Asked in the trapping only but there is more traffic here. #2 for mink night latch or not how many swivels short chain long chain or drowner what’s your setup. Also with mink value going up what’s your favorite trap

I wouldn't worry about the night latch as long as you have a free-falling pan. A swivel at the base and at the end of the chain should cover it. Cable drowners are they way to go if you use short chain. (That's what I do) It helps hold any incidental raccoon as well. I like a 1 1/2 for mink and coon, but my favorite mink trap is the old Victor #2 square jaws. They are simply amazing.

BK and I agree on our favorite mink trap!!!!

Three "coonless" trap sets will be targeting mink next season:

1. 6x6 collapsible colony traps in bottom edge sets

2. #150 bodygrips on KB stabilizers in bottom edge sets

3. modified #1 Bridger coilsprings with #1 1/2 pans in both ends of 4" irrigation pipes hooked up to drowner cables. Each end is paired with a blind set upstream/downstream tight to the bank with vertical slant stick forcing small passage through to the #1 coilspring restricting 'coon. Both drowner cables lead to one terminal end. At one location 4 traps, two terminal ends, one 4" pipe.

The goal here is strictly 'rats and mink.

Now if whisperings of higher 'coon prices start up . . . pocket sets will be added, but . . .

Victor # 2 Sq. jaws were always my go to for Mink, But with everyone looking, prices run steep. Started using Bridger # 2 Sq jaws about 10 years now. only thing I have to say bad about them is the pans are real soft

Are you baiting or putting lure inside the pipe?

Both.

Bait is ground fish mixed with jack mackerel. Holder is a bleached coffee filter. To that add a dollop of fish mix, and wrap that with a grass wad. Make a plunger that will fit inside the pipe and push the wad to the middle. The whiteness of the filter is an attractant as is the fresh fish smell. Next check plunge out the grass wad and replace with new. Don't leave old bait in there for mink.

In the middle of the pipe on top is a 3/8" hole. A slit in the pipe extends away from the hole for about a half inch. A Q-tip is dipped in mink lure and pushed into the hole then slid into the slit. It's held in position that way. Grab a wad of mud and leaves and cover that hole.

I've tinkered for years for the "right trap" for mink and 'rats in drowning sets. Wisconsin allows up to a 4-day check and I use that extensively. Anything larger than the #1 coil is a gamble, IMO, for the 'rat or mink to carry down a drowner cable. A #2 square jaw is a perfect mink trap if you're running daily checks or you don't have to concern yourself with a dead mink sometimes laying there in the jaws partly out of water. I want everything down and away. If I can't drown it, I don't set it. Period.

I'm specifically talking about sets along a bank here. Traps on 'rat hut slides and toilets are usually stoplosses or #1 1/2 coils if deep enough unobstructed water is present.

I've shown this before but maybe worth showing again. I replaced all my #1 1/2 coil pans with the wild river pan. The #1 1/2 Duke pan has become the new Bridger #1 pan.



This little sweetheart can easily be taken down a cable and is tenacious enough it will hold a front foot caught 'coon if necessary.

Side note: If a blind set does not present itself nearby the mouth of the tube for another set, then I will make a pocket set using Trapper Art's pocket shovel. Ram this at an angle and excavate a hole at water level heading up. Twist and extract several times and you have your "perfect pocket." Perfect because the #1 coil can easily be moved up into the pocket and set just in front of your grass wad far enough to keep a 'coon from reaching it.



If you feel creative enough you can make drowner cables that have two drowner locks on them. Sink your stake as far back in the hole as possible and run that #1 up there, stretch the chain a bit and set it just in front of the grass wad in the back. Now, on the second drowner lock, attach another #1 coil and set this at the entrance, blocked with vertical pencil sized sticks.

Your first critter will get into this trap and slide down the cable, allowing the second trap to work for that mink or 'rat that moves up into the pocket. Sure, you might get a 'coon in the first trap, but then you've got that second trap working for you.

If you have some real fart around time you might even make an elbow set out of this, if the bank is low enough. I use a 3" hand auger to make a vertical hole down to the back of the pocket, with just enough room for the grass wad behind that hole yet. This just might cause that bank running mink to slow down and investigate long enough to find his way down the cable.

Now if you're running a mink line like Gerald Schmitt has been known to do, all of this might seem like a lot of foo foo rah and waste of time. He certainly knows what he's doing and is very effective with his methods.

But I make these sets and they stay there for at least two months. Checking them twice a week. Gives me time for late goose hunting, deer hunting, ice fishing, etc. When I was in the frenzied working stage of my life the multiple day check allowed a somewhat normal life along with running many traps. It's what has worked for me.

That's a really interesting post Muskrat!
You got this old guys brain working this morning.
Just wish my body was 40 years younger!

If I only knew then what I know now, eh?

Muskrat, do you have any pics of your pipe setup?

By golly another Wisconsinite that experiences “mink backfilling” and I’m glad to hear it. Steve Gappa and I goit into a spirted discussion about how soon mink will backfill a set location and he always left his sets, blind sets, for at least 2 months. Well, I’ve kept very detailed records for my mink trapping in Central MI including 3 years of scientific writings for the Dioxin Project. Well I never kept mink sets in the same location for more than 12-14 nights but to prove my point to Gappa, for two years I had a couple of mink locations that produced every year at the same sets and I left those traps in for 7 weeks, two years in a row(not far from home). I NEVER caught another mink in those sets during the 7 weeks AFTER a catch for 2 years!!He still refused to believe it! LOL

During the Dioxin Prj the MSU Project Team was under close scrutiny both by State Agencies, USFWS, and the public because it was about a 2000 person class action lawsuit. Anyway, local trappers raised a fuss in public hearings causing MSU to be forced to repeat the mink sampling on about a 6 mile stretch of river 2 months AFTER I’d successfully trapped it. When I originally scouted this stretch I had developed a SOP for my trapping so I reset the exact same set locations where I had caught mink earlier. This was very easy to do because even without memory(not my case I remembered) of locations, the sets were previously logged and transact data recorded to the whole world knew where I caught every mink.

During my original scouting I had located “A locations” that I figured would give me quick catches and “B” locations as fall-back/secondary locations. I never caught another mink at those original “A” sets!! Scared me a little because of the pressure so after 7 nights I set all of the “B” locations and caught the required sample before the river became too dangerous to trap.
The point of my long-winded story is that not all water and habitat are equal!!! Every since those years when I catch a mink, I pull the trap and move at least 1 mile if possible because I’ve proved that I’ll be checking empty traps! My records show that I usually will catch mink on or before the 3rd night and up to the 9th night and than zero!

On the Dioxin Prj I did catch 1 double on mink at a crumpled & bent 16” culvert with a plated-BE at each end but neither trap caught another mink!

Great info Mike.
The one thing would question is the placement of the trap in the pocket. I watched some game cam footage of how mink reacted to a pocket set. The sets were without traps so you could see what was happening. Yes, some mink actually entered the pocket, but the majority didn't.

I'm a 2-trap pocket trapper. One trap tight to the bank about 5" from the hole and the same on the other side. No more then an inch of water over the trap and some small guide sticks right at the trap dog. and the spring levers should be parallel to the bank, so the mink is passing between the jaws and not over them.

Another set I have used is where I collapse the bank. I will take my tile spade and dig down into the bank about 6" in then create a wedge type opening. I will place a rat carcass in that wedge and then kick it shut, A trap placed in the water at each corner will catch you some mink and some coon, LOL Some large rocks will also work to wedge that rat carcass into position. The mink has to work that set pretty hard trying to get to that carcass.

And Seldom I believe you stated at one time that one bank was more productive then the other bank. I found that if I'm trapping north and south running creeks the east bank is more productive since it gets more sunlight.

That is absolutely correct Beav! By golly you’ve still got your memory for sure!!

After a couple weeks for mink you rarely catch another one back filling as you call it at least in conventional mink sets like pockets.. But by February as breeding season approaches the males occasional start showing up. Guess the lesson to be learned if you’re long lining mink is to move probably every seven to ten days.

I'm trying a two sided tunnel this year. I think I will trap around thanksgiving and then late as the breading season starts up when the bucks are moving a lot.

I like a 1 1/2 coil, jump or longspring. For mink and rats all mine have a 5' chain. If coons are around I use a drowner and a chain about 12'' long with 2 swivels. After the coons are thinned out I regroup and stay a few more days. I use body traps for about 40 percent of my sets and they catch half of my mink.

Great information thanks for outlining your set, Muskrat. Seldom and Beav your experience analysis of sets and animal behavior always amazes me.

Another thing I believe in, if using a pocket, is to use a deep pocket. I had the privilege of watching a live mink approach one of my pockets this year. This pocket wasn't deep. The mink stopped short 3 feet from the set, and stretched its neck out to look at the hole. Unfortunately, I scared it off, so I didn't get to see the entire interaction. I might've caught that mink, but he still might have left after looking into that hole. A deeper hole creates more intrigue.

And if that pocket has an exit, it's even more intriguing. I tracked a lot of mink and I found they checked out every hole but if a hole had an entrance and an exit they more inclined to enter that hole.

And don't forget the high bank trails. Mink spend a lot of time running those high banks getting from one place to another.

Good post.