Ive never targeted them other than the rare blind set when it presented itself, so im not too well versed on them. When the coon population gets too large, disease may factor in. What about mink? With so few water trapping lately, is the mink population booming or does mother nature step in?

In SW AR, mink are almost extinct. Used to catch a lot of them in the 80’s, not so many in 90’s, havent seen a mink in ten years.

I havent water trapped in 5-6 years, but I eould always catch a couple a year. I know there was a decent population here, but I set fairly in the water for coon so it was almost impossible for a mink to get in most of my sets.

Lack of water should make them more vulnerable to predators they can disappear quickly if there’s any water around, we need a couple of very wet years to get them in numbers

Severely declined numbers here. I water trapped a little for them but got lions share of my catches in blind sets in ditches and waterways along my coyote line.
Catch dwindled over the years. Several years I doubled and tripled my land and sets, didn’t matter.
UNL study back in 90s showed this species and also weasels were highly susceptible to pesticides from field runoff. Impacted theiir prey species everything from frogs to minnows to crayfish. Also removal of a lot of habitat along edges of streams and waterways, fencerows, and CRP program fields.
We had a severe drought here for last several years too.
Mink are still around but not nearly in numbers they used to be.
Jim

The Niobrara drainages still hold decent numbers of mink. As well as the North Platte in Wyoming.

Most mink I’ve ever ran into was by Brookings during few wet years it seemed like every puddle had a rat house and a mink on it, spillways produced several at the same locations they were thick. Dry land coon sets were picking them up far from water. That was a long time ago.

I hardly ever see frogs anymore, not sure what happened to them but there’s no farming around here so it’s not pesticides or herbicides. Dang wolves probably killed them off too,,,

Years of drought brought on by ever increasing summer heat has dried up over 50% of my water trapping spots. Hardly any muskrats left locally on my line. Mink have also declined.
This has get me targeting dry land mink more, but catch rates are a lot lower for me

Mink population definitely lower in SE Kentucky than it used to be. Rats are about extinct too. I hardly ever see frogs, turtles and minnows in the creeks like when I was a kid.

We have definitely been in a low cycle here. Bridges I have caught mink at for years had none last year or two. Heard from other Minnesota guys numbers were down. Hopefully this year will be better.

Lots of mink here in SE PA, very few muskrats

Same here in SE Oklahoma.

I’ve noticed that we have few frogs now and I live on a lake but it’s quite no noticeable croaking even at night.

Our mink numbers seem to be up. I have seen and heard of several road kill sightings.

I do think here mink spend a lot more time upland during the early season. I don’t really see much sign on the creeks until the breeding starts. There’s lots of mink food out of the confines of a stream bank too. That’s just a change I’ve seen in the last 30-40 years. Years ago the mink were on the water day one here.

Im 81 now so up and down river banks ain't as easy. The last few years I wait til freezup where I live in NE Wisconsin, I've trapped frozen marshes with trail sets. Pretty good luck and mostly big males too. I also have my weasel boxes out too. Now I don’t get the numbers I used to but what I do catch is prime.

I cant say much about the last 4 years , but prior to that (for many years) it was commonplace to come home with more mink than muskrats here in south central PA..

The areas i water trap for mink and rats i have noticed a decline in last 3 or 4 years. Hope it's just a cycle.

I used to catch a couple dozen early season, November, and now I’d struggle to catch six I’d guess. The animals have just changed.