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Post by BK on Apr 2, 2007 17:32:10 GMT -6
Many of the old time trapping books talk about following mink tracks in the snow to learn their habits. I gotta say ya that's good advice until breeding season,....... after that there is no real rime or reason to a buck mink's travels. This was proven to me again this spring while trapping beaver, I got to observe 3 different males while floating the river silently in my canoe, (they didn't know I was there), it was crazy and completely unpredictable. Let me offer this, food was not on their mind. They acted like a grasshopper with rickets, and all 3 were moving very fast. Look at the silly places you see them dead on the road in the spring.
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Post by coonhangman1 on Apr 2, 2007 18:47:28 GMT -6
Agreed
Near good minky cricks I've seen mink ran over at all times of the year.
Also, I've been fortunate to have seen a lot mink out in the wild, I only grew up about a quarter mile from a crick, that holds a lot of mink. Saw them out and about quite a bit. One memory that stands out, is seeing a mink float dead center in the middle of the crick, with the current, like a log. Just floating, was a funny site.
Like what has been said before, watch the animal, and they'll show you an exception to every "rule".
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Post by trappnman on Apr 2, 2007 18:59:36 GMT -6
bk- I think that behavior is common all year- its conditions that limit it. IMHO, of course.
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Post by markymark on Apr 2, 2007 20:38:20 GMT -6
I gotta say ya that's good advice until breeding season
I think there easy to trap when there breeding and become even more predictable to lasso.
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Post by mountainman on Apr 4, 2007 0:17:15 GMT -6
bk, Im still tryin to figure em out myself. I believe there is at any given time a limited number of variations in the behavior of a mink population that are limited by conditions. If we figure out what most of them are doing we put up a good catch. Then there is always that old buck mink out there somewhere hopping down the center of a field leaving tracks in the snow.
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Post by BK on Apr 5, 2007 20:30:40 GMT -6
Our season here in Wisc. only recently moved up to Feb. before that we had to quit Jan.1. I haven't tried to trap mink in breeding season till recently. Let me offer this,...... they are infarct on the move, this in itself makes them more vulnerable to some sets.
In Nov. and Dec, I can for the largest part make sense of their tracks,..........once they start to breed they are like a fart in the wind. Marky Mark If you have some fool proof method during this time more power to you.
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Post by thebeav2 on Apr 5, 2007 21:19:09 GMT -6
I could care less about mink tracks.The mink still has to eat I don't care If It's during the breeding season or before. Set the locations where mink will be feeding. I'm not all that convinced that the helter skelter track patterns are all do to the breeding season.It may have more to do with the lack of food and the time that Is spent hunting for It when times are tough and that means Jan and Feb.
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Post by BK on Apr 6, 2007 6:13:11 GMT -6
I think two things come into play here on the lines I've run on ponds and marshes here in Wisc. after she freezes. As the snow gets deeper all mink tracks make more sense, because the mink start to trail. It's all quite basic food,......shelter.
Have having said that, February comes, the males get horny,...... the snow gets a crust,...... and it's off to the races.
Any aspiring young trappers that have ben led to believe where they see a mink track he will be back in 7-10 days,.........well he or she might become confused and or frustrated. That was the point I tried to make in this thread.
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Post by mountainman on Apr 6, 2007 19:16:19 GMT -6
Bk, here is an observation I have made on late season mink around February here. While mink and muskrat trapping in and near the flood plain on side creeks running into a large river here. I noticed that many of the larger buck mink would only go a short ways up the side creeks before turning back to the river. I have always wondered since it was closer to the end of the breeding season if those bucks just knew which females they had already checked on and didnt need to run the whole creek to look for them. Then again maybe they were just back to feeding and prefer to run the river more than to go farther up the side creeks. Either way I thought that was something worth mentioning. I try to make my mink sets close to the rivers just up from where flood waters back up into the side creeks to no more than a half mile up the side creeks. It has been working out good for me that way with some of those creeks producing 5-8 mink in 1-2 weeks. There have been more mink there than that in some places. I just skimmed them fairly quick along with the rats and moved on.
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Post by trappnman on Apr 6, 2007 19:42:21 GMT -6
beav summed it up- they have to eat and it all depends on the weather conditions as to whats available
Im strongly convinced that the males act about the same most of the season in so far as erratic activity. Which is why I don't set on tracks.
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Post by jsevering on Apr 10, 2007 6:18:53 GMT -6
one of the things that amazed me with the mink generally around the start of mating season here is.... the amount of sign thats up a little bit higher than the creeks... and the amount of sign actually on some of the old beaver dams, swamps etc. up in the hillsides... alto of the traveling bucks are running between the top of the high water bank and the base of the steeper slope of the actual high brook bank....
not unusual to see them cut off the first twenty five to fifty feet of a trib... run its bank and work the hell out of an old flow once they get there.... food isn't that much of a factor, as i can see in their behavior at this particular point in time at least around here as the creeks and tribs are full of brookies.... kinda like picking blueberries in season or holding on to a strawberry for a day or two to ripen......jim
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Post by trappnman on Apr 10, 2007 6:56:12 GMT -6
jim- thats SOP here after snowfall.
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Post by thebeav2 on Apr 10, 2007 7:22:58 GMT -6
I know that many female mink will have their dens and raise their young In these places but at this time of year they aren't yet denned up. I feel a mink gets most of It's food away from the water. And at this time of the year both the male and female are hunting these areas. With the minks metabolic rate especially In the winter they need to be eating all the time.And at least around my part of the country the places you speak of hold the most mink food. Where Is that guy that use to post here that did all those mink studies he should be able to shed some scientific light on this mink feeding and breeding subject.
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Post by jsevering on Apr 10, 2007 10:59:29 GMT -6
realize the mink have a high metabolic rate and the places i mentioned also have a high source of food..... what i was saying is these are the places i find them or the most milling around sign of them in a specific area during this period.... it would appear their in a traveling mode with a certain destination in mind..... these are also the places i head for when there is no or very little sign of them on the brooks or the lower..... smaller in the valley streams...... that hold mink on a pretty regular basis..... made no claim that they wernt eating, said it wasnt a factor... and thats how i see it as i read the sign.
if food was the only issue or the issue at hand of this mindset there would be no need to to leave or bye pass large portions of the brook or the trib. beds for food.... as its abundant....... for what it is worth so nothing else gets read in here.... I am not saying that you wont catch mink in the lower stream beds..... and every single mink is in.... or on there way to an old flow.... to starve themselves..... was posting to the subject matter...about those mink tracks...and how i read the ones i described... jim
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Post by trappnman on Apr 10, 2007 11:51:26 GMT -6
Jim- I agree with you- but also think that some of that milling around is opportunistic hunting.
if I am getting your point about the food- its so abundant that searching for food not a problem?
and if so, I agree- but where I disagree is that this pattern is more prevalent during breeding season.
I've thought both ways, and talk to guys that feel they get a push in late spring due to more movement during breeding season.
it makes sense that the males roam as far and wide as they can during breeding- but I also feel that they do this same thing most of the year.
that is- the males roam out, do all the things you describe, if the food is there. Look at it like a long hike where you have food and water cached. If food is available, you can travel further.
they do this during late spring when the food chain starts extending past the creeks. They They will periodically hit the streams of course, but its not a priority. I've caught them several times now and seen dead on the road when I know for a fact there is no water except for the occasional barren stock pond.
as prey ebbs and floes, they move back and forth...like buffalo on grass.
here- its snow and cold that brings them back, its floods, ice, etc that send them away. breeding season also brings them back.
the lack of deep snows these past winters has increased my coon dramatically during winter, but reduced my mink- give me a 12+ inch snow- and boom!
fwiw
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Post by thebeav2 on Apr 10, 2007 11:51:33 GMT -6
I think were saying the same thing just telling It different LOL
That's all I'm saying Is that the female Mink and Male mink will be In the same place come breeding season and that's where the groceries are. You target the food source and the mink will come It's that simple.
The only thing that changes with the seasons Is where those groceries are and what Is the preferred food or I should say what is the easiest food to obtain. A person can chase mink tracks all day long but once you determine the food source the catching will be a lot easier.
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Post by trappnman on Apr 10, 2007 11:52:37 GMT -6
A person can chase mink tracks all day long but once you determine the food source the catching will be a lot easier.
exactly
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Post by jsevering on Apr 10, 2007 13:37:41 GMT -6
think we probably are saying the same thing, more or less....
and agree with the food source making trapping mink a lot easier breeding season or not and dont dispute that.......
what im saying is a buck mink can be one minded when it comes to travel be it food or mating.........
take mink hitting hatchery trout for example....they have a preference in size when the pick-ins are easy and what pond there gonna hit... its an in and out deal and the tracks over land are deliberate to the point of attraction and back more or less.....
I have noted this same type of pattern in the tracks to reach the flows...... for what ever reason.... for argument sake..... for the purpose of breeding or an easy food source... even though the food source was there for the picking along the way......jim
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Post by trappnman on Apr 10, 2007 13:58:50 GMT -6
jim- thats one envirnment I really don't have here is beaver flows. my creeks are vertical for the most part, and the occasional beavers dams are blown each spring by floods.
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Post by jsevering on Apr 10, 2007 14:20:26 GMT -6
mostly fast moving rock bottom brooks here and lots of hills, river or what we call the river is fast... averages 50 to 100 feet wide.... hard to find a deep enough swimming hole in the summer or at least one that isn't overrun with people..jim ....................................................................................................... sorry about that steve most of the flows or swamps that im talking about are pretty much on the head waters of the brooks or your higher bowls on the hillsides... the beaver get slammed down low here also with the ice out and high water.... the area im describing is between the start of three separate watersheds or rivers separated by hills, guess small mountain range might be a better description...jim
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