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Post by bballou on Feb 1, 2013 19:42:51 GMT -5
Jim ---I dont know if its built in by mother nature as a natural instinct --- or they ----have the ability to survay an area for a searton amount of food that will get them though the winter---- I do know one of the minks better food sources --- in this area --- is not here this year and that is the muskrat---- so the mink will have to find something else. I do know at one time I was pretty sure the mink used the muskrat population as a major part of its winter source of food in several areas around here----actually I have to say --in the winter ---- mink are where the food is. How they know its there --- ?? Sorry Jim
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Post by jdpaint on Feb 1, 2013 20:11:15 GMT -5
From the fall flood of 2011 had a friend who lived on the river ,went to pull the insulation for remodel in the spring and the wall was filled with crayfish , 3 feet high and over 12 feet long ,saw the pic, there were thousands stored in the wall.Very good hunters.I also think the floods from 2011 and 2012 have killed the young mink 2 years in a row . they are few and far between now.
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Post by bballou on Feb 2, 2013 8:33:03 GMT -5
JD ----that's interesting about the craw fish-----I have found cashes of them but never like that-----most of the time I found the stored crayfish in isolated springs.-----What I have found up here in the northern part of the state is the mink usually have there litters ---at the end of spring brooks in swamps and beaver ponds where high water doesn't have much of an effect. I have about a dozen places where mink have a litter each year ----I try to look them over in Sept ---to see how they are doing and the size of the litter ----seams to tell me whats happening IMO.
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oldeman
Fulton Montgomery Fur Harvesters Ass.
Posts: 581
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Post by oldeman on Feb 2, 2013 13:06:30 GMT -5
I have spent most of the last two days checking swamps, small streams and bridges and culverts where I usually take mink and have not seen 1 bit of sign.I am thinking with the lack of rats they are around spring holes and in the balsam and hemlock swamps feeding on chipmonks and red squirrels.
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Post by bballou on Feb 2, 2013 14:46:35 GMT -5
oldeman----if your muskrat population is down like ours ----Ill bet you are right----Last 2 weeks I was trapping the north side of Tug Hill-----we had more than enough snow--- then it turned cold----- I did see a few mink---- and many places where the mink were going over the dams---- they had holes in the ice ---with snow tunnles going over the dams ------ a lot of the area was spring fed and we were able to look into some open water-----it was full of fish --- of all sizes ----- so Ill bet the mink were eating fish ------- because I did not see 1 muskrat house. --- nor did we catch any muskrats in our beaver sets -----
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oldeman
Fulton Montgomery Fur Harvesters Ass.
Posts: 581
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Post by oldeman on Feb 2, 2013 20:55:38 GMT -5
Bill I had a 5 gal pail of salted eels ready for pocket sets this year.I draged out and got ready everything that resembled a mink trap figuring on nearly wiping out the local mink population.So much for that plan either mother nature or my wife are always lurking waiting to destroy all my best schemes.I had visions of 50+ mink and about 75 k9s LOL.The k9s were comong in all right but 60% of the reds were bad mangy and I am not even going to tellyou how bad the mink turned out, good thing there were a few fisher and darnd few rats available.It was so bad I had to resort to trapping beaver and I am a die hard trout fisherman and it breaks my heart to take any beaver out of a trout stream.You would think at my age the trapping gods would smile on me at least once more season.
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Post by bballou on Feb 2, 2013 23:37:53 GMT -5
Oldeman-----my son found a beaver pond full of trout -----you could look down into the water and see trout ---4 to 14 -15 inches----lots of them --you can guess where we will be as soon as we can get in there this spring------as far as fur goes----no muckrats here or north.----did good on the rest----usually see otter all the time ---didnt see an otter this fall---catch was down----fisher were also down.No mange to speak of ----threw away 3 coyotes because of it----red fox were OK ---did notice some flakeing but not bad. tmc----my wife is in Florida for a month----its jest me and the dogs ----and they dont give me any lip------dogs havent said one thing about me doing this or that ----talk about heaven.
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Post by mole on Feb 3, 2013 6:44:32 GMT -5
I have opened the stomachs of mink here and something I find fairly regular is frog skin. it doent digest to fast. usually its from what I call leapord frogs. Seen a lot of mink dead in the road over the years, lot of family groups. up in the road chasing frogs. seen mink in dead of winter with a fresh frog, they know where to find them.
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Post by brushwolf64 on Feb 3, 2013 8:18:11 GMT -5
I know this thread is about mink but have watched an otter fishing in the Esopus creek when it was high and turbid. Water was so muddy you couldnt see inches down in it. This otter was fishing a cove and ALMOST every time it fished it came up with food. Mostly frogs as Ed has witnessed with mink. Now if the water was clear i could understand the otter having such great success fishing but that wasnt the case.Always wondered how it knew the frogs were there? Instinct? Were they taught to hunt there when young and remember the area? I bet mink have a very similar ability. Great food for thought on mink habits from several of the best minkers this state has known. Great thread gentlemen.
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Post by jsevering on Feb 3, 2013 9:14:08 GMT -5
sounds like a good day brushwolf... love when good lord gives you the opportunity to watch stuff like that....
up at my parents place we have a small bait pond... 6 feet deep in the middle and the ends are fairly shallow before the drop off kinda looks like a rounded off chevy emblem... use to spend a lot of time there to think on things when i got twisted up some...
well long story short.. got lucky enough to watch a few mink catching frogs there... little buggers would run the dry edge along the shallow... frogs would jump in and were more or less sitting ducks for them in the shallows... pond is spring feed so water is clear as a bell... sets on the second ridge down from the top and after the middle of july not much goes through the over flow pipe... what is funny there's a nice trail cutting from the lower spring to the pond up along the more or less semi dry overflow through the vegetation every year... really visible where they have to leave the overflow and crest the backside of the dam on the mow line around the pond... jim
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Post by bballou on Feb 3, 2013 9:14:59 GMT -5
ED---I believe you are correct -----mink do eat a lot of frogs----its nothing to break open a ice hole and see frogs of all sizes laying on the bottom ---- and all through beaver dams when I am taking them apart---- didn't realize the skin was not digestible ---have read where people have found big and small caches of fogs that mink have put up ---seams the mink bites the frog in some way to paralyze it.I do know there were a lot of frogs on the beaver ponds this year. brush wolf ----I have read that otter have feeling ability in there front paws---and they can find food jest like coon----don't know if its true ----but a old trapper told me the otter has such good sight under water that it can distinguish ---shadows ---and that's how its done. I do know you are correct about them finding fish in murky water----I have watched it for years---in the spring---with the walleye runs.
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Post by brushwolf64 on Feb 3, 2013 13:42:24 GMT -5
Jim it ranks as one of the greatest things i have witnessed in the outdoors. It left me with many questions that get the wheels turning a bit. It was truly a blessing to watch such a site. Bill i did not know that about otter and there ability to feel with them in such a manner. That sure would be one of the only ways that i believe it might have been done successfully. This water was EXTREMELY turbid. Im not sure that any light would penetrate much in those conditions but the otter found what he was looking for many many times. Watched him for 20 minutes or so that day. He sure wasnt going hungry.
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Post by bballou on Feb 3, 2013 18:32:50 GMT -5
brushwolf ------ I have to go along with you and Jim--- watching animals in the wild ---I think has to be a gift from god---- I have been treated more than any man should have been---- ( I wont get into the others ) but I have watched mink for years going about there daily lives---also the otters----I sure hope I have learned and stored a fraction of what these animals have shown me through the years----jest a couple of short stories----checking mink traps one time I saw a mink coming up the stream so I watched the mink---It went in and out of my set more times than I can remember----finally it ate what it wanted and went on its way. Checking otter traps----saw an otter ---that turned out to be 4 of them---- they went through a 330 ---that had all ready cough 3 of there relations. Go figure----I have seen otter (family's) eating walleyes from water muddy enough to almost walk on----the otter brought up fish after fish----climbing on a log eating what they wanted then back in for more. Its been great to watch--- and after each session I gave thanks.
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Post by bballou on Feb 6, 2013 10:40:38 GMT -5
Went for a short walk yesterday-----the walk was up a small creek to a beaver pond----lots of deer tracks----- then the good stuff----found where a mink had set up in a stone pile and brush pile combo----there was traces of blood in the trail between the two. When I got to the beaver pond it was very clear something was going over the dam in a couple of places---then from the pond emerges a mink----he climbs on the ice and sees me----"Gone"-( at least I got to see him ) ----- the other trails were muskrats and beaver. It wasent to cold---- and seeing the mink---made it a great short time in the out doors.
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Post by trappermac on Feb 6, 2013 11:41:36 GMT -5
Nice thread, and couldn't agree more about the thrill of observing wildlife in a natural habitat. We're fortunate enough to have a pond that sits down below an embankment and only 30 yards from the house. The pond cascades down in a stream to two lower ponds and then finally into a large beaver swamp which is the headwater of a nice trout stream out here. The wife and I sit outside whenever possiible and that pond and the sorrounding woods provides everything you ever need in wildlife viewing...we have no neighbors to speak of and we adjoin 1800 acres of stateland. So there is wildlife. Well the mink come into the pond frequently all summer long. The pond is loaded with frogs and also loaded with golden shiners (previous owner was a walleye fisherman who used the pond for rearing the shiners). We watch the mink catching mainly frogs all summer....they will come to the edge of the pond and hold still and watch, then suddenly explode into the water at the edge and catch the frogs. Fun to watch. They could fill up if they wanted to but instead they catch a couple, then move on. When they leave I go down to the pond to take a look and what yu find is the frog carcass laying there on its back, the mink eats through the belly and removes the innards, leaving the rest. I guess they don't know how great frogs legs taste.... Maybe at times they consume the entire frog, who knows. I think mink have large territories that they hunt, I think they use the same spots to hole up for the day when on their travels and they cache food at these locations when the food is plentiful. I should add that we have plenty of red squirrels and chipmunks on the property and we have many times witnessed the mink chasing them as well. We've saw a mink catch a chipmunk once, the reds usually evade capture by hitting the closest tree...chipmunks make the mistake of trying to get to their hole in the ground..
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Post by mole on Feb 6, 2013 12:16:09 GMT -5
I remember once I was making an under ice set for beaver.. All the time I was there a mink sat on the beaver house and watched me. ;D
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Post by bballou on Feb 6, 2013 22:55:16 GMT -5
Several times I have cough beaver watching me make a set----also fox-- mink and muskrats---- and a pile of red squirrels. I think the beaver is at the top of my list of animals that have watched me make a set ---anyway they are the ones I have cough the most.----- Fox are the weird ones----they jest set there and stair at you --- its a very uneasy feeling you get----I have had the feeling each time I have cough them watching me---you can feel there eyes on you.
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Post by jsevering on Feb 7, 2013 7:18:27 GMT -5
the only animal i get staring at me setting traps is ed... it ain't pretty...
only can remember off hand one or two beaver swimming back and forth about twenty feet out slapping their tails as i was setting.... smart beavers took awhile to catch them, well smarter than me anyhow... seemed like if they could feel me walking some how... they were out showing there dissatisfaction....
kinda like setting up and having a catch on the way out, did that once with mink setting a small section up that i remember... but didn't know he was there at the time or if he was even watching me...
do you guys put any thought in the different modes of travel for mink ... under water vrs on top vrs shallow and overland.... do you like to make use of guides... i know sometimes... i cant never get comfortable with hop sticks... always second guessing the direction of travel, pan distance and rather do with out my second guessing... any secret using them you want to share, that makes you comfortable with them.... jim
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Post by mole on Feb 7, 2013 7:26:26 GMT -5
Seen mink swimming on top of water and just under the ice. Not on the bottom as some believe. They swim rather well also. Saw a female once with a baby duck in her mouth swim under a bridge. about six seven feet of water and some current, Dont use hop stick, always thought mink might use them as a step on stick. do use vertical stick guide that way.
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Post by mikespring on Feb 7, 2013 11:35:27 GMT -5
the only animal i get staring at me setting traps is ed... it ain't pretty...
Thats funny!!!!!Thanks I needed that......
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Post by bballou on Feb 7, 2013 18:59:06 GMT -5
OH --My --God--- //// ED watching YA has to make ya itch all over. ----- Jim--- Ed ---I dont use stepping guides very often ----only when flustrated ---- but I do add a second trap---its no secret-----but I think I catch more mink---with less head scratching. Like you guys said ---its only second guessing---( the stick and second trap) ---but I think I catch more mink in the second trap-----(witch ever trap the second IS) ED ---I think you are correct ---Mink dont spend much time swimming on the bottom----I have seen them swimming under water many times---and never on the bottom.---- MIKE----you must know ED----what I see in my scrambled mind ----is ED in his trole suit (PINK) ---heavy beard-----cigar-----hair un-combed------hat with ear flaps hanging is every direction----drinking Ezra Brooks-----watching OVER JIM -----from a high vantage point. ----NOW THATS GOT TO BE FUNNY.
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Post by mikespring on Feb 7, 2013 19:03:42 GMT -5
Yep...I know Ed ;D.
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Post by chappy on Feb 7, 2013 20:51:30 GMT -5
I believe they do spend time swimming on the bottom. Primarily if there goin into the current. Caught to many down there to be coincidence. Some of these great locations really show up after it gets cold......not sayin there not swimming up higher as well, just depends on the circumstance.....
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Post by bballou on Feb 8, 2013 14:17:29 GMT -5
Chappy I agree mink do spend time traveling on the bottom----Its jest I havent seen them swimming there---- I know Ken Smyte and the many who use his bottom edge set ----- know the mink do travel on the bottom. One of the lessons a mink gave me years ago was watching him going up a shallow creek---checking EVERY SINGLE ---pile of leaves and debree in the creek and at the sides-----he would go under water at the edge of a pile and pop out somewhere in the pile----several times he had things to eat-----he would sit on top of the pile and eat what he found. All I had to do was figure out --- how to catch the mink when they were doing --- what I had watched that one doing.
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Post by jsevering on Feb 8, 2013 20:42:25 GMT -5
think it was bob noonan a long time back, before ken's book anyhow had a type of bottom edge set for mink, you guys may remember it, it was in the trapper.. eighties? ... for shallow streams below and in between old beaver step dam type situations... use to have limited luck with it on mink...
usually enough sets on the stream to cut yourself off, and im one for that old adage... more traps.. so kinda hard to give it a real fair shake other than it works..
but have watched mink hunt fish... pushing them up the final push under water in the center shine ... when the sides get to shallowing some behind the back of the dam... kinda back and forth, with a roll once even on the lower end of the pool, that i remember watching...then the straight push up, could see that set capitalized on that behavior, always surprised i didn't catch more with it... but i did catch some awfully large mink once in a while deep in some fairly small traps, before i smartened up...
you know the smart and dumb part... seems with me anyhow... i cant never find a happy medium
know ken's set is different... just figure i would throw it out there.. jim
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