I’ll be setting footholds for muskrat, mink, and raccoon. I have been doing just muskrats by taking about 30”-36” inches of chain on my trap and wiring it off to an inch wide stick with a y on the top and I push it in the ground till it’s stable but it still sticks about the water to I know where the trap is. It acts like a stake and a drowned and it’s worked on all my rats this year, but I fear that when I start going for coons/mink this Won’t work. Keep in mind I might not be able to use 2’ rebar stakes in all situations because it may be deep pushing them in with my gloves, I think that this would be a rare occurrence though.

For your trapping style i would recommend using a good sized wood drag that a coon wont take far. You can wire trap chain to wood drag. Pocket set will take all 3 animals or dirt hole set. I would recommend getting 18' rerod stakes & good hammer if going after coons.

I would do it this way. 4 or 5 feet of #2 american chain depending on depth a 36" stake staked( 3/4 in the ground) in deep water( 3 feet minimum depth or 1.5 times thr length of the animal ) add a swivel about mid way between the stake and beginning of chain. Stake it where the trap chain is taught so the only way he can go is deep-water. I like a 1.5 or 1.75 trap or even a number 2 depending on animal size.
The NO BS 1.5 will work on the coon even because it's a heavy trap so you won't need to go to a 1.75 or a 2 for weight purposes.

Just my 2 cents.

Don't just stake with 4/5' fiberglass garden stakes thru chain ring in MN anymore. Lost three traps w/mrats in them on one pond to eagles. Thought is was trap thieves until I saw one take off with one as I approached. Just slid ring off the top of stake and away it went. Never happened before in 40 yrs trapping. One lake had close to 50 eagles on the ice and in the air one day.

I tried wolf fangs (18” cable) this week on some snares. Ended up pushing them in the bank until the split ring was in the dirt/mud. They held two 40+ pound beavers. After the catch I put a stick through the ring and pulled them out by hand. It may not work for everyone but it did for me. Good luck

The way your doing It for rats will work just fine for coon and mink. If the coon gets caught It will most likley get warped up around your stake and won't be able to get back to the bank. It may not drown but It won't be able to get at It's foot. Once you drive a wood stake In to the bottom It will swell up and become tighter. Just make sure you get them In deep enough.
If you want to go to re bar stakes you can make a driver. Just take a 4' piece of some type of pipe. I used 1" metal conduit. Then I placed a solid piece of metal up Into that pipe that acted like a plug. I placed It about 5" up Into the pipe. I took my welder and just burned through the conduit and welded the plug Into place. But If you don't have a welder you can just drill all the way through and then just bolt the plug In place. With this driver you can drive stakes with out getting your hands wet.

wood stakes used to be the norm lot of guys that i knew cut them on site worked just fine leave the top on if it gets pulled makes a good drag

I'm using my homemade 1/2 inch pipe earth anchors on my 1.5 dukes and putting a rebar stake through the pipe when I'm doing pocket sets in the creek.
J

On my wadable river line and also in the marshes I use my 7 foot 3/4 inch size bamboo stakes. I add about 1 foot long cable with a loop that slides so I can pull that up tight on the stake and it won't come off even if the stake is pulled free. The added cable makes my trap and chain (almost all 1. stoploss traps) about2 to 2.5 foot long. This allows the rats and mink to get into deep water. I stick the 7 foot bamboo into the bank (we have a lot of clay here so they get tight) and I angle the stake so it leans into the water. I let the coon then spend its time on the bank so most are alive when I check. I have had a few pulled free but I find them across the river or up stream or down stream. I lose very, very few with this setup. Most times the coon starts wrapping the trap in bank vegetation and is held pretty firmly that way as well. I used to use 4 prong homemade rerod drags and that was heavy and coons could move those up and down the river quite easily.

Bryce

Cheap and easy to make, lightweight and hold almost as good as wooden stakes of similar size, better than the same length rebar.... 20" of metal conduit, just leave them attached to the traps.... no need for driver, just push them in with your foot.

Like Tsouth, I used “disposable” anchors. Wolf fangs are great. I personally use pogos. I also like chain instead of cable. It’s all personal preference though. No right or wrong way.

T bar stakes are easier to push In with your foot. I guess the last thing I would use would be disposables since It's going to be a chore to pull them.

I use T stakes for drowners.

I have tons of wood stakes 4 to 5 feet long. My rat traps have about 5' of chain on them. I set them for rats, mink, and coon just fine. Dogwood, which I bet you have a lot of in Ohio, makes the toughest stakes. If a coon pulls one out they will get tangled up pretty quick. I leave my traps on these stakes from year to year and just roll the chain up to store them.

Disposables are easy to pull in water sets that have mud-dirt bottoms. I use a short slide wire with disposables on both ends. I have a long driver that I use to push no, not drive, the anchors in. The top end of the driver has a 3/4 pipe handle welded on. When pulling the slide wire the bank end is easy as I do not push it in real deep. The stop end can be pulled by wrapping the cable around the pipe handle a time or two and pulling upward. This will not kink the cable if it is not allowed to slip while pulling the anchor. Coon and mink do not have the ability to pull very hard when the water is over their head so anchor do not need to be pushed in real deep. Disposables are a lot easier to pull in water sets then in land sets.
You could wrap the chain on a t-handle as I do cable and more then likely pull then quite easily.

I'm not 100 % sure I understood how you were setting yours up, but I've used Wolf Fangs on cable shoved horizontally into a bank and let the animal go out in the current.
I've held beaver as well, yet mink, muskrat and ( yes, even raccoon) were the target species.
Fast, smooth, light weight and did I say fast ?
Oh, yes, I did.

I also trap in ohio and have about every type of creek bottoms to deal with. Solid bedrock, gravel , sand , soft mud to hard clay. Below is a pic of my setup. All traps rigged with 3/32 stainless cable and a washer lock. If possible I use a t-bar 3/8 rebar stake as shown. Once the stake is no longer an option I use the Snare lock to wrap around large pieces of flagstone or thread the end through cement blocks, RR tie plates ,brake rotors, ect. Quick and simple.