I know many people find it wrong to talk about mink numbers for many different reasons, but I was curious about the highest yearly totals in the northern states that have been made. My neighbor said when he had a long autoline in the late 1960s he had caught around 300 running from St. Cloud to International Falls in Minnesota on a fairly consistent basis. I saw he had 46 stretched this year and he is 76 years old!

There is a guy from up north to that took over 700 one season

Gerald Schmitt from Schmitt Enterprises (Trapping Supplis) has a book out on his 700 monk season. If I had to guess, I think he published it 10 years ago

I know of two guys that have made catches in 700 range. Haven't heard of anything higher tho.

Gerald - 764 in 7 weeks
Another MN trapper took 831 the same year in 6 weeks

Some big mink catches in a lot of states, not just MN!

Fossil2 would be that other guy.
Tom

Try catching that many with the ROW laws we have in WI. I miss long line Mink trapping, but I never did close to that good, over 100 a few times, but heck I would only have to work 7-8 times harder.

There's a guy in Iowa that's hit over 700

Here in Maine I have caught over 100 before.Couldn't imagine over 700

Bud Hall IA some fantastic catches. Gerald and Tim those 2 took a lot of mink that year. They where walking skeletons when they finished that year.

When I was much younger, a little dumber and mink were still worth something I had several years where I came close to the 300 mark in northern wisconsin. My best northern minnesota year was just over 100.

Ever heard of anyone catching over 100 mink in PA? I heard somehthing once of a guy back in the 1940s who caught 160 in extreme western PA against the ohio border. I assume the season much much longer than the 6-7 week season we have now.

Those are sure some incredible numbers to catch Mike-I can feel the pain from making pockets to catch those numbers! Gerald mega mink movie is a great one-you need some serious work ethic to catch mink like that

you all might think I am nuts, but living here in Washington I have to use live traps for everything. My goal is to try to catch fifty mink this year in live traps. we will see how it goes last year I did not set many mink traps and I had 22.

For Gerald that's 15.6 mink a day.

Your MN trapper 19.78 mink per day.

I'd say its doable if all factors were in your favor for 6-7 weeks. Heck of a lot of sets to start out with. I wonder what their catch to set ration was. Really just 15 new sets a day for Gerald and 20 for MN.

Having said that, the first few days would be setting traps so the actual days trapping would be less at maximum sets would be lower.

Either way. That's impressive.

2 big factors in those catches.
1- A pile of snow the first week to force most of the mink back to the water and shut down most trappers.
2- Open water for that long in MN.

Bigger number have been done and could be done in other parts of the country. With similar or better mink populations and longer periods of open water to trap, and seasons that run through breeding season.

I shudder to think of the # of incidental coons...

Wow BruceT
Blind sets? baited pockets? That's awesome with Maine mink numbers.

I know a man in central Wisconsin that took over 400 mink one season. He covered an area from central WI all the way up to Eagle River. Great trapper with a lot of stamina.

When Gerald and Tim accomplished this feat,coon prices were nothing to scoff at.
I was trapping beaver in the norhtwestrn part of the state,Gerald called and asked if I had freezer space for some of the coon he was getting on his quest.I had to tell him no on the freezer space,as I was filling them with green beaver.When I was pulling traps,I had to go around to different land owners and take my beaver pelts from their freezers.
Gerald and Tim have taken numbers that few will ever experience-Kudos to them.
Tom