Sir you are a heck of a mink trapper. What gas been your best number of mink in 1 year ? What is your favorite set. Looks like you have a nice dark mink ? MD
My favorite set is a great location. If I can, I try to make my sets near locations that most all mink are going to visit as they make their rounds. Field tiles, feeder creeks, spring seeps, beaver dams, old beaver lodges, undercut banks, etc. are what I'm looking for. I usually, but not always, can find one or more of the above close to the road. I then make sets near or at these locations. Bank trails with bodygrips, blind sets, and pocket sets are my favorite sets. Each individual location is unique for the most part. A field tile may be right at water level and the entrance can be set with a foothold or bodygripper. The next field tile may be a foot or more above the water level and the bank can be shaved at 90 degrees and a blind set can be made. If conditions aren't suitable for that then a pocket set baited with muskrat or fish can be made near the tile. Most of my bridge walls aren't settable so I only make a few of those sets each year.
If you look at the picture with the 2 otters you will see an undercut bank at the top of the picture. I wanted to make a blind set there but rocks and roots were going to make it tedious so I put the 2 pocket sets just downstream from it. I still thought I should make the effort but I'm glad I didn't. Those 2 otters were caught before our season opened so I had to release them. Both of them ran under that bank once released. They are hard enough to release, so I sure didn't want to have to release one of them a second time.
