What are you guys having most success with for mink in water sets. Bottom edge sets? Do they travel a long ways? I am gonna throw out a few otter sets tomorrow and was thinking maybe i should throw a few 110s and 160s as bottom edge sets for a possible mink or muskrat. Havent really been looking for mink sign at this location but I am just curious and would like to catch my first mink. Its a medium sized river with quite a bit of braiding.

Bottom edge sets are very effective for mink,rats, and otter. Use a bigger trap for otter. Both mink and otter can be a waiting game for them to travel through. Good luck!

Yeah last year I caught my 2 otter in 330s on bottom edge sets. I am assuming mink will use the same waterways im trapping otter in but just never really looked specifically for mink sign. Lately mink have caught my interest and am hoping for a little success this winter

Find some good bottom edge locations and set them up. You will catch mink. Sometimes it takes a little while, but it will happen.

Mink go underwater more when the temperature gets the coldest. At least around here. Liquid water never goes below 32° and if the air temperature is below zero the water is more inviting. Have those BE ready to go whenever there is a cold snap.

Be sure to check out the smaller tributaries & creeks that enter the river. Mink prefer those over the rivers before freeze-up. After freeze-up they use the big rivers more.
There is a lot info out there about bottom edge sets so i wont go into detail but any protruding 'point' along a creek that a mink would have to maneuver around may be a good spot.
Put in 2-6 sets until you get a good read on productive spots.

They know where the springs are no matter how small they use them as they are the last places to freeze up.

I have finally got BE sets to produce for me. They are very dependent on the type of water bodies you have in your area. Most of mine are not the type - they are bog edged or wavy shallow gradient shorelines ponds or lakes, streams with soft bottoms that are deeply undercut one side, long exposed point bars on other at bends. But where I can find locations they are producers. Thought they are very drought affected. They are season to season reliable(if enough water). One adaptation that is working for we with my type of moving water is setting at bends on current side just into or out of the deep undercut outside bends(which are hard to position trap well in without using a lot of effort even with custom holders). I believe this secondary location(though not taking animals that are looking for shorter travel distance or less current) are hunting the deeper bends and pushing prey out of them into shallower water. Bends with heavy current I pass. Catches are usually in both directions of travel here compared to the fewer good inside bend locations where almost all are traveling upstream. Wish I could put out more BE's than I can find places for. P.S. they are also severely affected by the amount of vegetation that may be carried by the flow(they can clog up pretty fast).

I have found a few smaller waterways that have open flowing water even after the last week and a half of below zero temps. I have found mink sign near these small waterways earlier this year. Do you think it would be worth it to set up all the pinch points I can find with 110s and 160s? Will this produce a few mink eventually?

Absolutely! Remember, patience is your friend.

With our drought most of my good BE places had little or no water this year. With the snow we got on the ground and rain forecast will the mink travel up those creeks?
just

Just went back to set that feeder creek that stays open and found fresh mink and otter tracks now. Do you think I would be fine just loading that feeder creek up with traps? All the pinch points in the water with 160s/220s/330s? Maybe 18 to 24 traps in a 100 yard stretch? Or will this make the animals shy away from using that to travel?

In my opinion that many traps are not needed. Half a dozen
in the right spots should be more than adequate. You always have the option of moving them around as new sign and time available to you gives you new options. Good luck!

How many critters do you think are moving thru? I consider 4 sets gang setting.

Nimzy: you nailed it! Lol

This has been my go to bottom edge set for otters lately.



That set works for muskrat, mink and otter.

If I can't drive a stake into the creek bed I will put the trap on a KB stabilizer, to keep it from rotating around the horizontal stick that is shoved into the bank.

I use that set, cause the bottoms of the creeks I trap are rock and gravel. Its very hard to get a stake in that will hold anything at all. The horizontal stick is usually shoved in about 3 feet.

The trap is staked up on the bank with a cable.

The creeks I trap are decently moving water, ankle to waist deep. I look for the classic bottom edge locations, projections out into the creek like points, or even rocks, that the mink or otter will cut close to while hunting the edge.

My favorite spot for winter Mink are the pinch points just before and after a culvert. In my experience more mink leave and enter the water just before and just after a culvert rather than running or swimming thru them. I am not saying that I do not set in certain culverts but I have caught more of my winter mink before and after culverts. Definitely look for holes where the ice has not formed and if you can drop a bottom edge in that area of open water it is just a matter of time.

I found that otter also seem to take out other then swim through the culvert.

That number of traps might be OK if you are only checking traps once every two months or so.

Yup..seen their tracks and belly slides ..go up and ovah the road ...to avoid the culvert . 8 inches of snow reveals a lot.