Mink per set?

2 questions.
1. How many sets do you average per mink?
I am running 9-12 sets and averaging 1-3 mink per day.

2.How many mink have you caught in the same set?

That sounds like a high percentage of mink per trapnight.
You must have a good population.
Where I am in the north,if I run 12 boxes on a 5 day check It would be around 1-3 mink on checkday,in a good year.

I haven't trapped mink for years but my percentages were way less than that. The most mink I ever got was 7 in one trap along the outside edge of a culvert in a hole that had washed out over time. Those were caught in about two weeks.

I usually average about 1 for ever 10/11 sets and seldom get more then 1 per set unless it’s a female then I will sometimes get a male later

That’s on a 3 day check

1. How many sets do you average per mink? This depends on your mink population and your set locations.
2. How many mink have you caught in the same set? 31. All males in about 6 weeks time, in one snare location. It was on the Wallkill River, a high bank with a clump of willows about 12 inches from a straight down 6 foot drop to the water on the outside curve of the river. This was in late January and February so the males were running the banks looking for females. They would cut this curve to head upstream. Fastened the snare to the willows and mink flipped over the bank and was out of sight. Sadly that location became part of a wildlife refuge that next summer and could no longer be trapped.
Have had a few spots that yielded 20+ most of them being the back of a bank beaver lodge.

That is impressive!!! I really used to enjoy your demos, I hope you do some more in the future.......jk

Gonna do one at the PTA convention in June...

I would guess I made about 175 sets (roughly 60 stops) this season and caught 102. Most came in the first 2 1/2 weeks. 50 in the first 7 days.
I have a few spots that take multiples each year.
All of these are caught within a 7 mile radius of my place here in north west Ohio. Not what I would consider a heavy mink population.

Thats a lot of trapnights,but a good catch of mink.

That sounds about in line with my IA road lines a life time ago.

Your catch numbers are good.

Sets made on primary trails can give up several. 2-3 in a trap over a week is very good in my opinion, but you can catch more than that at a stop along a traveled drainage. You can catch that at a single stop in a single check when everything lines up, especially where you’re trapping. It’s important to set 2, 3, 4 traps on a well used trail, because bucks may be passing through uncaught if a non target plugs or knocks down a trap. I’m talking about sets that don’t destroy the set location, bodygrips especially. It’s also important to cover each possibility to get the most out of a stop. Crossovers, trails, culvert edges...there are places you trap that have a lot of mink traffic, I’m quite sure you already know this though


You’ll find some places are hotspots for them while other places only have a mink or two. I try to wipe a section of tracks to get a better idea what’s passing, and with mink, I like to run traps 4 or 5 checks then move my traps.

I should have added that 101 of the 102 came from a carp baited pocket set. About 80 percent of my catches come in the first 3 days. I target the family units early on.

Find what works for you and repeat a bunch of times. Don't be afraid of switching things up to see if there are more efficient ways in your area. I can't catch a mink using muskrat as bait. Then again I have not had a sizeable amount of rats to catch for years. For me it's fish as bait. Carp or sheepshead from lake erie work the best.

Look forward to seeing ya there

Ack, is your fish salted? or frozen then thawed?

How long have you been keeping up that average? Most I ever caught out of a set is 3. Did that several times.

Little over a month. Today is the first day that a set has caught twice. I am strictly blind setting.

Frozen whole then through a bandsaw. Never change the bait. No salt.

Some of these percentages on mink is absolutely amazing. My experience is in minnesota and iowa and typical is 10% catch rate excluding weather fronts and after 3 or 4 checks pull. Mink typically are not a high density animal, and I would be in awe if these percentages occurred year after year. Iowa’s Bud Hall rotated his lines to let them rest and I am aware of the incredible mink catches that have come out of these two states and I can’t even imagine what some of the catches are in other states with those catch rates. My experience is November and December and not breeding season trapping.

You trapping crawfish ponds ? Extremely high populations of critters on crawfish or catfish ponds in the south.

When I was after mink hard-core I caught 6 mink in six checks from the same trap. I had two other sets on the creek that caught 0. Missed on the next check then one more when I pulled. I was catching 250 in 4 weeks back then.

Crawfish ponds, they just started fishing plus the rut is fixing to start. I expect catch rate should start climbing.

Still picking away