what is youre favorite set and location / habitat ?

Basic weasel box baited with chicken livers with a few drops of anise added to them placed at rock piles and beaver dams.

Milk jug cubby with suspended mouse in the cap ---but only after the coons are napping in January. Coons/opossums will find about any weasel set and render it non functional when they are out (they do for me anyway). Overly optomistic if you think you are going to catch many-if any, in Nebr. I spent 4 years in MN trapping and caught 20-30/year (short tails),,, most in dryland mink sets, all of which I brought back to Nebr. over Christmas Vac. and sold to taxidermist. Grew up in S.E. Nebr. in the 60's and 70's and only caught 1 long tail in all that time (Missouri River marsh). Handled 30,000 acres of CRP in the 80's - 90"s for USDA and saw only 2-3 tracks/yr. in the winter here. But--- if you have any in the Rainwater Basin there, it will be the cattail/frozen wetland edge that might harbour a few. Check for tracks after the snow-then set the trap. The advice from the Northern tier States Trappers is "good" but until they see the the conditions, topography, land use (with vegetation types) etc. etc., you have, it may not help you. When was the last time you saw a rock wall, tag alter swamp or overgrown forest edge in a field by Exeter? You do have the isolated wetland edge in the Basin which may be the the spot to start looking.

Dave I saw you caught one earlier this year, way to go! I have ran a few boxes in what I thought was good habitat for several seasons and my only catches were brown/white deer mice.
I'll keep running them since I'm checking other traps in those locations anyway, but man would it be cool to finly see something targeted in one of my boxes! There just are not many of them in our neck of the woods.
I've talked to nebrcatman on here since he lives just south of both of us and is on same quest we are, as well as the biologist at Nebraska G&P about weasels here. Sounds like our odds are much better north of I80 and the farther north the better.
If you Google weasels in Nebraska there is a very interesting study put out by UNL in 1990s on the decline of weasel and mink population in Nebraska.
Highly correlated to farming practices including pesticide increased usage and ultimate runnoff evidently both species highly susceptible to it through the food chain and habitat.
That study also shows harvest numbers rapidly declining over several decades clear down to single digits for entire state reporting in 1990s. That's not many left and that was a couple decades ago when I think only 2 we're sold in entire state!
Good luck and keep us posted. I'll do same.

Jim

Long tails might be at the top of their range up here, I don’t know I don’t really pay attention to that. As for size, i’ve caught a few that were 1 1/2 x’s the size of our short tails. I’ve caught them in both rat traps & 1 1/2 longsprings.

Where do you get chicken livers? I've never shopped for them.

They’re in the meat sections of our grocery stores here. I don’t know why or for what. Maybe it’s an Asian thing. But then I throw them in a ziplock bag with a bit of glycerine and a few drops of anise and off we go weasel trapping .

I trap in mostly frozen cattail marshes but catch mostly short tails with some long tails. Frozen culverts connecting these areas are good locations. I can usually see tracks in the snow and set on sign. Another place are well used rabbit trails in either marshes or the thick brush with the box hole facing the edge of the trail. I use sliced up muskrat in a salty brine. During fall trapping I stick skinned muskrats in ice cream pails(one gallon pail holds 5-6 skinned carcasses) and let the blood collect on the bottom and pour this off into a plastic squeeze bottle with about a part glycerine or glycol to 5 parts blood(thanks to LaVerne Israelsons old book). Great for freshening up the bait after a few really cold days. I use Lenons weasel lure too on a q-tip near the hole and/or inside the box. Lenons Fisher lure with that skunky smell is often good smeared on a weed nearby in the cattail sets for longer distance call....not necessary in frozen culverts though.

I usually start on weasels in January.My fall rats are gutted and chopped up. I then thaw, pour some blood off, let it drain some more, pour some more off. I keep the squeeze bottle in the fridge and put the glycerine in right away so the blood doesn't get too coagulated. Setting culverts is right in their line of travel. They'll check the box out. In Wisconsin we can't put the box right on the frozen ice so it's along the edge, covered in snow with the hole facing inward. Expect to catch mice and shrews so I throw them in back of the box and reset. Where I set the swamps are frozen tight by January. Culverts are a freeway in late winter. If the snow is real deep just carefully dig enough away from the culvert entrance to peek inside. You will see weasel tracks and a tunnel they made into the snow. Don't leave the conibears at home cause sometimes it will be a mink tunnel. This is fun trapping late in winter with hardly anyone around. My oldest granddaughter loves to check weasel traps with me. She is 12.

Joepennanti---use 17 or lighter gauge wire and just lap it over the lip of an up-right milk jug. then twist the lid back on the milk jug to pinch and hold the wire/mouse. I use the whole mouse suspended over a 1.5 LS pan nestled in the milk jug bottom. High enough that they may have to jump once to get the mouse. Hey fellow Nebraskans---treat the weasel like a bobcat--- find the track, then set the trap. We have plenty of food and water here but are missing the cover component of weasel habitat. I sure wouldn't last long painted white running around a combined corn or bean field in Dec. here. Besides being old and fat I couldn't run or dart fast enough to catch a Turtle! let alone avoid a coyote!!!!