white17, the picture of that XXXL FISHER was taken in north central minnesota. as you can see, it is good looking woods, but not marten country. therefore, i believe 2poors target catch was fisher and bobcat. referring back to the very top of this topic, those pictures show our minnesota north woods, and our pristine marten habitat. and thats were the pole set became the hot topic.
i have been thinking about your male to female kill ratio for pole sets compared to ground sets. if we could get enough people interested, we could do a survey to determine if set style truely makes a difference in male/female harvest.
I think that would be good. I have done it over the years on my line in a rough manner. There's no doubt in my mind that it makes a difference. The one huge problem is trying to control for all the variables. The biggest one of course is location. If all locations were created equal then this would be easy. Unfortunately they're not.
Here is what I believe works in my area. If I put a pole set in heavy timber and a ground set ten feet away, the marten in the ground set will usually be a female and will shun the pole. This supports 2Poor's position that it's easier to catch them in cubbies.
Now if I am setting in more open country with black spruce and large open areas and if I make the same 2 sets I will most likely catch a male. It might be in either set but it's likely to be a male because of the location. It's a more dangerous environment for marten because there is much less overhead cover. Consequently, there are more males in those areas than females simply because they are more aggressive and risk takers compared to the girls.
These situations and the problems with voles and shrews are the reasons that I am convinced that using all pole sets will reduce the take of females.
In the first example in heavy timber, if there had only been a pole set, that marten may not have been caught. That's ok with me. I understand it's different with different seasons and limits.
One bit of data that you might find interesting is that slightly over 70% of my marten are caught by the left foot. It doesn't matter the trap type or how the trap is set on the pole. SO:
1. Are they left handed ?
2. Are they standing on their weak foot and reaching for the bait with their dominant foot?
3. Are they ambidextrous and its just random chance?
I think they are clearly "handed" but I don't know which......yet.