Take two good sized chunks of wood and lay them about six inches apart. Set a No. 1 1/2 trap between them at each end, put your bait between the two traps and cover it with small brush and grass. If you can find an old hollow log it is a good place to set. These two sets you can use all winter.
Red squirrel, chicken, rabbit, partridge, muskrat or turtle are all good baits.
When you get a mink or rat alive let it bleed around your trap. It is also a good plan to hitch a string around your bait and drag it from one trap to another.
A man that follows the woods has some queer experiences, says a Pennsylvania trapper. Some eight or ten years ago I was hunting the Allegheny Mountains. It was in January and we were camped on the Elk River. There was a light snow on the ground. My trapping partner told me he would show me how to catch mink with the land set. Taking our traps we went down the river until we came to some logs that lay across a hollow. In some places the log was from three to four feet from the ground, and other places it was not over two feet. Sticks and limbs had lodged against the log, leaving small openings. In these open places we set our traps, covering them over with leaves. We caught several this way.
Now that will do in West Virginia, but in Pennsylvania in this part of the state it takes a water set or a deadfall to catch the mink. In the H-T-T I have seen a great many different opinions in regard to trapping mink, some claiming they have no trouble in catching mink, others cannot catch them only with the water set or deadfall.
Now my experience is that it depends upon where I am. In the sandhill region of Virginia I could catch mink only with the water set, while in the mountains they were very easily caught with the land set. Much depends on what kind of bait is used. I once had a line of eighteen traps baited with birds and chickens on the Nottoway River, and out of the eighteen traps, I baited one with the carcass of a muskrat. Well, I didn't catch any mink in the traps baited with chicken offal and birds but the trap baited with muskrat won.
CHAPTER XVII.
POINTS FOR THE YOUNG TRAPPER.
It is better for the novice to serve a few season's apprenticeship on the muskrat or skunk before attempting the capture of the shrewder fur bearing animals. Boys, if you live near a trout brook, a creek, pond, bog or spring hole, where there are fish, frogs or clams, you may be sure that any such water is frequented, or at least visited by mink, though your unpracticed eyes may fail to detect signs of their presence; and by procuring a few traps and setting them according to some methods, you can realize a good bit of pocket money every year, and at the same time have more real pleasure than you get from all other sports combined. Don't be discouraged if you catch nothing at first. Visit your traps regularly, keep your eyes open and your wits about you, be patient and persistent, and success is bound to come in the end.