Last Sunday we got 3 feet of snow followed with below zero mornings all week, like lots of you have. Today I was just tired of being stuck at home so I thought I would drive to some of my old mink sets and look for some mink tracks (saw none). With this cold the water running thru the culverts is froze even under the road. The culverts and small bridges have become bobcat highways. I must have seen 20 places with cat tracks going under the road thru these 24 to 36 inch culverts. They walk right up on top of the stream ice covered with snow and thru the culvert. Do they do this by you? I have not seen it here before. I believe because the water under the road never completely froze over before. Boy, if they were legal to trap (snare) here I could have a field day. But they are not.

Its very common. Very common to walk on ice down any creek or ditch when the water freezes. Culvert or no culvert.

They love culverts like a mink is attracted to a pocket set the second cat this year to check out this culvert and he’s stops by once a week in the last 2 weeks.

I've caught a few cats that were using culverts to cross under a road. Snares work great...poke some sticks in the dirt on either end to block off leaving only a narrow opening to guide them into a snare. Also set a 220 in a box cubby and caught cats. It's legal where I live to trap the county right of way if you have the landowners permission. One word of caution, don't pull off the road right in the bottom next to a culvert. Or with snow on the ground get out of the truck to ck your set. Johnny Sneekem knows what's going on and you can kiss your trap goodbye.

The culverts around here have rabbit trails beat down going through them, I would think the cats know where to hunt.

Out in the sagebrush country of eastern Oregon a lot of the good cat trappers focus on setting up the culverts in the two tracks. Many culverts out there have holes in them for snare supports.