Has anyone ever made a dryland pocket set for mink using a conibear?

I catch'm on dry land in snares. Trail sets

i havent really done much of that. sometimes i will stick a conibear over an opening but its not a go to type deal for me. but i grew up dry land mink trapping a long time ago. as such i find them easier to catch dry than on water. think of them as a little fox and you'll have no trouble catching them when on location/if they are around.

Newt I wish we could use dry land snares for mink here in Wisconsin. Presently we can't.

Snares are illegal here so I Think of a bodygrip like a snare with jaws. Dead center in the trail , right height , snap.. I trap 90 percent of my mink on dry trails along stream, lakes and ponds. 110s and 150s mostly. Make sure to start the trigger!!

I do the same thing with trail sets. My question was specifically about dry pocket sets guarded with a conibear instead of a foothold. I may try that this year but just wanted check if anyone ever tried it.

I know guys that have. Though it's more of a vertical pocket than a horizontal one. Raccoons flipping the trap off is a problem so it's a better set to use without bait and later in the season.

Thanks. One of my areas is a dike bordering a canal and cattails. I will give it a try.

I have made sets like that for mink.
Use a tile spade before freeze up,and dig out a square notch into a bank.same width and height as a 120.Roof it with a couple sticks and the sod from the notch.
You can do the same,but shove a box in the notch then roof it with sod.When I use a box in the notch I leave an airspace at the back for air currents to draft the bait smell.
In either case I hide the bait with dry grass.I always wax my mink traps.You will mis a lot of mink if you dont wax your 120's.
These sets can be made with footholds before freeze up when made near open water for drowning then set with a 120 after freeze up.
The ones near water catch rats too if you use rat for bait.

I use 110s and blind set mink dryland in waterways and weedy fencerows along my coyote line. Right through winter I pick up mink and it makes the line interesting at times. No bait, just block down trails and cover woth weeds and grasses over the trap. I use stabilizers welded onto short lengths of angle iron. Pick up some real nice males doing this.
Here's a whopper we got several years ago in weedy draw up through a corn field we were trapping for coyotes.


I tried pockets and bait products for several season through winter and didn't get any mink. Went back to blind sets in areas we were already trapping and well it just works for me. 110s only, waxed, light triggers and set right where you think they will go.

Always an interesting mix...coyote and mink trapping line.
If im already checking coyote traps it takes a few seconds to check little 110s blind set in same waterway, old pond dams, etc.


Sometimes if waterway has a trickle of water those are fantastic mink spots in winter too. Again, right on same places we are coyote trapping.
Here is one with 110 wired to a wood stake with stabilizer screwed to side of stake.



Another in tiny trickle of water in grassy waterway up through a corn field. Just right width for a 110.


Had a lot of fun with little blind sets and mink while checking coyote traps. Consider it.
110s are cheap to buy. I bet we run 30 or 40 blind sets for mink in same areas we trap coyotes. 110s kill mink just fine have never had an issue with that or needed 120s. Sometimes I get them in 160s blind sets for coon too, but 160s have way too much room around trigger for serious mink work. Fence down a little 110 and blind set them.

I don't have any 120s but I just got a couple dozen BMI 110 magnums on Ebay. Very strong and very fast. I think that will do the trick. My regular 110s stay in the water.

No need for 120s as long as you use mags with full jaw closure. I use 110, 150 Bridger mags. Live mink are never an issue dry or wet.. modified 160s and 220s work well for the wider trails too. I tried BGs in pockets , got tired dealing with coon.

I have bridger 150s mostly for rats. I've only had them for a few years but like them. Perfect size and big enough for baited sets under the ice. Oops...l wandered off subject on my own post.

Mink are interesting creatures for sure. Before DPs came out. I used a lot of 1 1/2 coils on dry land coon trails. I was surprised on the mink I would catch on the coon trails. Along with fox as well

120's are much faster to set (stabilize)than 110's.Two willow sticks size of pinkie finger,crank springs up,shove trap down on sticks,crank springs down to lock-rock solid-same as stabilizing 330s for beaver castor sets or blind crossovers,only smaller sticks.
If you are not talking about baited sets,dryland crossovers on grassy old beaver dams are great places to set 120's for mink as well as rats.Big long old grassy dams will have a bunch of trails to set up.Usually a couple otter trails too.Real fur pockets they are.

I went through my ancient collection of FFG magazines.In one of the 1989 issues Jim Spencer wrote a very good article on mink land sets with conibears including pocket sets. Good read.

Yes and no. When I stumble upon small culverts while in agricultural settings, I look at it. If it shows evidence of activity, which it almost always does, I block it with a bodygrip. One of the best mink locations I ever had was a field road and drainage intersection that had an abandoned 8” pipe in the grass. It gave up mink every year I set it. Same goes for another culvert that I no longer set because it can be seen from the road, but it was good while it lasted. A pocket would work, but I’d rather use a foothold than a BG for this because of personal preference. When I use bodygrips I want my target to be moving forward like in a trail.


What I’m saying is that it can work, but usually I don’t personally dig pockets or carry in cubbies or anything extra for mink where I trap, because there is an abundance of dead grass that makes identifying their trails easy. If I made some sort of pocket or cubby set, it would be a pocket dug near the water with a foothold for Coon and mink both. In my situation, with defined travel routes and hubs where I trap, my favorite approach for mink without question is to blind set key locations both on the land and in the water. This catches them whether they’re hungry or looking for love. Your situation may be different. If it were me wanting to try pockets or cubbies like you’re describing, I would try it. Let them tell you if they want to use them and if so you’ll have dependable trap locations going forward. What the mink tell you is more important than anything I can share with you.

A great resource for mink trappers is joining minktrapping.com. They can give you better answers than I can.

Good luck

I've caught a number of mink with body grippers covering old high water muskrat dens or by making a hole from the surface down into a rat den. Those can be productive after freeze up when it gets harder to find good spots to catch mink. Seem to get a higher percentage of the big old males in these sets.

I didn't trap them last year, but I saw several areas that the Mink were going into the vent holes of muskrat dens. You'd see clean tracks going in and muddy tracks coming out.

How do you cover the hole with the bodygripper? Just lay it flat? Angled?

Just caught one in a box set with a #150 in the opening and muskrat meat as bait.