There is one place on my line of traps where I have caught six mink, says an Iowa trapper. I have no doubt but what this particular place is on their regular crossing place in going from one stream to another. I have a few good places but they do not equal this one. At these particular places I do not remove my traps during the entire trapping season. I find a man gets fooled quite easy at times by putting in traps at places that look extra good, when, in fact, it proves to be no good at all for mink. I often read of trappers who say to set traps at hollow trees, in hollow logs, and every place where a mink is liable to go. Well, a mink is liable to go any place. Also just as liable not to go, too. Now if you should place a trap in all these places you would have traps strung all over creation.
In my locality after a mink leaves a ditch or stream you cannot tell what direction he will go. Perhaps he will start across some farmer's field down between two rows of corn. Now I expect some of these nights Mr. Mink is going to take a run down through Farmer Jones' cornfield. He is liable to. Shall I place a trap between every row of corn? In my locality with snow on the ground they travel through fields more than any other place. I will tell you boys, I have three pet sets that I use, and which I stay just as close to the streams with as I possibly can, for the condition of the weather is such at most times that it would not pay to change the location of traps.
Some trappers will tell you that if a mink will throw his scent where he is caught you will get another one soon at the same place. Well I do not believe it, except from the female at mating time. I think when an animal throws a scent it is a danger signal.
Many trappers have told me that a warm night was the night to catch mink, because that was the time they ran most. That don't go with me either. It is just because mink can smell bait better on a warm night, as the old trappers around here hardly ever set without bait, and think it is a wonder that I can catch mink without bait. In fact, mink run well on cold and disagreeable nights, just as well as on warm nights. I make it a point to have my traps in the very best condition previous to a change in the weather, no matter what the change may bring, there will be lots of mink on the move during the change.
Now boys I am not going to advise you to make any particular set, but if you have two or three good ways, stay with them. They will bring good results. A man can spend lots of time trying to do something with some fake set and perhaps neglect some better sets during this time. A few good sets, well handled, will surely bring good results.
If I am to judge results from the conditions in my locality, I will say that fifty traps are too many. Twenty-five gives a man plenty of work here. During snowy weather you can set your traps with northeast east, or southeast protection and it is all right, until the wind gets to the northwest, then look out, for you will have some digging to yet your traps in good condition. By that time the wind is in the south. Then it begins to thaw, then the water soaks through on your traps, then by the time you get around again they are frozen up solid. Then how a fellow wishes for more weather with a "sameness" about it.
An Eastern trapper says: My favorite set for mink is the water set. I find a place where the water don't freeze up, and if there are any stones around I lay a stone on each side of the stream, and then I get a flat stone and lay it over the two stones. I place these alongside the stream, making a hole like when the water comes out. Then for a bait I use fish, brook trout if I can get them, or most any kind of fresh water fish. I put a piece of fish back in this hole so it lies in the water and set traps in entrance, and you are sure to get most every mink that comes along.
This set is for November, December, January and February until about the last part, when running time begins. Then I like the runways best, and you will find them under driftwood and along banks where the water has washed the bank so the trees standing on the edge have leaned over and made a hollow under the bank. I have taken a good many mink this way and also with the water set. I took twelve mink last year that I kept, and had six get away by gnawing off their feet under the jaws of the trap.
The following is from an Indiana trapper: Here is one of the many mink sets I have been successful with: Go along a creek, find a log, one that is somewhat crooked will be better, as some part of it will sink below the surface of the water, roll same into the creek and tow along to a place where the water is two to three feet deep, take a strong wire 6 or 7 feet long and fasten to the under side and to one end of the log, fasten the other end of the wire to a stout stake and drive down solid near the middle of the creek.
Now find a place where the water stands above the top of the log, and chop out a place for the trap deep enough so the trap will be 1 or 2 inches under water. Now take some mud and smear over the fresh cut place so it will have an old appearance. Now set your trap and cover with a few water soaked leaves and a few pinches of mud. This set should be made where the water does not run too swift. Muskrat will bother this set some, as long as there are any near, but they are troublesome about most any water set for mink.
The fur bearers here are fox, mink, skunk, opossum, raccoon and rats, and none of them plentiful, writes a Tennessee trapper.
I will tell you how I captured a shy old mink that had run my line of traps for two years. I had made up my mind to catch him or trap on the balance of my days. I set my trap in the spring where he had been wading; the first night he threw the trap and that seemed to make him shy of the spring.
I took a piece of muskrat and nailed it to a root above the trap, and the second morning I visited my trap I had a crow, not mink, and the mink had killed the crow by biting him through the back of the head.
That made me more determined than ever to get that mink. I arranged my traps all nicely, and the third morning I found a muskrat and he was cut up badly by the mink. I took the fresh carcass of the rat and rebaited again, and the fourth morning to my surprise I had another crow.
It seemed from the amount of tracks that they had fought a duel and the crow had come out ahead, for he was still alive. I fixed my trap all back again and the fifth morning had a fine muskrat.
Well, I had about given up all hopes of catching him at that place so I decided to move my set 200 yards up stream, where there was a log projecting out over the water 2 feet above the water, where he traveled under. There I gouged a hole back in the bank one foot back so the water would flow back in enough to cover the trap, and I baited with a fresh partridge, and the next morning I found my mink. Now boys, this does not look as if they were very shy of human scent, does it?
First find a den where they have been going under the ice or where they have been eating a dead rabbit or chicken say an Iowa trapper. Next I select my traps, Newhouse No. 1 or 1 1/2 or Hawley & Norton 1 1/2. I examine them to see if they are in good order. When setting at a den or where they have been eating some dead animal, cover with leaves, feathers or snow; fasten to a stick that can be dragged a short distance. I bait with chicken, rabbit, birds and mice. Fish is also good. Brush away your tracks and do not approach too close. If the traps are undisturbed, I leave them for a week. Frequently mink do not come out every night.
When setting where they go under the ice, I use a No. 2 Jump Trap. If the water is not too deep, lay two sticks in the bottom of the stream about two inches apart. Between these I lay bait, generally mice. Set trap, and fasten it to a stick on top of the ice. Cover trap with moss and leaves and you will generally get him, or, at least, that is my luck.
I will always remember my first mink. I found the den. They went under the ice and the hole was below the water. I set my trap carefully, baited with sapsucker and the next morning I had him. Set trap back and caught another one.
Oftentimes while walking through the winter wood I find the track of a mink, that starts or ends in a brook or pond, says a New England trapper. To set a trap in this case, if the snow is light, I do as follows:
First, I use a drag around the woods where the track is seen. To make this I kill an old hen or rooster, split it open, and mix equal parts of fish oil and the juice that comes with oysters. If the track is very old, I add an equal part of oil of assafoetida, and put the mixture inside the hen, leaving the entrails in and sew it up loosely. Then I tie it to a rope, and starting at the point where the track leaves the water, drag it through the woods, not very far, ending in the brook again. At several places along the line I secrete traps, exactly in the path made by the drag.
A mink, striking the scent will follow it, and, there being no bait to scare him or arouse his suspicions, will run along the track until he gets into one of the traps. This is a good set to use in woods where a bait would mean having your traps lifted by John Sneakum. I don't know how it will work with others, but I have had fine success with it, especially in the cases of old "bait-shy mink."
Here is another set shown me by an old half-breed Indian. We were in a light canoe, and were paddling up a little reed-fringed brook, from ten to thirty feet wide. In the weeds were several muskrat houses. As it was spring, they were all finished and the rats were no longer working on them. The old man set two traps on the house, and barely under water. Then he put a few drops of the scent that is found in a sack just under the root of the mink's tail, on a leaf on the very top of the muskrat house; and then placed a small piece of muskrat with the fur on, beside the scent, fastening it with a skewer.
He said, "mink, come 'long and smell 'nother mink an' muskrat on top house. He clim' up, get caught, an' all drown good." "But," said I, "muskrats will climb up too, 'cause you've got muskrat meat for bait." "Oh-h-h no!" he chuckled. "Muskrat he heap 'fraid of mink. We have mink to-morrer-wonca, numpaw, yawha, yawminee mink (1, 2, 3, 4 mink). You see? Then you no call ol' In'jun big fool." Sure enough next morning he had shagipee (6) mink to show for as many sets. The principle was that the muskrat wouldn't climb up, for he would see the fur and smell the mink scent, and think it was a mink.
Mink often follow muskrat trails, especially in the fall before the snow comes. To set a trap in the trail would mean to catch a rat, and make a meal for a mink; so I post a rooster's head about two feet from the trail and set a No. 1 1/2 trap under it. The rat isn't likely to leave the trail for the head, but the mink will, unless he is hot after a muskrat.
When brooks unite and form a "Y" there is often a little sand pit left in the crotch of the "Y." I hang a piece of muskrat meat with mink scent on it upon a small stick leaning out over my trap, which is set in two or three inches of water, and staked out so as to drown the mink.
An Indian subscriber of the Hunter-Trader-Trapper and who writes of his experiences occasionally to that interesting magazine, in one season caught with dog and trapped in Northwestern Pennsylvania 104 mink. The name of this Indian is John Lord, and he has trapped as far west as California. The illustration shows him to be a young man. The picture shown here was taken in 1905 when he was hunting and trapping in Pennsylvania.
The 104 mink were caught during the season of 1905-6, and as the pelts were high then it can be seen that he makes considerable money. The fact that he caught that number is pretty well established by several well known parties. John is an Iroquois and a good fellow and trapper.
As there has not been much written on mink trapping on the prairie, I will give a few hints for the benefit of young prairie trappers, on trapping mink, says a Minnesota trapper. In the first place the steel trap is about the only trap that can be used; there being no timber over large portions of the Northwest and Canada.
I wait till ice is frozen over the runways and ponds, then I go at it making a circuit of the runways. I find where the mink go out from the shore to some muskrat's home, which will have a pole in it above water. I set two traps there, then look around. Close by I will find a small dump of trash made by muskrats, where the mink go to dung. I set two or three traps so when set and covered with fine brush they will be even with the surface and looking natural. I will then go on shore which is generally flat, following the mink signs I will find where they have dug into an old muskrat run. I put two or three traps around here close together so when caught the mink soon gets in two traps, then he is there to stay.
I use no bait when setting at a place like this; the first mink caught smells the place up so there is no need of any patent scent. Every mink that gets on that swamp, if it is not over two or three miles long, will visit that place in one or two nights. At a place like that I leave the traps all winter and will catch as many mink as a trapper that scatters twice as many traps, one in a place, all over the swamp.
There are one or two places in every swamp or pond where nearly every mink will visit. It may be a hole in a bank or an old muskrat house. You can tell it by the signs or by tracks in the snow. There is the place, then you are sure of your mink.
I make small iron stakes to fasten my traps where I can get nothing for a drag. I make them myself. Take a rod 1/4 inch thick, cut in lengths 8 inches long, turn one end when hot over the ring of trap chain, sharpen the other end. I only lost one mink last winter by gnawing his foot off. A fish is good bait for mink, also fish oil and fresh rabbits or birds. When buying traps, buy the best, they are the cheapest in the long run.
Some trappers buy the cheap traps and lose enough fur the first season to pay for good traps.
I find that it pays to stretch and care for furs well. I have bought furs that were not worth one third price. Mink were stretched 6 inches wide at tail tapering to a point at nose, being 8 inches long, when they should have been 16 or 20 inches and 3 to 4 wide. Again I have got them that they were stretched so tight you could see through them.
Some trappers claim the mink is very sly and hard to trap, others that he is very easy to trap, and that they could catch an unlimited number if the mink were only plentiful in their locality. I always like to read anything I can find on this subject, says an Illinois trapper. Sometimes I find methods that I have used with good success, methods that I think would be good, and methods that I think would never work in any locality. Not like the muskrat, the habits of the mink are almost the same in all localities, but changing some in different seasons of the year. In Central Illinois along with the change of seasons, we have wet and dry seasons, and good methods of trapping in the dry season will not work at all in the wet.
When I first started trapping mink I met with very good success, not due to any good method, but as far back as I can remember I have always been a lover of nature, and I was not a stranger to the habits of the mink. And I will say right here to all young trappers, and also to some older ones--learn the habits of the animal you wish to trap, and if you are half a trapper, success will be yours. I have learned many things that I never knew before I trapped for him, but I would not trade what I knew before for what I have learned since. I am going to try to make plain to you, brother trappers, some of the methods we use here in Illinois, and I believe these same methods will work in all localities.
This section of the country is cut up with small ditches and small creeks, ideal places for mink and muskrat. In the dry season all the tile ditches and small creeks have very little water in them, and no better places can the mink find than a dry tile or an old muskrat den. Here they will live until the water drives them out in the spring.
When setting the trap at a tile, if the tile is too large, a couple of sticks stuck in front of the tile will narrow the opening, and a trap set properly in front of the tile will be very apt to catch the mink going in or out of the tile. Always see that the jaws of the trap rest firmly on the ground and that there is no danger of dirt or sticks or even grass getting in between the jaws of the trap, for if it does you will lose your mink even if he gets caught. A mink that has once been caught in a trap is doubly hard to catch, although I have met two exceptions to that rule, and will say that they were two of the blindest mink I ever trapped.
Fine grass, dried willow leaves, rabbit fur, or most any light material that will not interfere with the workings of the trap and will not make too great a contrast to the surroundings, will be good to cover the trap. Always be careful not to disturb the surroundings too much, as a mink will notice this quicker than the scent you leave on the traps when you set them.
A good rule to follow is--always set your trap facing the way you think the mink is going to come, never sideways if possible to set any other. In setting at an old rat den, if possible always set the trap a couple of inches inside of the den and pull the spring around so a mink going into the hole will not step on the spring.
If you catch a female mink first, always reset the trap, as the chances are greatly in your favor of catching the male soon, and if mink are plentiful in your locality you may catch as many as a half a dozen males if in the running season. If you can find where an old rat hole leads down to the edge of the water from the top of the bank, a trap set in the lower end of this hole will catch nearly every mink that comes along. They very seldom miss the chance to explore a hole of that kind. The old trapper that told me about this set said that he caught twelve mink in one season at a place of this kind, and all in the same trap, a No. 1 Newhouse. It had been a wet season this year I speak of, and I will tell you how I trapped mink in January and with six inches of snow on the ground.
The ditches and creeks all had water in them and were either frozen over or covered with drifted snow. My best set was to set a couple of traps in the warm water that came out of the tiles. A mink is a great lover of water and will play in a place of this kind for half an hour at a time, and two traps will almost catch him. Whenever there is a small air hole in the ice he will investigate, and if you place the trap directly under this hole he cannot very well miss getting caught. For this set the water should not be over four inches deep.
After the mink makes a hole through the snow drift he will always follow the same hole, will come into and go out of the water at certain places, and a trap set at any of these places is almost sure to catch.
As a scent bait, I use the matrix of the female mink taken in the running season, and for fresh meat bait I use rat, but I prefer the blind and water sets, and do not use the others until these two have failed only in the latter part of February and March. With slight changes I believe these sets can be used in most localities.
My experience in trapping is limited to one season, the last, during which I trapped 39 mink, besides the five that left their legs in traps and four taken by thieves and dogs. But my success has been so much above that of others who have tried to duplicate my luck, that I want to give some pointers to some who have not had satisfactory results in trapping mink, says a South Dakota party.
This is a well settled prairie country, with one small creek running through it, and an occasional slough. Game of all kind is pretty well cleaned out. In fact, it was not generally known that any number of mink existed here. Being quite a hunter with nothing to hunt, I conceived the idea to trap a mink, and before I got through I found the sport more enjoyable and profitable than hunting. I had no trappers guide to help me, and it took me three weeks and more than a dozen trips to my traps to catch the first mink. But during that time my experience and observations were teaching me fast. And later when I saw a trap at about every hole in the country with seldom a catch, it amused me.
My receipt to a beginner is--get three sizes of traps, No. 0 to set at holes, No. 1 to set in water or path, and Stop Thief to set over holes that the others cannot be used at, or for sure catch when you know mink to be in. See that your traps have strong springs, and that when set fine the pan is on a level with jaws. All traps should be alike in this respect. Now to prevent them from rusting as well as to take the scent off, heat them enough to run some wax over them.
As to where to set them, you must find some signs of mink near water, tracks in sand, droppings, or best of all, used holes. Now remember you have to deal with some of the most intelligent but superstitious and shy of animals. I kept one at my house for a while and found him more intelligent than a cat or dog. They get bold and careless some times, but not very often. Their holes are frequently shallow, and they are suspicious of one's presence. The less you frequent the place and tramp about his paths, the better. Avoid the hole if possible.
First choice is to set the trap in shallow water on his runways, sticking up weeds if necessary to make him go over the traps. The next choice is where he goes in and out of the water. Next in dry path and last at his hole where he is the most suspicious of disturbance. Water set is the best and easiest, but even then the trap should be covered with light mud.
On dry land you should leave the place looking as natural as before. At the hole use a small trap, Blake & Lamb is the easiest and quickest set. Remove enough dirt to sink the trap to a level. Set trap with jaws never crossways to the hole. Have jaws rest so that jaws will not tilt if stepped on. Now see that pan is set just about right, not too easy, and now you are ready for the most important part--to cover--so it will stay covered and spring regardless of freezing, thawing, snowing, or blowing, and not to clog the jaws with rubbish. It is too tedious to get the mink over the trap to have something go wrong at the critical moment. I use brown tissue paper or the fuzz from cattails, which I sprinkle with a little fine dirt or rubbish at hand, the chain having been previously staked and hid. All should now be left looking as natural as before, and one's tracks obliterated.
A well set trap will not reveal itself to the game or to any other trapper. A hole set trap should not be approached unnecessarily. Mink will seldom get in the first night, and it takes too long to reset them.
Mink will stay in holes several days if they fear danger. I had one stay twelve days because there was a Stop Thief trap over the hole, but I kept it there because there was a steam visible at the mouth of the hole, and I got her. I have used scent to some advantage, not to draw but to detract the mink's attention, but as to baits I have faithfully tried them all from muskrat to a frog, and I have never known a mink to approach any of them no matter where, when, or how left, except if left by themselves.
In the fore part of the winter I caught about all the males, perhaps because they were bolder. Later I got the females. The largest mink I got stretched 42 inches from tip to tip, and his hide on a five inch board was 24 inches. He was light brown. No. 0 held him by two toes. In fact, I never lost a mink from that sized trap. Those that chewed out were caught up too high.
My experience in trapping is altogether in mink and in a prairie country, and it has always been a great pleasure and very profitable for me, says an Iowa trapper. As I have said, trapping mink is a science which few trappers understand, and can learn only by long experience and close study. Any one taking two or three dozen traps and stringing them out, setting in holes and ditches, can catch a few mink. I know men who have trapped for years and claim to catch lots of fur, but it makes me smile to see how they set them; they simply don't know their A B C's about trapping mink.
The time that I have put in trapping mink for the last 37 years has paid me bigger money than anything I ever tried; of course I mean buying and shipping at the same time of trapping. Counting ten hours as a day's work, I have cleared from five to twenty dollars per day. Now as I said several years ago, I have no secret or I would let brother trappers have it; I use no scent whatever but fresh bait, which is all that is necessary.
You must learn by experience where and how to set your trap. That is all the secret any mink trapper has. The method for setting for mink, rats or coon are all the same, can catch either in the same trap. Water set is my way of setting and far better than any other I think. In ditches or streams where the water is shallow enough to set your traps in where the current runs against the bank; then scoop out a hole 8 inches into the bank. I have used a butcher knife to dig the mud out with; the water must flow into the hole, which should be two inches deep. Cut a forked stick, one prong one inch long, the other 6 or 8 inches long; sharpen it, run your bait on this, put the stick in the back of the hole which fastens your bait.
Now set your trap, turn the spring to one side, fasten the chain the handiest way you can so it is secure. I never had a mink cut his leg off and get away. Now stick up weeds or sticks on either side of the hole so the mink can't get the bait without stepping on the pan of the trap. The current should run strongly over the trap so as to keep the water from freezing, for there are very few nights after trapping time sets in but that the water freezes in still water. I sometimes dam the water to make it run strongly over the trap. Everything about the trap should be left looking as natural as possible.
In cold weather I go on the same principle. When everything is frozen solid I use a hatchet cutting a hole in the bank; use ice or chunks of wood to make a lane to set your trap in, and throw your bait in as far as you can get it. Of course you cannot fasten it.
To show how well animals can scent a bait or anything of that kind I will relate an incident that happened several years ago. There was a fresh fall of snow and being warm the skunk were out of their burrows, and I was tracking one going southeast course. All at once it turned square to the left going some thirty feet and came to an old dried up mole covered with the snow. He nosed around it a while and then went the same direction as before. That showed plainly that animals can scent their game.
On reading the methods used by the Northern mink trapper one is almost forced to the conclusion that the mink there is a different one from those here, (in Texas), but of course such is not the case. My limited experience in trapping mink here has brought me to the conclusion that they are not afraid of human scent, or old musty traps either. My opinion is that it is the disturbed surroundings that cause them to shy from the trap.
I once set a trap in a mink run in rather rank grass at 6 P.M. and the next morning had a No. 1 mink in it (poor color of course). The trap was not baited or scented and was set without gloves. Of course I did not tread down or pull up the grass to make a nice place to set, but stood at the side and slipped it in the trail in a slight depression. The mink did not seem trap shy although he had lost a foot in a previous experience.
There are any number of mink here, but the catch is rather small compared to the catch of other furs. I very often ask the trappers, "why don't you go after mink, they will pay you best?" The answer is invariably, "I can't catch them, I don't know how." "Why don't you set your traps in their runs, or at the mouth of the dens?" Acting on this advice he sails out, finds a den, leaves all his traps and other plunder at it, and hikes out home for a spade and old Towser. They both put in half a day, then give it up. Mr. Mink is not at home. Can't trap them no how. Sometimes he accidentally gets one. Then he goes after them right, tears and digs up every den he can find until his enthusiasm plays out. By this time he has spoiled all, or a good portion of his trapping ground, when if he had placed a trap at the mouth of each den, and done it in a proper manner, he might have caught twenty or twenty-five mink during the season.
Now and then you find a fellow who has a good mink dog and catches $75 or $100 worth of them in a season. While this is all right for the fellow that owns a dog, it does not fill my ideas of getting mink pelts, as tearing and digging out their dens has a tendency to cause them to hunt homes elsewhere. I have caught four nice mink at the mouth of one den in a single season, and very likely I shall catch some there this season. I do not cover the trap, nor do I use scent or bait. I place the trap in a depression about four or six inches from the mouth of the den; don't cock the trap up so that he can see it twenty feet before he reaches it; arrange matters so he will have to get over the trap to get in the den. When he comes next time you will likely get him.
Mink here use the prairies around ponds and small streams that drain the prairies. Around rice farms is a splendid place for them. They den in rank grass and sand knolls, and travel at night, in all kinds of weather, and very often you see them of foggy mornings. They feed on frogs, small fish, crawfish, birds, rabbits and the like, and very often they visit the poultry yards. My advice to the Southern mink trapper is, find where mink use, follow out their trails and runs. By noticing these closely you will find the places where he is compelled to put his feet or quit the trail. Here is the place to set your trap. Take a No. 1 of any good make, set it and adjust it properly and slip it in the trail through the grass, and be sure that the top of the jaws and spring are level with the ground. Do this in order that he can't see the trap until he is at, or in it.
In catching mink on the branches I very often use baits. When you find a log crossing the stream, cut a notch for your trap, and smear it with mud so it won't look fresh. It is the same with logs laying up and down streams. On these sets I use bait and a slight covering of fine trashy leaves. Put the bait under the trap, stake the chain to the side of the log, then place on the slight covering.
In most sets in water I make them blind, but should surroundings require, I bait. While I use a very small amount, I am not averse to using bait where I consider it required, and can say the same of covering for traps. As for scent, have never used any, but am of the opinion it would be of great help at certain seasons.
Mink is about all there is to trap in this part of North Carolina, and I have studied out a good many things about trapping them. I live where the country is hilly and has a good many branches and creeks, yet it is so thickly settled that mink are scarce. Up to within a year ago there was scarcely any trapping done about here.
Everybody seems to have a spite against the little mink, and whenever the dogs start one everybody lays aside everything to help kill the pesky varmint, and whoever kills it demands a chicken pie, whether he gets it or not. And for just such reasons as this they are very scarce, and it is very seldom that I can find the track of a real large one. I think they must get out of this neighborhood as soon as they are grown.
I have to conceal my traps very cautiously to catch these small and medium mink. When I am looking for a place to set my trap I select a narrow sand bar where they wade down into the water. I then dig out a place for the trap so it will set level and under water about a quarter of an inch; I then take some large water soaked leaves and cover trap, then cover leaves with fine dirt or sand like that around trap. If the water is perfectly still, and nothing to bother covering, I prefer a piece of wet paper, a little larger than trap, instead of leaves.
I will say to those trappers who never use anything but leaves to cover their traps, that they could not get many mink around here that way, for I have tried it, and they would either go around trap or jump over it. Always carry some kind of firearms; it will more than pay for its trouble. Then too, it leads others to believe you are hunting and they won't be so apt to see you setting traps, and if you let as few as possible see you set traps you won't have to accuse "Sneakum" so often. It doesn't matter what you are trapping, cover your traps the best you can, and then it won't be a fine job; don't leave any loose dirt, tracks or anything else around trap that looks odd or unnatural; when you get your pelt, don't tear it off any old way, take your time and you will get big pay for it.
In the following words I not only express my sentiments but the views of all trappers I have conversed with on the subject, writes a Texas trapper. Our mink are not at all educated. They are easily caught in traps not even concealed. The mink, as we all know, is fond of having food at all times, and when hungry does not appear to consider the trap an impediment.
Many are caught in Stop Thief Traps in this community. I was the first to introduce that trap in this section, and it has met with favor because it deprives the mink of the privilege of gnawing off his foot or leg. They are trapped both in water and on land.
I have always had better success trapping mink than other animals, often catching them by their tails, which, by the way, is the best kind to hold. If the mink here were trap-shy it would be better for them, for there are very few of them that have not met the trapper's fate.
A Southern trapper writes as follows: When I was about fourteen years old I got hold of a price list of raw furs and a kind of trapping fever got hold of me and I purchased a trapper's guide, and when I had studied it my father and I set to work to make some traps. When we got them done I went down to a branch near here and set them the best I knew how for mink. I tried him every way but never got a smell. So I tried a year without success. Then I gave it up for several years and thought I would have to content myself working in the shop, as I am a mechanic by trade and not a trapper.
In later years I thought I would try it again as the mink were giving the poultry around here trouble. So I set out again, and in the meantime I received a price list and I noticed they advertised animal bait for sale. I ordered a bottle of mink bait and thought I would catch them. When I received the bait I found where an old mink or two had a runway in a small branch. They would come up the branch every night. I killed some birds and used some mink bait on them and hung them over my traps. One old dog mink would come within six inches of the bait and my traps and did not pay any attention to it. I had some of my traps in water and some on sand bars concealed the best I knew how, but I did not get him that way.
One evening I was at the shop and I told my father I was going down to place my traps and see which was the smartest, the mink or me. I had noticed he would go by my traps and climb up a little bank and jump down over a root, so I set the trap there and covered with leaves. I had four traps set close together, and when I went to the sets the next morning I found him with a foot in each. He didn't dig and gnaw everything in reach as he was too badly tied up.
I thought I would get them all now, but I never got any more till last season. I wrote to the Oneida Community for a price list of traps and they mailed me one, and sent an advertisement of the H-T-T. So I subscribed at once and received the October number. In reading the letters I saw Brother F. M. Frazier's letter headed, "Advice to Young Trappers." I was impressed with the old gentleman's tone of writing so I wrote to him and asked him for help, and explained my difficulties to him. He gave me some fine sets and told me things I never thought of or heard of before, although I have since learned that they had been published in the H-T-T.
I purchased about thirty-nine second hand traps Nos. 1 and 1 1/2. December 30th found me setting traps for mink. I carried out Brother Frazier's plans and directions. I made thirteen blind sets, and on Monday morning went around to see if anything was doing. The first trap I came to was sprung and had a mink's toe in it. I felt pretty bad, but that was more than I had gotten in a good while. So I went to another trap, and before I got there I saw everything gnawed up, and on going closer up jumped an old mink on a log near the trap. His eyes sparked but I soon put an end to him, and I have been catching mink ever since.
On February 1st I moved some of my traps down a river near here. I made most of my sets in water and used rabbit for bait. I made enclosures and put bait in back end of same and the trap at the entrance. I noticed a hole near the creek that emptied into the river and I set a trap at the hole. I have noticed that hole for several years and had been seeing a large mink on that creek for eight or ten years. I have seen his track where he would go in that hole every time he would go along by it, but when I set my traps there I didn't see any tracks. The next time I went there I found a large brown mink in my trap, but it wasn't the "big one."
I didn't get any more there for some time, neither had I seen the big mink track since I set my traps down there, but on going to my traps one morning I saw that something was doing. When I came close I saw that there was something big in the trap and had dragged the trap back in the hole the full length of the chain. I took hold of the chain and began to pull. I soon pulled him out as far as his hind legs and he looked so big I let go the chain and he went back in the hole. I pulled him out and put a 22 between his eyes and that settled him. He measured thirty-two and a half inches from tip to tip on the board. How is this for a large mink, brother trappers?
As for sets, I think it all depends upon the country and seasons. For mink in my country, Ontario, I prefer a hollow tree turned up at the roots, setting a No. 1 trap, baited with either fish or muskrat. Such a set should be on the bank of a lake or river, as a hungry mink going along the shore is always running in such old roots and logs. As for water sets, they keep freezing up, and another thing, it is not natural for a piece of meat to be hanging on a string.
A Michigan trapper writes as follows: Now brother trappers, are you energetically putting in your leisure time during September and October looking up new grounds for hunting and trapping and finding signs and trails of coon, mink and fox, or are you lounging around and putting all this off till it is time to take out your line of traps?
September and October is the time to ascertain where the game is, and if you wish success and good sport and increased revenue, it is to your interest to do a little hustling and by watching their moves in your neighborhood. I have made mink trapping a specialty and for twenty-five years I have been successful in trapping him, and it did not take me long to appreciate one point, that is, I was up against a little animal of almost human intelligence, and today this animal is as smart and as shy as they ever were.
There are three rules very essential in trapping any kind of animals, one of the secrets of success is to know how, where and when to set a trap. Another is to get a dependable trap, which in my estimation is a Newhouse No. 1 and No. 2. I use these traps for every purpose from a weasel to a large coon. The third one I never vary from, and that is to set every trap as carefully as possible, as though it was intended to catch a shy mink or coon, as one of those animals will often happen around when one least expects it.
It is best to set a trap in good shape and always take time and conceal each trap carefully. I have before now set traps all around in wood and field for skunk. I have gone the rounds to my skunk traps and found a fine big coon or weasel instead of a skunk, or to my rat traps and found a large mink or raccoon instead of a rat, and these lucky surprises occurred because my traps were well set and concealed.
I will not outline my method how to set, but you may bet your old hat you will take Mr. Coon or Mink, or whatever animal happens along in your neighborhood, and you know where their trails are. From October until trapping time look for their signs and tracks along water edge, in woods, in old roads, cow paths in woods, pastures and fields, and under fences, keeping all these places in mind until the time for trapping comes. Then take with you lots of traps, then you know where to set.
Smoke your traps before setting, handle everything with gloves on, cultivate the habit of leaving the place with as little change as possible, and finish the job by brushing away your tracks immediately around the traps. Then visit your traps regularly and without any unnecessary company.
Trappers often notice that fur bearing animals have disappeared from the localities where once they were numerous. There are many reasons for this disappearance, the destruction of their dens or trees in which they live. No true trapper will cut a coon tree or dig out dens of mink, skunk or fox, if he wishes to ever trap on the same ground again.
Now I am not a professional trapper, says a Minnesota trapper, but I make all animal habits a very close study, and love to be among them in their wild homes and love to set a trap once in a while just for experience, and never fail to get my game.
The other day I went rabbit hunting. We have about two inches of fresh snow. I got one rabbit and found a fresh mink track so I concluded to follow him. Inside of a hundred yards I found another hole where he came out dragging something. I still followed. Another fifty yards further I found where he went in another hole (it was in a bog) and found a muskrat half eaten up and a fine place to set two traps.
I had no traps with me, so I marched home about four miles and got two traps all rusted up and tied with a piece of copper wire. I greased them up with sewing machine oil and started back. When I got to the place it was getting dark and I had to set the traps by match light.
I will tell you how I set the traps to fool the mink so he could not smell the traps or machine oil. I took the muskrat and rubbed all over the traps with the bloody side and set the traps one in each hole, and took an oak leaf and smeared blood on and laid it on the pan of each trap, and then laid the muskrat in the center of the two so he would have to cross either trap to get the rat. I then covered the hole up with the same dirt and moss that I dug out, and went home. At five o'clock the next morning I left home to get my prize.
I got there by daylight and there was Mr. Mink caught in both traps, one on each foot. He was the largest mink I got that winter. He was brown and when stretched measured exactly thirty-five inches from tip to tip.
I almost always trap mink in the winter with blind sets, says a Wisconsin trapper, by chopping a place for the trap so it will be, when set, about level with the surface of the mink's trail in front of the holes that the mink makes in the snow. I then take cat tails that grow in the marshes and spread some on trap bed; I then place my trap and next some more cat tails spread on top of trap, and last some snow which I spread over it all with a twig carefully so it will be nice and smooth. The cat tail I spread under the trap is to keep the trap from freezing fast at the bottom. I have had very good success with this set. I used to use bait altogether, but very few mink can now be caught around here with bait.
I once set a trap for a mink alongside of a log which lay across the stream, setting the trap on shore near the ice while standing on the log; there was about 20 inches of snow on the ground, so it left a space behind the trap in which I placed a piece of rabbit. The next morning I should have had a mink but instead of that the mink had that piece of rabbit, and a larger hole alongside the log showed that it had been dragged further back under the snow. I then set my trap again, tying fast another piece of rabbit, but Mr. Mink had enough rabbit for a while, so about five days afterwards I had a squirrel in it.
I then threw the rabbit away and put the squirrel in the snow along the side and above the trap, with only the tail out of the snow. About three days more and something had happened. The trap laid sprung in the place I had set it and in it was the tip of a squirrel's tail, and the squirrel I had laid for bait was gone. This might seem untrue but it is only too true, although just how it might have happened I cannot account for.
I then kicked up the snow and found that the mink had come from under the ice on the other side of the log and circled the end of the log, coming in behind the trap after the bait, all the way traveling under the snow. I have never gotten that mink, but have learned better ways since that time, and find that where mink are trapped much the blind set is by far the best.