We can hardly approve of some of the methods herein described, but they will doubtless continue to be employed so long as they are not prohibited by law. Occasionally too, there might be circumstances to justify resorting to the most objectionable of them, writes a trapper and hunter of Maine.
The first of those I shall speak of requires a good dog, one that will follow the mink's track and drive him to hole. Nearly any intelligent dog, with a fair amount of the hunting instinct, can soon be trained to do this by allowing him to smell a few mink carcasses while skinning, and calling his attention at every opportunity to the trails of the animals along the streams, following them up and making an effort to bag the mink, with his help, as often as possible. The first snows afford good conditions for the rudimentary training, as the trail can then be plainly seen by the trapper (or rather hunter as he should be styled in this case) while a good scent is left for the dog.
Having qualified the dog for tracking, the next requisite is a partner. This, of course, means a division of the profits, but is unavoidable, as the work cannot be performed satisfactory by one alone. Indeed, it will more often be found convenient to have yet a third hand, which may be a boy to manage the dog and assist generally.
A meadow brook, not too large, with low, spongy banks, can be worked to best advantage. Look the ground well over in advance, acquainting yourself with the haunts of the game, and all the holes and other places in which a mink is likely to take refuge when pursued. For an outfit you need at least a crowbar and shovel (sometimes a sharp pointed, hardwood stick can be made to answer for the former) and each man should have a gun.
Go to the brook in the early morning, before the scent has had time to cool. Allow the dog to hunt along the borders and under the banks, and when he picks up a track, work along with him until he has the game in hiding. You will find it necessary to assist him considerably, as mink by no means always travel on land. When one takes to the water, as they usually do at short intervals, the trail is broken beyond the ability of the strongest nosed dog to follow at such times as this, that is when Mr. Mink takes the brook for it, one should go ahead with the dog and find where he resumed dry footing. It will probably not be far, for he is in and out every few yards or so, and if you go far without striking the trail you had better turn back, for he is most likely hiding in the bank somewhere behind you.
After locating the hole where he is hiding, let the dog dig him out while a man stands a little distance up and down the brook respectively, with gun ready cocked for him when he comes along. If the hole extends some distance back into the bank, the rear end may usually be reached, after a few trials, by thrusting the bar down from overhead, which will have the effect to send the hunted animal forth in a hurry. Often, however, the spade will have to be brought into requisition and used freely before the object is accomplished.
At first he will probably forsake one hole only to take refuge in another, but when he finds that you are really after him, and that there is, moreover, a dog in the racket, he will try the dodge of swimming under water. Then is your time. Watch for him at the shallow places, where he will prove an easy mark. Have guns loaded light and aim to have charge strike a little to one side of body. The concussion will be sufficient to stop him, and the fur will not be injured as in firing point blank. It is exciting sport for the mink is like "greased lightning" in his movements, and if given the least chance will outwit both dog and man and escape.
An old New Hampshire gunner told us that he and his partner once got sixteen mink this way in one week, the best of which brought them twelve to fifteen dollars a skin. He knew absolutely nothing about trapping so resorted to this method instead. We have mentioned spade, bar and guns as comprising the necessary outfit, but of course various other implements of one's own invention and manufacture can often be used to advantage. Some make great account of a piece of wire with a sharp hook at one end for thrusting into the hole and drawing the mink to the light, as a trout from the water. Others use a long handled spear to thrust under banks, or to pinion the game when going through shallows. A truly barbarous practice besides the further objections of greatly damaging the pelt of the animals taken thus.
Another mode of capturing the mink is to lie about the streams on wet and foggy days and shoot him. They travel a great deal in such weather. By selecting a spot where you can keep well hidden, yet commanding a long stretch of beach under some overhanging bank, you stand a good chance to secure a shot if you have plenty of patience. Of course you would not be apt to get many in a day, but one mink represents a pretty good day's work at the price they are selling now.
One characteristic of the animal should be borne in mind when pursuing this method of hunting him, and that is his persistency in going whichever way he wishes to go. If a mink starts to go up a brook he's going up before he gets through with it, or lose his life trying; and down the same. The more anybody or anything tries to prevent him, the more desperate and reckless he grows in his efforts to accomplish his aim. So if one sees you and turns back startled don't follow him, but just crouch down in a convenient hiding place and wait for him. The chances are ninety to one that he will soon be back again.
I have known trappers to have good success taking mink with a common box trap such as is used in catching rats about the house and barn, and I am inclined to think that aside from its bulkiness this is a pretty good sort of trap. Some use poison as for the wolf, but the use of this on animals was always repugnant to me.
Perhaps the queerest method of which I ever heard was that mentioned by a gentleman in Illinois. He claimed to have caught mink with an ordinary fish hook, baited, and attached to a piece of wire.
I do not believe, however, that any of the methods mentioned in this article are equal for effectiveness and true sport to the regular way with steel trap or deadfall. Some of them, it seems to me, I could not be induced to make use of on any account. And yet, as already stated, one might find himself in circumstances that would justify their adoption.
I for one will say that the mink is a very shy animal, but I do claim he can be caught if you study him and set your trap in the right place. I will suppose that you are trapping along a small stream. All you need is plenty of traps, a belt with a small hatchet attached, a small caliber pistol, and a pair of hip rubber boots. A pair of these boots are as necessary in a trapper's outfit as the main spring is in the watch or clock. Be sure to have your traps in good working order.
Oh yes, I forgot the scent. This you can make yourself by cutting up a couple of cats and muskrats in fine pieces and let them rot good, then add some fish oil and four or five different kinds of oil that you can buy at a drug store. To make this scent all the better you had better put in about one-half pound of limburger cheese. Now then you got her to smelling just right, and every mink that gets a whiff of this perfume will say, oh joy, and hike off in the other direction as fast as his legs can carry him. I took a little bottle of this great scent with me once on a trapping trip. I carried it in my coat pocket. I was leaning over some roots setting a trap when the cork came out of the bottle--well, you know the rest. I never need to hunt for this coat when I want to put it on, for it always makes itself known.
You are now ready to set your traps. You might take a couple of dogs and several small boys to help track up the ground. This the mink can see and smell, and it makes them easier to catch. Now then with your traps on your back, get down into the water, and be careful when going in and out of the water and not make tracks in mud and on side of bank.
The place to set your trap is on the edge of the water. Walk along in the water and examine every hole just even with the water's edge. Some of the holes may come out several inches under water. Set your trap here in water 2 1/2 inches deep, turn spring to right and cover trap with a muddy leaf, fasten trap with a stick run through ring, and have chain stretched out in deep water as far as it will reach. You will see that you haven't touched a thing but your trap and stake. As for the trap, the running water will clean it of any scent you may have left on by handling, but the stake I splash with water and wash a little. If in setting the trap you touch or step on the bank, wash out your tracks with water.
Now then move on, and if you come to a tree on the bank that has lots of roots just even with the water, examine it close, for here is a good place for a mink den. If you find a hole set your trap as before, being careful to leave things as they were. A place where the bank guides the mink into the water is a good set. If you set a trap and have reason to think that the mink will walk around it, then stick up small sticks and little bushes so as to make a fence to guide your mink into the trap. A mink is not afraid of it, for he sees bushes in the water, and it will not scare him a bit.
The way just spoken of, of sticking sticks across the water, is a very important way to catch mink, and I advise all trappers to give it a little more thought. If you trap along a ditch or very small stream just try it. Stick your sticks across the stream just like a little fence, leaving three gaps, one at each end and one in the middle. Set your three traps in here, and I bet you will get nearly every mink that goes up that stream. Of course, stand in the water while you are doing all of this, and your success will be doubly better.
When you put out a line of traps where there are mink, hide every trap as carefully as you can. Suppose you set a trap uncovered at what you suppose to be a muskrat hole, you don't know but what some mink might come along, and on entering the hole he sees the trap--well, it don't take him long to leave the place. Then boys, the very next hole that mink goes into he will look for another trap. You don't need to fool a mink very often until he becomes educated, and then catch him if you can.
To catch mink successfully you must have open water. I very seldom set for mink when water is all frozen up. Did you ever notice that you made your best catch of mink on a snowy or rainy night? Now, why is this? It is because your tracks and scent were either washed out or covered up by snow. A mink is not a hard animal to catch if you have water and weather just right, and you are careful about setting your trap. But he is a very shy animal, and boys if you are not careful to study his habits you will pay dear for every pelt you get.
At first when I started to trap I thought I could catch mink every time, says an Iowa trapper. That was three years ago this last February. Well I caught two mink that spring and seven the next winter and sixteen the next. That was the first season that I was able to catch every mink that trots or lopes my way, big, little, old and young are treated all alike; sometimes it takes a mink three or four days to come out of a hole when you track him in.
A water set is a pretty good set for mink but you cannot find many springs that you can set a trap in the winter time, so I set dry sets for them. At a hole is a good place. Put a piece of muskrat carcass in the hole to keep the rabbits from going in and set a Blake & Lamb trap in the entrance. Chop a hole in the frozen ground large enough for the trap and cover it with tissue paper and thinly with dry dirt. Be sure to put some dry material of some sort under the trap to keep it from freezing down, have the surface of the ground level after it is covered over with dry dirt so you cannot tell just exactly where the trap is yourself, or in other words don't have a high place where the trap is when it is covered over. Fasten the trap to a drag of some sort. If you fasten to something solid the mink will pull out if he is only caught by the toes.
I caught two mink one winter that only had three legs. They were the ones that pulled out of my traps because I had the trap fastened too solid. One mink I caught was only caught by one toe and was tied to a little brush drag; when I tracked him up I found that he had gone about ten rods. When I got in sight of him he got stout and pulled out and started off at a pretty stiff gait, and I had to let the dog catch him for he was geared up too high for me to catch.
Trappers, have you not had your mink trap set and baited under a shelving bank and seen mink tracks going up and down by the bait and they would not touch it? Get some sticks and stick them from bank down into water that is five or six inches deep, is the advice of a Maine trapper. Leave a place for trap up next to bank where he travels and cover nicely with fine rotten wood, and you will get more mink setting this way than you will with all the bait you bother with, that is, if you pick out such places along the brook and stick up sticks close enough so he cannot get by without going over trap.
I don't mean to say that bait isn't good, because I have caught a good many with bait, and there are lots of times when I can't find such a place and of course use bait and scent. Some say mink are afraid of human scent and set the trap with gloves, and that they are foxy and hard to catch. I don't think a mink knows any more than a skunk, and I can catch them just as easy. Last winter I went to my trap one morning and found two toes of a mink in one and one toe in another, and inside of a week I had both of them in the same trap and in the same place.
Mink are not very plentiful in some places which makes some people think they are hard to catch, and others don't know how to set a trap right for mink.
The first requisite in trapping mink is water, either a lake or river, says a Minnesota trapper. Small streams are to be preferred, and the swifter the current the better. Why? Because swiftly running water does not freeze so quickly, a fact every boy knows.
Next, select a spot on the shore where the bank is steep, ascending directly up from the water, and place your trap (a No. 1 or 1 1/2 of any good make) in about two inches of water and about six inches from the bank, and fasten trap by driving a stake full length of chain out in the water. Many trappers advocate the use of both bait and sliding pole or spring pole, but personally I do not care for either, unless there is danger of trap lifters "swiping" your game; in such cases the sliding pole is the best, as it is more humane and game is entirely concealed. If the bank is not too high set your trap from the top and place in position with a stick, for by so doing you do not make any muss around the trap.
Now let me caution young trappers about setting too many traps for one mink. One trap well set is better than a dozen just slung in or even well set and carefully concealed. It is not necessary to have four or five traps within a radius of six feet as young trappers often do. I discovered a case of this kind once.
For two weeks once I was after a sly representative of the mink family but without success. Every trick in my command was tried without success, but one morning I determined to try for him up a small spring creek, where he was in the habit of going. I hesitated about putting my traps on this creek. I had hesitated about putting my traps on this creek as the owner usually lifted all traps found there. As there was no snow there except small patches I was not aware of another trapper's work on this brook, but a few drops of blood on a patch of snow caused me to open my eyes, and I was not long in discovering his traps. A blind man could have done that for they were literally thrown in, some almost upside down and others with the spring half out of the water.
I followed his line for about twenty rods, and then discovered the place of capture. Six traps were set in as many holes, and all in a radius of five feet, but they had done the business. Was I mad? I shall leave it to the reader to guess. Boys, let me tell you this capture was an accident and not the result of skill.
I have endeavored to explain as simply as possible one set for mink, but this method will not answer all winter, for all the streams will freeze during extreme cold weather. On nearly all lakes and rivers springs can be found, and here is the place for your traps in cold weather. Common sense will show you the most suitable spot for the set. All minks have a weakness for wading in such springs, and a trap carefully placed and concealed will get a mink if there are any in the vicinity.
It was early in the fall of 1901 and I was working on the farm. I one day saw signs of mink under a bridge near home so I had a friend who was working for us set two traps for him that day, writes another party from Minnesota. I set the traps a few inches under water, covered them with wet leaves, thinking, "I will have you tomorrow." Well, the next morning we came along but no mink, so in the afternoon we looked at them again and Mr. Mink got in one trap, pulled it in between two logs, and the other trap was sprung. I then pulled on the other chain and the mink was in the trap. I pulled and all at once his foot slipped out. This taught Mr. Mink a lesson.
I set my traps again, and after this he sprung traps about as fast as I could reset them. So I set six more traps and got some ten and twelve inches under water. I used to reset the traps before I went to dinner, and after dinner he had every one sprung and the water looked very muddy. I laid for him but never did see him. I trapped for that mink every year until 1904. I saw his tracks on the snow so I got out some snow sets and one January morning I found him dead in the trap. He was a large dark mink and had lost all his toes by traps.
A good place to catch mink is at the mouth of a spring. Get your traps well under water and cover up with wet leaves, as a mink usually goes up such a small stream. I will say to the beginner, never get cheap traps, as they are the dearest in the end. Never catch fur until it is prime.
I find no difficulty in catching mink if they are plenty, but thin them down to one or two well educated animals and your task is different, says an Ohio trapper. Where plenty I set in riffles, building stone walls or staking across not too high, a foot is plenty, leaving one or more openings, according to width. Place a trap (No. 1 or 1 1/2 Newhouse is best) in each opening. I invariably stake at such places for if attached to shunks, bushes or small logs, the trap is liable to float away in sudden rising of high water. Place a trap at mouth of tiles, ditches or drains, staking well out from trap.
I have caught a great many mink along where the over-hanging sod had curled down, leaving a space between sod and bank sometimes of a good length. This is a capital place to catch mink, as every one that goes up and down that side will almost always go through. All trappers know mink are very inquisitive about such places, and if the place is formed in summer or early fall they will already have used it as a runway. After finding such a place, put a trap at one or both ends of hole. Set trap level and cover well but not too deep, and I am sure if there are any mink traveling the stream you will stand a fair show of getting them. I have caught two mink at such places, one in each trap in the same night, more than once.
An old hollow log is also a good place for mink with a trap at each end. You will notice when there is a light shift of snow that mink cross old logs, limbs, boards and dams that are across streams. Put your trap in the center of crossing place, as you cannot tell where he will get on or off at. Always cover traps when not setting in water. Old hollow stumps, trees, openings in fences, stone walls, or flood-gates, drifts and the like are good places to set traps for mink; path openings in brush, in fact anywhere you see signs of their travels, as they most generally have a route which they follow more or less. I have followed them across country from the headwaters of one stream to another, to swamp and swales where the muskrat abounds, turning every "hole inside out," so to speak, and they seem to know them all.
For bait I use fish oil, you can get it almost anywhere and it is cheap and good, the older the better. Place a few drops on the end of a tile, roots of a tree or stone, or in fact anywhere you have a trap but not on your trap. I never put it on dead bait but just sprinkle it around. A mink likes to kill his own game. Make him think there is some around and hunt for it, which he surely will do if there is nothing but the scent to find.
To be a successful mink trapper you must study his trails and set your trap accordingly.
Most methods that I read for trapping the mink are for trapping in the north or far north. Now some of them are good, while others are useless here. From my observation of the habits of the mink in Virginia, I don't think they have any fixed abode (in trapping season any how). Wherever is most convenient after a full meal or light overtakes them they den up for the day, and the next day may be snugly sleeping under the roots of a blown over tree or under the banks of a creek five miles away. The building of barricades of rocks, old chunks or pens of sticks and bait within is time and labor thrown away. Now, young trapper, I am going to give you four of my favorite sets for mink, that if you will follow will give you some success, if there are any mink where you are trapping.
Follow along ditches and find where they cross, usually called secret ditches, which come into the main one, set your trap at the entrance of the covered one a little under water, and cover with water soaked leaves. Do not use bait but may use scent, or a decoy. One may be fixed by making a box about 6 inches square, 12 or 18 inches long, of old boards, with hoe plant in bank at desirable place so as to look natural. Set your trap in front.
Another is to get a piece of hollow log 3 or 4 feet long, place in mouth of ditch or branch where it comes into creek, anchor with stakes or weigh down with stones, close one end, place trap at other, under water if possible; place bait in log. This is a sure set for coon. It took me nearly half a day last September to cut a log, get it in branch and weigh down with stones to keep high water from washing away, but caught four mink and two coon at the entrance.
Another is where banks are steep along small streams. Set trap in water, cause anything that may come along to pass over trap by a row of dead sticks, weeds or a bunch of old weeds. I have also caught many by placing two old logs five or six feet long, four or five inches apart in shallow water near a steep bank, cover with a larger log. If you have plenty of traps you can set one in each end. Do not use bait but can use scent. Be sure to search out all the old hollow logs near streams and set trap in or near entrance--place bait in log. By following these rules any one, where game is fairly plentiful, can catch some mink.
Last winter I knew of at least eight trappers who were trapping for mink along the same stream where I was trapping, and while all of them combined caught four mink, I had the good luck of catching thirteen in my traps and I shot one one morning, making fourteen in all, says an Ohio trapper.
I wonder how many readers have ever heard a mink scream when in a trap? I think it is the most blood-curdling hair-raising noise I have ever heard; it is equal to the scream of a panther. I had great sport last winter by sending some young boy trappers out to track a mink to his den. I told them that all they had to do was to follow him to the last hole he crawled into and then set their traps, but after following him for about three miles they came back discouraged and disappointed. They said he had gone into about one thousand holes, but had always come out again, and such was a fact.
I don't know how they do in other parts of the country, but here it is next to impossible to track one down; it looks as if they never stop. I have followed them for six miles already and they were still going on; I don't believe that they have any regular den or hole after the breeding season is over; you just have to catch them on the run.
One evening last fall I was sitting on the creek bank fishing when a very large mink came up the creek by me and he was a curiosity; his tail was just as white as snow. I tried awfully hard to get hold of him last winter, but failed. I presume he never stopped until he reached the north pole.
I have two methods for trapping them; one is to find a hole along some stream, an old muskrat or woodchuck hole is best. If there are no holes it is an easy matter to make one. It is a well known habit of the mink to be crawling into every hole he comes to, and I have known them to go one hundred yards out of their path, just for the pleasure of investigating an old woodchuck hole.
After finding a suitable hole for setting your trap, throw a piece of muskrat liberally doped with equal parts of oil of peppermint and sweet oil back in the hole, and set your trap at the entrance; use a little care in concealing the trap and sprinkle a few drops of the above oil over the trap, and you may be sure of having the pleasure of skinning the first mink that comes along.
I have caught them as far as two miles from any stream in my coon and fox traps, so that goes to prove that they do not stay along the streams altogether.
Another method I use, and the one I consider the best, is to go along the banks of some stream, where you are sure that mink are in the habit of traveling, then get four old boards, six or eight feet long and six inches wide, (if necessary logs can be used instead of boards) then stake them down on their edges so that they will form the letter X, only instead of crossing them leave a small opening of three or four inches like thisXfor the mink to run through, then set the trap a few inches either way from the center, or two traps can be set, one on each side of the center. They will never jump over the boards, but instead they will guide them over the trap.
After an experience of 34 years in trapping mink I presume I can give a few points, writes Mr. Moses Bone, of Iowa, that may help younger trappers who wish to trap mink. The mink is very cunning and hard to catch in a steel trap unless you know how and where to set, which is about the only secret there is in catching mink. I have had people write to know what scent I used and how I set traps. A man can learn better methods as long as he traps--experience is the best teacher--and unless he is willing to work hard he will never make a successful trapper of any kind of game. A trapper simply wants to shoulder his traps early in the morning and travel ten, twenty and perhaps thirty miles a day; he must foot it, for no other method of traveling will do. The writer has done it many times, starting before daylight and not getting home until after dark.
As before stated, my experience as a mink trapper began 34 years ago, my brother and I trapping together, and we began putting out our traps the first week in November, 1867. There were very few trappers then and mink were plentiful. In four weeks we caught 101 mink and 50 muskrats. The mink were mostly in prime condition and brought $300.00. Rats at this time were worth 25 cents each.
At the beginning of the trapping season my brother in one night caught 15 mink, the largest catch I ever knew. In 1873 I caught 10 mink in one night, but it took two days to visit my traps, walking 60 miles. In 1878 I caught 15 mink in one hole where the water ran all winter, and I never had to bait the trap as the scent was enough to attract every mink coming near. In the past three years I have caught 90 mink within a mile of home. Several years ago I caught 8 in one place.
I use steel traps, not so many as I used to, as trappers are numerous nowadays. Water set was always my favorite way of catching mink, setting about two inches under water, in a spring, ditch or where the water ran swift, otherwise the water will freeze over. Of course when very cold weather comes, dry land sets must be resorted to. I always use No. 1 steel traps. No. 1 1/2 is better for skunk or coon. For bait use chicken, rabbit, or still better, muskrat, but they must be strictly fresh.
In order to make mink trapping interesting one must make it pay, and where there are plenty of the animals the scientific trapper can make it pay, for they are about as easily caught as any other game when you understand your business. Mink fur is not good and prime before the middle of November in Iowa and states in same latitude, and it is useless to catch them earlier.
When you see signs of the mink set your trap as near as you can get to a spring, ditch or running water with a steep bank a foot or more high. Here dig a hole in the bank 6 or 8 inches inward and low enough to let the water flow in. Now get a forked stick, cut off one fork say an inch long, leaving the other 6 or 8 inches long. Sharpen the end of the long fork and run it through your bait (remember bait must be fresh) up to the fork. The bait is now fastened on the stick and run it in the bank back in the hole as far as you can.
If any mink comes along they will find it. Set your trap near entrance, but always in the current. Take weeds or sticks, say a foot long, stick them in the mud, making a lane so the mink must pass over the trap in order to get the bait.
If you wish a good scent to draw mink in the spring of the year, collect the scent bags of the muskrat and preserve them in alcohol, to which is added 5 cents worth of oil of cumin if you like. I discarded all scents, however, 30 years ago, finding nothing better than fresh bait, the more bloody the better. The mink has a good smeller. For dry land set I go on the same principles, but cover traps with leaves, grass or fine rubbish.
This method is very successful for mink, and in fact for almost any fur bearing animal that travels up and down a creek, says an Illinois trapper. The first thing to do is to set your trap near the shore so it will be about two inches under water. Stake the trap or fasten it to a drag, just as you like. The trap should be a No. 1 1/2 or you can set two or three No. 1 traps together. Now after the trap is set, get some weeds or brush and begin at the trap and make a V shaped pen, leaving an opening where the trap is about ten inches wide if you are trapping for coon. The brush or weeds, whichever is used, should extend several feet from the trap in either direction.
After you are through it should be like illustration No. 1. This, we will suppose, is for catching animals coming down the creek. Now go down the creek a few rods and set another trap, but have the narrow opening of the pen pointing up the creek, as in the illustration No. 2, which will catch an animal traveling up the creek. If these pens are made right, then a mink will walk into the pens and through the opening nine times out of ten instead of walking around them. Try this method once and be convinced. These pens should be about a foot high.
If brush is used it should be fine so it will lie close together so a mink cannot pass through. If there is danger of the creek washing the brush away, then fasten it by driving a few small stakes in the ground to hold it.
Remember that no bait or scent should be used. If footprints are left on the ground, then splash water on them. Remember that half of the pen is on the shore and the other half is in the creek, providing the creek is a wide one; this depends on the width of the creek. It is a good idea to trap on both sides of a creek; one is sure then of catching an animal whether it goes down on one side or the other. This is the only method I use and it has proven to be successful.
If a mink is hungry and finds bait that has been left for him he will pay no attention to human scent, while if he is not hungry he will not take the bait be it ever so fresh. A mink will sometimes make a trail in the fresh snow by passing several times over the same route and then never use that trail again. I have known otter to do the same.
I caught two mink last winter in a ditch, setting trap in the water. The first night I caught a medium sized mink and the third night I caught a small one, and would have caught every mink that went up that ditch if it had not frozen up and snowed so during the time that I could not keep the traps properly set.
If a person sets out a line of traps in this country, Iowa, while there is snow on the ground, he is simply going to a great deal of trouble to give them to some one.
In trapping mink I watch for signs, and when I locate a mink I consider it mine and it generally is, while if you bait up a trap somewhere that you may think is a good place to catch a mink, it often happens that you may make a good many trips to your trap before you get a mink, and you may say to yourself that it is human scent that keeps them away, when perhaps there has not been a mink near the trap. My advice to young trappers is not to set where a mink may go but set it where you know he is going, and you will find it no trick to catch mink.
I have many different ways of trapping the mink, says a Pennsylvania trapper, as I set my traps only where I see their signs, and as the signs are often different, and found in different kinds of places, one way is not enough. I use Blake & Lamb No. 1 traps mostly for mink. I never stake a trap down except in water set. On dry land I fasten to a brush clog.
If one sets only where he sees the signs, and only sets one or two traps for each mink, from one to two dozen traps are all that are required. In fall and early winter I set my traps is natural enclosures in old drifts, in hollow logs, under roots of trees, etc., baiting with fresh muskrat, fish, rabbit, chicken, mice or birds, using fish oil or muskrat musk for scent.
I do not believe in using mixed scents. In late winter and early spring I set traps in the same kind of places but without bait, using the musk of mink for scent. The mink is not looking for food then, and such scents as fish-oil and muskrat musk are not as good as the musk of the mink itself.
The traps should always be covered with some light substance, which will not look out of place. Never smoke your traps, boil them in walnut hulls, maple bark or sweet fern. Mink may also be caught by tying a rabbit in a shunk of a hollow log, blocking one end shut and setting his trap in the other end.
When streams are open the shyest mink may be caught by putting several small live fish on a string and stretching the string in a V shaped enclosure, in shallow water, setting the trap at the open end. Mink are easily caught by setting the trap at the foot of a steep bank which they use. If the trap is properly set, the bank will guide the mink into the trap.
There are many other ways of trapping the mink, where the signs are different, and found in different places. An experienced trapper can trace a mink for miles, where another person would not see a sign. A trapper must be able to read signs as he would read a book. As to human scent, that is all nonsense. The scent will not hang to the trap or bait more than a couple of hours.
I find a stream where mink frequent, look for tracks either in or out of water, close to edge, however, says an Arkansas trapper. Now don't set your trap on a track thinking you will get a mink, but look for a slide; mink have a slide same as otter; don't set on slide but go above slide along bank where water is not over four inches deep. Set a No. 1 or 1 1/2 trap, cover spring, don't disturb bank but just lay a small pole, attach your trap chain to this, cover trap and chain with old wet leaves. Don't take your hands, get a stick and rake the leaves over it, and do not let any one cause you to think that mink are not afraid of human scent. Be sure to crowd your trap against bank as a mink travels close to the bank. This is one way.
Another is, find a tree that has the earth washed away from the roots to the water, it being right against the bank, look in the shallow water around roots for mink tracks, if any, set trap. Again crowd bank with trap and you may expect mink from under that tree.
Another way is in looking along the bank of stream you will notice small holes straight back in bank just under water, extending back perhaps 4 or 6 inches; a mink did it. Look a little further and you will see a hole extending back in bank. It may be 6 or 8 inches across, extending back to 4 to 8 inches. Every time a mink travels this stream he visits these holes. He dug them to get crabs and small fish to bed in them. He catches them on his rounds. Now set a trap at mouth of hole and you can get a mink.
I have used bait. When I do I prefer red bird or woodpecker. Fix your bait always so mink cannot get at it without crossing or getting over trap. I believe this is sufficient, however, an old trapper or an experienced one needs no pointers, he will get the game.
Two years ago last fall I had a line of traps consisting of a few fox traps and the rest mink traps, about fifteen in all, says a Maine trapper. My partner, Dan, was a very young trapper, having caught only a few mink and skunk. I would rather have trapped alone, but as I was just starting in I thought I would rather have some one with me that knew a little more about it. So one November morning we started out all aglow and pushed on by the cool morning air we set the above named traps and returned home very tired and weary, but the thought of bringing back a fox or a nice mink the next day gave me more life, and I retired happy enough for my day's work.
The next morning we were up early and made our rounds, but to our great disappointment we found that we had only a skunk and a striped one at that, but we didn't lose heart at that but kept right on, now and then changing a trap or two.
At last one morning my partner said to me, "I think I have found out what the trouble is with our trapping." "That's good," I said, "tell me about it." "Well," went on Dan, "you see all the traps we've got set on that brook are along the banks. Well now the stream is all frozen over tight so that nothing can get into the brook from the outside, so I don't see why a mink coming, up that brook under the ice--for under the ice they must come or we would see their tracks somewhere along the bank--can smell the bait on the outside, so what I think best is this: Take an axe and cut a long hole about 8 inches wide clear across the brook. Now get some sticks about 3 or 4 feet long, it all depends on the depth of the water, and drive them into the mud, beginning at one side of the brook. Now drive until you get to the middle of the brook, then do the same on the other side, leaving a place about the width of the trap in the middle. Care must be taken to get sticks near enough together so he can't get through only just at the middle. Now if the water is very deep so he can't get through only just at the middle, we can build up until about to the surface or say 4 inches from the surface. Now set your trap on the thing you have built up, and just between the posts, and I think you will have him."
This advice was acted upon at once and the next morning we had a fine mink measuring about 28 inches. The next morning we had another and in a few mornings another, and so on until we had caught just nine mink from that place.
Some trappers say it is hard to catch mink, others say that they are as easy to catch as muskrats. Now which is right? I believe here in Washington that where there are lots of quail, rabbits and other wild fowl that the mink is harder to catch with dead bait that he would be if game was more scarce. But that ought not to interfere with the mink being hard to catch. When he can get a warm meal he would be a fool to take cold and sometimes stale meat.
I will tell you the way I catch them when they refuse dead bait. First see that there are no broken links in your trap and that the jaws close together good, for many trappers never look to this and thereby lose a valuable pelt, and worst of all it teaches the mink to be more careful next time.
Now that you have your traps in order, go to some small stream where you see fresh mink tracks. Go up until you find there is a log across the creek, and nine time out of ten you will see where the mink go under the log, and now there is the place to nab him. First block up all space under the log so as to force the mink into the water, stones, stick or anything handy is good to stop their runway. Now set your trap in about two inches of water. If it is too deep shovel in some dirt and if too shallow dig a trench. Then fasten your chain to a sliding pole and your set is complete. Splash some water on the ground where you have stood and you have a good set that will catch mink.
Some say that mink are afraid of iron. Well in some cases they are, but in others they are not. For instance a mink goes out in search of food and comes to a wire fence or a railroad track. I do not think he will shy of that for he is used to the smell of iron and rust at that place. But jam an old rusty trap in his den and not cover it or set a rusty trap under old rotten bait. I don't think any mink will get caught there. I catch as many mink with bait as without it, but when I bait I bait with strictly fresh bait. Muskrat, quail, rabbits and fish are all good baits. When I bait with muskrat I use the glands for scent and fish oil when with fish. But have the traps free from rust in all cases.
Go along a stream where the mink frequents and look for holes in the bank, most of which are made by the muskrat, and set the trap just on the outside squarely in front of it, says an Iowa trapper, Never set inside the hole. Now the reason for this is that the mink will very often just take a peep in and then go on, in which case if the trap was set inside you would fail to get him. When if it were on the outside you would stand a chance. Then turn the spring to one side and set the trap so the mink will step between the jaws and not over one, for in stepping over them the jaw strikes the foot and throws it upwards, catching by the end of the toe or failing to catch at all. Cover trap lightly and carefully, being careful not to get anything on the jaws to hinder them from closing on the foot.
Another good set is at the root of a tree which has a small hole in it. Set the trap the same as at the hole in the bank. Still another is where the muskrats got an opening through the ice or frozen bank. Mr. Mink is always looking for such places and is very easily caught at them. I caught six mink in one week at a place of this kind last winter, and would have caught still more if the water hadn't spoiled the place. A good way to kill a mink is to strike him on the end of the nose and stove towards the eyes. This will kill them quicker than pounding their heads into a mush, and then the head is easily skinned.
In regard to mink being afraid of human scent, that is all nonsense, says a Maine trapper. They are no more afraid of human scent than a skunk, and every trapper knows that a skunk is not. Now the way I catch mink mostly is in ditches and springs and runs at the head of marshes and around rivers and trout brooks.
Find a ditch and pick out a narrow place and where the bank is quite steep on each side, so that when a mink goes up and down he will have to walk on the bottom of the ditch. Now get some dry sticks and begin on each side and stop up the ditch all but in the center, the bigness of a Blake & Lamb trap, have the sticks ten inches high and put them very close together, because a mink will go through a very small place.
Scoop out a hollow where the trap sets and be sure to set the trap with spring pointing straight up or down the ditch, because if it sets crossways and he steps on edge of pan, the jaw will knock the foot out of the trap. Now don't forget about setting the trap right and be sure to stop every little place so he will have to go over the trap. Do a good job and you are sure of your mink. You don't have to have any bait when you set this way.
Always keep your eyes open, look into every hole and ditch, and when you see mink tracks in a place that is the place to put your traps. I never fail to get them when I find signs of them. For the benefit of those who haven't a marsh or ditch this is another way that I use, and know it to be all right. Go along the brook and find the roots of an old tree in under the bank. Build a coop with sticks, bark or rocks, cover it over with stuff to make it tight. Make it eight inches long and wide enough so a trap will fill the entrance. Remember about the spring pointing in or straight out. Hollow out a place for trap, and cover trap, chain and all, with fine dry grass or leaves, and have the trap set level with the earth. Now for the bait, shoot a red squirrel and cut him open from one end to the other and hang him up in back end of coop, and you will get them if there are any around there.
I have used all kinds of bait including muskrats, fish, birds and chicken heads, but find squirrel to be the best. I have caught more mink with this bait than all the others put together. In setting traps for any animal be sure to set your trap as near as possible where they are in the habit of traveling. Some set down anywhere and think they ought to catch everything that comes along. You can read lots of ways of trapping but you can't learn it all. Experience and practice is what teaches any one to be a successful trapper, and when you learn anything yourself you know it to be a fact.
A mink, like a man, prefers dry footing when traveling up stream, says a Wisconsin trapper, and will always run along on an old log if they can, in muddy places or across small bays along the bank of a stream. Find a place where a mink makes small detours around soft places and lay a chunk of log about 6 inches in diameter across the place. Put a trap on the end of it. Arrange it so he will have to make a long jump on the up stream end to reach hard footing. He will naturally put his feet as near to the end of the log as he can so as to make the jump, and you will have him. Use no bait or scent and leave no signs of your presence. Make the place look natural.
It was while running a line of traps up Deer Creek last November that mink got to disturbing my muskrat sets, says an Indiana trapper. Mr. Mink would wait until the muskrat drowned, then he would spoil the pelt. As usual, he got in his work rainy nights. One morning I found a rat pretty badly torn and I began scheming at once to catch the sly chap. I observed a shallow sand bar out in the middle of the creek, just in front of my set, so I laid my plans at once. I cut out a piece of sod one-half foot square, placed it on the sand bar; this made the water over the sod two inches deep. I now took the muskrat and placed him in the center of the piece of sod, putting his head under the water so he would not appear dangerous, as a mink is afraid of a large muskrat. I fixed him so that one half was under water and the other half above. I left the fur on, you understand, so as to make it appear more natural.
I now took four Newhouse No. 1 traps and placed one on each side of the rat, staked out in deep water, full length of chain, so anything caught in one trap would not disturb the others. I covered the traps well with water soaked leaves, the grass on the sod helping to cover traps some. You will observe that the traps are well concealed, being two inches under water. It is well to drive stakes out of sight under the water also. The next morning the set was not disturbed, but the following morning, it having rained some that night, I expected something was doing, and I was not disappointed, for on approaching the set I saw distinctly outlined beneath the water the dark forms of a mink and another muskrat, caught in two of the traps.
One mink I caught by placing an old rotten piece of wood on each side of a muskrat slide, close to the water. I then covered it over with the same material, leaving an opening at each end; then I placed a No. 1 Newhouse trap under the water at the mouth of the tunnel. Mr. Mink simply had to go through this runway, and of course was caught and drowned.