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.