Tips to keep them darned coons out of pocket sets meant for mink?

Set trap inside the pocket? Under the water by at least an inch or two?

Make Coon sets to take the Coon.
You will have similar problems when trapping Otter,Got to make beaver sets to keep the otter sets working when the otter come thru.

if you have the right banks, blind set on both sides of the pocket

This blind sets and no bait or lure.

Down here to keep the raccoons out you need to take them out. When I find a mink run at a crawfish farm that is going from something like canal, running up the bank, down a levee to another drainage ditch I run 330s in the water. Coming up out of the water I run 280's. I then move to 220's. Finally I will set 120's or 155s for the mink. So each end of the run starts big and finally ends up with mink traps. If I don't all of my mink bodygrips will mowed over. I have to get rid of the beaver, otters and raccoons before I can get to the mink. That's why if I find run just the mink are running I jump for joy as its a lot less work.

I’ve learned to be very particular as strictly a mink blind-setter. I choose mink blind set foothold locations that do NOT allow coons easy access AND use traps sized & strength to allow quick pull-out with minimal set disturbance! I mainly rely on BEs for mink but there are a number of blind set locations I look for and use with footholds before hard water! Probably the 1st rule of thumb is “see coon track do NOT set location”!

I trapped mink as an employee of MSU for 3 years, caught a lot of mink and never caught a single coon using BE sets! Dah!!

Put your trap further in the pocket, don’t shine the pocket and don’t bait it.

There’s so few here that I would take every one out of commission,embrace it and just make more sets. I’m more likely to catch a muskrat than a raccoon.

If you try to avoid coon, you will also avoid some mink. Some mink are lookers and at times won't enter your pocket. Setting the trap back in the hole will miss those mink. Also if coon want your bait they will reach in the pocket and either get caught or snap the trap most times. I would rather just catch the coon and remove the problem because if he gets a free meal, he will keep coming back.

Coon will still get caught in a lot of good blind sets.

Bottom edge sets avoid coon but also avoid the mink if he is running the bank and not hunting underneath the water.

If you have a lot of coon set enough traps to thin them out quickly and to hopefully have some working sets when the mink pass through.

As one well known trapper said, "For every plus there is a minus."

Coons are gas money

Sure coon are caught in some foothold blind set locations but there are blind set locations available that deflect coon but not mink!! Size matters as does knowing & understanding inherent behaviors! It’s true, mink do travel on land usually from one hunting area to another but I’m choosing to trap that same mink where it’s spending more time, in the water as it’s hunting & traveling and at specific prey structure which narrows down more precisely set locations BGs as well as footholds! That’s why lab analysis showed that during the 3 years I trapped for MSU, 81% of the mink’s stomach contents was aquatic!!!

I was only allowed to use the BE set during those 3 years with scientists & research Techs in the boat every check as witnesses (class action lawsuit) on 62 miles of combined river systems. Local trappers who had spent decades trapping the same waterways said there were no mink, local fur buyers that said there were no mink, including the DNR whose Field Techs said there were no mink from their study. Yet I caught mink in numbers that those entities I just mentioned called me & MSU liars in public hearings and newspapers even requiring me to REPEAT my performance on segments of the river I’d already trapped which I did successfully! Trappers should step out of the box and never underestimate the ability of the BE set to catch mink!

As the old welder saying goes, “easy for some, hard for others”

Seldom,

In no way was I disparaging the bottom edge set or tight blind sets.

I use some bottom edge sets, as well as blind sets and pocket sets.

If a person has the time, has little to no competition, and has the weather to utilize sets that will avoid coon then waiting the mink out until it finds your sets is the thing to do if you don't want to catch coon. I try to use sets that will take the mink on his first trip through. Those sets may be a mixture of all the different type of sets. At today's prices I don't want my ugly coon but I want to catch the mink as fast as I can and move down the road to new locations after several days. And with today's gas prices, that is unfortunately another reason I will make sets that will catch both coon and mink even though I would prefer not to catch the coon.

Decades ago while a member of Steve Gappa’s trapping forum I learned a lot about blind setting mink with footholds from him and though he was a Wisconsin trapper and me a Central Michigan trapper there were mink blind foothold setting philosophies I found I could use successfully before hard water time!! Some of the sets caught you coon & mink but some caught the trapper way more mink than coon. His mink foothold blind sets opened my eyes & mind to stepping out of the box but needing to know the inherent behavior of mink was of utmost importance for success AND not catching coon! It became obvious that if the trapper did not endeavor to learn the inherent tendencies of mink on his water he would certainly catch some mink but would fall short of performing at the highest success level!