Thanks for the update. Many people overlook how much work is really required. Good job !

Thank you for sharing the pictures. Watched a short video that Mark Steck had hie Wiebe Youtube channel. Darn good.
Hope you feel better soon.

Mac

Yep sure hope you start feeling better!!

Does anyone know how many martens Jer has taken so far???

Thanks

The snows melting out but refereeing at night so his trails in and out are solid I e BUT the day Temps are in thw 79s now so the flies are all over the bait.

This year has been a trying year.

Beav..he has very little fur damage because he checks the sets every 2 to 3 days because now it's so warm that they'll turn green fast.

If the snow gets deep and you don't check every 2 or 3 days the mice and screws shred them

He usually has one or 2 qith mice or sheew damage evwry season..

He tried sets up higher but most marten would screw around on the ground under the sets but wouldn't go up. Since he started setting on the ground he catches 90 % martens based on track numbers in the snow.

He's not gonna make 10 this season. And I'll give you a total catch number at the end. He caught 10 yesterday so tha was a great day.

Does Jerry skin the red squirrells?

Weather coming in end of next week, hope it's not a ton of snow. Will be much colder though for sure.
Snow is mostly gone except up high.

Best of luck to Jerry and get well soon Cathryn!!

Boco..that's a brown weasel, not a squirrel..the ones wheres he's at arent even red,they're gray.
Look real close at the end of its tail and you'll see the black.
Why it's still brown this time of year he's not sure but it was.

Here's a pic of it..he froze it whole.




I wouldn't post the pic of a non target catch on the open forum

Could he stay longer, weather permitting, to get to 100? Hard to tell but it looks like he's setting the coni with the standard trigger wires. No coni-pans?

Found it- https://cathrynscorne.proboards.com/

Beautiful!!!

Yea,I see the black tail tip on the weasel
Its still brown cause it hasnt primed up yet.
Get the odd greyback weasel here after the season opens while others are pure white.
Sometimes nutrition(or lack thereof) of certain individual animals causes them to prime later.

No coni pans he doesnt like them.

If the weather was good in a normal year he could make 100. This year is the worst season hes had.

Hes had 4 days when hes caught nothing out of 80 or 100 sets.

He had a great day tuesday 11 caught.

His total was 56.. hes disappointed and will reasess his line and make a new strategy for next season

Yall tha trap any amount of fur no how frustrating it is to put in the hard ffort and feel like ypuve not been successful.

One side of his.lines..he has 2 ..only produced 6 marten over the 2.5 weeks.

Hes trying to figure out the factors for the shortfall.

Hes done everything the aame as always.

He only saw one set of tracka in the snow on the one line.

Somethings definitley affected the population on that side of the mtns

Martin are the coolest critter. I traveled to Maine just to catch one, and can see why Jerry likes catching them.
congrats on his successful trip!

Does he trap the same areas every season?
How is his ratios of juveniles and adult males to Adult females? and how does this years ratio compare to the ratios from previous years?
It is not hard to harm the line by trapping when the juvenile numbers are low.

I'll have to ask him when I talk to him Boco.

I know he runs 2 separate lines each season but not sure if runs the same 2 lines every year

How often do you think you need to rotate lines?

Its not so much about rotating lines as it is about trying not to catch too many adult females.
its the juveniles that you want to catch most.
marten are not very prolific and sometimes there are reproductive failures meaning if you trap too hard in those years your catch of adult females will be higher and it could slow the recovery.

Boco knows martin better than anyone I do not know. Maybe Boco and Jerry should get together sometime.