Chapter IV: Good and Lasting Baits

Animals are not afraid of smoked baits, and in the early and late parts of the trapping season it is a positive benefit to slightly smoke the bait; it lasts so much longer than fresh meat and hangs on to the bait stick until almost the last shred, and if an animal turns from the trap house without biting it, it is because he is not hungry.

The baits I have found the most enduring and most likely to tempt an animal are--first and always the muskrat. All animals, that is bear, mink, fox and marten will bite at this bait when they will not consider any other. For a bear trap, use one whole rat, take out the inside (because the inside will cause it to decay quicker), have the rat slightly smoked, just enough to stiffen the meat, then have a sharp pointed stick, about three feet long, run the stick through the two thighs, up along the back bone, through the neck stopping at the skull. Plant this in the back of your bear trap house and you have one of the best inducements for a bear to catch.

For mink or marten traps a smoked rat makes five good sized baits, neck and head one; each quarter one. Do not throw away the tail. It stands in the same relationship as a tidbit to an animal as a beaver's tail does to a trapper. Therefore at the trap where you want an extra inducement, twist the tail about the rest of the bait and tie it to keep in place.

During the very cold months partridge and rabbit meat keeps good a long while in the hard frozen state, but as an all round lasting bait for mild or cold weather, good for either mink or marten, I have used with great success both the windpipe and tail of the ox. The tail has, of course, to be skinned while fresh, and I cut off a ring or two of either the windpipe or tail and run a sharp stick through each piece, and carry them in my bait bag with the sticks in. When I want one for a trap I pull out the stick and the hole is there ready to place on the proper bait stick. A tail will make ten generous baits, likewise the windpipe.

All fish bait is good for mink, but the majority decompose so quickly that unless hard smoked it drops off the bait stick in a few hours and is eaten by the mice on the ground, or very soon disappears by the action of the earth and evaporation. As a lasting fish bait (unsmoked) I have found the sucker or carp the very best; they are a fleshy fish with no inside to speak of, and a very tough skin. One of about twelve or fourteen inches long will give sufficient bait for ten traps.

In setting mink traps along the shore of lake or river I take the fish whole in the canoe, and as I set a trap cut off a section with my belt axe, beginning with the tail. Each bait will be an inch or an inch and a quarter broad lengthways of the fish. You make your bait stick very sharp and run it through crossways of the section, piercing the skin on both sides. Long after the flesh part of the fish has rotted and fallen away, the skin ring will be yet in evidence shriveled up dry on the stick, but yet useful as bait.

In using partridge or rabbits for bait, it is very much towards their lasting powers to not remove the skin or feathers. Cut the section you want with a very sharp axe, run your bait stick through the portion of meat and plaster down close on top all the feathers, hair or skin and tie securely if in mild weather. If in cold weather, all that is necessary is to place each bait stick, primed, out of doors over night, and the next day you can carry them in your bait bag like so many knots.

In conclusion will say that a few drops of oil of anise is the best alluring scent I have found for mink. A final word of advice. Unless your traps in water-set always have a tossing pole, otherwise when you visit your line you may have the chagrin to find only the paw instead of the animal. As the minister says, one more word. If it is your intention to return on your tracks when visiting your trap road, be sure and clean out, bait and reset each trap as you go. In mild weather or towards spring, animals run as well in daytime as at night, and I have often, by observing this rule, found on my return at different times almost all kinds of animals caught while I was at the other end of the road.