jim,,,i have about 20-25 funnel traps id like to get out at some point but i aint about to go falling through the ice at every step. im gonna need at least a full 1/2 inch to hold my weight. first finger on my left hand has a scar from reaching into a hut, and finding out the rat didnt hit the plunge hole and drown. yup,,thats as fun as it gets all right. haha. do you have a few rats in your area? very few around here.

Hey guys, you can walk on much less ice than you think with a pair of snow shoes on. If you do happen to fall through you'll never do it again, trust me. If you think it's work pulling wader boots outta the muck, you haven't tried it with snow shoes on. Ha ha Forget about getting up on the ice just have to break ice to shore or nearest rat hut

grizz, dont think i'll be trying that anytime soon. got this pic in my head of you on snowshoes, standing waist deep in a frozen slough. haha. you mustve wanted those rats pretty badly.

Tim,

Great job this year, good to see you are wacking and stacking the mink! Maybe that was my problem... I should have waited for my mad trapping week. Gunna get the 2 year old out for some weasels next, he has been asking me everday lately to go hunting

Steven

steven,,,if hes asking to go hunting at age 2, you and andrea have done a great job raising him so far. wanna get my grandson out on a rat slough if we ever get safe ice. will mix in a few weasel boxes for him too. i never pushed my kids to participate, but always made sure they were educated about hunting/trapping from little on. i got lucky, as both my son and daughter hunt and fish, and my son traps and my daughter likes to tag along there too. now you need to work on getting andrea involved in the fur shed. keep me posted. tim

pulled a short spur line today with 14 rats and 16 mink, plus a few coon. poor animal movement last nite. clear and cold. things are winding down for the year.

Must have? Can't remember that long back but was prolly too young to know better. Don't think I thought it through about getting them shoes outta the muck. Problem was I made it out on some real thin ice, why I couldn't have fell in right by shore. I still prolly would have never tried it again.

took my 5 year old grandson out today, and got 8 rats and a mink. had set a few along the road here as i knew he'd be coming along. he had a blast. then we set a few coon traps so hes anxious to see what we get in them. pulling the last main line tomorrow.

pulled the last line today with 9 mink, 6 coon and a few rats. not too bad for a 4th check. its all over except a little messing around with a few rats and weasels. hate pulling the last line every year. dont have an exact count, but i think about 400 mink in the last 3 weeks. time to start putting up some fur.

Congrats, that right there says you worked your behind off!

Do you just freeze them whole till after the season?

michael

michael,,we froze them whole and are gonna start skinning them now. did 15 fresh ones tonite that were laying around, along with a dozen rats. got those all boarded as well. nice to see some fur hanging in the shed finally. a fur handler picked up and skinned/froze about 150 of them for us so need to pick those up someday and get them fleshed and boarded too. they also skinned about 300 coon and over 500 rats for us and froze them too. we have alot of scraping and stretching to do this month. i enjoy working with fur though. my son brent was timing himself skinning some mink tonite, and peeled a female in 2 minutes and 6 seconds start to finish. if theyre not terribly old and tough, he can do 25 an hour. i still have to get out and check a few traps now and then so the weasels and a few winter rats will fill that void. i didnt actually work that hard on the mink, as brent and i trapped rats the first week, and didnt kill a mink til the 11th day of season. they should be a beautiful set of mink when theyre finished. light leather and a full bushy tail,,,nothing prettier. hope youre having a good season so far.

So far so good up here. Picked up a 29.2 lb tom on Tuesday and got a really really good looking 32 lb tom yesterday. Still no fisher, but the population is way down in this area so that is to be expected and probably just as well.

He is flying to get a mink skun in that time! Do you have anything special as far as a skinning table for the Mink? I kust use a vice grip screwed down to the bench with some rods welded in it to hold their feet. It works great for holding them while you pull up the belly.

michael

I skinned mink for a mink ranch for most of my life...and from the time I cut the front feet cut off, "opened" one with a knife, pulled the tail, and finishing the skinning...under a minute.

These were all warm animals, cold took at least double that.

We did it assembly line fashion though, one person cutting feet, one opening, and another pulling/skinning.

I miss those days....believe it or not. I had the strongest back and hands around:)

Jim

Fossil: Nice to see you are still catching a couple mink. Haven't "seen" you lately. Are you going to the winter meeting? I might see you there.

I time myself once this yr on ten mink, I think 6 were females though. Took me 28 minutes so I have room to improve. One thing I can think of is a little table with a clamp. This sittin on a bucket with them in my lap I know isn't the best/efficient way to do them.

You skun 10 mink in 28 minutes sitting on a bucket?

Ok, I'm doing it way wrong or something. I'm liiking at 10 min ea! And I have a table with a clamp! lol

michael

Ditto...sitting on a bucket, skinning em?

You're one hardcore SOB:)

Michael,you should be able to do one in five minutes easy.You scared of the scent bags? By the way if your looking for a cat trapping partner next year I'm your man.I'll even do the skinning!

SUCK UP!

You got that right DC I need to catch these registered fur bears.Five days up north and only a otter and lots of hearthache.Home now licking my wounds and catching fur.