Mink on VAlley Creek

I'm not a trapper, but I'd like to trap just one to have mounted for my fishing camp.
 
I never understood trapping in this area. The winters don't last long enough for the animals to develop prime fur. The demand is really low unless your in an area that is primarily devoted to subsistence living.

Furs may have some value to taxidermist but in general fur prices have plummeted due to popular public opinion and pressure for special interest groups.

My question is it really worth the effort to trap and animal with little value and in most cases your not even going to use the meat. I hunt, so I understand the sporting value but I refuse to shoot anything I am not willing to eat.
 
Lancaster, you must not have any experience with trapping. Thats ok, this is a fly fishing forum. Yes, fur does become very prime in the winter from late november to mid january. Hides still hold a decent value if you market it correctly. I use all parts of the animal. I tanned all 51 mink that I caught last year, so if anybody wants mink fur, PM me! I sell them to crafters and garment makers. I also clean and sell the skulls. I bring in much more money per animal than can be secured for a pelt even during "fur boom" years.

Right now, coyote and bobcat are in relatively high demand on the worldwide fashion market. However, the preferred skins are from western animals. So, I find it most economically productive to concentrate on mink and piece them out and sell them as I have been.
 
One day 2 years ago my cousin and I were standing in Penns Creek in the fall. Down swoops a bald eagle down through the valley and following the creek and flies right over our heads about 20 feet in the air. About 5 minutes later we turn and there is a mink running around on the bank. That was a pretty cool 5 minutes standing in that landscape with those creatures around.
 

See quite a few on Penn's I've seen them in groups after the trout pushing them towards the bank.
 
Lancaster, you must not have any experience with trapping. Thats ok, this is a fly fishing forum. Yes, fur does become very prime in the winter from late november to mid january. Hides still hold a decent value if you market it correctly. I use all parts of the animal. I tanned all 51 mink that I caught last year, so if anybody wants mink fur, PM me! I sell them to crafters and garment makers. I also clean and sell the skulls. I bring in much more money per animal than can be secured for a pelt even during "fur boom" years.
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Fayettenamese,

I certainly did not mean to offend you in anyway. I have not trapped myself but coming from a family who has trapped for quite a long time I know a little bit about it and the business.

First off I will say that I'm not up on the currently price of Mink, but I know that it is the most desirable fur that you can take in PA except for a bobcat of which you may only trap 1 per season. Good for you for finding an economical way to trap Mink. Nothing wrong with that.

My question would be why do I still see so many sets for muskrats and raccoons or even foxes for the matter. Top price for a fox has to be around $12, $8, for a raccoon, and $2 for a Rat. It just does not seem very economical to trap these animals for the work that you have to put in, (before and after the harvest) and for the equipment.

My point about the region was that furs coming from the west or Alaska/Canada are going to be graded much higher because the animals produce better fur due to longer and colder winters.

Also, I'm pretty sure the world wide market took a hit because of Russia's political issues. Outlooks are even down in the Chinese market, The largest buyers of furs. A quick google search on fur prices does not give a favorable outlook for most buyers and auction sites.

 
HopBack wrote:
I never understood trapping in this area. The winters don't last long enough for the animals to develop prime fur. The demand is really low unless your in an area that is primarily devoted to subsistence living.

Furs may have some value to taxidermist but in general fur prices have plummeted due to popular public opinion and pressure for special interest groups.

My question is it really worth the effort to trap and animal with little value and in most cases your not even going to use the meat. I hunt, so I understand the sporting value but I refuse to shoot anything I am not willing to eat.
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Winters here are plenty cold enough, or at least have certainly been so historically (not getting into the climate change debate.) For many years fur prices were plenty high enough to make it very worthwhile to trappers. They have dropped overall but even recently were high enough to make it worthwhile. Many times for certain species the prices are good and for others they're low. There are other benefits that trapping provides, chief among them is keeping predator & certain vermin numbers in check which aids other game and non-game species and also aids farmers and certain livestock. Even when prices are low some trappers will continue just out of tradition (which still provides the aforementioned benefits) and there are some other albeit lesser markets for fur (think fly tiers.)
 
fox and yodels are bringing 40-50 a piece. my girlfriend is a trapper. coon 50 cents.
 
^all points well taken. To get the thread back on track.....The game commission website reports that 11,500 mink were harvested in the 2011-2012 season. (reported harvest anyway). So, yah there are a lot of mink in Pennsylvania they are just a bit shy.
 
Fox and yote aren't close to $40-50 now. Coyotes averaged about $24 last year in PA and fox were around half of that.

But back to the thread again... There are mink on every waterway. I even catch mink in AMD streams that are bright orange. I catch mink from another polluted stream that is bright blue/green. Suffice it to say, they definitely inhabit every single trout stream in our state. I see a few mink each year while out trouting. Three times in my life, I have seen mink successfully pull trout from the water up onto the bank. There are a few guys in the SE part of PA that pound mink along the trout streams that you fish. I think this guy is from Lancaster. He is a living legend in the fox trapping arena, and a pretty darn good mink trapper too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpyh2jBs17M
 
I was blessed with this experience on the Logan Branch last month. I luckily had my camera when I caught a glimpse of the bigger one running past me along the brushy bank so I sat down on a rock and got my camera ready. The mink worked his way down to me and got within a foot from my boot and allowed me to take pictures of him. Suddenly I heard something else running towards me and another mink came running to the first one and they both playfully wrestled one another under the log. They both sat and let me take more pictures of them until they playfully bounced away. I've seen seven this year so far, I'm on the water more than alot of people so it helps my odds seeing them. Basically mink are pretty pollution intolerant. There small bodies cannot handle heavy metals in water ways. Basically when you have trout, you have mink. Same goes with muskrats. A mink will much rather eat a muskrat than a trout, but with decreasing muskrat populations due to pollution/pesticides, I see many more mink working trout streams.

Trapping is something that is very hard to understand unless you do it. Fly fishing and trapping are my two passions, bow hunting coming in at a close third, its hard to describe but its a tradition that still has its place.

An animals fur begins to prime due to the shortening of sunlight during winter...
 

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Mike,

Mink can thrive anywhere and can live in the most polluted of watersheds. As I mentioned earlier, I catch mink every year from streams that can't support any fish life at all... It takes some work to get the orange iron oxide coating off of their hide. Without a doubt. I catch more mink each year from "dirty" streams that I do from "trout streams".
 
Fayette is correct there. I do some trapping, just a small land line and a couple ponds, but I know some serious mink trappers that catch them out of some complete dumps. Muskrats are even worse. They den in the stuff. Mink at least have the decency to sleep in a hollow log. I know of a couple nasty waste treatment ponds that produce rats for me every year.

Back to the thread... I saw a mink last year while fishing. First one I ever saw alive. It was pretty neat watching it work a stream bank. I'm willing to bet if you're seeing more as of the last few years it's because of fur prices being so bad. Combine that with trapping being a dying art, and you'll start noticing more roadkills, rabies stories, mink sightings on your trout stream in broad daylight, etc.

If you want to see something pretty wild, look up hunting with a mink, or something along those lines on YouTube. As you will find out, you can apparently tame and train a mink to hunt muskrats for you lol.
 
There was a mink in the rocks near the covered bridge tonight around 6P.
 
I saw 2 mink traveling together on Kettle Creek this past year. In the last 10 years Mink sightings have been a lot more common. I've been seeing one every 2-3 years.
 
I ran a small trap line when I was in my teens. I never trapped mink though. They were around, but they weren't worth very much because of mink farms. They haven't been the most desirable in my lifetime.

At the same time, you could get $35 for a large racoon, $50+ for a red fox. Heck, you could get almost as much for a possum as you could for a mink, and nobody trapped FOR possum. They were like bycatch.

I never had much luck with fox. Caught one once, but someone stole it from the trap before I got there. (tracks in the snow).

I concentrated more on muskrat than anything. They only went for about $12 then, but were easiest to catch, and MUCH easier to skin.

Caught a couple least weasels by accident. One was white. I didn't bother skinning either of them. They probably sold for about 50 cents at the time, and I didn't have any stretchers that small.

I don't have time to trap anymore, and if I did, it would be just to control the populations. there is just no money in it unless you are really good at it, have established buyers, and already have the traps.

I may have to set out a few traps again this fall because of all the raccoons. But I'll likely just use box traps. Everybody has dogs around here, and I'd hate to catch one in a leg hold by accident. They shouldn't be letting them run free, but still.

Caught a raccoon in the barn a couple weeks ago that was getting into livestock feed.

I may be setting out some muskrat traps as well this fall.

I also have lots of red fox, but I likely won't be trapping them.

I also lose the occasional chicken to predators, but I have that mostly under control with electric fencing. Something got my rooster a couple weeks ago though. I think it was a redtail hawk. That's OK though because one of the pullets I bought this year turned out to be a rooster. I was debating on whether to eat the young rooster, or replace the old one, and the hawk made the decision for me.;-)
 
I saw one floating down the stream on his back at Mossy Creek VA a few weeks back.

he seemed to be grinning at me.

I know trout managers think they are a pest, but to me they are charming creatures, bettered to see only by an otter and her pups playing outside a holte.

cheers

Mark.
 
They're all part of the balance of nature, which I love to see. Years ago I was fishing a brookies stream, and one swam right between my legs. It was the cute and terrifying at the same time.
 
Several years ago, I saw a mink that was lying "dead" on the back road to our development in Ohio (where I used to live). I was riding my bicycle at the time, so I stopped to check it out. It was bleeding out of it's mouth and I figured it was dead. I will admit I considered harvesting some fly tying material. When I went to pick it up, the darn thing moved! Very dazed though.

So I moved it off the road, and for the next few hours I checked up on it from time to time (short bike ride from the house). Each time it was a little more conscious until eventually it moved on. Tough little buggers. I saw several around that lake during the 9 years I lived there.
 
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