Small Trickles are Great Places to Catch Mink and Muskrats

Narrow areas along small waterways offer a great opportunity to pick up traveling mink and muskrats as they move in search of food and/or shelter.  The location below was the outlet of a small culvert, with a trickle of water leading to a canal.  There were limited locations to set conibears in the canal, but this waterway allowed the perfect opportunity to put in a 110. 

I like to support my small conibears by running a lathe through the spring and pushing it into the ground until it’s sturdy (something I picked up from an old Fur-Fish-Game video).  I find it to be the quickest and easiest way to support a 110 conibear.  I made this set with the intention of catching a traveling mink, but a muskrat beat the mink to the punch!

Set Wingwalls for Traveling Mink and Muskrats

Concrete wingwalls are common features at road crossings that can help you catch more critters on your trapline.  Mink and muskrats are constantly traveling along waterways, and their paths tend to be funneled through bridges and culverts at road crossings.  Below is a location where I noticed animals moving along a the concrete wall, and entering/exiting the water right at its edge. 

A simple 110 conibear set at the edge of the wall has resulted in my catching numerous muskrats and a mink this season.  Finding places to put in quick wingwall sets can certainly increase success on the trapline.

Tending the Raccoon ‘Line

In the previous post, I showed some of the sets that I made on my early November trapline for racoons.  Here, I provide some pictures of the results.  I ran the traps for about 5 days and ended up with 8 coons and a number of other critters.  Gas money and school/work kept me from expanding the line, and I ended up pulling before long.

This was the first ‘coon I wandered upon, caught in one of the pocket sets.

The next coon was taken from my hotspot, the culvert wall cubby set.

Blurry pic of a coon in the bank hole set.

I thought the short line was really successful, and a great learning experience.  I also caught a number of other critters along the way, which I’ll share in later posts.

Setting A Short ‘Line for Raccoons

About two weeks ago, before everything started to freeze solid, I set out a short trapline for raccoons, just outside the city limits in some of the canals.  I made a combination of pocket sets, blind sets, and walk-thru’s.

My first set was a walk-thru set, shown below.  Notice that the bait is smeared on a post jutting out from the grassy bank, and the stick further out is designed to encourage the coon or mink to walk in between the two ‘posts’ to investigate the bait.  The trap is placed between the two posts, buried in the muck.  I used a crawdad paste bait.

Next are a couple of pocket sets.  I simply dug out a hole, or pocket, in the bank and put bait and lure in the back of the hole.  With these sets, the trap goes almost directly in front of the hole, and dirt or other debris is piled on the sides to force the animal to enter from the lowest point and step on the trap.  Here I used egg shells and fish oil.

At the next location, I dug a hole in the bank using my trowel and put some bait and a squirt of fish oil in the hole.  I placed the trap in a few inches of water just below the hole and used the stake to force the coon to work close to the bank and step over the trap.

And finally, my favorite location.  The set below is located at the edge of a double-culvert wall where lots of critters travel through.  The bait is smeared on the concrete wall and also on the ground near the wall.  The rocks form an artificial cubby, which is guarded at the open end with a raccoon trap.  This would turn out to be my most productive set.

I also set some snares in well-used trails and made a couple of sets with conibears.  I couldn’t wait for the next few days of tending traps!

Skunk in a Culvert

It looked like critters were traveling along this dry wash, and the culvert made a perfect spot for a set.  I placed the rock and some other sticks along the sides to funnel down the travel way, and set a 110 conibear with some bait and ‘magnum marten’ lure.  The next day, I was greeted by this guy, a good sized striped skunk.  Luckily he had already sprayed and was expired when I arrived on the scene.

A Mountain Trapline

A trapping partner and I planned an extended weekend trip into northeastern Utah’s Uinta Mountains a week ago.  We wanted to target pine marten, and this is the only area open to marten trapping in the state.  We headed out on a Thursday morning, and were in the mountains setting traps by noon.

Most of our sets consisted of baited leaning poles guarded with 110 or 120 conibears.  We covered the bait with fir boughs or cloth to keep birds away from the sets.

 We also made some cage sets with the conibears, as well as some vertical tree sets.

We set hard for two days and spent the nights in a cabin not far from where we were trapping.  On the third day, we ran through and checked all of our traps.  

After picking up a few marten, we headed back home, to return in three days and pull all of the traps. 

We had a great trip, only took six marten overall, but it was a lot of fun.  I plan on getting out after marten again later this winter.  Marten trapping’s always a blast!