Last Sunday we got 3 feet of snow followed with below zero mornings all week, like lots of you have. Today I was just tired of being stuck at home so I thought I would drive to some of my old mink sets and look for some mink tracks (saw none). With this cold the water running thru the culverts is froze even under the road. The culverts and small bridges have become bobcat highways. I must have seen 20 places with cat tracks going under the road thru these 24 to 36 inch culverts. They walk right up on top of the stream ice covered with snow and thru the culvert. Do they do this by you? I have not seen it here before. I believe because the water under the road never completely froze over before. Boy, if they were legal to trap (snare) here I could have a field day. But they are not.

Its very common. Very common to walk on ice down any creek or ditch when the water freezes. Culvert or no culvert.

They love culverts like a mink is attracted to a pocket set the second cat this year to check out this culvert and he’s stops by once a week in the last 2 weeks.

I've caught a few cats that were using culverts to cross under a road. Snares work great...poke some sticks in the dirt on either end to block off leaving only a narrow opening to guide them into a snare. Also set a 220 in a box cubby and caught cats. It's legal where I live to trap the county right of way if you have the landowners permission. One word of caution, don't pull off the road right in the bottom next to a culvert. Or with snow on the ground get out of the truck to ck your set. Johnny Sneekem knows what's going on and you can kiss your trap goodbye.

The culverts around here have rabbit trails beat down going through them, I would think the cats know where to hunt.

Out in the sagebrush country of eastern Oregon a lot of the good cat trappers focus on setting up the culverts in the two tracks. Many culverts out there have holes in them for snare supports.

Overflow culverts for dams here are popular for cat/coon activity just blind set them.

Culverts work great around here.
Jim

We caught our bobcat on a dry creek culvert set this year. We've caught 3 cats at this same set over the last few years.

I was trapping in SC and I put a live trap in a culvert trying to catch some coon. I caught 3 bob cats in that culvert in 2 weeks. Never caught a coon there.

yes, once the small streams freeze, they become highways great for trapping and making cubby's around

So what happened to your mink---must be some kind of disease. I used to look forward to your demos on mink snaring......jk

Guinea worms have all but wiped out the mink by me.

Every otter I’ve skinned had them too. See them in their legs.

I catch a lot of cats near culverts. I don’t think they are intentionally using them as travel ways under the road but are just hunting prey that may be using them as cover. I find cats and coyotes sometimes have toilets on the road right above the culverts. I usually put in a scent post set where I see cat sign around a culvert. I run drags with 10’ chain and when a caught cat gets in a culvert and I have to pull him out it sometimes gets a little western.

I run cats with hounds and I've put a lot of them in culverts over the years. It can be a pain sometimes, cat in the middle of an 18" culvert and after you shoot it you have to try and wiggle in there to get it. I've been in several where I had to hold both arms out in front of me and scrunch my shoulders to fit. Lots of fun when it is 10 degrees out with an inch of water running through the culvert.

I also learned years ago to check culverts for tracks. They cross through them quite a bit. But more often they walk down to them and check them for prey and don't go in if there isn't anything there. Snares inside a culvert wouldn't be my choice (I realize you can't use footholds so you are limited) because of how often they check without entering.

Good cat dogs learn to check every culvert for cat scent, just like you or I check them for tracks.