hey i've seen this in the trapping only and i thought i would post it on this one only mink pics and info please and thank u!

A few from last season, my first, all were taken in pocket sets using muskrat or fish/fish oil.

cool any more guys

a tid bit of info, mink will often be caught in blind sets for 'rats, you can also lure them to a pocket set with fresh bait(i often use chunks of muskrat carcasses) or mink glands, weasel glands will cause them to become enraged, like a territorial thing. Mink are very cautious to new things so digging a hole preseason is wise. sometimes it will take over a week for them to return to the area because they have a long line of travel. Mink are very beautiful animals that always amaze me and teach me something new, so get out there and start learning

I've posted these before but here's a couple.

cmon guys keep it coming! lol

heres a the second mink i caught last year. was caught in a bottom edge set with all the ditch froze over except the bend which was open water and thats where i caught him.

CMON ANY MORE OUT THERE!

one of my favorite trapping pics of mine.
this is the second one i got. same set as the first. 110 at a muskrat den. The first night i set it, i got a rat and i checked the next morning and its head was chewed off. i set it again and the next night i had my first, then a few days later had this guy. both were bucks.



here is the first one.



here is the second.

6 inch pvc with clips to hold a 110, burried in the bank and baited with chunks of rough fish and fish oil on the bank by the set

You guys got me fired up Now!

Here is a 1 week catch on a short line in Northern Iowa around Thanksgiving last year.

SLAM POCKET SETS, BAIT WITH CHUNK OF FISH, 1.5 COILS, REPEAT! BAM! BAM!

Best 24 hour check I had was 8 mink with 61 sets out, I hope to have a double digit mink day this year

wow some of those mink are fatties haha. nice catch you got there!

are you ONLY using pocket sets then? just curious?

I disagree. At least evidence last year showed that the majority of mink I caught were in the first couple checks.

A fresh dug hole to a mink is ATTRACIVE.


Also my opinion that mink arn't the circuit runners like most say. Unless somene can prove otherwise with radio/gps study?!?!?

Weather will push them.

Nothing I want more than to get my entire line out, and have a light snow of 1 or 2 inches that night, kind of trap check a Mink Trapper DREAMS of right there!! Or you could replace that light snow, with a light mist. Man Oh Man, thinking about that gets me drooooling.

100% Pockets, or pocket set variation of what the soil/bank conditions allow. Get that bait behind the trap secured down is Key. Another KEY to good mink catch is HAVING Mink in your area to trap.

The only blind set I'll consider is a late season bottom edge.

This is just my opinion, LOTS better mink trappers out there than me, and I"ll openly admit my way of seeing mink trapping is different than a lot of others on this site and around the country.

Wise Man once told me that a way of seeing is always a way of not seeing.

By The Way, I feel stupid making these posts about mink trapping, as everything I learned about mink trapping was from Gerald Schmitt's Mink Video & Book. Even at $5 mink, these 2 pieces of mink education are worth their weight in Gold!

GO GET YOURSELF THE MEGA MINK METHODS

What are your coon catches like on your mink line? i see in your one pic above that you have 8 mink and only one coon...in IOWA! haha. Is there something you do to avoid coons and only target mink?

Also how are you securing that fish down in the pocket? ive wondered about the best way to do that. I usually just put a rock on the fish or something to try to hold it down some, but i dont like doing it that way. Thanks!

The Secret of catching few coon in mink sets is very simple and easy.


We don't have many coon in my area.

If you see a tailgate shot of more mink than coon in Iowa, there is a few things you can assume.

That trapper is in Northern Iowa and/or its late in the season when coon have quit running. Or a good combination of each.

Plus if you get to a bridge where a trapper thinned out the coon already, the less coon you'll catch! SUPRISINGLY HUH?

On that line last year, I took about 1 mink for every 1 coon, actually more mink than coon altogether, but about a 1 to 1 ratio.

wow that is quite a large number of mink there, good job

No its not, even an idiot novice kid can go out and whack that amount of mink, like trapping muskrats.

Good Minnesota/Iowa mink trappers are taking 10 times that many, Seriously.

1 week run last year!!



Best day !



Our best day! 17

well thats quite a bit for my area, we got mink but not that many IMO, the only mink i ever catch around here are in muskrat sets, but with muskrat numbers going down my opinion is that the mink are wiping them out, they are now a target for this year haha i might catch that many in a season but not in a day

ITS OBVIOUS WE'RE RELATED BIG T!!!

nick c i think that big t is a testiment to your previous statement good job guys

Time to Brag.................My best check... 46 mink in 1994. Taken with about 200 sets ( pockets ) at 90 stops on a 3 day check .
Jim

Nick don't sell yourself short. I don't doubt you at all in saying 10 times that many mink can be taken. I would also bet that if you had the time you would be one of the people taking that many.
My personal bet day is 11 mink. I did that in 1984.

great pics guys~

Nice job everyone. Me too Cisco! In 1996 I caught 11 mink after a snow storm ....all in bottom edge sets. My two sons were along that day grouse hunting and we spent more time hauling fur back to the truck than hunting. Lots of rats that day too.

awesome work guys! I am a beginner and have a question. I have a few blind 1.5 coilspring sets out and this a.m. one was snapped with nothing to show. I believe i may have made a crucial mistake...the jaw with the dog was on the inside of the bridge. The loose jaw should be closest to bank/bridge???

JR

Do you have ANY pocket sets out baited with chunks of flesh? whether its fish, duck, goose, rabbit, squirrel, muskrat, etc?

If not, try it and see what happens!

I don't yet, but plan on it this weekend. I have goose meat i'd be willing to part with. what about venison scraps? i just got done butchering a nice 8 ptr I shot.

Yeah Man! Big chunks of meat/flesh. Mink doesn't even have to be hungry, its instinct to grab piece of meat. Make it visible in back of pocket, and WHAMO!

are slider locks really neccessary or can i count on the 1.5 coil on drowning the mink?

Don't know about your area or locations, but I can count on over 90% of mink to be dead on 24 hour check in my area without drowners.

cool guys any more pics out there!

I had a mink toe in a 1 1/2 ls this morning. Thats happened twice this year already...any ideas why? Weak slow trap? Hate to find that.

Either slow traps or pan creep before the trap fires would be my guess. Slow traps may mean rusty traps, but probably means weak traps. You don't need much strength in a trap to hold a mink, but you do need speed, and the only way you can get speed is by using strong traps. Dyeing and particularly waxing helps speed them up even more, and you cannot have a trap that's too fast for mink. It's hard to comprehend just how fast they are, and if the trap fires slowly or if the pan creeps before the trap fires, you will get a lot of misses and toe catches. If pan creep is the problem, filing the dog and the pan notch square will eliminate it.

Maybe you need a better swiveling system!

Wow thats awesome!

One should also consider that too many trappers set their traps way to deep for mink!

Yep. All the books say an inch or so under water, but half an inch of water over the pan is a quarter inch too much.

That my friends, from THE EXPERT!
Thanks Jim, good info there!

Not much of a mink trapper however it seems for me a warm night /nights after a cold spell gets them moving around here,got five in three checks on the rat line with the last warm up with nothing the several checks befor it warmed up.
Interested in what others see weather wise and mink movement.

c hartman

thanks for the help, this trap was swiveled well and on a drowner...trap was down at the end of the cable, but empty with toe.

Bridger,

Check your pan tension also. The pan needs to drop freely from it's own weight. If it doesn't then you have too much tension which could cause the toe catch.

do you have a trapping shop bigt?

well kinda

Here are a few from this week. Ended with 32 mink for the week on 3 checks. Had 8 one day, 17 another and 7 the last day. Was a very tough week as all 3 checks found lower water levels. the water went down a total of 2' or more at many of the stops!

michael

Nice!

im starting on the mink tomorrow morning. havent set a mink trap yet this season. spent all last week after the rats. now i have to play catch up. good luck to everyone.

nice

I agree with shallow being better for setting traps but it doesn't always work that way. One can catch them with about 4 " over the pan without missing many. Most will be caught by the back leg instead of the front though. I don't try to place traps that deep but sometime must. I think it's important to make the pocket deep enough so the back feet pass over the trap getting the bait. Also use a big enough bait. I like a chunk about the size of my fist, I don't think a few minnows is enough. Using minnows go with a handful.

Seems like down here in the south, it's pretty much the opposite - I tend to have my best catches when there's cold weather coming. The last night before a Saskatchewan Clipper roars into this part of the world seems to have every mink in the country working double time. If I know there's weather coming, I make every effort to get everything in tip-top working order on my mink line. Or at least I used, to, back when I was a mink trapper.

Yeah, but that's when you're using bait or lure in a pocket set and you're depending on the mink to stop and investigate the hole and put its hind feet down on the bottom. You could probably catch about as many in seven or eight inches of water in that situation. In blind sets, though, where you're getting the mink as he passes through, the shallower the better. If I could get a film of water about two molecules deep over the pan of my trap, that's what I'd do.

That is exactly right. I am not depending on them to stop and investigate, I am asking more. I'm asking for him to go 14" into a 4" hole to get my bait, which they will do. I do agree in a blind set the shallower the better. Mink bait very well along my trapline. I don't use many blind sets as it takes me less time to punch in a pocket than it does to find a blind set location. Other areas of the country they may not bait as well and I cannot speak for that as I've only trapped em in 3 states. All had habitat and weather similar to here. I don't believe there is such a thing as a blind set that will catch every passing mink. I had one on my line or so I thought until I baited it and caught more than ever.