Mink Trapping Part 3

The 104 mink were caught during the season of 1905-6, and as the pelts were high then it can be seen that he makes considerable money.

The fact that he caught that number is pretty well established by several well known parties. John is an Iroquois and a good fellow and trapper.

CHAPTER VIII.

MINK TRAPPING ON THE PRAIRIE.

As there has not been much written on mink trapping on the prairie, I will give a few hints for the benefit of young prairie trappers, on trapping mink, says a Minnesota trapper. In the first place the steel trap is about the only trap that can be used; there being no timber over large portions of the Northwest and Canada.

I wait till ice is frozen over the runways and ponds, then I go at it making a circuit of the runways. I find where the mink go out from the sh.o.r.e to some muskrat's home, which will have a pole in it above water. I set two traps there, then look around. Close by I will find a small dump of trash made by muskrats, where the mink go to dung. I set two or three traps so when set and covered with fine brush they will be even with the surface and looking natural. I will then go on sh.o.r.e which is generally flat, following the mink signs I will find where they have dug into an old muskrat run. I put two or three traps around here close together so when caught the mink soon gets in two traps, then he is there to stay.

I use no bait when setting at a place like this; the first mink caught smells the place up so there is no need of any patent scent.

Every mink that gets on that swamp, if it is not over two or three miles long, will visit that place in one or two nights. At a place like that I leave the traps all winter and will catch as many mink as a trapper that scatters twice as many traps, one in a place, all over the swamp.

There are one or two places in every swamp or pond where nearly every mink will visit. It may be a hole in a bank or an old muskrat house.

You can tell it by the signs or by tracks in the snow. There is the place, then you are sure of your mink.

I make small iron stakes to fasten my traps where I can get nothing for a drag. I make them myself. Take a rod 1/4 inch thick, cut in lengths 8 inches long, turn one end when hot over the ring of trap chain, sharpen the other end. I only lost one mink last winter by gnawing his foot off. A fish is good bait for mink, also fish oil and fresh rabbits or birds. When buying traps, buy the best, they are the cheapest in the long run.

Some trappers buy the cheap traps and lose enough fur the first season to pay for good traps.

I find that it pays to stretch and care for furs well. I have bought furs that were not worth one third price. Mink were stretched 6 inches wide at tail tapering to a point at nose, being 8 inches long, when they should have been 16 or 20 inches and 3 to 4 wide. Again I have got them that they were stretched so tight you could see through them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAMPING OUT.]

Some trappers claim the mink is very sly and hard to trap, others that he is very easy to trap, and that they could catch an unlimited number if the mink were only plentiful in their locality. I always like to read anything I can find on this subject, says an Illinois trapper. Sometimes I find methods that I have used with good success, methods that I think would be good, and methods that I think would never work in any locality. Not like the muskrat, the habits of the mink are almost the same in all localities, but changing some in different seasons of the year. In Central Illinois along with the change of seasons, we have wet and dry seasons, and good methods of trapping in the dry season will not work at all in the wet.

When I first started trapping mink I met with very good success, not due to any good method, but as far back as I can remember I have always been a lover of nature, and I was not a stranger to the habits of the mink. And I will say right here to all young trappers, and also to some older ones--learn the habits of the animal you wish to trap, and if you are half a trapper, success will be yours. I have learned many things that I never knew before I trapped for him, but I would not trade what I knew before for what I have learned since. I am going to try to make plain to you, brother trappers, some of the methods we use here in Illinois, and I believe these same methods will work in all localities.

This section of the country is cut up with small ditches and small creeks, ideal places for mink and muskrat. In the dry season all the tile ditches and small creeks have very little water in them, and no better places can the mink find than a dry tile or an old muskrat den. Here they will live until the water drives them out in the spring.

When setting the trap at a tile, if the tile is too large, a couple of sticks stuck in front of the tile will narrow the opening, and a trap set properly in front of the tile will be very apt to catch the mink going in or out of the tile. Always see that the jaws of the trap rest firmly on the ground and that there is no danger of dirt or sticks or even gra.s.s getting in between the jaws of the trap, for if it does you will lose your mink even if he gets caught. A mink that has once been caught in a trap is doubly hard to catch, although I have met two exceptions to that rule, and will say that they were two of the blindest mink I ever trapped.

Fine gra.s.s, dried willow leaves, rabbit fur, or most any light material that will not interfere with the workings of the trap and will not make too great a contrast to the surroundings, will be good to cover the trap. Always be careful not to disturb the surroundings too much, as a mink will notice this quicker than the scent you leave on the traps when you set them.

A good rule to follow is--always set your trap facing the way you think the mink is going to come, never sideways if possible to set any other. In setting at an old rat den, if possible always set the trap a couple of inches inside of the den and pull the spring around so a mink going into the hole will not step on the spring.

If you catch a female mink first, always reset the trap, as the chances are greatly in your favor of catching the male soon, and if mink are plentiful in your locality you may catch as many as a half a dozen males if in the running season. If you can find where an old rat hole leads down to the edge of the water from the top of the bank, a trap set in the lower end of this hole will catch nearly every mink that comes along. They very seldom miss the chance to explore a hole of that kind. The old trapper that told me about this set said that he caught twelve mink in one season at a place of this kind, and all in the same trap, a No. 1 Newhouse. It had been a wet season this year I speak of, and I will tell you how I trapped mink in January and with six inches of snow on the ground.

The ditches and creeks all had water in them and were either frozen over or covered with drifted snow. My best set was to set a couple of traps in the warm water that came out of the tiles. A mink is a great lover of water and will play in a place of this kind for half an hour at a time, and two traps will almost catch him. Whenever there is a small air hole in the ice he will investigate, and if you place the trap directly under this hole he cannot very well miss getting caught. For this set the water should not be over four inches deep.

After the mink makes a hole through the snow drift he will always follow the same hole, will come into and go out of the water at certain places, and a trap set at any of these places is almost sure to catch.

As a scent bait, I use the matrix of the female mink taken in the running season, and for fresh meat bait I use rat, but I prefer the blind and water sets, and do not use the others until these two have failed only in the latter part of February and March. With slight changes I believe these sets can be used in most localities.

My experience in trapping is limited to one season, the last, during which I trapped 39 mink, besides the five that left their legs in traps and four taken by thieves and dogs. But my success has been so much above that of others who have tried to duplicate my luck, that I want to give some pointers to some who have not had satisfactory results in trapping mink, says a South Dakota party.

This is a well settled prairie country, with one small creek running through it, and an occasional slough. Game of all kind is pretty well cleaned out. In fact, it was not generally known that any number of mink existed here. Being quite a hunter with nothing to hunt, I conceived the idea to trap a mink, and before I got through I found the sport more enjoyable and profitable than hunting. I had no trappers guide to help me, and it took me three weeks and more than a dozen trips to my traps to catch the first mink. But during that time my experience and observations were teaching me fast. And later when I saw a trap at about every hole in the country with seldom a catch, it amused me.

My receipt to a beginner is--get three sizes of traps, No. 0 to set at holes, No. 1 to set in water or path, and Stop Thief to set over holes that the others cannot be used at, or for sure catch when you know mink to be in. See that your traps have strong springs, and that when set fine the pan is on a level with jaws. All traps should be alike in this respect. Now to prevent them from rusting as well as to take the scent off, heat them enough to run some wax over them.

As to where to set them, you must find some signs of mink near water, tracks in sand, droppings, or best of all, used holes. Now remember you have to deal with some of the most intelligent but superst.i.tious and shy of animals. I kept one at my house for a while and found him more intelligent than a cat or dog. They get bold and careless some times, but not very often. Their holes are frequently shallow, and they are suspicious of one's presence. The less you frequent the place and tramp about his paths, the better. Avoid the hole if possible.

First choice is to set the trap in shallow water on his runways, sticking up weeds if necessary to make him go over the traps. The next choice is where he goes in and out of the water. Next in dry path and last at his hole where he is the most suspicious of disturbance. Water set is the best and easiest, but even then the trap should be covered with light mud.

On dry land you should leave the place looking as natural as before.

At the hole use a small trap, Blake & Lamb is the easiest and quickest set. Remove enough dirt to sink the trap to a level. Set trap with jaws never crossways to the hole. Have jaws rest so that jaws will not tilt if stepped on. Now see that pan is set just about right, not too easy, and now you are ready for the most important part--to cover--so it will stay covered and spring regardless of freezing, thawing, snowing, or blowing, and not to clog the jaws with rubbish. It is too tedious to get the mink over the trap to have something go wrong at the critical moment. I use brown tissue paper or the fuzz from cattails, which I sprinkle with a little fine dirt or rubbish at hand, the chain having been previously staked and hid.

All should now be left looking as natural as before, and one's tracks obliterated.

A well set trap will not reveal itself to the game or to any other trapper. A hole set trap should not be approached unnecessarily. Mink will seldom get in the first night, and it takes too long to reset them.

Mink will stay in holes several days if they fear danger. I had one stay twelve days because there was a Stop Thief trap over the hole, but I kept it there because there was a steam visible at the mouth of the hole, and I got her. I have used scent to some advantage, not to draw but to detract the mink's attention, but as to baits I have faithfully tried them all from muskrat to a frog, and I have never known a mink to approach any of them no matter where, when, or how left, except if left by themselves.

In the fore part of the winter I caught about all the males, perhaps because they were bolder. Later I got the females. The largest mink I got stretched 42 inches from tip to tip, and his hide on a five inch board was 24 inches. He was light brown. No. 0 held him by two toes.

In fact, I never lost a mink from that sized trap. Those that chewed out were caught up too high.

My experience in trapping is altogether in mink and in a prairie country, and it has always been a great pleasure and very profitable for me, says an Iowa trapper. As I have said, trapping mink is a science which few trappers understand, and can learn only by long experience and close study. Any one taking two or three dozen traps and stringing them out, setting in holes and ditches, can catch a few mink. I know men who have trapped for years and claim to catch lots of fur, but it makes me smile to see how they set them; they simply don't know their A B C's about trapping mink.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOSES BONE.]

The time that I have put in trapping mink for the last 37 years has paid me bigger money than anything I ever tried; of course I mean buying and s.h.i.+pping at the same time of trapping. Counting ten hours as a day's work, I have cleared from five to twenty dollars per day.

Now as I said several years ago, I have no secret or I would let brother trappers have it; I use no scent whatever but fresh bait, which is all that is necessary.

You must learn by experience where and how to set your trap. That is all the secret any mink trapper has. The method for setting for mink, rats or c.o.o.n are all the same, can catch either in the same trap.

Water set is my way of setting and far better than any other I think.

In ditches or streams where the water is shallow enough to set your traps in where the current runs against the bank; then scoop out a hole 8 inches into the bank. I have used a butcher knife to dig the mud out with; the water must flow into the hole, which should be two inches deep. Cut a forked stick, one p.r.o.ng one inch long, the other 6 or 8 inches long; sharpen it, run your bait on this, put the stick in the back of the hole which fastens your bait.

Now set your trap, turn the spring to one side, fasten the chain the handiest way you can so it is secure. I never had a mink cut his leg off and get away. Now stick up weeds or sticks on either side of the hole so the mink can't get the bait without stepping on the pan of the trap. The current should run strongly over the trap so as to keep the water from freezing, for there are very few nights after trapping time sets in but that the water freezes in still water. I sometimes dam the water to make it run strongly over the trap. Everything about the trap should be left looking as natural as possible.

In cold weather I go on the same principle. When everything is frozen solid I use a hatchet cutting a hole in the bank; use ice or chunks of wood to make a lane to set your trap in, and throw your bait in as far as you can get it. Of course you cannot fasten it.

To show how well animals can scent a bait or anything of that kind I will relate an incident that happened several years ago. There was a fresh fall of snow and being warm the skunk were out of their burrows, and I was tracking one going southeast course. All at once it turned square to the left going some thirty feet and came to an old dried up mole covered with the snow. He nosed around it a while and then went the same direction as before. That showed plainly that animals can scent their game.

CHAPTER IX.

SOUTHERN METHODS.

On reading the methods used by the Northern mink trapper one is almost forced to the conclusion that the mink there is a different one from those here, (in Texas), but of course such is not the case.

My limited experience in trapping mink here has brought me to the conclusion that they are not afraid of human scent, or old musty traps either. My opinion is that it is the disturbed surroundings that cause them to shy from the trap.

I once set a trap in a mink run in rather rank gra.s.s at 6 P.M. and the next morning had a No. 1 mink in it (poor color of course). The trap was not baited or scented and was set without gloves. Of course I did not tread down or pull up the gra.s.s to make a nice place to set, but stood at the side and slipped it in the trail in a slight depression. The mink did not seem trap shy although he had lost a foot in a previous experience.

There are any number of mink here, but the catch is rather small compared to the catch of other furs. I very often ask the trappers, "why don't you go after mink, they will pay you best?" The answer is invariably, "I can't catch them, I don't know how." "Why don't you set your traps in their runs, or at the mouth of the dens?" Acting on this advice he sails out, finds a den, leaves all his traps and other plunder at it, and hikes out home for a spade and old Towser. They both put in half a day, then give it up. Mr. Mink is not at home.

Can't trap them no how. Sometimes he accidentally gets one. Then he goes after them right, tears and digs up every den he can find until his enthusiasm plays out. By this time he has spoiled all, or a good portion of his trapping ground, when if he had placed a trap at the mouth of each den, and done it in a proper manner, he might have caught twenty or twenty-five mink during the season.

Now and then you find a fellow who has a good mink dog and catches $75 or $100 worth of them in a season. While this is all right for the fellow that owns a dog, it does not fill my ideas of getting mink pelts, as tearing and digging out their dens has a tendency to cause them to hunt homes elsewhere. I have caught four nice mink at the mouth of one den in a single season, and very likely I shall catch some there this season. I do not cover the trap, nor do I use scent or bait. I place the trap in a depression about four or six inches from the mouth of the den; don't c.o.c.k the trap up so that he can see it twenty feet before he reaches it; arrange matters so he will have to get over the trap to get in the den. When he comes next time you will likely get him.