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 grass 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 grass 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 cock 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.

Mink here use the prairies around ponds and small streams that drain the prairies. Around rice farms is a splendid place for them. They den in rank grass and sand knolls, and travel at night, in all kinds of weather, and very often you see them of foggy mornings. They feed on frogs, small fish, crawfish, birds, rabbits and the like, and very often they visit the poultry yards. My advice to the Southern mink trapper is, find where mink use, follow out their trails and runs. By noticing these closely you will find the places where he is compelled to put his feet or quit the trail. Here is the place to set your trap. Take a No. 1 of any good make, set it and adjust it properly and slip it in the trail through the grass, and be sure that the top of the jaws and spring are level with the ground. Do this in order that he can't see the trap until he is at, or in it.

In catching mink on the branches I very often use baits. When you find a log crossing the stream, cut a notch for your trap, and smear it with mud so it won't look fresh. It is the same with logs laying up and down streams. On these sets I use bait and a slight covering of fine trashy leaves. Put the bait under the trap, stake the chain to the side of the log, then place on the slight covering.

In most sets in water I make them blind, but should surroundings require, I bait. While I use a very small amount, I am not averse to using bait where I consider it required, and can say the same of covering for traps. As for scent, have never used any, but am of the opinion it would be of great help at certain seasons.

Mink is about all there is to trap in this part of North Carolina, and I have studied out a good many things about trapping them. I live where the country is hilly and has a good many branches and creeks, yet it is so thickly settled that mink are scarce. Up to within a year ago there was scarcely any trapping done about here.

Everybody seems to have a spite against the little mink, and whenever the dogs start one everybody lays aside everything to help kill the pesky varmint, and whoever kills it demands a chicken pie, whether he gets it or not. And for just such reasons as this they are very scarce, and it is very seldom that I can find the track of a real large one. I think they must get out of this neighborhood as soon as they are grown.

I have to conceal my traps very cautiously to catch these small and medium mink. When I am looking for a place to set my trap I select a narrow sand bar where they wade down into the water. I then dig out a place for the trap so it will set level and under water about a quarter of an inch; I then take some large water soaked leaves and cover trap, then cover leaves with fine dirt or sand like that around trap. If the water is perfectly still, and nothing to bother covering, I prefer a piece of wet paper, a little larger than trap, instead of leaves.

I will say to those trappers who never use anything but leaves to cover their traps, that they could not get many mink around here that way, for I have tried it, and they would either go around trap or jump over it. Always carry some kind of firearms; it will more than pay for its trouble. Then too, it leads others to believe you are hunting and they won't be so apt to see you setting traps, and if you let as few as possible see you set traps you won't have to accuse "Sneakum" so often. It doesn't matter what you are trapping, cover your traps the best you can, and then it won't be a fine job; don't leave any loose dirt, tracks or anything else around trap that looks odd or unnatural; when you get your pelt, don't tear it off any old way, take your time and you will get big pay for it.

In the following words I not only express my sentiments but the views of all trappers I have conversed with on the subject, writes a Texas trapper. Our mink are not at all educated. They are easily caught in traps not even concealed. The mink, as we all know, is fond of having food at all times, and when hungry does not appear to consider the trap an impediment.

Many are caught in Stop Thief Traps in this community. I was the first to introduce that trap in this section, and it has met with favor because it deprives the mink of the privilege of gnawing off his foot or leg. They are trapped both in water and on land.

I have always had better success trapping mink than other animals, often catching them by their tails, which, by the way, is the best kind to hold. If the mink here were trap-shy it would be better for them, for there are very few of them that have not met the trapper's fate.

A Southern trapper writes as follows: When I was about fourteen years old I got hold of a price list of raw furs and a kind of trapping fever got hold of me and I purchased a trapper's guide, and when I had studied it my father and I set to work to make some traps. When we got them done I went down to a branch near here and set them the best I knew how for mink. I tried him every way but never got a smell. So I tried a year without success. Then I gave it up for several years and thought I would have to content myself working in the shop, as I am a mechanic by trade and not a trapper.

In later years I thought I would try it again as the mink were giving the poultry around here trouble. So I set out again, and in the meantime I received a price list and I noticed they advertised animal bait for sale. I ordered a bottle of mink bait and thought I would catch them. When I received the bait I found where an old mink or two had a runway in a small branch. They would come up the branch every night. I killed some birds and used some mink bait on them and hung them over my traps. One old dog mink would come within six inches of the bait and my traps and did not pay any attention to it. I had some of my traps in water and some on sand bars concealed the best I knew how, but I did not get him that way.

One evening I was at the shop and I told my father I was going down to place my traps and see which was the smartest, the mink or me. I had noticed he would go by my traps and climb up a little bank and jump down over a root, so I set the trap there and covered with leaves. I had four traps set close together, and when I went to the sets the next morning I found him with a foot in each. He didn't dig and gnaw everything in reach as he was too badly tied up.

I thought I would get them all now, but I never got any more till last season. I wrote to the Oneida Community for a price list of traps and they mailed me one, and sent an advertisement of the H-T-T. So I subscribed at once and received the October number. In reading the letters I saw Brother F. M. Frazier's letter headed, "Advice to Young Trappers." I was impressed with the old gentleman's tone of writing so I wrote to him and asked him for help, and explained my difficulties to him. He gave me some fine sets and told me things I never thought of or heard of before, although I have since learned that they had been published in the H-T-T.

I purchased about thirty-nine second hand traps Nos. 1 and 1 1/2. December 30th found me setting traps for mink. I carried out Brother Frazier's plans and directions. I made thirteen blind sets, and on Monday morning went around to see if anything was doing. The first trap I came to was sprung and had a mink's toe in it. I felt pretty bad, but that was more than I had gotten in a good while. So I went to another trap, and before I got there I saw everything gnawed up, and on going closer up jumped an old mink on a log near the trap. His eyes sparked but I soon put an end to him, and I have been catching mink ever since.

On February 1st I moved some of my traps down a river near here. I made most of my sets in water and used rabbit for bait. I made enclosures and put bait in back end of same and the trap at the entrance. I noticed a hole near the creek that emptied into the river and I set a trap at the hole. I have noticed that hole for several years and had been seeing a large mink on that creek for eight or ten years. I have seen his track where he would go in that hole every time he would go along by it, but when I set my traps there I didn't see any tracks. The next time I went there I found a large brown mink in my trap, but it wasn't the "big one."

I didn't get any more there for some time, neither had I seen the big mink track since I set my traps down there, but on going to my traps one morning I saw that something was doing. When I came close I saw that there was something big in the trap and had dragged the trap back in the hole the full length of the chain. I took hold of the chain and began to pull. I soon pulled him out as far as his hind legs and he looked so big I let go the chain and he went back in the hole. I pulled him out and put a 22 between his eyes and that settled him. He measured thirty-two and a half inches from tip to tip on the board. How is this for a large mink, brother trappers?