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As I have been reading about all the stories in your magazine and not sending in any, I think I will come with some recipes that will be of some use to green horns at trapping. All the sets I am going to write about I have tried and have been very good ones. Here is one for mink. First find a stream that connects two ponds or any two bodies of water. As mink like to use streams as a means of travel between bodies of water it affords the very best hunting for him. As there is most always a good supply of small fish and some frogs and other tempting morsels there, for he is always on the look out for something to satisfy his hunger. So that is the place to set the trap. But much care must be taken in setting it, as a mink is about as wise as they make them, and anything that does not look right to him he will shy clear of and will not go anywhere near the place, no matter how tempting the bait is or how bad he wants it.
Great care must be taken in setting the trap and placing the bait. Here is the way I do it. I always use a sparrow when I can get it. Then I dig a small pocket in the bank of the stream being very careful to throw all dirt I take out into the middle of the stream and being sure to have the pocket only big enough to hold the sparrow and no bigger. Then I put him in head first so only his tail shows, and that is just sticking out the least bit, as the mink is very sharp and anything that shows up too much he will always give it the once over before going anywhere near it. Therefore it does not pay to have too much of the bait showing.
Next I put the trap in front of the pocket under water about six inches down. Then I cover the trap with water soaked leaves, as they will not float, and will stay where you put them. And always remember to hitch your trap to a drag as that adds spring to the trap. Now 1 stand back and sprinkle water from the stream all over where I have made the set so as to wash all human scent from where I have made the set. This should always be done as he is always on the look out for the trapper, and if he smells any human odor he will be on the alert at once, and nine out of ten you will not get him. Although he will see the bait and want it he will not go near it. Also be very careful when going to look at your traps that you only go close enough to see if you have got him. But if you follow these recipes and there is a mink around I think you will have him by the third or fourth morning.
Howard Watson
Hunter-Trader-Trapper. October: 1921,
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