While I was trapping on Twenty Mile Creek in Ontario I had an occasion to go my rounds very early one morning. I had not gone far before I ran onto a large mink track, and as the snow was only here and there in small patches I did not follow it. I returned the same way to get a skunk I had hidden, and on reaching this particular spot I saw as before, my tracks going one way and Mr. Mink's another. I never thought any more about it until I came to the next patch of snow, and there were his newly made tracks beside my own, and some were discerned in the same prints as I had made, so that must prove that he wasn't afraid of human scent there. If that mink had been afraid of human scent he most certainly would have avoided my tracks, but as it was he saw me coming and hid somewhere until I was past.
NORTHWESTERN SKINS.
I do not say that a person can drop a trap down anywhere, set any old way, and catch mink; but I do say that it all depends where the human scent is. If a man sets a trap and handles it with his hands or any other foolish thing, he will catch but very few mink.
My way of setting a trap for a mink is this: Find a den or hollow log in the vicinity where mink tracks are seen. After you have found the place where you intend setting your trap, set it in the following way: Cut a hole in the ground at the entrance shaped like a straight stemmed pipe, only make it large enough for the trap to set in nicely. After that, set the trap, twisting the spring around to the same side of the trap as already excavated, and taking the dirt you have the pan, placing the trap in the place you have taken out, cover the trap with it, being careful not to let any lump or pebble lay at the base of the jaws, as it prevents them from closing tightly, and your mink may get away.
For bait, take the tail, front and hind legs of a muskrat, also a small piece of flesh, or better yet the entrails, and place them in the hole, being careful not to set it too close, but close enough so that the mink will have to step on the pan of the trap. It is better to have it too far back than too close, as you then run a better chance of getting your mink. Also have some musk or some reliable scent, and put a few drops on a stick a short distance from the trap. After all of this be very careful in brushing out all signs, and make everything look as natural as possible, depart, and I know from experience that you can catch a mink, providing you follow the directions above.
In order to trap very shy animals use no bait of any kind, but set your traps where they are sure to go and you can capture the shyest mink, says a Maine trapper. The places where mink are sure to go are into holes, dens, hollow stumps and logs, and to make a success you want a trap set at all the places. If there isn't any, make some any time in the summer for the coming season.
The right size and best kind of trap for mink is the Blake & Lamb No. 1. Have them free from rust and foreign odors, as mink have keen smelling organs; boil them in ashes and water, also boil them again in a kettle filled with fir or cedar twigs, and after they are dried and when hot rub them all over with beeswax, and when set cover carefully and fasten to something movable.
In the fall of the year use no scent, but in the spring when they are running around use their own musk, mixed with fish oil and salt to preserve it. This is my way to trap mink without bait, and I have captured large numbers of them.