A mink, like a man, prefers dry footing when traveling up stream, says a Wisconsin trapper, and will always run along on an old log if they can, in muddy places or across small bays along the bank of a stream. Find a place where a mink makes small detours around soft places and lay a chunk of log about 6 inches in diameter across the place. Put a trap on the end of it. Arrange it so he will have to make a long jump on the up stream end to reach hard footing. He will naturally put his feet as near to the end of the log as he can so as to make the jump, and you will have him. Use no bait or scent and leave no signs of your presence. Make the place look natural.
It was while running a line of traps up Deer Creek last November that mink got to disturbing my muskrat sets, says an Indiana trapper. Mr. Mink would wait until the muskrat drowned, then he would spoil the pelt. As usual, he got in his work rainy nights. One morning I found a rat pretty badly torn and I began scheming at once to catch the sly chap. I observed a shallow sand bar out in the middle of the creek, just in front of my set, so I laid my plans at once. I cut out a piece of sod one-half foot square, placed it on the sand bar; this made the water over the sod two inches deep. I now took the muskrat and placed him in the center of the piece of sod, putting his head under the water so he would not appear dangerous, as a mink is afraid of a large muskrat. I fixed him so that one half was under water and the other half above. I left the fur on, you understand, so as to make it appear more natural.
I now took four Newhouse No. 1 traps and placed one on each side of the rat, staked out in deep water, full length of chain, so anything caught in one trap would not disturb the others. I covered the traps well with water soaked leaves, the grass on the sod helping to cover traps some. You will observe that the traps are well concealed, being two inches under water. It is well to drive stakes out of sight under the water also. The next morning the set was not disturbed, but the following morning, it having rained some that night, I expected something was doing, and I was not disappointed, for on approaching the set I saw distinctly outlined beneath the water the dark forms of a mink and another muskrat, caught in two of the traps.
One mink I caught by placing an old rotten piece of wood on each side of a muskrat slide, close to the water. I then covered it over with the same material, leaving an opening at each end; then I placed a No. 1 Newhouse trap under the water at the mouth of the tunnel. Mr. Mink simply had to go through this runway, and of course was caught and drowned.
CHAPTER XV.
SALT SET.
A good many trappers, both amateur and professional, speak of mink being hard to catch. I can't see it that way, says a Pennsylvania trapper. Really they are as easy as the water vole or skunk with me. I simply set all my traps bare, no covering whatever, you clog your trap when sprung. I lost a good many by so doing, so now I set bare at all times for both skunk and mink, and I get my share of them.
I use both bait and blind set; water set I think is the best, that is, in bitter cold weather when the ice is thick. My way of making, I call it the ice set, is to take a piece of oil cloth or an old buggy top cover will do, and put about five pounds of salt in same and sew up; have it about two inches thick. Don't make it too solid, leave it loose enough so you can work the most of the salt around the edges to bed trap in. Now puncture with needle to let fumes of salt through; cut a hole through the ice at the edge of the water, scrape out hole to bed salt in; but first put a stone in the hole, and bottom and side it up with stone to keep the mud from clogging the needle holes. Now you will wonder what the salt is for; simply to keep the ice from freezing the hole shut. I had nine of that kind of sets set last winter and trapped seven mink. The hole will never freeze shut. Always set trap under water.
Last winter I complained to my better half that I had better take my traps out of the run where I trap, as I couldn't make a water set because my traps froze over night. She said, why don't you put salt around your traps? That put me to thinking so I got an old piece of oil cloth and got her to make four for me on the sewing machine; I put a five pound sack of salt in each one.