Little help on mink sets

[Turner89]

Do you guys concern yourselves with scent control when trapping mink? I've had my traps out for 1.5  weeks with no sign of any thing hitting any of them. I have muskrat carcass in all of them for bait, but  hasn't been touched. I haven't seen any tracks yet, but i'm sure they are in there.
 How often do you have success with mink typically? I have 5 traps out.   I'll take some pics of the sets this weekend.  Thanks

[TeacherMan]

I have sets down below my lodge on the river that have been there 3 months with no hits lol. I've set them out and got them day one. Best bet/success I've had with mink are on blind pass through sets not sure if you have any swim through type but I like those. Scent isn't an issue.

[Turner89]

You mean like the colony traps? If so yes I have those also.

[TeacherMan]

I have picked up way more mink in a bottom edge colony set than any other type of set for mink. Key is find a bridge with concrete wall under it. The fast, deeper side put your colony right up against the wall with a brick on top. Best water set I know of!

[Turner89]

Do you put it all the way under water like for muskrat, or up a bit so they don't swim over it?

[TeacherMan]

Right on the bottom! If you want you can create a dive stick 6" either side of it. I normally don't but my dad always liked to.

[Turner89]

I'll give that a try. Thanks for the advice.

[trapperguy22]

the baited sets will work, if they are on location. we have had some sit empty for two weeks give them time when they come back you will catch them. another good bait is beaver back legs, if you have any.

[3nails]

 I have found location to be critical. Any bottleneck area that connects 2 bodies of water, a fork in the creek, next to beaver runs, etc...  If I don't have a mink in 4 days I move it. I also like to have about half the cage in the water. Where there's rats there's mink.

[Trapper John]

Mink are funny, they travel a lot but they will be back.  I have set on mink tracks under a bridge and waited two weeks before it came back and on the other hand I have set traps and caught them the next day.

As for bait I use muskrat, beaver, fish and even Bacon,  smoked bacon.  A friend and I went over to Eastern Washington in November to trap rats and found a couple of nice places with mink sign so all we had was some smoke bacon so we set two traps with the bacon came back the next day and had a nice big buck mink in one of the traps.

If you think there is a mink in the area stay there it will be back.
JC