Mink behavior in mild climates

[Jellyhead]

I live in an area that does not get extreme cold winter temps. Snow is rare and the average daytime temp throughout the winter is 50 degrees or so. We get lots of rain. I have tried most of the typical pocket, blind and baited sets in most videos and books. I've only managed to catch two mink over the last 5 years and both were big males that came from a dry land set at an otter toilet in March. I've caught loads of coon, rats and otter in my pockets and blind sets, but never a mink. I am wondering if my mink hunt the banks and stay out of the water more because of our mild climes.

I am planning on setting mainly blind trail sets and maybe a few baited coni boxes on the banks for them. I've seen tracks on the banks and in the snow, but they havent been much help and seem extrememly random.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Aaron

[trappnman]

boy, tough one to ponder on...

here, in mild weather the family groups still work the streams. And so to the males periodically. Maybe you just have so much habitat, that nothing is pin pointing them?

What type of streams do you have out there? Are they freestone?

[Jellyhead]

I have one of the most diverse traplines, in terms of types of streams and rivers. I have the big, tidal areas of the Willammette, which has mostly brushy, big bottomland type habitat with large up and down water movements daily due to tides. I also have the larger valley/farmland type streams that are slow and meandering that drain into the willamette and the upper watersheds of these streams. The enitre area is beaver and otter country. I figured all of it would support mink.

I always ask myself "why did I catch a certain animal at a certain spot?" and those two buck mink still stump me.. I assume the musky otter/weasel smell was the main attractant, but how I managed to catch both of them in the same set during the same week in march baffles me. I suppose I could set up every otter toilet I can find for mink, but I'd rather not, and let my otter recover a bit after the hammering I've given them the last few years.

Also, those two mink were the fattest mink I've ever saw. There was a solid 1/8" layer of fat under the saddle, and I had to flesh them clean to the leather to get all of the fat off of them. I think the mink eat well here. The woods are full of mice and rabbits, rodents etc. and the streams all have crayfish and salmon/trout. In fact, during november, a mink would never have to leave the banks of some streams due to the dead salmon available to eat.

Aaron

[furman]

Do you have a good population of mink or is such a thing where there no mink really to trap?

[Jellyhead]

I assume there is a good number of them here...

A guy I know bought a 55 gallon drum full of trapping equipment from a guy that used to trap full time in the area my line is in. There were a lot of mink stretchers and traps in teh drum. Unfortunatly, the guy is dead now, and I can't pick his brain.. All of the other trappers I know are beaver/otter guys or cat/coyote guys. They have all seen mink (and so have I) but there is nothing to base a population estimate on.

I think I'm going to set alot of coni-boxes and see what happens. I'll keep setting the baited pockets, too. I might have to go to one of the local fur sales, and see if I can pick the brains of anyone with a pile of mink on the table.

Aaron

[mountainman]

Here is a little bit of old info about mink trapping in Oregon.

From an old article in the August 1984 FFG by E.B. Peak he trapped a line in NW Oregon in 1919 and found that mink were numerous. The line he ran for mink and rats was described as having many small creeks and swampy places with great numbers of cedar trees. He used blind mink sets and some baited with muskrat and fish.

[trappnman]

Aaron- let me ask you this- how serious have you been in trapping mink? I used to take a few each year, and thought I was hammerring them- until I really started trapping them, and found that there were a lot more mink out there, then I thoguht.

It might just be your trap placement- if you are setting for mink, where the trap goes is very important- a few unches this way or that- makes a difference. I

[PAskinner]

Have you tryed the little trails up on the bank? Get Eric Space's mink snaring video, not for the snaring, but for his set locations. He will really open your eyes about dryland mink.

[Jellyhead]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

This is the first year I will target mink exclusively. I've dabbled a bit with blind sets here and there, and I figured I would have picked them up in my coon pocket sets, but I have a gut feeling that there is a trappable population, I just have to devote more time on them. Now that otters are pretty much out of the picture, and we have a low dollar cat, and I could really use a break from beaver, I figure this is the year to figure mink out.

I will be setting more of the dry trails, and will try to get that snare video. I've also read a bunch here and in the archives, and will really scrutinize trap placement. I've been out scouting the creeks and really trying to figure them out. It's become almost an obsession to me. I've managed to be very successful trapping all of my local furbearers, except the mink.

PS. Moutainman, that sounds like my area for sure. I'm in the rainforest/cedar country.

Aaron

[wbg]

Given the abundance of feed in your location I would not bother with the conni boxes, they seem to be more effective in low feed, cold weather situations. Also get off the big water and trap the tribs, that will make blind setting much easier for you. Mink will run much thiner water than most people think.

[trappnman]

I don't think you have any problem not having mink, its just that you haven't specifically tried for them. inm y coon pockets, all on the same strweams Im trapping mink on, I only take a few mink each year. This harks back to my original point- you have to trap MINK, to get good numbers.

Do you have any rats? If so- it makes things a lot easier, because most rat sets, are also good mink sets.

Get into the water- and start looking at the banks with mink in mind. Undercut banks with shelves, blowdowns, root clumps, etc. Most mink blind sets after a while, jump out at you as being "the" spot.

Buy Rich Falers mink book- its the best one out there.

[BK]

Rich Faler,.........

[trappnman]

name me a better overall mink book?

[PAskinner]

trappnman said:

name me a better overall mink book?

Carmen's 2nd one.

[Jellyhead]

Well, I was out on the area I plan on trapping this morning, and actually saw a mink.. It was a small one and she was hunting the edge of a ditch that drains a small spring, and runs under the road through a culvert and into the main creek......Go figure, First mink I've seen in two years.

Now, it got me thinking about why she was there, obviously the water, food, etc. But, a bulb kind of went off in my head, COVER!

The grass along the ditch is still head high. The otter toilet I caught the two mink in had over-head cover, and most of the track's I've seen under bridges have cover (bridge)

Now this may seem rather elementry to most of you accomplished mink guys, but I had never really gave it much thought. Most of my coon pockets are on more open banks, or points. I don't think the coon have a thing to worry about being in the open, but it may explain the absence of mink in those sets.

Now my rat sets are in spots I could see a mink happening into. Usually feed beds with overhead cover. I imagine with more time, those spots may have connected on mink, but after a few days, I would pull them after catching the easy rats.

Do you all feel a mink will expose itself if not absolutely nessecary? I'm thinking about the difference between my coyote and cat sets. Coyotes are on the edges, open areas (like my coon do on creeks) and my cats are in the thick stuff with cover (like I'm starting to think the mink should be)

I've got a pretty good library of mink books (including falers).....But it's damn hard to figure out the 2-3" that can make the difference between a good mink set and a bad one by looking at pic in a book. I think the closest thing to my habitat I've seen would be Johnny Thorpes mink video, but I assume that area gets a hell of a lot colder than ours, and it's still mighty tough to really see a location on that video (they never really pan the camera out, just close ups on him making the set......But where?)

BK---What should I do with the 100 mister twisters I just bought to attach to my pans? (I think I remember you commenting about that set in faler's book, on this forum ;D )

Aaron

[trappnman]

Carmens 2nd one? not even close in scope.

[trappnman]

the mister twisters were mentioned in something you might want to try type sets- not mainstream

[Jellyhead]

Trappnman, I was just kidding around about the Mister twisters.

You never know, that may just knock the crap out of them in my area......My gut feeling is that I would probably smack alot of heron's on the beak by using imitation fish and crawdads etc. on the pans of my traps.. Those herons are a dime a dozen here year round, and I had to quit using footholds here for beaver because of them. (Unless I put some serious overhead blocking over the trap) . That's another downside to living in a mild area, we get wintering birds! While everyone else freezes up and the birds go south, ours either just stay here, or we get our northern neighbors' to add to the mix!

I have layed out my line pretty much to what faler's book says though.... It crosses as many watersheds as possible in the least amount of miles.

I've decided to stay off the big water.

Aaron

[PAskinner]

T-man, do you have the revised version of Faler's book? I've only read the original. Scope, soap-what matters is learning new things, and while Rich's book is good, it didnt teach me much new. I'm probably biased tho'-as live near Faler, and have talked to people who knew him well--a prophet is never revered in his own country, ya know.


Thorpe, Marsayada and Dobbins also mention artificials on trap pans-they do work.

[markymark]

name me a better overall mink book?

The Essence of Mink Trapping by James Curtis Grigg. I bet he caught more mink in 1 season than Faler ever did.


The Nutty Minker by Marvin "Bud' Hall is another book.

Paul L. Baratier Sr. and the Sweed also have good reads.