Best advice you can give me on Mink

I’m going to start chasing them and I already got basic knowledge on where they live and what sets to use. But if you guys could give me 1 thing to remember while mink trapping or one important truck you found out please let me know.

Blind sets cut banks.

Dont cut their glands when skinning

They dont always go into a hole, just come up and peek inside

Ha! This^^^

I caught a lot in feeder creeks with banks to make pocket sets in.

This! Search out these perfect blind set locations, then dig a pocket set right into it! 18-24" deep and a 5" hole angled upwards so the back of the pocket is dry and front is under 1" water. Set your trap tight to the edge of the pocket just under water, bait with a big chunk of fish, muskrat or mink deep in the back of the hole.

Set on sign!

if you look you can see where there running... be a trail down by the water of creek and another faint trail up yop... ive had better luck up top...look around a culvert on old road bed... then go look up top you find holes in the weeds... set a trap down in one of them holes... baited or not catch a mink !!

Lighter pan tension than you think ya need

Bottom edge set.

Jim

Blinds sets.

Use a heavy trap that will drown then in shallower water. Stake well as larger things often get into sets for them as well.

Them big bucks like to run the dry banks through the weeds. Find those trails that are to small to be coon trails that snake around. Blend in a 155 coni,, Trigger on the bottom just off the ground.

www.minktrapping.com

And do all ya can to attend Minktoberfest next year.

Stay away from bait coon are suckers for bait , blind set where ever you see tracks

Trap muskrats

Blind trail sets in warmer weather (above 0) bottom edge sets when below 0. That is how they run here it seems.

Blind sets, think like a mink, set lots of traps to cover the most possibilities, and be patient.
Jim

Make your pocket just a little tighter than the trap. Put the trap into the pocket with one of the levers of the coilspring sticking out. Twist the trap to lodge the trap tightly into the pocket so the dog side of the trap is in the pocket and the very edge of the pan is centered in the pocket. It is the least pan tension on the trap. Do not allow any space between the trap and the edge of the pocket. One inch of water over the trap. I make my pocket elbow deep and I use carp heads or a bloody chunk.

Mink are an animal of 1/2"s unlike a coon that bumbles around at the set. Too much room in a pocket will let you miss a lot of mink. You will find this set will catch coon as well. Dig two pockets at a stop. Vertical banks are ideal to put you pockets. Make sure they have no where to step on the edge of the pocket because they will use that spot to launch into a pocket from.

Get Rich Falers book

A mink is a land animal that inhabits the water, not the other way around.

I sure do miss long lining for mink.

patience

If you have mink tracks he will be back if there is food. They frequent an area more than most think. If I miss one he is usually there the next morning. LLL

Mama mink and the young of the year are pretty much home bodies but your older males will be on the move.
My advise would be to run a 100 or more sets and set every bridge and culvert that goes under a road that has open water. Gang set each location and that means at least 4 sets at each stop and In most cases 8 would be better.

I second Rich Faler's book. Also order Don Powell's video "Mink After MInk on Purpose". Don is the one who hosts Minktoberfest and is a heck of a serious mink trapper.

As Corky said PATIENCE and other tidbits of information.

Wait till it snows, then go walk or wade a few mink streams and follow their tracks and LEARN what they do, not what YOU think they do

Lenons Super range Super All Call - enough said

Quit now before your hopelessly ADDICTED to trapping them !

#1: Look at a location from the perspective of the height of a minks head (3 to 5 inches), not a mans height.
#2: what MikeTraps2 said "follow mink tracks in the snow". Then figure why the mink did what he did.
#3: Never overlook a bank beaver lodge, every mink going by will check it out.
#4: I believe in Ohio your season goes til the end of February, best time to catch big males is February when they start lookin' for love!

I see them often when fishing rivers in summer and followed many a track. No way better to learn mInk than from a mink. A little mink butt at any set will make it better - said little. Most folks but enough lure to scare mink to next county.

Dont worry about sign, they are more than likely around but phantom-like. Hard to see tracks in water or on gravel. And like said earlier, PATIENCE. i have caught some the first night and the last day of the season. Dont expect results like coon trapping and you will be OK.

Dont start trapping for them on purpose. It's awful, you cant go fishing, hunting, driving really anything without seeing spots you could set for mink. Going 70 mph down the highway I'll see mink tracks in the snow. Once you have a little success you want more. First its pocket sets, then blind sets, bottom edge sets, trail sets there's just no end to it.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread. Keep in mind a mink has small feet, minimal body weight and imo a short attention span. You have to be on the spot on the spot. An inch off is likely a miss. And it has to be where that mink is already likely to go.

Good luck, dont say no one warned you.

I’m wondering where I put pocket sets? Just grassy vertical banks? If so, how many and how far apart. It seems silly to just randomly put 8 pocket sets in a stream somewhere. I appreciate all the information. I also put in my first pocket set today, no pictures though. I dug in about 6-10 inches in a vertical grassy bank, minnows, muskrats, and crawfish live in it, I put a muskrat leg with some “midnight mink” lure on it guarded with an 11dbls and on a drowning cable. What do you think of the set?

That set should work. For right now I would just put one pocket set on each side of the creek. 8 pocket sets is just a waste of time and traps unless you have a bunch of coon in the area. Try to put your pocket sets on good locations such as where a feeder creek enters a bigger creek, near field tiles, where the end of a sand bar meets a higher bank, near a beaver dam, just outside the mouth of a culvert, or by an overhanging bank, etc.

What if I’m trapping a lake?

The mink will work the edges of the lake. There may be better locations along the lake shore such as any culverts, any feeder streams, any muskrat holes? If you have access to the outlet of the pond make sets there. Mink will follow the creeks that feed the pond and also follow the creek that drains the run off from the pond.

Get out there and experiment. Trial and error and the mink will be your best teacher.

There is muskrat out there, I’ve caught a few muskrats this season. It’s loaded with frogs and fish and minnows. I can access the feeder stream so I’ll set there. I have seen some mink tracks at the pond and I tried to catch him with a 120 in a hole it looks like he was going into, but no luck. To answer your question, yes there is muskrat holes and one whole bank is busted up cement riff Raff that has all kinds of cracks and holes in it (not made by animals, just where stuff was piled on)

Let them reproduce one more year . They may not be worth anymore per pelt but they will be more of them !! Make more money

My advice, never pull traps right before rainy/snowy weather. You will find that your catch rate during inclimate weather will be much better than "bluebird" weather. I figure, when a mink is already wet, it is more inclined to enter the water.

Old man that trapped mink years ago wouldn't set a trap until it came a snow . He would look for trails in and out of water and along under cut banks. He set 110 coniber exclusively . Run the traps for a week . miss a week then run 2 more weeks. He sure did catch a lot . But that was his routine.

Any tips on avoiding coon at the pocket sets?

If you have coon your going to catch them. That's why you gang set.

I like to catch them swimming!

https://youtu.be/1vvZDanZHzw

Mink are cool. I saw two mink this morning squealing and chasing each other.

Set every single trail at key locations, and set extras on main trails to account for coons/otters/opossums/skunks plugging sets. If the population is there and mink are moving, that’s how you get triples, quadruple, maybe more catches at locations.


Focus your efforts at key locations. Don’t dink around with locations that aren’t travel hubs

Don't put any bait in them, that'll keep a lot of the bank running coon from smelling it. I make my pocket sets a lot different than most because most of the cricks here go up and down quite a bit this time of year. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow if I remember to take one of my pocket sets.

Sounds good- now make 199 more like that and you should have some action every day.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What they say. And you gotta have mink to catch mink.

It is good if the pocket was smaller than the 11. They are great traps and I used them for years but it is easier to use a coil spring in my opinion. I know this will get push back but I have never used mink lure because it is not necessary again in my opinion. If a mink goes by a pocket he will investigate especially if there is food there. I have seen this a lot. You will catch that same mink the next night usually. If he gets by you or you do not see any bait he has been there and got around you somehow. Small guide sticks placed at the sides of the pocket at an angle like an upside down V will stop mink from going around or over the top of your trap. I would go elbow deep on the pocket since mink can easily reach bait at 6" without getting caught. LLL

I just can't imagine digging 100 pocket sets and making them 15" deep.

Take your tile spade make a slot In the bank pry It open like you would if you were planting pine tree seedlings. Drop In your bait and kick It shut. Place your trap stake It down and move on.

I do not use a tile spade. My digger makes a perfectly round 3.75" pocket that a 1.5 fits very tight in. My banks are clay and most are still there the next season. They just need cleaned out. I can't see putting 8sets in a place. That is a waste of effort in my opinion. Besides I would have to make four trips on some ditches because I would have eight coon. lol. Besides why would I want to kick in the very thing that catches a mink's attention in the first place? LLL

Looks like Minktoberfest is going to happen this year again.

Beav, sometimes I think some of these guys have more time than we got. I think they might even take a tape ruler when they are setting.

Ditto to everything LL has said and more!

If you want to catch a lot of mink here you need to cover a lot of ground and set a lot of traps.
That said,it is fairly easy to catch mink when trapping other species if you scout for sign a bit and set on sign.
A lot of guys here will trap mink while setting for beaver in the fall-it is no extra work really and you are covering the area that are mink magnets like beaver dams and beaver lodges.
Kick a couple holes in the side of a beaver lodge at the water line and stick in a chunk of rat or sucker in the hole with a foothold set.Some guys will take rats at the same spots as the beaver and mink by setting a funnel trap in the shallow entrance(the one that the rats use) of the beaver house.

Keep good maps and records from year to year.

If there is a mink there this year there will be one every year.

No advice from me... I've had zero luck catching mink, probably because I have violated rule #1: Trap where the mink are.

But I'm not sure if my area is devoid of mink or I just can't zoom in on their sign... And I have a hard time translating all the info I've looked at to apply it to my trapping areas.

Mike

My digger very similar to Larry's i can dig 100 to 150 plus pockets a day i run a minimum of 18" most are 24" use a 1.5 coils very tight hole if get to wide use a guide stick or two i gang set 2 to 6 traps to a stop all on drowners because we have so many coons that way a trap or two is open for mink i run hundreds of miles i look for open Farm ground with few trees and small Grassy Creek to avoid less coons that my ideal mink area i have every thing map out and mark and move fast

"I’m wondering where I put pocket sets? Just grassy vertical banks? If so, how many and how far apart. It seems silly to just randomly put 8 pocket sets in a stream somewhere" Go across streams, not up and down them. You need exposure to many critters, you are not out to trap them all at anyone spot. It seems to me the bigger the stream the more mink pass by increasing you chance at a catch. Up the little tribs you will get one mink pass a week, on the bigger water one will pass every day. But the bigger the creek the more the water will fluctuate with changes in the weather and the more you will have to change location a bit. Find the biggest creek that does not change much. Here in Pa on lakes and reservoir, when I find upside down boats, I make adirt hope set under the boat with an indicator ribbon coming out to show a hit.....jk

Mike it's not just you I can't catch one either. Made pocket sets and sets at beaver huts nothing but coon. Dont think there's many around but know a guy that caught one on the Glover river.

Just something I notice on mink is I catch most on the south or west side of the stream. The only thing I come up with is more vegetation grows on side of stream that receives most hours of sunlight.

Push, I've had people that live around Grand Lake tell me they see them all the time... Problem is getting permission to trap where they see them. One of the spots I trapped forever is a tributary of Grand but I've had no luck there... Ever. There's either zero activity or the garbage raccoons (starved runts with poor fur) plug your sets.

There's a creek south of Grove that an older brother of my buddy trapped years ago... He was after coon and complained he couldn't keep the mink out of his sets. I swam at that spot a few times in the summer and can see why... It just looks minky. But as I understand it, ownership has changed hands and access is now restricted. I may see if I can try to access it next season and scratch my itch to trap mink.

Mike

Blind sets.
And join us at www.minktrapping.com

Set a trap where ever I put out my stringer of trout, on Big Goose Creek.

Get a loan from your local bank.
You' re going to need it, at today's mink prices !!!