What's a respectable seasons mink catch in your area?

30 plus

I know a small number of guys that hit 100+, but half that is great here.

5

My best years going after mink was over 100.

If a person listens to the supposedly “real” trappers in my area, you know, the ones, the ones who get in the newspapers and love to bloviate at public hearings as well as any former fur buyers still alive in my local, there ain’t none! LMAO

One!

There are no mink within 1.5 hours of me....so one would be a respectable catch.

No muskrats either.

Pretty much what Swamp said. There was an old timer back in the 60's that took a little over 60 mink one season. That was a tremendous catch for our area.

Thought some do much better 10 is respectable number here

There were lots of MN guys that you have never heard of that would take 100 in a Fall. I was never one of them. I hate skinning mink.

i love skinning mink. that smell is great. 125 was the expected catch for the first week. 100 the second week, and 75 the third. after that the weather was a killer. 300 in 3 weeks was a successful season.

That, sir, is impressive. May I ask . . . average number of traps out during this time period?

All my mink over the years were incidentals to 'coon and 'rats. This will be the first year I focus on mink.

i ran 2 lines every second day. about 500-600 traps total. 99% baited pockets, and maybe 1% blind/bottom edges. problem with pockets will be the coon. didnt used to be an issue as they were worth as much as a female mink. good luck with the mink this fall too!

40 - 50 would be a real good catch of mink here for a multispecies trapper.
My best year for mink was 48 I never have more than about 20 boxes set for mink.
Season is short-for a good catch here you need a year when mink numbers peak and the weather co operates.

50+ here if you're working full-time and running your butt off at the same time. If you could devote time to a 10-hour line, you could probably break 200 if you were smart about it. Nobody does it around here. I hit 100 coons last year, and nobody's ever even heard of those numbers in our area, and only trapped about an hour and a half a day.

If I see a guy here with 25-30 mink at the fur sale I figure he’s a minker. But, 50 is very possible. We don’t have the mink or rats that we used to have.

Disease or parasites wiped out the mink here so right now a great catch would be 5.
Up until a few years ago catches of 150 were doable, mostly with snares.

Ack catches really impressive numbers of mink in Ohio, over 100 per year. If I caught 30, I would think I was doing really well.

Keith

My best year was 63 but we were able to trap the right-of-way. I knew a guy that took over 400 here in Wisconsin but he had out hundreds of traps.

2 very low skill here wouldn't take much to excell

I've never done it, but there are some Iowa boys that catch 100 + every year.

Back in the days when we had lots of lake shore muskrats and out in the sloughs out in the forest 30,40 years ago there were many trapper catching 50 to 80 plus mink up here.Now I think you would have to cover a fair amount of ground to get 20 to 25 mink probably 100 plus traps

For a long liner maybe 100 or more. A recreational trapper 25 or 30. No ROW trapping and mink population fluctuations are the limiting factors. They aren't hard to trap every thing else being equal.

you need unlimited ROW trapping to take numbers. minnesota and iowa are right in the mink belt. good water access most places. we always hoped for 3 weeks of open water, but one year we had a mild fall, and had 6 weeks of open water. basically 2 seasons worth. that year i had a day catch of 64, and a seasons catch of 831.

We are seeing more mink here, I have never targeted them. I caught 3 one year, might try and top that this year. Most of my trapping is damage control, keeps me pretty busy

wws

Should be way easier now for big numbers now that those darn pesky muskrats arent plugging up the sets.

Would be tough here. I have witnessed mink numbers declining here in SE Nebraska. My catches are nowhere near where they were in 80s and 90s, and the sign gets harder to find too.
No clue why but just my observation. My buyer has commented on this to me several times too. Way fewer mink come through his door.
Jim

The last five ,six years at least our mink numbers have fallen off. A number of good minkers across the state have noticed the same thing. Bridges where you basically have been guaranteed a mink or two a season all of a sudden have none. I caught forty this year and in the past the same area would probably had twice that. I assume disease maybe as far fetched as it sounds Covid? I’m in the driftless area in the southeast so the best mink areas are west of me. In my general four county location a hundred mink at one time would be considered an excellent catch. In the flat ditch county of Minnesota I suppose 2,3 hundred would be the elite guys numbers.

If you ran a long line exclusively for mink and didnt do much of anything else in the fall, 50 would probably be doable.

I’ve caught a couple dozen in a season just in beaver and otter traps in a fairly small area. I imagine 100 would be possible if I put my mind to it

Around here if the muskrat numbers are low, the mink numbers are lower too. Mink eat a lot more than muskrats, but there is an impact

When I could trap the Road right a way and we had No check laws for water sets I would normally break the 80 # when trapping mink. Never caught a 100.

That's good trapping, in this area I would have to put on many, many miles to catch that many.

Mink cant be eating muskrats around here, they are virtually extinct and have been for many years, maybe a bonus meal once a month. My mink population has been booming and great the last I had trapped, anyhow.

As you can see traps set and time involved makes a difference most guys i knew considered 20 a great year for 1 /2 weeks trapped back then you had to slip into the water way downstream from your set wear gloves and cover your set with leaves from across the creek I prefered trapping land but always interested in tracks when you had the first good snow of the year every creek had mink tracks nowdays nothing

I’ve never really long lined for mink, but in 2013 I set 15 spots with almost two traps per spot and just trapped around home to the next town west 6 miles…caught 17 mink, and the following year caught 20 in a good rat year out near the lake while rat trapping and 4 were females that I released.

Do you remember what year that was? 831 is an incredible catch! Pics by any chance?

My best is 40. I think it’s dumb luck I got to that amount but I did it one time! A lot of work and a lot of area to cover

Like I said, "Around here..."

Folks like Gerald Schmitt, fossil and blackhammer are in the top spots for mink catches!

Areas that have a good mink population, have open water all season, and can trap during breeding season all important factors to consider.

Many people think Minnesota is the best, but there are at least three other states that have had larger numbers taken in a season than the year Gerald and Fossil have done.

beaver peeler,,,,i believe it was 98 or 99, but not sure. normally we did everything in 3 weeks time, no open water all season, and no trapping during breeding season, like Arkansas. the year we had 6 weeks was a fluke, or a blessing. taking 130+ mink a week for 6 weeks is something i wont soon forget. over 600 coon and whatever beaver, rats and otters were all incidentals also. busy busy.

I’ve caught my share but Gerald and Fossil are in a class by themselves in Minnesota with the numbers they put up. There’s a trapper or two in Iowa that have made some huge catches as well. Be interesting to see what mink catches will look like this fall. I personally doubt they get overproduced. It’s always fun to talk about big numbers in trapping. Talked about and running a longline are two different things. I’m making plans for fall and like everyone else thinking mink.

I d probably pick southern Iowa because of milder winters but a good quality mink. The South doesn’t have a great mink. Maybe with this year’s market that wouldn’t matter as much I don’t know. What states you thinking Mike?

blackhammer,,,good luck this fall. i'll get out a little at least. at my age, its good to remember the good years past, but i aint dead yet. like you say,,,see what happens.

southern iowa and arkansas have decent conditions, late season open water trapping, and a long time to catch. i dont have the time to run a couple hundred traps for so long down there. need to get in/out with the mink. southern mink keep coming all season off/on.

Fossil, go get them this fall so I can live vicariously through you lol. We should meet up in Sunberg one of these nights for supper.

Steve

steve,,,give me a call when youre in the area. im always hungry.

Tim I'm in Alex until the snow flies. I'll call you.

As far as what a respectable mink catch is, in my neighborhood I would say a 100. Weather can shut us down in days. If the weather cooperates higher if a feller can go all day every day and is willing to maybe spend the night somewheres.

In my immediate area,1 . But if you get in the crawfish ponds, a couple hundred.

A few years ago an Iowa coon trapper took 4000 coon. He took 800 incidental mink. He told this at the Iowa convention. He is not a story teller. He uses one basic chunk of carp in a hole at waters edge over and over all day long.

ROW trapping is not possible here anymore the theft rate is to high ,And they dont care if you know ,Watched a guy with a spotting scope once lift one from my set at the next stop he showed me his mink .Guy had a lot of money but no mink .

99 here couldnt catch that 100th , alot of traps, alot of hours.

I used to envy the areas Jim Spencer had on the farmland portion of his Arkansas line. The mountain portion I already had.

Spent many years trying to hit that 100 mark, very close but I couldn’t buy the last couple.
Then something clicked and started hitting/and or going above.
(This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) I miss those days!

What bait and or lure did you use in the pockets? Thanks.

What kind of trap numbers do you guys run? I want to do a couple hundred this year but see if I can acquire the extra hundred traps I need. I have right around 100 1-1/2s

You need more unless the weather cooperates

All depends how many traps you can run! If you can keep 100 traps set, baited, and moved regularly it’s time to look at getting more. Many trapping MN running full time will have 300+ traps out for mink.



Easy to get fish is the most popular things used. Bullheads heads are my favorite. Carp are popular. Muskrat is popular in areas, and I have used beaver before too.

I am not a big numbers mink guy but we have access to thousands of walleye heads so I used them for all my water sets-worked great. Going to set a couple hundred sets this fall for mink and see how many this older rat trapper can catch. Muskrat population is pretty good here right now and after our wet spring and summer I am sure the population will be good. I still remember when I started trapping muskrats heavy each fall and the mink would eat me out of house and home-buggers. Until I started chucking the leftover chewed up rat carcasses in baited pocket sets-they paid the price LOL. That got me hooked for a few years on mink-they are fun to catch. Love pulling up to a stop and seeing that furry tail floating-pure joy right there!

That furry tail sticking up is a feeling that non trappers cannot understand. I can see my first furry tail around 1978 like it was yesterday.

Same here, 1966, 1 1/2 coilspring, blind set.

1969 , , , in a #110 Conibear in a 'rat run into a bank in open water

Yep, 1962 1 1/2 long spring baited pocket set

Depends how hard you are willing to work, as much as a high population.

At an average of $50 a mink, I think we will all see what a respectable catch will be. I hope to hit 30. most years its 4-8. First mink was in a bank set in NJ, Denville area. It was a female. I think it was 1985.