Sign lasts longer under bridges protected from rain.

I don't scout, I just set a likely line. Not just for mink.

You can certainly go out with the theory that mink will be on any waterway so just set them up. In areas with good populations of mink that is probably quite true, so the trappers that suggested this are correct.

But having said that I think that it is not a bad idea to confirm there are mink on a given waterway. I have talked to some very good trappers that cold rolled into an area only to find that they were not going to catch many mink. In the summer months a lot of mink are raised way back in the willy whacks up on feeder streams or in old ponds or bogs that have a lot of feed. Sometimes you can really luck out if you hit these areas early before freeze up. Sometimes they disperse early in the fall but not usually. If the back in area has a lot of groceries many of the mink do not venture near a road until things freeze tight, and sometimes not then.

Finding sign as Newt described is what I look for. For me it is mostly tracks or droppings. Even on rocky streams there will be sand and or mud patches to find track on. Droppings are often left on culverts as mentioned or on rocks near culverts. Also you will find dropping on trees that lean out over or that fall across waterways. They seem to like to find a rock to deposit their droppings even away from roads.
Mink trails? I have never trapped in an area with a high enough population to say you could find trails. I suspect there are such areas
The exception would be one of those back in ponds or swamps I referenced above.

If there are mink on a waterway you can usually find sign, if you take the time to look.
mac

Old muskrat trails through the grass are mink trails!Set them and be patient. Also mink trails are sometimes quite obvious in snow. The most obvious mink sign I've seen is where they are fishing like an otter and tunneling under the ice. Also mink dens with piles of scat.

Scouting doesn't hurt a bit, lots to be learned.

Some people are comfortable not setting foot at a place until they set a trap and some need to look for where the critters are. I was taught by a fella that could cold roll into a place, look at it and know right where to set his fox traps. He did extremely well too.

It's like anything, some folks are a natural and some have to work at it. Walk them banks, even old pro's learn something new every time they walk a stream bank.

Beaverponds here are fur pockets,and beaver houses as well as dams are mink magnets.
It takes hardly any extra effort to kick in a couple of pocket sets at a beaver house or dam if you are trapping some beaver before or at freeze up.

That was my point...….sarcasm.....

I caught 2 mink this year, bringing my life's total to 4 mink. 2 5ish years ago....1 I caught at a small seasonal stream in spring, 1 I shot along a roadside ditch while waiting at a beaver pond as he ran the bank. The other 2 I got this winter, late Dec, in -30C weather, in the same set,a mile away from any water in a foot of snow on my coyote line. Both were big males and one got me top lot at NAFA, the other a grade less. So why were they there? What kept them there...methinks I know.
I have seen their tracks in the same locations on my coyote line in the winter for years and this year I set 1 box for them, thinking it was big ermine. In both locations, meaning woodlots, are many bunnies. One is new growth polar, lots of rabbit food. One is the dense-est h$#llhole of a bush I know, many rabbits live there, as there is a lot of cover
That's my theory, anyways, as to why the mink are there.Food. And in both places there are many voles, so many I chase them from my boxes on almost every check. (I only had one box apiece where I saw the mink tracks) I believe the voles increase in population is also responsible for the Marten I'm now seeing and trapping in agricultural Manitoba. They go where they have the best chance of finding food, and where that is depends on your trap line's habitat...again this is just me speculating. I will see if I get more in those woods next year.

When I trapped In Ontario our go to mink sets were baited boxes along open water sources. WE even caught a few mink In elevated marten boxes set along creeks and lake shores.

In January and February I catch the odd huge bush mink in elevated marten boxes,miles from any water.
I wouldn't scout for mink there.
Feb 24,I bet he was travelling between watersheds like otter often do,looking for a mate,when he was lured in with the fish oil.

My mink scouting if you can call it that consist of riding 4 wheeler and checking habitat but I often come across fresh mink sign in the process. These are the locations I checked this morning. I live in the middle of flat farm country and have little trapping competition especially for mink. There is only one natural waterway (Big Cicero Creek) that holds water year round and all of the man made drainages have to drain into it fortunately it runs near my home. In the fall when water levels come back up the mink and rats leave Big Cicero and head back up the creeks making them slightly predictable. I have been working on trapping mink more the last couple of years and thanks to guys on here am starting to figure them out a little better.

The second pic is a typical drainage you cant tell but there is about a foot of water under all of those weeds. The fifth pic is of fresh wet mink tracks where he left the ditch to cross over the road.

Do some of you get several mink in 1 area, and then find that that same area producea well again the next year?

Like otter,there are some spots that produce year after year.
Good blind sets are often like that although a good baited set on target can also be a yearly producer.Often several mink each season.
I start looking for scats and tracks in September while grouse hunting to see what kind of numbers are on the landscape in any year.

What Boco said. I make a lot of mink sets around culverts and field tiles.

great post but come on newt and tell us the secret.

if i had to find mink sign,first place i'd head is one of the 2 trout hatcheries on my line.

I was playing, but trail cams are an option.

Just a few observations; I have never seen signs of mink regurgitating their food, mink scat and muskrat poop look entirely different, culverts are dynamite, but the first place thieves look.
I want streams with good cover, mink don't like crossing long open areas. Often on rocky streams sign is hard to find. I like to move up or down stream and locate blind locations that force the mink into the water.

One final comment. I love trapping mink, but with today's prices I will not put much effort into chasing them.

Good catches of mink can be made when trapping other water based furbearers without going out of your way or adding any extra expense to your operation.
Never in my life have I set out a trapline exclusively for mink.I always take mink when trapping beaver.

Most long line coon trappers take huge numbers of mink. They probably catch more by accident than I do on purpose. The trick is trying to keep coon out of mink sets.