Howdy fellow trappers, I appreciate being accepted into this group and have gained a lot of wisdom over the last few weeks. I live in the Smoky Mountains and have built a half dozen mink boxes i going to set this week good Lord willing and was wondering if anyone has any lure they would recommend. I’ve also read that birds are good bait as well as fish which one would you’ll use. Thank you kindly and God bless.

For bait I use ground up beaver/muskrat. if that helps.

My choice for baits are weasel hind quarters, beaver and muskrat.

When using baited box cubbies, the key to reasonable success IMO is to consider all the following when setting them:

---Whether using footholds or body grip traps, the main things to remember about the boxes are to set on LOCATION where mink travel, camouflage the box well with surrounding vegetation/snow or whatever and HIDE the BAIT with dry grass so the mink will enter the box searching for it, and keep the bait fresh.

The best location for boxes is at beaver pond outlets, overhanging banks, small feeder stream entrances with larger water courses, at active and abandoned beaver lodges and alongside open water areas of frozen streams.

---Use a box with a wire mesh back for air/scent flow and see through effect and with an entrance cover with a 2 ½ inch hole. Mink explore holes all the time and thus it's my opinion, and experience, that the hole is an attraction to them. Another advantage of the restrictive entrance hole is that when trapping a farm area, it restricts barn cats from entering as well as other non target species


---Use a pan trigger set up. Although mink are accustomed to tunneling through vegetation, it is my understanding and experience that, many will often balk at the cold, hard and stiff wires in their face at the box entrance and shy away from entering. Whereas with a pan trigger trap set CLOSE to a concealed bait at back of the box, and nothing in their face, they will proceed to enter and investigate further thus stepping on the pan and getting caught.

---Place your lure (weasel gland) on a small bush at back of the box low to the ground and close to the box.

What tomcat said.
If you dont have pan triggers for bodygrips,waxed bodygrips work real good for mink.
A foothold in a box works well also as long as you have some open water to drown the catch.

And put a bigger foot hold out side the box for critters that want to walk off with the box. Like coon and fox......jk

Good luck with the mink boxes.

being in tennessee, youre far enough south that bait wont be very attractive to mink. as beav said above, good luck with the boxes, but dont limit yourself to them alone. id use a mix of 75% blind water sets and 25% baited pockets in your area. ive trapped tennessee before. fish would be good bait, and salt it heavily to prevent spoilage. nice thing about this site is that we're required to put our location in our signatures. this way we can seek advice from people in areas similar to our own. canadian/alaskan advice wont be much benefit to you in tennessee. hope this helps.