Excited to set some marten traps this morning for the opener! Little bit of a cold snap to start with snow coming into Northern Maine tonight. Mast crop numbers say it'll be an off year for Marten here but I'm going to give it my best shot at getting my 25 marten limit for the first time. 16 traps with lynx exclusion devices out today and 36 more to put out in a couple of days. Trying some new bait this year as well. Anyone else fired up for fisher/marten trapping this year?

Looks good! I'm excited for you and can't wait to see some catches!
good luck

Tell us about your bait and your boxes. How far apart will each location be? One box per location? What is the biggest difference between the habits of a fisher and a marten?

Mossbunkers for bait????

Been seeing plenty of marten tracks and the voles have been pretty thick so should hopefully be a decent year. Talked to the fur buyer and he said $70 for males and possibly going higher after December, we shall see...............................

go get them, keep us posted, our season doesn't open until dec,1st,

Looks Good

Heading up to Maine on the 8th for 10 days of hunting and trapping. 10 days isn't a lot, but I'm going to give it my best. Usually run about 10 boxes, and check my line while still hunting for deer. Can't wait !

Hey MinkGuy, The boxes are required here in the state of Maine, to exclude lynx from getting to the trap. They have pretty tight parameters on what they need to be to be legal. For the 120 size box the opening hole has to be 4x4 and the trap needs to sit 18" from the opening hole. These are roughly 8x8x30 boxes made of pine lumber. I used beaver meat exclusively last year but this year I'm going to try some salt water fish we call Pogies. There are many names for them including mossbunkers, listed in a reply below, but I beleive they are most often called Menhadden in our law books and state publications. They are just an oily 10-14" schooling fish that come into our ocean bays during the summer by the tens of thousands. They're a filter feeder that don't bite a hook so they must be caught on a jig line. Cast into the school and yard on the line. I use a large trebble hook, something that's probably 2" wide between it's 3 hook points. The daily bag limit in Maine is 25 but a guy can catch 100 in an evening very easily. I will do 1 box per location but I've considered 2 at my favorite spots. I don't think it would hurt to have 2 but I'm also getting in the habit of pulling traps after a couple marten have been caught at each location. I'm not sure that's necessary but I'm looking to be able to trap this area for a long time and this is an overgrown hobby for me so I prefer to at least think I'm being cautious. Each of my locations are on average a mile apart but I have some less and some more. It's more based on finding the pockets of habitat rather than a set distance. I can't speak a lot on the differences of marten and fisher habits other than marten like a much denser forest whereas fisher will venture into the open areas more often. I love to catch a fisher but my sets are all intended for marten with the bonus of a fisher every now and then.

Awesome! Enjoy!

Thats great news! I'd be lucky to get half that price with these Eastern Marten. I plan to have mine tanned this season and I'll keep many, gift a few and sell a few more.

Yes Sir, What do you think about it? I figured it was worth a shot. I live on the coast and they're very readily available at no cost with the added benefit of a little summer fun. I will know soon enough whether or not they're an option.

Love reading about you guys up North an your trapping styles and variety of animals.

A few notable differences between fisher and marten-Marten do well in deep snow by hunting in the subnivean,Fisher dont do as well in deep snow.Marten prey more on small mammals like shrews,voles and mice,fisher on larger prey like varying hare,porcupine etc..
Fisher have a much larger home range than marten,thus marten are more dense on the land.
marten are more succeptable winged predators so they avoid open bush,at least in the boreal forest here (although there are plenty of marten in the lowlands up north),fisher use more open bush,but they are very rare up north in the open lowlands

Similarities-both are opportunistic scavengers and readily go to bait
Both are in the weasel family
It is great to see either one hanging at a set.

Great reply Boco, thanks for laying that out! I love to catch fisher but deep down I have a little distain for them. Haha

Looking forward to seeing some of your catches.

I'll be sure to post some pictures. Love to see the catches others make and looking forward to contributing some myself.

I set out a few boxes yesterday on my close line.Will see what is out there ina couple more days when I check.
I will set some boxes on my northern line a bit later after freeze up.
Some years there are more marten on one line than the other,and some years they are scarce on both and some years they are plentiful on both.So I like to guage what is out there before I commit to setting out a big line.

Very interesting that it can fluctuate like that. Great observation from someone who's done it for a while.

Do you have anyone's Bear baiting sites to set on?