Can you trap ROWs with permission from property owners?

Seldom did you not read the mink "catcher's" manifesto? Any bridge they can get under without being seen will be fair game come November is my guess.

Be just like decade or so ago when had ok prices. When you crawled down into the culvert/ditch that you had permission on, found it had already been set. Even if it was opening morning.

There will be no shortage of "catchers" out there. Mink catchers just like canine catchers----a dime a dozen. Upside is that's about all they will catch too. Hardly any canine trappers left and way less mink trappers. And last go around there were at least two buyers I can think of left in business in my parts (and probably 1-2 more up north of you). One is long deceased and the other lost enough money back then that you wont see him or the family ever buying again.

LOL! I agree with everything you said by golly! I’m too old to take care of business like I once did/could and besides, life is too short so I just move up stream & down and cut’em off.

I thought you were in a drought

We can get permission from landowners on some roads. But I'm not going to knock on 100s of doors to access a few wet culverts.

I'm sure I'm gonna have to share bridges and culverts this year I've had to myself for years. I'm okay with that, just part of the game.

I’d say several will quit after two or three gas fill ups. I’m fairly sure we don’t have near the mink, or rats, we used to have. Lots more coon, beaver and otters though.

Twelve inches of rain in twenty four hours ended that. One extreme or the other.

I could but I like it this way better, I'd prefer to not have to knock on hundreds and hundreds of doors. Also here the state and county rows are almost exclusively owned by the respective government agency. It's my land just as much as the guy who owns the land along side of it

Also here, the water is owned by the state. If we can legally access a navigable water body we can legally hunt, fish trap recreate etc on or in the water body regardless of who owns the land underneath. I hope to keep it that way. We have a long history of such accessible privileges, the only group whom lawmakers try to take it away from is trappers and the push is from anti trappers. Anything to make it harder and discourage participation.

In NY at least on County and Town roads the landowner pays taxes on the land including land UNDER the road. ROW would be ok only if I wasn’t taxed on that land.

What are the ROWs?

Right of way

The navigable waterway did not hold up for the Pa Steelheaders.
On one hand the fish are paid for by license,
and logs were floated on
those waters at one time.
On the other hand, the fishers act like entitled slobs.
It looked to me like Pa Steelhead Association
didn't stand a chance in court but I was not there.

Out of curiosity, are you related to Mort Neff that hosted Michigan Outdoors in the early years of that program

My strategy will be to figure out how to put the mink in the traps. Focus on the details as they develop. I’m excited for some opportunity and intend to exploit it. That’s trapping, figuring it out.

As a blind-setter by choice, I learned that knowing & understanding the inherent behaviors of mink to be most important along with prey habitat being of equal importance.

You guys that can consistently catch mink in blind sets deserve respect.