The thread about frozen culverts raised a question in my head. I live in a hilly area. There are a lot of culverts along the roads that are dry most of the year. They are not really creeks or rivers. Just drainage from the hills, but usually dry. Will these still hold mink? They're holding water currently because of the weather, but they were dry not that long ago.

Seems like the dry culverts catch mostly adult males. You won't catch many females or young monk there so they aren't high numbers spots.

I set dry culverts too. They're a good spot to get mink, ermine, fox, and the occasional marten. They don't produce like the ones with water, but still a funnel point

I set 2 single spring 160s at each culvert, one on each side of the culvert. Catch several good mink a year off dry culverts, I will say ones that are stream/creek feed are mostly dry around me from Christmas on BUT they produce the most. I never pass a culvert though, dry or not!

I agree, from my experience I consider the single-spring 160 perfect trap for that setup! A person can use a 110 but mink seem to want head-room so i’d have to block the 110 up about 1.5”-2” and they wouldn’t hesitate to go through but have had them go around a 110 set flat on the surface.

I spread my trigger wires and have built a trip wire system with 1/32 stainless cable and shrink tube. Little shot of paint and buddy it's poison on mink.

I caught a triple of mink once at a dry culvert

Here in PA the further I go up the hill setting culverts the less Mink I catch at culverts and the more Coon, Possum, Skunk and Grey Fox catch starts going up.

you probably will catch mre males in a dry creek than females but if you think about it this way 10 males is way better than 20 females as the females raise the young and you will have a great mink population from year to year saw a post of something similar where they where talking about fisher and the guy said he would rather catch 1 male over two females as if you took the two females out of the area the males will move on and your population will g down

Agreed. Sometimes our mink get desperate enough to climb into marten boxes, but I've only ever caught male mink off the ground. They say elevated sets reduce the harvest of female marten, but I've found that has a lot to do with the local population. Some places the females climb just as willingly as the boys do

They do say that, and I kind of keep it in mind. I always catch more males than females, but I have very few refusals where I see a marten visited my set but refused to climb, so I don't really think my preponderance of male catches is due as much to the females not climbing as it is to the fact that males travel more, so they come across my sets more often.

Bearcat, that's the conclusion I came to as well. I more elevate them because I don't want them frozen down or chewed on than anything

I found mink sign a mile away from water while rabbit hunting. So not much surprises me any more. But my dry culverts are coon magnets.

I was working yesterday and while patrolling I saw two roadkill mink which I see a lot of this time of year. One male and one female. The male was next to a dry culvert the female at a large creek culvert crossing.

i pick up road kill mink from november into april always seem to do ok on them they always get shipped together never with the ones i caught just so i can keep track on wether its worth while

I stopped and looked at both of them and the fur looked pretty good for my area.

Hoosier Trapper, I always start with the basics of Habitat (Food, Cover, Water). The mink I have observed, trapped, picked up from the highway etc. always are close to a food source (mating season - February excluded). They will work a food source over until it gets tough for them to get the grub, then they move to the next one. Food source could be a muskrat spot, a rabbit (large) brush pile, a cattle feed lot of rats, a grain bin with mice, chicken coop, a timber with chipmunks etc., etc.. Cover for an animal the size of a mink it's pretty plentiful unless they are exposed to predators and conditions. Abandoned beaver dens/holes, that brush pile, concrete or rock rip rap, badger/woodchuck holes, rock outcroppings, hollow logs, muskrat house etc., all these qualify as a place a mink could lay up and/or store some grits. Now, I have caught mink quite aways from Water but there was snow for them to get for the moisture they needed so a dry culvert won't supply that water. Need to factor that in as a drawing (or un-drawing) card if in a hilly dry area with no snow. All the above experience fellows have expressed is worth noting and keeping in mind. Me, I'm a simple evaluator (simple minded too !!!) Food, Cover, Water, that is what I look for when setting a trap. Tracks and scat (sign) tell you the current population estimate, evaluating the overall picture gives you a potential for animal occupation 24-7, 365. With no mud, frost or snow to see tracks and scat scattered and degrading, the Habitat items will tell you what is possible or probable for a catch. My experience. ....................................... the mike