# Mink & Culverts



## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Fool'em mentioned he was setting near a culvert so I thought I'd possibly start a discussion about mink & culverts.

The first photo is from my early years of learning the BE and a catch inside a culvert under about 1" of ice. I'd seen where a mink had entered the water downstream and I also saw bluegill fry in the culvert so I figured it was hunting them. The culvert had a lot of sand on the bottom and just enough water to cover a 110. You can see a stick poked in the bottom which was sort of a jaw guard. Today, I'd set the corner and have the same success. BTW, the mink had a bluegill(about 2" lg) in it's jaws when I checked the trap. 









In this next photo is another culvert set and catch using a foothold with the results. This set was made right on the corner where I like footholds.









Here are a couple of examples of the inherent behavior of mink. The photos were taken I think in March and notice how the mink use the vertical walls and especially the corners! The mink will display the same inherent behavior under water as well but note, they are traveling on top of the ice not below!!! This is important to note because if there were BE's under the ice, you wouldn't be catching mink!! I can say this from experience because I set BE's at these locations when there was open water and caught nothing, if I'd set TE's on the corners, I certainly would have!! I hadn't learned what a Top Edge(TE) set was at that time. LOL


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Seldom said:


> Fool'em mentioned he was setting near a culvert so I thought I'd possibly start a discussion about mink & culverts.
> 
> The first photo is from my early years of learning the BE and a catch inside a culvert under about 1" of ice. I'd seen where a mink had entered the water downstream and I also saw bluegill fry in the culvert so I figured it was hunting them. The culvert had a lot of sand on the bottom and just enough water to cover a 110. You can see a stick poked in the bottom which was sort of a jaw guard. Today, I'd set the corner and have the same success. BTW, the mink had a bluegill(about 2" lg) in it's jaws when I checked the trap.
> View attachment 241838
> ...


Found another photo of one of those concrete box-type culverts which had two corner, foothold sets. A true double on rats(two in same trap at same time) was in the left-hand corner(upper left) and a little female mink in the opposite(can't quite see the corner). The top rat of the two was slightly eaten by the mink and all traps were on drowning rods. Those rocks you see were not something I did and had no bearing on me catching the mink or not in my opinion. I firgured it must have made some other trapper feel good to do it though.


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## Timberdoodle2 (Jan 6, 2015)

so on the iced over culverts where should you have set? and on the double rat pic where were the traps located seldom


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Timberdoodle2 said:


> so on the iced over culverts where should you have set? and on the double rat pic where were the traps located seldom


With iced-over culverts and bridges, BE's under the ice either along the wall such as in the 1st photo or an outside corner. 

Now if you see mink running the ice such as in the photos, it's silly setting under it because the mink aren't there!! Search for a location up stream or down where they are either entering or exiting the water. When you find that sign, you know prey is available nearby and the mink are hunting the area. If you already know what the under water stream structure looks like and where it's located, you'll have no problem setting it. Hand-in-hand with that, think about what the stream has to offer for prey and find BE set locations on that structure. Seriously, there is no excuse for not intimately knowing the waterway and it's subsurface structure you're trapping!! Recall those photos I took in preparation for a winter, iced-over mink project?

The degree of success in catches you'll derive from trapping is in direct proportion to the effort you apply!! Seriously!

I had set two corner, foothold sets, one at each corner. Look in the upper-left of the photo and you'll see the corner where I caught the double rats and they slid down the drowner rod into deep water. The corner you can't see(out of the photo), where I caught the mink was the same. She just wasn't big enough or fought strongly enough to slid very far.


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## Timberdoodle2 (Jan 6, 2015)

thanks for the reply seldom


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## Fool'em (Sep 29, 2016)

Culverts are one of my favorite sets. I also like bridges. This one catches a mink or 2 every year with a TE set along the wall I usually set one on each side. The corners are awesome locations for a BE on the deep side and a foothold on the shallow side. Both sides have produced. I haven't set the corners the last couple years since you can see the set from above and they started disappearing on me. Now I set a TE in the middle of the bridge. Concrete block with sod on top works on one side and there is a rock that sticks up out of the water on the other side. This is the first year I have set this spot and not caught a mink


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## Fool'em (Sep 29, 2016)

Around here the culverts usually have a deeper hole on either end. When I was a kid I used to ride my bike a couple miles to my fishin hole. Just a swampy crick with a deep hole near the culvert on each side of the road. Guess where I caught all my fish. Right near the culvert in the deeper water. I would even catch bullheads inside the culverts.


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Fool'em said:


> Around here the culverts usually have a deeper hole on either end. When I was a kid I used to ride my bike a couple miles to my fishin hole. Just a swampy crick with a deep hole near the culvert on each side of the road. Guess where I caught all my fish. Right near the culvert in the deeper water. I would even catch bullheads inside the culverts.


LMAO! I did the same thing.


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Fool'em said:


> Culverts are one of my favorite sets. I also like bridges. This one catches a mink or 2 every year with a TE set along the wall I usually set one on each side. The corners are awesome locations for a BE on the deep side and a foothold on the shallow side. Both sides have produced. I haven't set the corners the last couple years since you can see the set from above and they started disappearing on me. Now I set a TE in the middle of the bridge. Concrete block with sod on top works on one side and there is a rock that sticks up out of the water on the other side. This is the first year I have set this spot and not caught a mink
> View attachment 241960


Absolutely loved usingTE's. and found they were far more successful then BE's(3 years of testing agains the BE directly below) under a bridge EXCEPT when there was ice. I started out using a cement block with sod but I got tired of having to rework the sod due to water depth fluctuation, so I made a TE stand. I still had to adjust for water fluctuations but a lot quicker and only required a simple twist and tighten to raise or lower the platform. Loved'em!

I need to tell you I didn't come up with this old time mink set, I actually traded a canine set that I'd devised in 1971 that was a killer set for the TE "concept". I lost the friendship of the fella that I traded with all over a silly argument about the BE set of all things.
Here's two models of the TE stand I made from scrap-


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## Timberdoodle2 (Jan 6, 2015)

i caught my first stream trout on a royal coachman streamer on the deep side of a culvert.. must be it was in the air back in the old days got lots suckers to, used to crawl threw some to push themout to another on the oppisite end.. hollered before i reached out.. those TE mechanisms look like they would be heavy to carry very many of


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

Timberdoodle2 said:


> i caught my first stream trout on a royal coachman streamer on the deep side of a culvert.. must be it was in the air back in the old days got lots suckers to, used to crawl threw some to push themout to another on the oppisite end.. hollered before i reached out.. those TE mechanisms look like they would be heavy to carry very many of


But they're being set at road culverts.


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Timberdoodle2 said:


> i caught my first stream trout on a royal coachman streamer on the deep side of a culvert.. must be it was in the air back in the old days got lots suckers to, used to crawl threw some to push themout to another on the oppisite end.. hollered before i reached out.. those TE mechanisms look like they would be heavy to carry very many of


LOL! You only need two to a bridge and they are a heck of a lot lighter then cement blocks.


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## Timberdoodle2 (Jan 6, 2015)

good point on the blocks, laid a few of those in my younger years.. delivered a lot more


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## Fool'em (Sep 29, 2016)

This culvert is just about always this full. What is the consensus on use of a culvert that is 3/4 or more full? By the number of critters hit on the road at this one I believe if a culvert has limited head room the critters will cross over land
This crossing accounts for rats mink and beaver all hit on the road 
I believe the mink still hunt the deep pool by the culvert but they may not swim through. Road is a paved co rd with wide shoulders.


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Fool'em said:


> This culvert is just about always this full. What is the consensus on use of a culvert that is 3/4 or more full? By the number of critters hit on the road at this one I believe if a culvert has limited head room the critters will cross over land
> This crossing accounts for rats mink and beaver all hit on the road
> I believe the mink still hunt the deep pool by the culvert but they may not swim through. Road is a paved co rd with wide shoulders.
> View attachment 241981


Remember, the culvert and in conjunction with the road is nothing more then a pinch-point. If there is something that makes the pinch-point uncomfortable for the trapper, there WILL BE great locations both upstream and down that don't need the pinch-point, only the inherent tendencies of the mink! As soon as I got to your post, my eyes went immediately to what I would need to investigate as a BE location. Remember, you are trapping the same mink regardless of where you find them on any waterway and regardless of the set you choose to catch them in!


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## DirtySteve (Apr 9, 2006)

Seldom said:


> Found another photo of one of those concrete box-type culverts which had two corner, foothold sets. A true double on rats(two in same trap at same time) was in the left-hand corner(upper left) and a little female mink in the opposite(can't quite see the corner). The top rat of the two was slightly eaten by the mink and all traps were on drowning rods. Those rocks you see were not something I did and had no bearing on me catching the mink or not in my opinion. I firgured it must have made some other trapper feel good to do it though.
> View attachment 241846


In a scenario like you have in this picture.....what water depth would you consider too deep to put a foothold trap right on the bottom as you did here?


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## Tryin2 (Oct 4, 2012)

Seldom thanks for sharing your pics and knowledge with all of us I have learned a ton from your posts please keep them up and thank you again


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

DirtySteve said:


> In a scenario like you have in this picture.....what water depth would you consider too deep to put a foothold trap right on the bottom as you did here?


When I used footholds I tried to keep my trap under about 1" of water. Many times I had to build-up a platform of mud or use stacked, turned over sod in order to get the pan at a depth I liked. If you remember a previous photo of the field drain tile, that #1.5 is sitting on a mud pile about 8" high. That was the problem with the old TE set using a cement block and sod, if the water rose too much the mink would just swim over the trap, is it dropped from when I made the set, my trap would be high & dry pretty quick. This water fluctuation using foothold traps was half of the reason for checking traps everyday. I always believed it paid for my time with catches I would've missed.

Hopefully, I answered the question you were asking.


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Tryin2 said:


> Seldom thanks for sharing your pics and knowledge with all of us I have learned a ton from your posts please keep them up and thank you again


You're welcome. The only thing I trap now are canines so I figure to just pass on what I've learned about the rest.


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## Tryin2 (Oct 4, 2012)

Seldom said:


> You're welcome. The only thing I trap now are canines so I figure to just pass on what I've learned about the rest.


In my mind you are the man I have learned so much from your posts not knowing any trappers and learning from what I read and watch your posts have been a major eye opener as to where to place sets thank you so much


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## bowhunter19 (Sep 15, 2009)

Seldom- I think I understand but correct me if I'm wrong. When using a TE set the reason you are placing the trap at the top is because there is overhead cover so the mink will be swimming on the surface. Where as the BE is placed in an area where the mink is hunting?


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

bowhunter19 said:


> Seldom- I think I understand but correct me if I'm wrong. When using a TE set the reason you are placing the trap at the top is because there is overhead cover so the mink will be swimming on the surface. Where as the BE is placed in an area where the mink is hunting?


Absolutely dead-on! Same thing with rats. I've had the good fortune to be standing watching both mink and rats swimming submerged and pop to the surface as soon as they hit the shade and dive as soon as they sensed the overhead cover was gone. I've actually watched two rats get caught in my TE's. 

In addition, I tested this theory under three bridges for three years using body grips as BE's directly beneath the TE's and had the theory proven each year to the point I never place BE's under bridges or culverts UNLESS iced-over. Over those three years I ran catch ratios from 5-1 to as high as 8-1, TE's over BE's.

The BE is a super set BUT it's not the end-all of mink trapping EXCEPT under ice!


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## Timberdoodle2 (Jan 6, 2015)

Seldom said:


> Absolutely dead-on! Same thing with rats. I've had the good fortune to be standing watching both mink and rats swimming submerged and pop to the surface as soon as they hit the shade and dive as soon as they sensed the overhead cover was gone. I've actually watched two rats get caught in my TE's.
> 
> In addition, I tested this theory under three bridges for three years using body grips as BE's directly beneath the TE's and had the theory proven each year* to the point I never place TE's under bridges or culverts* UNLESS iced-over. Over those three years I ran catch ratios from 5-1 to as high as 8-1, TE's over BE's.
> 
> The BE is a super set BUT it's not the end-all of mink trapping EXCEPT under ice!


seldom you meant BE didnt you and did use TE unless iced over?


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Timberdoodle2 said:


> seldom you meant BE didnt you and did use TE unless iced over?


LMAO! Yup, I got my E's mixed up! Fixed now, thanks Timberdoodle.


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## bowhunter19 (Sep 15, 2009)

With that being said if I have a lot of overhead cover and lots of prey (frogs and crayfish) how do you know when the mink is going to dive? I know you say you have to find the prey but in my are I feel like there is so much that it's hard to pin point a specific spot. When the weathers warm there is 1000's of frogs


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

bowhunter19 said:


> With that being said if I have a lot of overhead cover and lots of prey (frogs and crayfish) how do you know when the mink is going to dive? I know you say you have to find the prey but in my are I feel like there is so much that it's hard to pin point a specific spot. When the weathers warm there is 1000's of frogs


In your photos I don't see overhead cover unless there are some undercut banks wih head-space OR that sweet little indent just below where your BE was. When they're hunting they're spending far more time under water then above but they do have to get a breath. I can see a mink popping into the indent, grabbing a quick breath and a quick look-see and back under hunting again. That's why the indent set is so deadly, mink can't stay out of them.

That entire shoreline looks like it could have frogs and crawfish any and everywhere along it and probably does so other then needing a quick breath, there's no reason for a mink to be popping up and down(diving) with all their prey subsurface. From my few observations of them actually hunting in the water, they slip along sticking their nose/eyes into the crevises and pockets. It's really little difference from their erractic hunting on dry land, poking here, poking there. EXCEPT, they have to swim around structure! Remember, they know where they've found prey all along your waterway since they were born so they know where it is, as you know where the beer or butter is in your fridge! LOL

About the reason why some BE's catch rats and some catch mink and SOME will catch both. There is a real reason why there are these differences, the biggest is that the rats and mink are using these locations for different purposes BUT sometimes they will be those locations that are such, that both will use. Know the rat and know the mink!


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

bowhunter19 said:


> With that being said if I have a lot of overhead cover and lots of prey (frogs and crayfish) how do you know when the mink is going to dive? I know you say you have to find the prey but in my are I feel like there is so much that it's hard to pin point a specific spot. When the weathers warm there is 1000's of frogs


About the "specific spot". With prey all along the shoreline that WHY you set up the projections! While they're hunting they have to swim around these and it's a mink's inherentm tendency to swim tight to the vertical edge of the projection. Ever notice many projections, depending on their makeup have a groove worn in them? Here's so food for thought. Since a mink isn't a fish and fish swim with their body vertical from belly to back, why would you think a mink has to swim like a fish!!! This difference becomes very evident watching a mink hunt around rocks.


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## bowhunter19 (Sep 15, 2009)

Here's a few better pictures to give you a better idea.






















Pic from left to right: straight on, then walking up to creek looking right, then left.
Not all has woods but most has over hanging tag alders and tall grasses


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

bowhunter19 said:


> Here's a few better pictures to give you a better idea.
> View attachment 242252
> View attachment 242254
> View attachment 242255
> ...


Again, the first glance of the photos several different types of set locations jump out. In the first photo and along the far bank, notice two tree trunks lying in the water and up onto the bank. A quick digging out under the logs gives a traveling mink the opprotunity to continue along the bank/water interface AND they love to have overhead cover. Killer set with a foothold. This is a good example of what I'm talking about. If you're wanting to be a "blind-setter", be prepared to take advantage of ALL set opprotunities as they present themselves or at the very least be able to choose the higher percentage set loctions.


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## bowhunter19 (Sep 15, 2009)

I like that, I'll have to throw a few of those in!


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## Tryin2 (Oct 4, 2012)

I was thinking the same thing the river I'm trapping has a few spots like that


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

bowhunter19 said:


> I like that, I'll have to throw a few of those in!


When you do, make sure the bank side is straight up & down (remember the inherent tendency to travel tight to vertical) and you have about 1" of water depth for the trap. You can place a very small "stumble stick" on one side of the trap just a hair above the water surface and over a spring OR you can place a small(pencil-size) stick against the outside jaw and standing up about 3" .above the water. OR both!


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Seldom said:


> When you do, make sure the bank side is straight up & down (remember the inherent tendency to travel tight to vertical) and you have about 1" of water depth for the trap. You can place a very small "stumble stick" on one side of the trap just a hair above the water surface and over a spring OR you can place a small(pencil-size) stick against the outside jaw and standing up about 3" .above the water. OR both!


I forgot to add, the foothold needs to be directly under the log.


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## Tryin2 (Oct 4, 2012)

Seldom said:


> I forgot to add, the foothold needs to be directly under the log.


That's where I was thinking it should go glad I was right gotboutbof work to late to do much other than check the traps I have out big fat nothing tonight nice brisk walk in the woods was nice anyways I did get one foothold under a log in the river like in your pic it was in a close to the road easy to get to spot going to set a few more logs like that tomorrow


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## MIfishslayer91 (Dec 24, 2013)

Seldom, have you ever thought about making trapping videos and trapping tutorial videos on YouTube? I for one would definately be watching your channel.


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

MIfishslayer91 said:


> Seldom, have you ever thought about making trapping videos and trapping tutorial videos on YouTube? I for one would definately be watching your channel.


Nope, I haven't Fishslayer, I consider myself a coach and not a teacher/instructor. Here's a tip though! When I started trpping mink I researched and bought two mink books. These books were not "how to" books, they were/are "why" books. Probably the two best investments toward mink trapping I've ever done and I highly recommend them to anyone today that wants to learn mink trapping.


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