thanks for the help 2poor

TTT

What about attractants? There's a lot out there but when it comes to ground cubbies I like to use feathers

But at a leaning pole or cubbie I like to hang up a wing with a smear of lure

X2 on the feathers

we cant use visibal attractor so the feathers may be out for me in most cases but a good mix of castor and skunk essance makes a good call

Bruce - How close to the bait is the trap? Also, it looks like you just wire some boughs over the bait. Correct?

I put the bait as close to the conibear as possible.Yes I just cut a few boughs and wire them over the bait and conibear.

I love using feathers and used to use alot, but its now illegal here in Maine.

Thanks.

Here's the common set used:

#1 on a leaning pole with a spruce hen or ptarmigan carcass on the end with a smear of gusto on the feathers



We like to find them hanging but here's the results



Replace that #1 with a 120 and that works too

We trap quite a few marten in my area there is no quota other than common sense. We run a 30 mile line on old roads cutlines and trials. If your organized pre season and use boxes with 120 style body grips your ahead of the game. I also use 160's in boxes for the occational fisher and believe it or not have tagged more than 1 lynx in them as well. Beaver meat as previously mentioned is the best bait. The fat content seems to keep it from completly freezing even in extreme cold and if I can smell it at 10 feet a critter can smell it alot farther. My choice of lure is one that contains skunk. This was the key to catching alot of marten. If they are around and you call them in with lure they will find the beaver and you will catch the marten. It is rare that I see tracks without making a catch. Pay attention to your male vs. female ratio and if you start catching an excessive amount of juviniles its time to shut er down. If you can't check everyday someone mentioned having traps suspended and off the ground to minimize mouse, shrew, damage that is good advice. Good luck to all that venture into marten country as the view will seldom disapoint.

Thanks for posting BCW.. That's lots of good info.


Put your location In your profile, trapperman rules..

Awesome info guys thanks every one

[img]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b210/haredog/trapping2009014-5.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b210/haredog/trapping2009014-2-1.jpg[/img]

Bruce great pics, one question though what does the sign in pic 5 say.

Tag left at a bear bait used earlier that fall.

Those Marten look nice. They live in dense evergreen forests up north. I have none around here. Too bad.

They sure are fun to trap.

I am sure hoping to get my first one this year. I have never set a trap in an area where there was marten and plan to change that. I am going to the UP in August for 2 days of scouting so I can hopefully connect in December.

# 0 is plenty of trap if you're using footholds. 120's if body grips.

I have to disagree with BCW. It's the juveniles that you want to catch rather than the adults.

In responce to white 17. I'm curious,because I've been trapping the same line for about 20 years now. The marten seem to come through in waves and when the action slows and the catch drops off I usually pull my marten traps. But for years in a row I could count on catching about 60 marten a year, however if I started catching an over abundance of juveniles my next season would drop off to about 50% of my normal catch. I would then have to trap a less productive part of the line and concentrate on beaver, coyote, and wolves for 2 seasons to let the marten recover. This could be unique to my line and this old dog doesn't mind learning new tricks. I am used to a good adult population am I missing something? My line in recent years has been logged hard and old growth is getting scarce. I take it pretty easy on the marten these days but am curious as I don't want to pass on bad info.