Salt Set
I use both the bait and blind set; the water set I think is the best, that is, in bitter cold weather when the ice is thick. My way of making, I call it the ice set, writes an interested trapper, is to take a piece of oil cloth or an old buggy top cover will do, and put about 5 pounds of salt in same and sew it up, having it about 2 inches thick. Don’t make it too solid, leave it loose enough so you can work the most of the salt around the edges to bed the trap in.
Now puncture with a needle to let the fumes of salt through; cut a hole through the ice at edge of the water, scrape out hole to bed salt in; but first put a stone in the hole and bottom and side it up with stones to keep the mud from clogging the needle holes. Now you will wonder what the salt is for; simply to keep the ice from freezing the hole shut. I had nine of that kind of sets last winter and trapped 7 mink. The hole will never freeze shut. Always set trap under water.
Last winter I told my better half that I had better take my traps out of the run where I trap, as I couldn’t make a water set, because they froze up over night. She said, “Why don’t you put salt around your traps?” That put me to thinking so I got an old piece of oil cloth and got her to make four bags for me on the sewing machine; I put a sack of salt, 5 pounds in each one, and used them as I have described.