell fish oil.
Be careful what you ask for on coyotes,I am sure they will be there soon enough.I also want to trap a red fox in Kansas.I trapped a few greys when I lived in Alabama,but I haven't caught a red.To catch a red will be easy,I will just have to get permission to trap in town.
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Post by trappnman on Sept 1, 2005 7:20:29 GMT -6
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Post by MickMcLaughlin on Sept 1, 2005 8:25:10 GMT -6
Good article Steve,thanks.
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Post by trappermike220 on Sept 1, 2005 17:39:33 GMT -6
The mink are probably spread out more in your area,if your not trapping a whole lot of diffrent water ways,your catch will small. We have a few good pockets of mink in my area,but on my line you have to do alittle bit of traveling.Try making more blind sets too,you cant catch a mink if theres a coon already caught in a pocket set.
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Post by upcoyote on Sept 2, 2005 7:04:06 GMT -6
I trapped for quite a few years on rivers and streams before I caught my first mink, then I read the Bottom Edge Mink by Ken Smythe. Now I cant believe all the mink I wasnt catching before!! This has to be the most simple set in trapping too. Just a 110 conibear set on the edge a bank, I love setting them under bridges. I had a few sets that I had multiple catches of mink. Give it a try! Good Luck
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Post by BK on Sept 2, 2005 14:53:38 GMT -6
I don't know this guy Steve,......... nor did I put him up to it.
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Post by Wright Brothers on Sept 2, 2005 15:18:37 GMT -6
I had trouble with them too, so much so that I found myself ignoring them, until trying the BE set. I think heavy pan tension was a no no also. I think this K S fellow posts to the internet, but he uses his dogs name or something for a screen name. ;D
That Ewok guy was helpful too, but he moved and I don't here from him anymore.
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Post by foxtrapperwoman on Sept 2, 2005 15:34:53 GMT -6
I am going to try some BE sets this year, maybe pick up more of those mink running that honeyhole creek. Don't worry, I won't wipe them out, theres mink tracks there all the time year after year. I have the BE book around here somewhere, never fully read it and then it slipped off somewhere during cleanings.
I also have had good success in a teeny trickle that has brush all over both sides. I set 110's and 160's right in the narrow shallow channel with a dive stick above them. I never saw any mink sign there either, but they were/are sure there. One deer hunter did see "strange" smaller tracks though in snow by the trickle, it was he who prompted me to set there, as something in my mind said "mink tracks!". 3 days later I had my 1st mink ever. Was a new shiny 110 set in the narrow channel with a dive stick over top.
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Post by trappnman on Sept 2, 2005 16:41:14 GMT -6
BK- If I couldn't blind set in open water, i'd use more of them also. But I do and I can...so there
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Post by Furhandler on Sept 2, 2005 20:15:29 GMT -6
When your setting up under a bridge, do you use some kind of "Dive stick" to get them under or do you just set on bottom and they are already there naturally? Most mink I've seen around bridge are swimming with their heads "Out of the Water". I'm curious on how you set it up. Thanks!!! I trapped for quite a few years on rivers and streams before I caught my first mink, then I read the Bottom Edge Mink by Ken Smythe. Now I cant believe all the mink I wasnt catching before!! This has to be the most simple set in trapping too. Just a 110 conibear set on the edge a bank, I love setting them under bridges. I had a few sets that I had multiple catches of mink. Give it a try! Good Luck
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Post by edge on Sept 2, 2005 20:33:21 GMT -6
I was kinda wondering the same,Furhandler.The whole point of the BE set is 'points'.
I have had decent enough luck putting in bridge wall blind sets,but generally the top of the coni is out of the water.
Edge
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Post by BK on Sept 2, 2005 21:16:51 GMT -6
This is the way I feel it works,..........for those of you that muse about a mink swimming "heads up"'.........sure they do it when they're not hunting or fishing at times. But remember you don't see the ones swimming under water, nor do you see their tracks.
One thing you won't read in books, and I have found to be important,.... is not to set on inclines leading towards dry land, or much shallower water for that matter. These are areas where mink well might surface and miss your trap.
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Post by foxtrapperwoman on Sept 3, 2005 1:06:18 GMT -6
I have set under a bridge and did get a mink in a coni. I will be back playing with it again, same bridge. Yeah the honeyhole creek. I set a 160 against the side that the animals went along, there was sand there with 1-2 inches of water ( last time I was there they redid the bridge and had scraped all the silt away, but it may have reapeared by now after so many storms). Anyway spring was bent all the way up on abuttment side, and down on outer side. I used sticks to stabalize along with a big rock on the outer side and a few rocks next to it going to the deeper water. This to get that hugging mink to not go around the 6"+ of trap, a mink would not be comfy going 12+ inches if it doesn't have to ( my thoughts on it anyway). Then I piled viney vegetation over top of the trap to disguise it and make it more tunnely. Boy it took a long time for that mink to come through and hit the trap. We had some big freeze up for a bit and the trap got frozen in for one. But it thawed and I made sure it was all stable. Then the mink came through and hit that trap. He was a huge one too, my 5 pounder, really filled that 160 up. I also had tried some footholds along there and got a coon which then got out after he tangled up ( on a root) because I was using a crappy #2 SJ victor and the rivet that goes into the trap frame on the side broke out of the frame hole. Coon ran off with trap and no sign of it and no hound to track it. I now have the 2's all centered through the bottom hole with a heavy rivet.
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Post by JLDakota on Sept 5, 2005 20:25:51 GMT -6
I have many coni's right on the bottom in 2-3' of water right next to a straight bridge wall. So the BE doesn't need a point. Yes, use the point when you have it but set the straight aways too. They hug the wall when down there and every one that hunts that wall is in the trap. Good thing is you can use your weakest 110's and still giderdone and nobody knows its there. If left there all season, they will eventually catch every mink using that bridge wall. I use Barker stabilizers and the 110 ring is around one of the stabilizer legs. Coni stays in the stabilizer so if in a hurry you just pull the whole thing and replace it with another. Can you say 15 seconds. If its a long wall I sometimes have 2 set ups.
As to the incline thing, I have some bridge walls with rip rap and where the incline goes pretty fast. I still catch them on the incline time after time and don't pay attention to whether they were entering or coming back. I think the incline thing on straight aways in my areas is a water depth thing. If you have at least a couple feet and they are still hunting, they will stay down. When they sense the hunt is over they will surface. JL
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Post by BK on Sept 6, 2005 5:02:42 GMT -6
For sure JL I can see where rip rap would provide lots of interest to keep a mink hunting longer underwater.
I've always felt there can be a dead zone on inclines where I can miss some mink when they chose to surface,........ yet this same mink is vulnerable to a conibear half out of the water on the same edge. I have to be real careful under bridges that have a small sand bar or mud flat along the edge of bridge wall .
Mink here often pop up and swim out to the edge of these flats on me. This problem is a given then you have 2' of shelf ice.
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Post by trappnman on Sept 6, 2005 9:19:19 GMT -6
it always amazes me as to what works for others elsewhere and what works for me here.
I don't doubt JL and BK for a minute...I personally know them both and believe what they say. hey, how come all those BE set guys have initials for names...LOL
I used to set up stright wall bridges all the time- in 1" of water up to several feet.. I've NEVER caught am ink in such a set- even though I would take them w/o problems upstream or down in blind sets. Haven't even bothered setting them up last few years, with the exception of one last year. THat was on a staggered wall, with the ledge being about 2 feet under and then the bototm of the wall about 6 feet under. Nothing.
btw- didn't tell you this bk- but took my first and last mink of the year last year in true BE sets.
I like them- to a limited degree. I personally find more faults with them (success wise, debris wise mainly) than pluses but do make some every year.Did once in a location take a mink 3 checks in a row from an under ice BE set- that set has since washed out-
Took my only mink triple- 3 traps in a row on same creek- in 110s... but not BE sets, they were simple trail sets along bank edges in about an inch of water.
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Post by trappnman on Sept 6, 2005 9:22:04 GMT -6
shelf ice- my new set for this year.
I have several streams that get a foot or less of shelf ice- but its 1/2 inch thick if that...with tracks of course going right down center. How to set up??
Lightbulb went off, and this year and going to put in a few rebars along those edges with a Magician on them . Then, when the ice comes, the rerods and holders will be in position. Attach a 110, slide Magician down so 110 is right at ice level, a weed or two and it SHOULD work...
we shall see.
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