If you find a mink drowned and thoroughly water soaked, take it by the head, just like you were cracking a whip, then by the hind legs and crack it the same way. The mink will soon be dry. If muddy it should be washed first.
Pelts should not be put on the boards when the fur is wet. They should also be removed as soon as thoroughly dry, that is, after the skin will not shrink. They should be left on boards from three days to a week, depending on the weather. Do not turn after removing from boards, but have flesh side out.
CHAPTER IV.
GOOD AND LASTING BAITS.
Animals are not afraid of smoked baits, and in the early and late parts of the trapping season it is a positive benefit to slightly smoke the bait; it lasts so much longer than fresh meat and hangs on to the bait stick until almost the last shred, and if an animal turns from the trap house without biting it, it is because he is not hungry.
The baits I have found the most enduring and most likely to tempt an animal are--first and always the muskrat. All animals, that is bear, mink, fox and marten will bite at this bait when they will not consider any other. For a bear trap, use one whole rat, take out the inside (because the inside will cause it to decay quicker), have the rat slightly smoked, just enough to stiffen the meat, then have a sharp pointed stick, about three feet long, run the stick through the two thighs, up along the back bone, through the neck stopping at the skull. Plant this in the back of your bear trap house and you have one of the best inducements for a bear to catch.
For mink or marten traps a smoked rat makes five good sized baits, neck and head one; each quarter one. Do not throw away the tail. It stands in the same relationship as a tidbit to an animal as a beaver's tail does to a trapper. Therefore at the trap where you want an extra inducement, twist the tail about the rest of the bait and tie it to keep in place.
During the very cold months partridge and rabbit meat keeps good a long while in the hard frozen state, but as an all round lasting bait for mild or cold weather, good for either mink or marten, I have used with great success both the windpipe and tail of the ox. The tail has, of course, to be skinned while fresh, and I cut off a ring or two of either the windpipe or tail and run a sharp stick through each piece, and carry them in my bait bag with the sticks in. When I want one for a trap I pull out the stick and the hole is there ready to place on the proper bait stick. A tail will make ten generous baits, likewise the windpipe.
All fish bait is good for mink, but the majority decompose so quickly that unless hard smoked it drops off the bait stick in a few hours and is eaten by the mice on the ground, or very soon disappears by the action of the earth and evaporation. As a lasting fish bait (unsmoked) I have found the sucker or carp the very best; they are a fleshy fish with no inside to speak of, and a very tough skin. One of about twelve or fourteen inches long will give sufficient bait for ten traps.