Post by mustelameister on Jul 15, 2006 20:57:10 GMT -6
Just came back from a 10-day camping trip at Merrick State Park, upstream of Fountain City on the Mississippi River. The largemouth bass fishing was absolutely phenomenal, probably the best I've ever seen. The river is down, the current is slow, and the wingdams which traditionally hold walleyes and smallies are thriving with largemouth smacking schools of shad. What a blast!
Anyway . . . we've got this "honey hole" back in the sloughs where the current makes a sharp bend and the point of land sticking out into this has this old maple tree growing about two feet from the bank. Evenings would find us anchored about forty feet off this point casting for bass and northerns.
The point itself shows heavy use by critters. Very little thick vegetation exists for maybe twenty feet or so around this big maple tree. Hard dirt is exposed. With the water level down, muskrat runs are exposed.
Daily we saw a muskrat swimming across the slough with a freshly cut leaf (maybe arrowhead?), and then the 'rat would disappear into the same hole in the roots of this old maple tree.
One day a 'coon appeared about an hour before dark, and proceed to "fish" his way around the point, before climbing back up on the bank (which was only about a foot above the waterline) and disappearing into the thick vegetation.
One evening here comes this mink, big beautiful chocolate mink, and the three of us set our rods down and watched him go about his business. He was not working the water's edge, but instead was up on the bank, just sniffing around, moving slowly.
Next thing we knew, he disappeared into the trunk of this maple tree. Later, we rowed over to the point and found a small, natural hole going into the trunk (trunk was about 3' in diameter) at ground level.
So . . now we're looking around for this mink, and there he popped out, about thirty-five feet above our heads. There were numerous cavities in this dead section of a major branch in which he emerged.
He came straight down the side of the trunk we were anchored on, slowly, deliberately, and then moved quickly to the water's edge, just above the 'rat hole that had seen traffic hourly from our previous fishing trips.
Now, I thought, we're going to see some action.
But instead, he tested the air, which was gently flowing parallel to our position, and therefore didn't give us away at all, and then continued his deliberate slow pace along the bank, maybe a foot away the whole time 'till he disappeared.
Hmmmm . . .
That 'rat scent had to be heavy in the area. Perhaps this mink wasn't hungry enough to take on the muskrats?
Maybe he was more in the mood for fresh mice in the tree trunk, or maybe birds?
Anyway, it got me to thinking about mice in trees again, and I recall back in the early 80s a job I took on one summer to help make ends meet. I was a gypsy moth trapper for the dept of agriculture, and set out 9 gypsy moth traps per square mile in several surrounding counties.
The gypsy moth trap was a sheet of waxed cardboard, that when folded and stapled together formed a triangular box that was nailed to the side of a tree. Inside this box a pheromone strip was stapled, and tangle-foot surrounded this strip to capture any male gypsy moth that might be fooled into thinking a sexy female gypsy moth was hiding out in there.
Though I didn't catch one gypsy moth that summer (traps would be holding many gypsy moths these past couple of years), I did catch a large number of nontargets, shall we say. Of these nontargets, a large percentage was mice, many many mice.
Mice in trees, mink in trees.
There's got to be a set out there that specifically targets mink seeking mice in trees.
Sure sounds interesting to me . . . .
Any thoughts on this??
Anyway . . . we've got this "honey hole" back in the sloughs where the current makes a sharp bend and the point of land sticking out into this has this old maple tree growing about two feet from the bank. Evenings would find us anchored about forty feet off this point casting for bass and northerns.
The point itself shows heavy use by critters. Very little thick vegetation exists for maybe twenty feet or so around this big maple tree. Hard dirt is exposed. With the water level down, muskrat runs are exposed.
Daily we saw a muskrat swimming across the slough with a freshly cut leaf (maybe arrowhead?), and then the 'rat would disappear into the same hole in the roots of this old maple tree.
One day a 'coon appeared about an hour before dark, and proceed to "fish" his way around the point, before climbing back up on the bank (which was only about a foot above the waterline) and disappearing into the thick vegetation.
One evening here comes this mink, big beautiful chocolate mink, and the three of us set our rods down and watched him go about his business. He was not working the water's edge, but instead was up on the bank, just sniffing around, moving slowly.
Next thing we knew, he disappeared into the trunk of this maple tree. Later, we rowed over to the point and found a small, natural hole going into the trunk (trunk was about 3' in diameter) at ground level.
So . . now we're looking around for this mink, and there he popped out, about thirty-five feet above our heads. There were numerous cavities in this dead section of a major branch in which he emerged.
He came straight down the side of the trunk we were anchored on, slowly, deliberately, and then moved quickly to the water's edge, just above the 'rat hole that had seen traffic hourly from our previous fishing trips.
Now, I thought, we're going to see some action.
But instead, he tested the air, which was gently flowing parallel to our position, and therefore didn't give us away at all, and then continued his deliberate slow pace along the bank, maybe a foot away the whole time 'till he disappeared.
Hmmmm . . .
That 'rat scent had to be heavy in the area. Perhaps this mink wasn't hungry enough to take on the muskrats?
Maybe he was more in the mood for fresh mice in the tree trunk, or maybe birds?
Anyway, it got me to thinking about mice in trees again, and I recall back in the early 80s a job I took on one summer to help make ends meet. I was a gypsy moth trapper for the dept of agriculture, and set out 9 gypsy moth traps per square mile in several surrounding counties.
The gypsy moth trap was a sheet of waxed cardboard, that when folded and stapled together formed a triangular box that was nailed to the side of a tree. Inside this box a pheromone strip was stapled, and tangle-foot surrounded this strip to capture any male gypsy moth that might be fooled into thinking a sexy female gypsy moth was hiding out in there.
Though I didn't catch one gypsy moth that summer (traps would be holding many gypsy moths these past couple of years), I did catch a large number of nontargets, shall we say. Of these nontargets, a large percentage was mice, many many mice.
Mice in trees, mink in trees.
There's got to be a set out there that specifically targets mink seeking mice in trees.
Sure sounds interesting to me . . . .
Any thoughts on this??
