coyotero,
I get quite a few mink by setting along grassy fencelines, waterways (even if dry), old dry creek beds, dry ponds (especially if they have a tube-type culvert drain) and field drain tiles. I have had enough little surprises along my coyote lines to be convinced that mink are not strictly water animals, just like coon are not strictly water animals. predators are opportunistic and will take meals where they can get them. Water I believe is just an easy source for food for animals that adapt and swim well.
I make blind sets with #110s by finding little pinched down areas in these locations. Often there will be a trail right inside the fenceline that you cannot see unless you pull some weeds back and get down on your hands and knees and look. I get a few mink in dirtholes near the travel areas. I don't think they like to wander around out in the open much as it leaves them exposed to attack from owls, hawks, and other critters. If the fencerow intersects or connects with an old pond, or stream, then the better it becomes as a potential mink hunting ground for small birds, mice, rabbits, you name it. I got the pleasure once of watching a little female attack a rabbit once, then carried it off over an embankment and into a small creek. I noticed her first by the rabbit squealing...I had spooked the rabbit when walking along the edge of the timber, and as the rabbit ran into some weedy area along the creek I heard it start squealing so I trotted over to see if I might have a shot at a fox or something...nope, it was a little female mink and she was all over that thing and finally had it around the back of the neck. I shot them both (after a number of misses...those things are fast in the water) and I was amazed at the number of bite marks on that rabbit in just a very short period of time. The rabbit was larger than the mink, definitely.
Anyway, I like #110s in blind sets but do not need water for that set at all, just patience and either sign or a very likely looking place for a mink to poke through. Dirtholes are great sets, too. I like double dirtholes, crowd the holes a little closer and the trap a little closer, but not necessary. As mentioned, stake for more than just mink as this set is also a popular larger critter set and you can expect just about anything. I've made mink dirtholes along waterways and ran them out on drowners...and have pulled back in everything from mink, to coon, to coyotes and foxes. Wet coyotes are very heavy.
I made some boxes one year that were about a foot long, maybe 1/2 foot wide, and open on bottom. I made a 3" hole in top toward one end, and a hole in top on opposite end just large enough for a long rebar stake. I bedded a 1-1/2 and set the open-bottom box over the trap so that the 3" opening was just over the set trap and ran a long rebar stake down through the other hole and also through the end of the trap chain swivel/anchor point. I baited these boxes with fish and used mink gland lure. I set these along ponds, fencerows, brushpiles near ponds and streams, etc. thinking this would be a decent weather-proof set for mink since the sets had to set a little longer to connect, it seemed like. I caught several mink in these, and a bunch of coon, too. I think they were fairly pet-proof unless a dog or cat could get their paw inside that 3" hole and into the trap bedded below it. Anyway, coons caught had the box on their arm then between them and the anchored trap...lots of chewed boxes but no chewed arms/feet. Mink were all inside the boxes when I arrived to check so had to really look in the hole to see if you had anything. Sometimes a tap on the box was enough to get them moving inside so you knew to open 'er up and look in.
Anyway, just some of my ramblings on dryland mink sets I've used. Sorry if this is a bit wordy...
Jim
