A mink is a land animal that inhabits the water, not the other way around.

I sure do miss long lining for mink.

patience

If you have mink tracks he will be back if there is food. They frequent an area more than most think. If I miss one he is usually there the next morning. LLL

Mama mink and the young of the year are pretty much home bodies but your older males will be on the move.
My advise would be to run a 100 or more sets and set every bridge and culvert that goes under a road that has open water. Gang set each location and that means at least 4 sets at each stop and In most cases 8 would be better.

I second Rich Faler's book. Also order Don Powell's video "Mink After MInk on Purpose". Don is the one who hosts Minktoberfest and is a heck of a serious mink trapper.

As Corky said PATIENCE and other tidbits of information.

Wait till it snows, then go walk or wade a few mink streams and follow their tracks and LEARN what they do, not what YOU think they do

Lenons Super range Super All Call - enough said

Quit now before your hopelessly ADDICTED to trapping them !

#1: Look at a location from the perspective of the height of a minks head (3 to 5 inches), not a mans height.
#2: what MikeTraps2 said "follow mink tracks in the snow". Then figure why the mink did what he did.
#3: Never overlook a bank beaver lodge, every mink going by will check it out.
#4: I believe in Ohio your season goes til the end of February, best time to catch big males is February when they start lookin' for love!

I see them often when fishing rivers in summer and followed many a track. No way better to learn mInk than from a mink. A little mink butt at any set will make it better - said little. Most folks but enough lure to scare mink to next county.

Dont worry about sign, they are more than likely around but phantom-like. Hard to see tracks in water or on gravel. And like said earlier, PATIENCE. i have caught some the first night and the last day of the season. Dont expect results like coon trapping and you will be OK.

Dont start trapping for them on purpose. It's awful, you cant go fishing, hunting, driving really anything without seeing spots you could set for mink. Going 70 mph down the highway I'll see mink tracks in the snow. Once you have a little success you want more. First its pocket sets, then blind sets, bottom edge sets, trail sets there's just no end to it.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread. Keep in mind a mink has small feet, minimal body weight and imo a short attention span. You have to be on the spot on the spot. An inch off is likely a miss. And it has to be where that mink is already likely to go.

Good luck, dont say no one warned you.

I’m wondering where I put pocket sets? Just grassy vertical banks? If so, how many and how far apart. It seems silly to just randomly put 8 pocket sets in a stream somewhere. I appreciate all the information. I also put in my first pocket set today, no pictures though. I dug in about 6-10 inches in a vertical grassy bank, minnows, muskrats, and crawfish live in it, I put a muskrat leg with some “midnight mink” lure on it guarded with an 11dbls and on a drowning cable. What do you think of the set?

That set should work. For right now I would just put one pocket set on each side of the creek. 8 pocket sets is just a waste of time and traps unless you have a bunch of coon in the area. Try to put your pocket sets on good locations such as where a feeder creek enters a bigger creek, near field tiles, where the end of a sand bar meets a higher bank, near a beaver dam, just outside the mouth of a culvert, or by an overhanging bank, etc.

What if I’m trapping a lake?

The mink will work the edges of the lake. There may be better locations along the lake shore such as any culverts, any feeder streams, any muskrat holes? If you have access to the outlet of the pond make sets there. Mink will follow the creeks that feed the pond and also follow the creek that drains the run off from the pond.

Get out there and experiment. Trial and error and the mink will be your best teacher.

There is muskrat out there, I’ve caught a few muskrats this season. It’s loaded with frogs and fish and minnows. I can access the feeder stream so I’ll set there. I have seen some mink tracks at the pond and I tried to catch him with a 120 in a hole it looks like he was going into, but no luck. To answer your question, yes there is muskrat holes and one whole bank is busted up cement riff Raff that has all kinds of cracks and holes in it (not made by animals, just where stuff was piled on)

Let them reproduce one more year . They may not be worth anymore per pelt but they will be more of them !! Make more money

My advice, never pull traps right before rainy/snowy weather. You will find that your catch rate during inclimate weather will be much better than "bluebird" weather. I figure, when a mink is already wet, it is more inclined to enter the water.

Old man that trapped mink years ago wouldn't set a trap until it came a snow . He would look for trails in and out of water and along under cut banks. He set 110 coniber exclusively . Run the traps for a week . miss a week then run 2 more weeks. He sure did catch a lot . But that was his routine.