Mink Trapping Part 5

Go to the brook in the early morning, before the scent has had time to cool. Allow the dog to hunt along the borders and under the banks, and when he picks up a track, work along with him until he has the game in hiding. You will find it necessary to a.s.sist him considerably, as mink by no means always travel on land. When one takes to the water, as they usually do at short intervals, the trail is broken beyond the ability of the strongest nosed dog to follow at such times as this, that is when Mr. Mink takes the brook for it, one should go ahead with the dog and find where he resumed dry footing.

It will probably not be far, for he is in and out every few yards or so, and if you go far without striking the trail you had better turn back, for he is most likely hiding in the bank somewhere behind you.

After locating the hole where he is hiding, let the dog dig him out while a man stands a little distance up and down the brook respectively, with gun ready c.o.c.ked for him when he comes along. If the hole extends some distance back into the bank, the rear end may usually be reached, after a few trials, by thrusting the bar down from overhead, which will have the effect to send the hunted animal forth in a hurry. Often, however, the spade will have to be brought into requisition and used freely before the object is accomplished.

At first he will probably forsake one hole only to take refuge in another, but when he finds that you are really after him, and that there is, moreover, a dog in the racket, he will try the dodge of swimming under water. Then is your time. Watch for him at the shallow places, where he will prove an easy mark. Have guns loaded light and aim to have charge strike a little to one side of body. The concussion will be sufficient to stop him, and the fur will not be injured as in firing point blank. It is exciting sport for the mink is like "greased lightning" in his movements, and if given the least chance will outwit both dog and man and escape.

An old New Hampshire gunner told us that he and his partner once got sixteen mink this way in one week, the best of which brought them twelve to fifteen dollars a skin. He knew absolutely nothing about trapping so resorted to this method instead. We have mentioned spade, bar and guns as comprising the necessary outfit, but of course various other implements of one's own invention and manufacture can often be used to advantage. Some make great account of a piece of wire with a sharp hook at one end for thrusting into the hole and drawing the mink to the light, as a trout from the water. Others use a long handled spear to thrust under banks, or to pinion the game when going through shallows. A truly barbarous practice besides the further objections of greatly damaging the pelt of the animals taken thus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROKE THE FASTENING.]

Another mode of capturing the mink is to lie about the streams on wet and foggy days and shoot him. They travel a great deal in such weather. By selecting a spot where you can keep well hidden, yet commanding a long stretch of beach under some overhanging bank, you stand a good chance to secure a shot if you have plenty of patience.

Of course you would not be apt to get many in a day, but one mink represents a pretty good day's work at the price they are selling now.

One characteristic of the animal should be borne in mind when pursuing this method of hunting him, and that is his persistency in going whichever way he wishes to go. If a mink starts to go up a brook he's going up before he gets through with it, or lose his life trying; and down the same. The more anybody or anything tries to prevent him, the more desperate and reckless he grows in his efforts to accomplish his aim. So if one sees you and turns back startled don't follow him, but just crouch down in a convenient hiding place and wait for him. The chances are ninety to one that he will soon be back again.

I have known trappers to have good success taking mink with a common box trap such as is used in catching rats about the house and barn, and I am inclined to think that aside from its bulkiness this is a pretty good sort of trap. Some use poison as for the wolf, but the use of this on animals was always repugnant to me.

Perhaps the queerest method of which I ever heard was that mentioned by a gentleman in Illinois. He claimed to have caught mink with an ordinary fish hook, baited, and attached to a piece of wire.

I do not believe, however, that any of the methods mentioned in this article are equal for effectiveness and true sport to the regular way with steel trap or deadfall. Some of them, it seems to me, I could not be induced to make use of on any account. And yet, as already stated, one might find himself in circ.u.mstances that would justify their adoption.

CHAPTER XII.

ILLINOIS TRAPPER'S METHOD.

I for one will say that the mink is a very shy animal, but I do claim he can be caught if you study him and set your trap in the right place. I will suppose that you are trapping along a small stream. All you need is plenty of traps, a belt with a small hatchet attached, a small caliber pistol, and a pair of hip rubber boots. A pair of these boots are as necessary in a trapper's outfit as the main spring is in the watch or clock. Be sure to have your traps in good working order.

Oh yes, I forgot the scent. This you can make yourself by cutting up a couple of cats and muskrats in fine pieces and let them rot good, then add some fish oil and four or five different kinds of oil that you can buy at a drug store. To make this scent all the better you had better put in about one-half pound of limburger cheese. Now then you got her to smelling just right, and every mink that gets a whiff of this perfume will say, oh joy, and hike off in the other direction as fast as his legs can carry him. I took a little bottle of this great scent with me once on a trapping trip. I carried it in my coat pocket. I was leaning over some roots setting a trap when the cork came out of the bottle--well, you know the rest. I never need to hunt for this coat when I want to put it on, for it always makes itself known.

You are now ready to set your traps. You might take a couple of dogs and several small boys to help track up the ground. This the mink can see and smell, and it makes them easier to catch. Now then with your traps on your back, get down into the water, and be careful when going in and out of the water and not make tracks in mud and on side of bank.

The place to set your trap is on the edge of the water. Walk along in the water and examine every hole just even with the water's edge.

Some of the holes may come out several inches under water. Set your trap here in water 2 1/2 inches deep, turn spring to right and cover trap with a muddy leaf, fasten trap with a stick run through ring, and have chain stretched out in deep water as far as it will reach.

You will see that you haven't touched a thing but your trap and stake. As for the trap, the running water will clean it of any scent you may have left on by handling, but the stake I splash with water and wash a little. If in setting the trap you touch or step on the bank, wash out your tracks with water.

Now then move on, and if you come to a tree on the bank that has lots of roots just even with the water, examine it close, for here is a good place for a mink den. If you find a hole set your trap as before, being careful to leave things as they were. A place where the bank guides the mink into the water is a good set. If you set a trap and have reason to think that the mink will walk around it, then stick up small sticks and little bushes so as to make a fence to guide your mink into the trap. A mink is not afraid of it, for he sees bushes in the water, and it will not scare him a bit.

The way just spoken of, of sticking sticks across the water, is a very important way to catch mink, and I advise all trappers to give it a little more thought. If you trap along a ditch or very small stream just try it. Stick your sticks across the stream just like a little fence, leaving three gaps, one at each end and one in the middle. Set your three traps in here, and I bet you will get nearly every mink that goes up that stream. Of course, stand in the water while you are doing all of this, and your success will be doubly better.

When you put out a line of traps where there are mink, hide every trap as carefully as you can. Suppose you set a trap uncovered at what you suppose to be a muskrat hole, you don't know but what some mink might come along, and on entering the hole he sees the trap--well, it don't take him long to leave the place. Then boys, the very next hole that mink goes into he will look for another trap. You don't need to fool a mink very often until he becomes educated, and then catch him if you can.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRAPPING DOWN STREAM.]

To catch mink successfully you must have open water. I very seldom set for mink when water is all frozen up. Did you ever notice that you made your best catch of mink on a snowy or rainy night? Now, why is this? It is because your tracks and scent were either washed out or covered up by snow. A mink is not a hard animal to catch if you have water and weather just right, and you are careful about setting your trap. But he is a very shy animal, and boys if you are not careful to study his habits you will pay dear for every pelt you get.

CHAPTER XIII.

EXPERIENCED TRAPPERS' WAYS.

At first when I started to trap I thought I could catch mink every time, says an Iowa trapper. That was three years ago this last February. Well I caught two mink that spring and seven the next winter and sixteen the next. That was the first season that I was able to catch every mink that trots or lopes my way, big, little, old and young are treated all alike; sometimes it takes a mink three or four days to come out of a hole when you track him in.

A water set is a pretty good set for mink but you cannot find many springs that you can set a trap in the winter time, so I set dry sets for them. At a hole is a good place. Put a piece of muskrat carca.s.s in the hole to keep the rabbits from going in and set a Blake & Lamb trap in the entrance. Chop a hole in the frozen ground large enough for the trap and cover it with tissue paper and thinly with dry dirt.

Be sure to put some dry material of some sort under the trap to keep it from freezing down, have the surface of the ground level after it is covered over with dry dirt so you cannot tell just exactly where the trap is yourself, or in other words don't have a high place where the trap is when it is covered over. Fasten the trap to a drag of some sort. If you fasten to something solid the mink will pull out if he is only caught by the toes.

I caught two mink one winter that only had three legs. They were the ones that pulled out of my traps because I had the trap fastened too solid. One mink I caught was only caught by one toe and was tied to a little brush drag; when I tracked him up I found that he had gone about ten rods. When I got in sight of him he got stout and pulled out and started off at a pretty stiff gait, and I had to let the dog catch him for he was geared up too high for me to catch.

Trappers, have you not had your mink trap set and baited under a shelving bank and seen mink tracks going up and down by the bait and they would not touch it? Get some sticks and stick them from bank down into water that is five or six inches deep, is the advice of a Maine trapper. Leave a place for trap up next to bank where he travels and cover nicely with fine rotten wood, and you will get more mink setting this way than you will with all the bait you bother with, that is, if you pick out such places along the brook and stick up sticks close enough so he cannot get by without going over trap.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EASTERN TRAPPER AND TRAPS.]

I don't mean to say that bait isn't good, because I have caught a good many with bait, and there are lots of times when I can't find such a place and of course use bait and scent. Some say mink are afraid of human scent and set the trap with gloves, and that they are foxy and hard to catch. I don't think a mink knows any more than a skunk, and I can catch them just as easy. Last winter I went to my trap one morning and found two toes of a mink in one and one toe in another, and inside of a week I had both of them in the same trap and in the same place.

Mink are not very plentiful in some places which makes some people think they are hard to catch, and others don't know how to set a trap right for mink.

The first requisite in trapping mink is water, either a lake or river, says a Minnesota trapper. Small streams are to be preferred, and the swifter the current the better. Why? Because swiftly running water does not freeze so quickly, a fact every boy knows.

Next, select a spot on the sh.o.r.e where the bank is steep, ascending directly up from the water, and place your trap (a No. 1 or 1 1/2 of any good make) in about two inches of water and about six inches from the bank, and fasten trap by driving a stake full length of chain out in the water. Many trappers advocate the use of both bait and sliding pole or spring pole, but personally I do not care for either, unless there is danger of trap lifters "swiping" your game; in such cases the sliding pole is the best, as it is more humane and game is entirely concealed. If the bank is not too high set your trap from the top and place in position with a stick, for by so doing you do not make any muss around the trap.

Now let me caution young trappers about setting too many traps for one mink. One trap well set is better than a dozen just slung in or even well set and carefully concealed. It is not necessary to have four or five traps within a radius of six feet as young trappers often do. I discovered a case of this kind once.

For two weeks once I was after a sly representative of the mink family but without success. Every trick in my command was tried without success, but one morning I determined to try for him up a small spring creek, where he was in the habit of going. I hesitated about putting my traps on this creek. I had hesitated about putting my traps on this creek as the owner usually lifted all traps found there. As there was no snow there except small patches I was not aware of another trapper's work on this brook, but a few drops of blood on a patch of snow caused me to open my eyes, and I was not long in discovering his traps. A blind man could have done that for they were literally thrown in, some almost upside down and others with the spring half out of the water.

I followed his line for about twenty rods, and then discovered the place of capture. Six traps were set in as many holes, and all in a radius of five feet, but they had done the business. Was I mad? I shall leave it to the reader to guess. Boys, let me tell you this capture was an accident and not the result of skill.

I have endeavored to explain as simply as possible one set for mink, but this method will not answer all winter, for all the streams will freeze during extreme cold weather. On nearly all lakes and rivers springs can be found, and here is the place for your traps in cold weather. Common sense will show you the most suitable spot for the set. All minks have a weakness for wading in such springs, and a trap carefully placed and concealed will get a mink if there are any in the vicinity.

It was early in the fall of 1901 and I was working on the farm. I one day saw signs of mink under a bridge near home so I had a friend who was working for us set two traps for him that day, writes another party from Minnesota. I set the traps a few inches under water, covered them with wet leaves, thinking, "I will have you tomorrow."

Well, the next morning we came along but no mink, so in the afternoon we looked at them again and Mr. Mink got in one trap, pulled it in between two logs, and the other trap was sprung. I then pulled on the other chain and the mink was in the trap. I pulled and all at once his foot slipped out. This taught Mr. Mink a lesson.

I set my traps again, and after this he sprung traps about as fast as I could reset them. So I set six more traps and got some ten and twelve inches under water. I used to reset the traps before I went to dinner, and after dinner he had every one sprung and the water looked very muddy. I laid for him but never did see him. I trapped for that mink every year until 1904. I saw his tracks on the snow so I got out some snow sets and one January morning I found him dead in the trap.

He was a large dark mink and had lost all his toes by traps.

A good place to catch mink is at the mouth of a spring. Get your traps well under water and cover up with wet leaves, as a mink usually goes up such a small stream. I will say to the beginner, never get cheap traps, as they are the dearest in the end. Never catch fur until it is prime.

I find no difficulty in catching mink if they are plenty, but thin them down to one or two well educated animals and your task is different, says an Ohio trapper. Where plenty I set in riffles, building stone walls or staking across not too high, a foot is plenty, leaving one or more openings, according to width. Place a trap (No. 1 or 1 1/2 Newhouse is best) in each opening. I invariably stake at such places for if attached to shunks, bushes or small logs, the trap is liable to float away in sudden rising of high water.

Place a trap at mouth of tiles, ditches or drains, staking well out from trap.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BARRICADE SET.]

I have caught a great many mink along where the over-hanging sod had curled down, leaving a s.p.a.ce between sod and bank sometimes of a good length. This is a capital place to catch mink, as every one that goes up and down that side will almost always go through. All trappers know mink are very inquisitive about such places, and if the place is formed in summer or early fall they will already have used it as a runway. After finding such a place, put a trap at one or both ends of hole. Set trap level and cover well but not too deep, and I am sure if there are any mink traveling the stream you will stand a fair show of getting them. I have caught two mink at such places, one in each trap in the same night, more than once.

An old hollow log is also a good place for mink with a trap at each end. You will notice when there is a light shift of snow that mink cross old logs, limbs, boards and dams that are across streams. Put your trap in the center of crossing place, as you cannot tell where he will get on or off at. Always cover traps when not setting in water. Old hollow stumps, trees, openings in fences, stone walls, or flood-gates, drifts and the like are good places to set traps for mink; path openings in brush, in fact anywhere you see signs of their travels, as they most generally have a route which they follow more or less. I have followed them across country from the headwaters of one stream to another, to swamp and swales where the muskrat abounds, turning every "hole inside out," so to speak, and they seem to know them all.

For bait I use fish oil, you can get it almost anywhere and it is cheap and good, the older the better. Place a few drops on the end of a tile, roots of a tree or stone, or in fact anywhere you have a trap but not on your trap. I never put it on dead bait but just sprinkle it around. A mink likes to kill his own game. Make him think there is some around and hunt for it, which he surely will do if there is nothing but the scent to find.