Mink sets

[yote_trapper17]

I like blind sets for mink. Tuck a trap up against a bridge wall, under some over hanging grass along a creek, etc. etc. They are nosely little buggers that will also peek into every whole and space they can. So my mink sets mostly consist of blind sets. I am sure someone can give you more info.

[Scott McCray]

LOL. I hate to say this here, but I honestly catch more mink by not trying to catch mink. LOL. I get a few mink in my Muskrat sets every year. LOL> But if I set for mink I don't get them. LOL.

[jabne]

I too use a lot of mostly blind sets. Some of the ponds I trap around have cattails or rock dam face areas. I look for tracks in mud or sand, then find the pinched down areas just big enough for a #110, then, block things down a little so the best opening for a mink is through the trap.
I always set a #110 or two in tiny little feeder creeks, especially if the water flow is less than a foot wide. Often there are narrow spots in the flow just big enough for a #110. Its a great blind set for mink hunting that little stream.
I get a lot of mink in rat sets, they hunt the huts and runs for bank dens and so I make blind run sets for rats. If I don't get a mink also, but suspect or see sign that one is working the area, I leave a few sets in even after I quit catching rats. I get a lot of mink that way just by leaving some #110s in those now empty runs.
I've used my shovel along the bank to make a good blind spot, too. Two jabs into a low, sheer bank and a hunk of the bank falls into the water. If necessary, I can move this little island with its grassy hump a bit so that there is a narrow trail between it and the bank edge, just big enough for a #110. If you lay some sticks on top to the bank and cover it with grass, mud, etc. it becomes a completely covered tunnel and even more inviting for a mink. Anywhere I find a narrow point of bank sticking out, narrow enough to tunnel through, then I use a trowel or spade and tunnel out a hole right at the water level completely through the point to the water or land on the other side. That's a great blind set. You can also do this with a brush pile or debri pile sticking out into the water. use either your spade or a pair of handheld pruning sheers to make a nice little hole through it or at least a couple of feet back into the stuff, and again, right at water or bank level. block it down with a #110 and some additional sticks if necessary. Great set.
I also make a lot of dirthole sets on trails or edge of high banks along creeks or ponds. I get both coon and mink in those, sometimes a fox or coyote too so I use larger traps with light pan tension. Its a great location/set for multiple species. Around here coyotes really work the pond edges in late fall/winter as do mink and coon, so I have to set for all possibilities to maximize my trapping time.
I get a lot of mink along fencerows in pastures...fencerows that have some grass in them and lead right into a pond or creek (to contain cattle to a certain portion of the pond or creek only). Mink follow those fencerows away from or to the water when hunting. The grassy fencerows must provide them with mice or bird hunting, I believe. Anyway, a dirthole set with a predator trap and light pan tension, and use mink gland lure or fox urine, nabs me a lot of mink plus just about any other predator around here like fox, coon, coyote, cat, etc. I love to set dirtholes on fencerows that lead to water. The closer within 100 feet of that water for the set, the better, too.
Anyway, those are a few sets I use for mink (and others) when I am targeting mink specifically. I'm not an expert, but this has worked for me anyway here in farmland areas.
Jim-NE