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Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Tundra 300] #4797485
12/15/14 12:57 AM
12/15/14 12:57 AM
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 90
Alberta Canada
N
nube Offline
trapper
nube  Offline
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N

Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 90
Alberta Canada
Originally Posted By: Tundra 300
Great pics Brian, how's your marten population this season?
Seems their down in the northern part of the province, most
guys i have talked to are down 50-75% from
previous years.


I'm running %25-30 catch rate on my checks every 10 -12 days. Not sure if that is good or not or tells you much for numbers but that is what I am finding on mine Tundra. I figure thats pretty good but better would be fine by me as well.

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: nube] #4797507
12/15/14 01:26 AM
12/15/14 01:26 AM
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,421
Yukon
Y
yukon254 Offline
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yukon254  Offline
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Y

Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,421
Yukon
Originally Posted By: nube
Originally Posted By: Tundra 300
Great pics Brian, how's your marten population this season?
Seems their down in the northern part of the province, most
guys i have talked to are down 50-75% from
previous years.


I'm running %25-30 catch rate on my checks every 10 -12 days. Not sure if that is good or not or tells you much for numbers but that is what I am finding on mine Tundra. I figure thats pretty good but better would be fine by me as well.


you have a 10-day check law in Alberta??


do unto others as you would have them do unto you

www.grizzlycreeklodge.com
Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: yukon254] #4797544
12/15/14 02:14 AM
12/15/14 02:14 AM
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 90
Alberta Canada
N
nube Offline
trapper
nube  Offline
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N

Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 90
Alberta Canada
With kill traps I can check whenever I want to. With my shift schedule sometimes it works out to every 10 days for me yes. No big deal if it's freezing out.

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4798711
12/15/14 07:09 PM
12/15/14 07:09 PM
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 23
Alberta
R
RichM AB Offline
trapper
RichM AB  Offline
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R

Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 23
Alberta
Great pictures Brian! What is with the red traps?

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4800847
12/16/14 09:30 PM
12/16/14 09:30 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
B
Bushman Offline OP
trapper
Bushman  Offline OP
trapper
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
Just back from the hills, very beautiful with lots of hoar frost on the trees.

Tundra - Marten numbers seem to be up actually. I'm seeing them in spots I haven't before. Also my buddy Rick reports the same increase on his local line.

Rich - If BC Ron can have pink traps why not red for me? Actually I wanted to see if there was any avoidance or attraction to the color red. I painted some lynx sets as well and it doesn't bother them either.


I'm taking a pretty casual approach to trapping so far this season. I haven't set a trap yet on my foothill line, I went hard there last winter in anticipation of high marten prices…and we know how that worked out. Still got a freezer full of marten pelts. But I am looking to kill wolves, but my mountain pack is on a walk-about right now and weren't around the cabin the last few days.

In the mountains you have to be careful where, and when, you place sets. At this time of year you can get access one day, and have open water a few days later. Last week I drove my sled right across three frozen channels to get to the cabin, this week I have open water. My wife hates driving her snowmobile across water, and it's not great for the machine either so I built a few bridges, again!


This channel was pretty small so I saw up a bunch of small spruce poles. I place poles across the channel and cover with all the boughs. Later on I may shovel snow and throw a bit of water on it for a bridge that'll last until break-up.




Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4800876
12/16/14 09:40 PM
12/16/14 09:40 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
B
Bushman Offline OP
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Bushman  Offline OP
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta


This one is a little wide for that approach however.







But in under a day I have it spanned

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4800896
12/16/14 09:50 PM
12/16/14 09:50 PM
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 356
Atlin, British Columbia Canada
C
cat catcher Offline
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cat catcher  Offline
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 356
Atlin, British Columbia Canada
How deep is the channel Bushman?

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4800905
12/16/14 09:53 PM
12/16/14 09:53 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
B
Bushman Offline OP
trapper
Bushman  Offline OP
trapper
B

Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
4'

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4800917
12/16/14 09:59 PM
12/16/14 09:59 PM
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,064
Wasilla AK
HFT AK Offline
trapper
HFT AK  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,064
Wasilla AK
Looks like it was a heck of a project! I hate water in the winter with a passion and I feel for your wife! Fortunately I only have two crossings and both of them freeze hard early.

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4800922
12/16/14 10:02 PM
12/16/14 10:02 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,255
Homer, Alaska
Family Trapper Offline
trapper
Family Trapper  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,255
Homer, Alaska
I see we lost three in western alaska to open holes that should be froze. Didn't help that Alcohol was involved. Going to be a tough year if we don't get some cold.

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Family Trapper] #4800968
12/16/14 10:18 PM
12/16/14 10:18 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 971
Alaska
Recondo Offline
trapper
Recondo  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 971
Alaska
Originally Posted By: Family Trapper
I see we lost three in western alaska to open holes that should be froze. Didn't help that Alcohol was involved. Going to be a tough year if we don't get some cold.


My worst year ever and your 100% correct alcohol aint helpful and these Bahama temperatures are ridiculous


Be the solution not the problem vote Allen West for POTUS 2016 !!!
Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4801269
12/17/14 12:16 AM
12/17/14 12:16 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
B
Bushman Offline OP
trapper
Bushman  Offline OP
trapper
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta


The data is starting to come in from the satellite collars on the wolverines. Some of the researchers have back-tracked to areas where the collars showed "clusters," areas the wolverines hang out in for extended periods. So far they seem to be focusing on areas with lots of snowshoe hares. It'll be interesting to see if that changes as the winter progresses.

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4803267
12/18/14 02:03 AM
12/18/14 02:03 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
B
Bushman Offline OP
trapper
Bushman  Offline OP
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta



Now the work begins. Hauling it in is an all-day-job, just to get it to stage one where I'll be storing it. It's going to take another day heading upriver to get to it's final resting place. Once the creek freezes harder. Tip - cut legs off.

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4803281
12/18/14 02:33 AM
12/18/14 02:33 AM
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,064
Wasilla AK
HFT AK Offline
trapper
HFT AK  Offline
trapper

Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,064
Wasilla AK
Bait or food? Either way it sounds like a tough job!

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4813190
12/23/14 11:12 AM
12/23/14 11:12 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
B
Bushman Offline OP
trapper
Bushman  Offline OP
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,017
Alberta
Bait AK. My son and I hauled two road kill moose in. Those Alaska sleds slide a moose around like nothing, I'm still impressed with them.

It's been my slowest year starting ever, and its by my choice I guess. I decided not to harvest on my foothills line this winter, which I usually trap heavy Nov / Dec while mountain trapline is freezing up. However last year I hit the line hard in advance of a major logging project and took a lot of marten as I figured they were loosing a significant amount of habitat. This year as marten prices are probably low I decided to let the line settle and see how the fur adjusted to the new landscape.

But here's something of concern for me. I've been participating in a research project. I send my furbearer carcasses to Phil Thomas at Ottawa University for analysis. Phil is studying the presence of industrial toxins in furbearers. I had the dubious pleasure of being told my fur has some of the highest toxin levels he's found to date. For those of you who know Alberta we're talking the Kakwa River, which has a reputation as a wilderness river. But is interlaced with oil and gas facilities.

The marten had high levels of an industrial rodenticide ( mouse poison) that is not available to the public. From this I surmise that the O&G companies are hiring professional exterminators to poison up all their facilities to reduce mice or else the companies themselves have access to a poison not on the shelf to consumers.

So these poisoned mice are being consumed by marten and building up in their system over time. This cannot be good for furbears or birds or anyone scavenging on mice. Another example of small actions that can have big outcomes. I intend to follow up on this and make my trapping association aware of the situation.

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4813205
12/23/14 11:22 AM
12/23/14 11:22 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,255
Homer, Alaska
Family Trapper Offline
trapper
Family Trapper  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,255
Homer, Alaska
Wow that does not sound good. Hope you can uncover some of the cause to keep it from going on further.

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4813426
12/23/14 01:20 PM
12/23/14 01:20 PM
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 1
Alberta, Canada
B
Bw32057 Offline
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Bw32057  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 1
Alberta, Canada
absolutley sickeining what Alberta industry gets away with....

Thanks for the journal thread Bushman, i have really enjoyed reading it. Keep up the good fight!

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Family Trapper] #4813440
12/23/14 01:24 PM
12/23/14 01:24 PM
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 90
Alberta Canada
N
nube Offline
trapper
nube  Offline
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N

Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 90
Alberta Canada
After meeting with an oil company and seeing how much is going on in Alberta especially on my line I am utterly disgusted on what is going on and this news makes it worse Brian. This province is getting raped plain and simple and nobody seems to care much. The Gov't needs to give it's head a shake and take a look at things. My line is getting torn up left and right and I am slowly loosing my line

Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4813526
12/23/14 02:10 PM
12/23/14 02:10 PM
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 2
Interior Alaska
Alaska Man Offline
trapper
Alaska Man  Offline
trapper

Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 2
Interior Alaska
They call it progress. I call it the destruction of our world for one more buck.


Surround yourself with people who's eyes light up when they see you and have no agenda for your reform.
Re: Mountain Journal 2014 [Re: Bushman] #4813565
12/23/14 02:33 PM
12/23/14 02:33 PM
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,064
Wasilla AK
HFT AK Offline
trapper
HFT AK  Offline
trapper

Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 2,064
Wasilla AK
Wow, that is weird and concerning about the toxic levels. Hopefully the research people will raise the flag and find where it is coming from. That can't be good for any wildlife or the ecosystem.

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