I've got a few dozen sleepy creek #11s I plan to set for mink this season. The plan is to run mostly culverts and a few pockets with no bait to avoid as many coon as possible.

The traps are currently stock. I'm pretty short on funds this year. What would be the most economical way to go about anchoring them? 14ga wire tied off or to an earth anchor? Next year I'll probably add some chain, but I don't see it happening this year.

Wood stake cut and seasoned

3 hole brick attached to the middle hole
Place the brick in deeper water
Also try some top edge sets

I got railroad plates around the places I trap....I had a coon drag one to far.so I added some long bolts to the plates so they don't go so far.

Like these?

https://www.menards.com/main/buildi.../p-1642874315744626-c-5642.htm?exp=false

Wire to a stake cut on site,and pound in a tangle stake out in water tie off with 14ga wire long enough to reach tangle stake.

You make a set like that using 14 ga wire in 'coon country and you'll come back to a trapless set.

That's kinda my concern. I've got plenty of coon.

If I'm running #11's for mink I anchor them to hold otters. Down here you don't anchor them solid you will run the chance of never seeing your trap again.

Every mink set with a foothold is also a raccoon set. If there are exceptions to that, I can not think of them.

Depends on the soil, is it gravel or muck. I have been using oak stakes in the muck and that work well. If you worry about the animal getting leverage maybe lengthen your chain, cable or wire.

Would 14ga wire hold an otter? Or do you use chain or cable?

Years ago here we had just mink and rats and even 16 gauge wire was fine. In came the coon first that changed that and now you never know if a beaver or otter might show up. Anchor for the biggest you have.

Here, unless I am running 110s in blind sets for mink, I have to anchor any foothold for mink really well because that trap and set could also take about every coon in area and if along water even front foot caught beaver.
The 110s I just use a wood stake or aluminum angle stake with support welded to top.
Jim

Chains and cables. If I'm running pocket sets I use cables and they are secured to something an otter can't cut through. Chains, earth anchors and ... the list goes on, it all depens on what the area will support. The only sets for mink I don't anchor like I'm securing a cargo ship is 110/120's.

I like to use a long chain and grapple and hook them tight into the brush. If I can't do that, cable stake. Another option in some cases is a 2" fence staple into a green root. Nothing pulls those, people included.

This is how I make wood staked for water trapping. I cut 1'' or less thick dogwood into about 12'' lengths, sharpen the smaller end and toss them in the barn to season. When they are dry I drill a 1/4'' hole about 1 1/2'' down from the top of the stake and put doubled over tie wires through the hole so there is a 6'' pigtail sticking out and up from the top to wire to. I wrap tie wire around the head 3 or 4 times and make it tight about 1/2'' down from the top so it doesn't split. I drive this in the ground for the top drowner stake. Most never will come out and the wire will stay till it rots off. I get 3 or 4 years out of some of them and I cannot get them out of the creek bottoms because they will swell up in the hole and they really hold. Make sure you test the wire each year though. If they go in hard or into firm creek bottom you'll never get them out unless you dig them up. If you get them out- toss them somewhere to dry again and put new wire on them for next year. This will hold a coyote or beaver or a trap thief will get a hernia trying to get them out if it is driven into a good creek bottom.

Dogwood is the best wood for this. Oak is not as good. This holds better and is lighter than steel. A whole bucket full of these is light.

Good stuff there, Larry

Iv drowned hundreds of beaver with 14 ga wire never lost one If we had coon id drown them too with it.

Boco, with all due respect, I have to throw the BS flag on this one.

I'm sure you've drowned (asphyxiated) hundreds of beaver with 14 gauge wire and never lost one. Was that done incorporating the tangle stake technique you described above? If not, you've done a grave injustice to any novice reading this thread who believes Boco doesn't need waders since he walks on water.

Constructing a tangle stake set for 'coon with 14 gauge wire is just not the right choice, sir. A 'coon's first impulse when the #11 snaps on his paw is not to go charging into the river and swim around a stake pounded out in deeper water.

Thoughts?