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 coon 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
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.