Great video Chip and I enjoyed watching them.

Lynx and fox are coming by the window wondering why I am not trapping this year.

Saw this young bull stuck on smooth ice. Every time it got up it would try to take a step toward the willow island that was just 50 yards away he would slip and fall. Looked like he had been there all night. I went up in the the brush for awhile and when I came back I was surprised it had made it to the island, but a big bull with antlers chased it back across to the other side.

Here’s a big coney. I was pulling good size ones that day and then this one made them all look small. CAught in 5 feet of water with a homemade aluminum hook.

Jeff: Great pix !

I found a cow one day that had walked off a cut bank onto glare ice. Both fronts had gone sideways and dislocated both shoulders, She looked crucified. Pretty sad when you think that must happen more often than we are aware.

I shot her and ate her so at least she didn't feed the ravens

I thought of shooting it too, I am ready to get a moose but it was a bull. My plan was to cut some willow for it to eat and wish him luck until it snows more. Glad he made it out on his own. I think my snowmachien parked next to him gave him a little extra incentive to get out.

Thats a nice pile of Sheefish Ryan

These YK Delta mink used to be king of the mink grade. That was before ranch mink of course.

Boone & Crockett!

WOW-nice picture there!

Cool capture!

Irwin Goldberg showed me a pile of Kuskokwim mink years ago.
Amazing; not like any wild mink I've ever seen.

Would like to see a Kuskokwim mink dried skin if possible especially against a standard mink.

No one here is trapping them anymore. Price crash and now not worth the $3.00 we tend to get for them.

This was today's business.

Interesting. I wonder if there would be a decorator/taxidermy market? Some good grub there!

Thats a beautiful mink.

I just found this very fascinating thesis on Kuskokwim mink that was done in the early 1960's. Interesting that up to 40,000 mink per year were being trapped on the YK delta.
Really interesting was the description of trapping methods that begins on page 53. I would really like to hear any of you guys who are familiar with the method described explain it in more detail.

https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/bitstream/handle/11122/8200/Burns_J_1964.pdf;sequence=1

Hmm, looks like you will have to copy and paste this link. maybe someone can fix this.

If your refering to the Taluyaks (Funnel trap) made of chicken wire, (called mink wire here ) they were the trap of choice for mink otter and muskrats in this area.

Some would load their dogs and sleds in their boat and head across the river in October and camp so they would be ready to trap when it froze up in November..

They generally set in small creeks that flow between two lakes is best. Usually, thin ice there will be blackfish and pike they will be feeding on and traveling back and forth.

The trap is set with the funnel facing down steam so it dont plug up, smaller the creek the better. Fit the trap tight and put brush on top and sides to block it. Some will then put dry grass and snow to keep it from freezing.

A trapper would hang his trap in the bushes near his spot so others would not trap there.

I make them and used them some years, I caught mink otter and muskrats in them. I wrote an article in the ATA mag with pictures years ago. Dont remember when it was.

They are alot of work shoveling snow and chopping alot of ice. some times a big drift will burry it all and have to work all day shoving snow to check your traps.

I still have some hanging in the bushes where I used to trap. Most are rusted out probably by now.

Jeff I always enjoy your articles it would be great to see more! Lots of unique activities and techniques out there.
Also looks like John Burns wrote that piece that Waggler linked. Johns always been a big supporter of trappers.

Jeff, if you have any pictures or scaled diagrams of those funnel traps could you please post them.
Were they set like muskrat colony traps? The thesis seemed to describe more or less a "bottom edge" set I think?? He was using some terminology I didn't quite understand; "sloughs", it sounded like that was his term for a small creek?? Do they ever make double ended models?
Any further information you can provide would be appreciated. If I'm understanding the method, I think it might be adaptable to the area around Pilot Point with it's hundreds of interconnected ponds and lakes.

Waggler,

A slough is a stream-like channel with occasional or no flow of water. Typically that can refer to a side channel on a river with stagnant flow, an oxbow that retains a connection to the stream, a tidal channel with no permanent flow, or a connection between lakes that has only slow or seasonal flow.