lets go over sets baits and picks are welcome

You just can't beat Beaver for bait ,I usually only trap them for a week or two at the beginning of our season - Cubbies on the ground are very effective

Boxes with coni's work well too.. I put mine @ 10 - 12 in. off the ground so all they have to do is stand up to hit the trap -



Gusto works good and I have also had good luck with O'Gormans mountain Marten

Do you not have to worry about mouse damage in Idaho? I haven't successfully trapped on yet, but everything I'm told and read says get them off the ground to avoid mouse damage.

I have never had any damage - with footholds the marten are still alive - I run a 2 to 3 day check - Not to say it couldn't happen..

Appreciate your reply. Hoping to get into them this year, hopefully this thread keeps going, could bring a lot of good information from all over the country into a central location.

They are fun to trap - Good luck..

some awsome pics guys and info keep it going!!!!

this is really going good i am learning lots of stuff

I want to add that if I was going to trap an area for Marten for more than a couple weeks I would not make ground sets - By setting traps higher off the ground you will decrease the number of females you catch - catch all the females and you will not have a place to trap for long..

good point idtrapper

Very good point idtrapper. Some people in my area don't understand that. They ruined about four miles of good area. My favorite set is a box about chest high with a 1.5 longspring. I've had good luck with elbow sets. That's when the tree makes an "L" shape. Put the trap on the lower part and the bait on the upper part. I use the same long springs for that too.

nice

Tons of marten trapping info on the wilderness forum and it's archives.

-TJ

I use 3 or 4 double headed nails to hold my bodygripper on a pole set.

find a leaning tree, approximately 3 to 8 inches in diameter, something not full of sticky pitch. If branchy, clear the branches from the upper side to just beyond where the trap will be, about chest high. Drive 2 double headed (concrete forming 16 penny) nails about 2 - 3 inches apart perpendicular to the tree and leave 2 inches or so out. Drive a third nail above or below the 2 nails, centered on the tree, at a little wider space than the gap between the set jaws and protruding the same as the others. The 120, 155, or 160 is et so the lower jaws pinch the nails and are held between the double heads. This is for the triggers on top or off to the side. For a pan activated bodygripper you will use 4 nails, positioned so the trigger will fit between.

I then set the trap on the nails, with the jaws between the double heads, sometimes bending the nails a little for a snug fit. I rotate the springs up, tie the trap off to an adjacent branch, so the caught animal will swing free, out of the reach of shrews or voles.

Wire or nail your bait 8-12 inches beyond the trap (fresh beaver, muskrat, venison scraps) then stick a sick through the spring loops and a few more sticks over the bait and on top of the spring stick lay some evergreen boughs on your sticks for a roof and you are done. You can see from a distance if your trap is snapped because you bough roof will be gone and your marten will be hanging.

It took 5 times longer to write this than it does to make the set. I don't ever use boxes or mailboxes and that is my main method exept for some ground cubbies of brush sometimes.

Good luck!

We have a silly 9 day season. By far the majority of our sets our made on the ground with mail tubes.


19 male Marten and 8 females. Released one male when we exceeded our limit.

155 bodygrips and standard mail tubes are a perfect fit.

Here is the largest size tube modified to be ground legal for 160's in MN restricted Lynx zone. 7" setback and opening of 50" square(stick/rod to reduce opening size), bottom removed to let animal get to recessed trap on natural ground. Remove opening stick and they stack nicely.

Our season runs from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31 - I think a guy could hurt the population with ground sets if the same area was trapped all season - This past year I trapped for a week - didn't hit it hard -2 lines checked every other day ( it was warm like 50 deg.)
Two days setting - Ran each line twice - Ended up with 13 Marten and 2 fox....Which gave me plenty of time at the local Hot Spring...

if you have brand new 110s will those work or do people use the 120 because they have a stronger hold with the 2 springs

I have used both - I prefer the 120 over the 110. The 120's fit into boxes better and do better on the dispatch..The 110's will work though as long as the springs are strong..

now what size foot hold will hold a marten