Mink Trapping Part 6

To be a successful mink trapper you must study his trails and set your trap accordingly.

Most methods that I read for trapping the mink are for trapping in the north or far north. Now some of them are good, while others are useless here. From my observation of the habits of the mink in Virginia, I don't think they have any fixed abode (in trapping season any how). Wherever is most convenient after a full meal or light overtakes them they den up for the day, and the next day may be snugly sleeping under the roots of a blown over tree or under the banks of a creek five miles away. The building of barricades of rocks, old chunks or pens of sticks and bait within is time and labor thrown away. Now, young trapper, I am going to give you four of my favorite sets for mink, that if you will follow will give you some success, if there are any mink where you are trapping.

Follow along ditches and find where they cross, usually called secret ditches, which come into the main one, set your trap at the entrance of the covered one a little under water, and cover with water soaked leaves. Do not use bait but may use scent, or a decoy. One may be fixed by making a box about 6 inches square, 12 or 18 inches long, of old boards, with hoe plant in bank at desirable place so as to look natural. Set your trap in front.

Another is to get a piece of hollow log 3 or 4 feet long, place in mouth of ditch or branch where it comes into creek, anchor with stakes or weigh down with stones, close one end, place trap at other, under water if possible; place bait in log. This is a sure set for c.o.o.n. It took me nearly half a day last September to cut a log, get it in branch and weigh down with stones to keep high water from washing away, but caught four mink and two c.o.o.n at the entrance.

Another is where banks are steep along small streams. Set trap in water, cause anything that may come along to pa.s.s over trap by a row of dead sticks, weeds or a bunch of old weeds. I have also caught many by placing two old logs five or six feet long, four or five inches apart in shallow water near a steep bank, cover with a larger log. If you have plenty of traps you can set one in each end. Do not use bait but can use scent. Be sure to search out all the old hollow logs near streams and set trap in or near entrance--place bait in log. By following these rules any one, where game is fairly plentiful, can catch some mink.

CHAPTER XIV.

MANY GOOD METHODS.

Last winter I knew of at least eight trappers who were trapping for mink along the same stream where I was trapping, and while all of them combined caught four mink, I had the good luck of catching thirteen in my traps and I shot one one morning, making fourteen in all, says an Ohio trapper.

I wonder how many readers have ever heard a mink scream when in a trap? I think it is the most blood-curdling hair-raising noise I have ever heard; it is equal to the scream of a panther. I had great sport last winter by sending some young boy trappers out to track a mink to his den. I told them that all they had to do was to follow him to the last hole he crawled into and then set their traps, but after following him for about three miles they came back discouraged and disappointed. They said he had gone into about one thousand holes, but had always come out again, and such was a fact.

I don't know how they do in other parts of the country, but here it is next to impossible to track one down; it looks as if they never stop. I have followed them for six miles already and they were still going on; I don't believe that they have any regular den or hole after the breeding season is over; you just have to catch them on the run.

One evening last fall I was sitting on the creek bank fishing when a very large mink came up the creek by me and he was a curiosity; his tail was just as white as snow. I tried awfully hard to get hold of him last winter, but failed. I presume he never stopped until he reached the north pole.

I have two methods for trapping them; one is to find a hole along some stream, an old muskrat or woodchuck hole is best. If there are no holes it is an easy matter to make one. It is a well known habit of the mink to be crawling into every hole he comes to, and I have known them to go one hundred yards out of their path, just for the pleasure of investigating an old woodchuck hole.

After finding a suitable hole for setting your trap, throw a piece of muskrat liberally doped with equal parts of oil of peppermint and sweet oil back in the hole, and set your trap at the entrance; use a little care in concealing the trap and sprinkle a few drops of the above oil over the trap, and you may be sure of having the pleasure of skinning the first mink that comes along.

I have caught them as far as two miles from any stream in my c.o.o.n and fox traps, so that goes to prove that they do not stay along the streams altogether.

Another method I use, and the one I consider the best, is to go along the banks of some stream, where you are sure that mink are in the habit of traveling, then get four old boards, six or eight feet long and six inches wide, (if necessary logs can be used instead of boards) then stake them down on their edges so that they will form the letter X, only instead of crossing them leave a small opening of three or four inches like this X for the mink to run through, then set the trap a few inches either way from the center, or two traps can be set, one on each side of the center. They will never jump over the boards, but instead they will guide them over the trap.

After an experience of 34 years in trapping mink I presume I can give a few points, writes Mr. Moses Bone, of Iowa, that may help younger trappers who wish to trap mink. The mink is very cunning and hard to catch in a steel trap unless you know how and where to set, which is about the only secret there is in catching mink. I have had people write to know what scent I used and how I set traps. A man can learn better methods as long as he traps--experience is the best teacher--and unless he is willing to work hard he will never make a successful trapper of any kind of game. A trapper simply wants to shoulder his traps early in the morning and travel ten, twenty and perhaps thirty miles a day; he must foot it, for no other method of traveling will do. The writer has done it many times, starting before daylight and not getting home until after dark.

As before stated, my experience as a mink trapper began 34 years ago, my brother and I trapping together, and we began putting out our traps the first week in November, 1867. There were very few trappers then and mink were plentiful. In four weeks we caught 101 mink and 50 muskrats. The mink were mostly in prime condition and brought $300.00. Rats at this time were worth 25 cents each.

At the beginning of the trapping season my brother in one night caught 15 mink, the largest catch I ever knew. In 1873 I caught 10 mink in one night, but it took two days to visit my traps, walking 60 miles. In 1878 I caught 15 mink in one hole where the water ran all winter, and I never had to bait the trap as the scent was enough to attract every mink coming near. In the past three years I have caught 90 mink within a mile of home. Several years ago I caught 8 in one place.

I use steel traps, not so many as I used to, as trappers are numerous nowadays. Water set was always my favorite way of catching mink, setting about two inches under water, in a spring, ditch or where the water ran swift, otherwise the water will freeze over. Of course when very cold weather comes, dry land sets must be resorted to. I always use No. 1 steel traps. No. 1 1/2 is better for skunk or c.o.o.n. For bait use chicken, rabbit, or still better, muskrat, but they must be strictly fresh.

In order to make mink trapping interesting one must make it pay, and where there are plenty of the animals the scientific trapper can make it pay, for they are about as easily caught as any other game when you understand your business. Mink fur is not good and prime before the middle of November in Iowa and states in same lat.i.tude, and it is useless to catch them earlier.

When you see signs of the mink set your trap as near as you can get to a spring, ditch or running water with a steep bank a foot or more high. Here dig a hole in the bank 6 or 8 inches inward and low enough to let the water flow in. Now get a forked stick, cut off one fork say an inch long, leaving the other 6 or 8 inches long. Sharpen the end of the long fork and run it through your bait (remember bait must be fresh) up to the fork. The bait is now fastened on the stick and run it in the bank back in the hole as far as you can.

If any mink comes along they will find it. Set your trap near entrance, but always in the current. Take weeds or sticks, say a foot long, stick them in the mud, making a lane so the mink must pa.s.s over the trap in order to get the bait.

If you wish a good scent to draw mink in the spring of the year, collect the scent bags of the muskrat and preserve them in alcohol, to which is added 5 cents worth of oil of c.u.min if you like. I discarded all scents, however, 30 years ago, finding nothing better than fresh bait, the more b.l.o.o.d.y the better. The mink has a good smeller. For dry land set I go on the same principles, but cover traps with leaves, gra.s.s or fine rubbish.

This method is very successful for mink, and in fact for almost any fur bearing animal that travels up and down a creek, says an Illinois trapper. The first thing to do is to set your trap near the sh.o.r.e so it will be about two inches under water. Stake the trap or fasten it to a drag, just as you like. The trap should be a No. 1 1/2 or you can set two or three No. 1 traps together. Now after the trap is set, get some weeds or brush and begin at the trap and make a V shaped pen, leaving an opening where the trap is about ten inches wide if you are trapping for c.o.o.n. The brush or weeds, whichever is used, should extend several feet from the trap in either direction.

After you are through it should be like ill.u.s.tration No. 1. This, we will suppose, is for catching animals coming down the creek. Now go down the creek a few rods and set another trap, but have the narrow opening of the pen pointing up the creek, as in the ill.u.s.tration No.

2, which will catch an animal traveling up the creek. If these pens are made right, then a mink will walk into the pens and through the opening nine times out of ten instead of walking around them. Try this method once and be convinced. These pens should be about a foot high.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORTHWEST TRAPPER AND MINK.]

If brush is used it should be fine so it will lie close together so a mink cannot pa.s.s through. If there is danger of the creek washing the brush away, then fasten it by driving a few small stakes in the ground to hold it.

Remember that no bait or scent should be used. If footprints are left on the ground, then splash water on them. Remember that half of the pen is on the sh.o.r.e and the other half is in the creek, providing the creek is a wide one; this depends on the width of the creek. It is a good idea to trap on both sides of a creek; one is sure then of catching an animal whether it goes down on one side or the other.

This is the only method I use and it has proven to be successful.

If a mink is hungry and finds bait that has been left for him he will pay no attention to human scent, while if he is not hungry he will not take the bait be it ever so fresh. A mink will sometimes make a trail in the fresh snow by pa.s.sing several times over the same route and then never use that trail again. I have known otter to do the same.

I caught two mink last winter in a ditch, setting trap in the water.

The first night I caught a medium sized mink and the third night I caught a small one, and would have caught every mink that went up that ditch if it had not frozen up and snowed so during the time that I could not keep the traps properly set.

If a person sets out a line of traps in this country, Iowa, while there is snow on the ground, he is simply going to a great deal of trouble to give them to some one.

In trapping mink I watch for signs, and when I locate a mink I consider it mine and it generally is, while if you bait up a trap somewhere that you may think is a good place to catch a mink, it often happens that you may make a good many trips to your trap before you get a mink, and you may say to yourself that it is human scent that keeps them away, when perhaps there has not been a mink near the trap. My advice to young trappers is not to set where a mink may go but set it where you know he is going, and you will find it no trick to catch mink.

I have many different ways of trapping the mink, says a Pennsylvania trapper, as I set my traps only where I see their signs, and as the signs are often different, and found in different kinds of places, one way is not enough. I use Blake & Lamb No. 1 traps mostly for mink. I never stake a trap down except in water set. On dry land I fasten to a brush clog.

If one sets only where he sees the signs, and only sets one or two traps for each mink, from one to two dozen traps are all that are required. In fall and early winter I set my traps is natural enclosures in old drifts, in hollow logs, under roots of trees, etc., baiting with fresh muskrat, fish, rabbit, chicken, mice or birds, using fish oil or muskrat musk for scent.

I do not believe in using mixed scents. In late winter and early spring I set traps in the same kind of places but without bait, using the musk of mink for scent. The mink is not looking for food then, and such scents as fish-oil and muskrat musk are not as good as the musk of the mink itself.

The traps should always be covered with some light substance, which will not look out of place. Never smoke your traps, boil them in walnut hulls, maple bark or sweet fern. Mink may also be caught by tying a rabbit in a shunk of a hollow log, blocking one end shut and setting his trap in the other end.

When streams are open the shyest mink may be caught by putting several small live fish on a string and stretching the string in a V shaped enclosure, in shallow water, setting the trap at the open end.

Mink are easily caught by setting the trap at the foot of a steep bank which they use. If the trap is properly set, the bank will guide the mink into the trap.

There are many other ways of trapping the mink, where the signs are different, and found in different places. An experienced trapper can trace a mink for miles, where another person would not see a sign. A trapper must be able to read signs as he would read a book. As to human scent, that is all nonsense. The scent will not hang to the trap or bait more than a couple of hours.

I find a stream where mink frequent, look for tracks either in or out of water, close to edge, however, says an Arkansas trapper. Now don't set your trap on a track thinking you will get a mink, but look for a slide; mink have a slide same as otter; don't set on slide but go above slide along bank where water is not over four inches deep. Set a No. 1 or 1 1/2 trap, cover spring, don't disturb bank but just lay a small pole, attach your trap chain to this, cover trap and chain with old wet leaves. Don't take your hands, get a stick and rake the leaves over it, and do not let any one cause you to think that mink are not afraid of human scent. Be sure to crowd your trap against bank as a mink travels close to the bank. This is one way.

Another is, find a tree that has the earth washed away from the roots to the water, it being right against the bank, look in the shallow water around roots for mink tracks, if any, set trap. Again crowd bank with trap and you may expect mink from under that tree.

Another way is in looking along the bank of stream you will notice small holes straight back in bank just under water, extending back perhaps 4 or 6 inches; a mink did it. Look a little further and you will see a hole extending back in bank. It may be 6 or 8 inches across, extending back to 4 to 8 inches. Every time a mink travels this stream he visits these holes. He dug them to get crabs and small fish to bed in them. He catches them on his rounds. Now set a trap at mouth of hole and you can get a mink.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORTHERN MINK TRAPPER'S SHANTY.]

I have used bait. When I do I prefer red bird or woodp.e.c.k.e.r. Fix your bait always so mink cannot get at it without crossing or getting over trap. I believe this is sufficient, however, an old trapper or an experienced one needs no pointers, he will get the game.

Two years ago last fall I had a line of traps consisting of a few fox traps and the rest mink traps, about fifteen in all, says a Maine trapper. My partner, Dan, was a very young trapper, having caught only a few mink and skunk. I would rather have trapped alone, but as I was just starting in I thought I would rather have some one with me that knew a little more about it. So one November morning we started out all aglow and pushed on by the cool morning air we set the above named traps and returned home very tired and weary, but the thought of bringing back a fox or a nice mink the next day gave me more life, and I retired happy enough for my day's work.

The next morning we were up early and made our rounds, but to our great disappointment we found that we had only a skunk and a striped one at that, but we didn't lose heart at that but kept right on, now and then changing a trap or two.

At last one morning my partner said to me, "I think I have found out what the trouble is with our trapping." "That's good," I said, "tell me about it." "Well," went on Dan, "you see all the traps we've got set on that brook are along the banks. Well now the stream is all frozen over tight so that nothing can get into the brook from the outside, so I don't see why a mink coming, up that brook under the ice--for under the ice they must come or we would see their tracks somewhere along the bank--can smell the bait on the outside, so what I think best is this: Take an axe and cut a long hole about 8 inches wide clear across the brook. Now get some sticks about 3 or 4 feet long, it all depends on the depth of the water, and drive them into the mud, beginning at one side of the brook. Now drive until you get to the middle of the brook, then do the same on the other side, leaving a place about the width of the trap in the middle. Care must be taken to get sticks near enough together so he can't get through only just at the middle. Now if the water is very deep so he can't get through only just at the middle, we can build up until about to the surface or say 4 inches from the surface. Now set your trap on the thing you have built up, and just between the posts, and I think you will have him."

This advice was acted upon at once and the next morning we had a fine mink measuring about 28 inches. The next morning we had another and in a few mornings another, and so on until we had caught just nine mink from that place.