We had -20 at the house so it was likely -30 in the marshes this morning. That will clear the sinuses!! The first cold morning of the winter always gets your attention...

Here we had -37 this morning. Made for an interesting back to work day. But yea pretty happy the deep freeze weather finally decided to come. Maybe i can get out finally and get to work :-) Got the bravo all tuned up yesterday so looking forward to getting out there playing in the Sticks. Still undecided on how i plan to set up my trapping sled. Usually a pretty good mess after awhile...getting tired of tote contents all tangled up...

In St. Mary's for 10 days working. Thought I would go out and get a few beaver. Holy cow. Worst conditions I have seen for trapping beaver this time of year. I like to trap entrances as they are usually easy to find this time of year.
Big dump of snow , warming, and now cold has created quite a headache. There is a hard crust on top you can't cut with a shovel underlain with a foot or so of overflow near the houses where the weight of the snow has caused water to come up and saturate the snow. Then there is a pitiful layer of ice. This way for about 5 feet around the house. Real crappy to deal with. I gave up and came home. I wanted some wolverine bait. It will have to wait until the beaver want some bait. No entrances this year for me.
Travel conditions look grim. So much snow so early has resulted in lack of ice and a worrisome trail across ponds and creeks.
Plan B. focus on getting machines ready.
Perhaps an oman to focus on Homer and my son's trapline this year.

Len:
Doesn't look much better down here. River is freezing up during 30-40mph North winds and may end up rougher than last year. Some snow on the new ice which is not good. Been awhile since we have had smooth ice for winter travel.

Its been a weird freeze up here as well. I took my first trip across the river today and bumped into a few moose.
set one beaver house for dinner and a couple of marten sets.

That is ridiculous Jeff! ADFG and the FEDS both think your moose will eat themselves to starvation....

Are you going to fill your second tag?

I dont think it will happen anytime soon..we have nothing but ALOT of willow here and its not even close to over browsed yet. and no wolves they have a good life..lol

and yes I will see about getting a fat cow later this winter...it wont be hard.

Jeff did you have the slush ice next to the beaver house there as well. How are you setting them up now. Not too interested in bait yet I imagine. Are you just hanging snares around the feeder?

No wolves in your area? It won't be long until there are, with that many moose around!

There are a few. I guess the lower river is getting a few. I guess they counted over 4000 moose this spring and stopped counting on the lower river.

Speaking of wolves. Saw 4 the other day flying from Ft. Yukon to Venetie.
Apparently they frequent the open holes on the Chandalar River. The salmon are continuing to die and float up and it is something fox, bears, and wolves all key in on. They float up and collect in the open holes. The pilot sees them daily along the river this time of year.
Interesting country up there compared to the Lower Yukon. A lot of trail cutting has to happen in that neck of the woods in order to run a trap line. Be difficult to start a line with that much work involved.

Here is a shot with Venetie airport to the right of the screen. You can see open holes.



Pretty timbered up.


This was on the way back to Fairbanks. A burn. Thought this heart shaped lake was cool.

Kinda out of your AO isn't it FT ?

Nice country there ... and yes just hanging a few snares near the grub pile ice was overflowed but froze again.

and SW I have been waiting for wolves to show but pretty open country here so they dont live long.

the net has caught a couple of Lizerd fish today so dinner is on...and yes Hup the heads went in the pot.

MMMMMMMMMM Mmmmmmmmmmmm really good with some sauteed dog droppings !

what are those fish?Burbot?

Yes..they call them Lush here..they taste exelent like black cod or halubut.. love the wormy ones.
both were very much alive in the pic,although they have a severe case of hypothermia.

yukonjeff, nice use of the village catalog "bushmailer". Met a person who is flying cessna 207 from MTV. Otherwise nearing -40 and never been on the line yet or did burbot hooks yet :-( soon as it warms up i am going to head out on our east line, about 35 miles. Still not brave enough to cross the yukon, some fog still rising accross from town.

we have been crossing for a week here already ice is a foot thick already at my net.
you must of met Fred L he flys out of here.
I am glad we dont get that cold here! I am a sissy trapper it was -3 today he coldest so far this year.
stay warm..

yukonjeff, Louis L. Native Kid, flying since he got outta high school. Yea gets pretty cold out playing in these parts. usually once it gets past -35 we head out in pairs for safety reasons. Pops and i been out one time it was -53, only because we were stuck home for 2 weeks. Bad case of cabin fever so we decided to head on the south line. I don't think anybody went accross the river yet here. So i'll wait till i hear of folk cutting a trail and i'll grab the axe and go help out. Really want to get some iron laid out, maybe west line this weekend.

Do you guys have people that mark the trails? Around here, the trails get marked as part of a grant program that pays people to mark public trails. Not all of them are that way, but a few are...

The main trails on the yukon are marked, i guess by search and rescue. But the rest of the trails are marked by the users. trappers, skiers, woodyard trails, and such. When iditarod/irondog comes through they mark the trail from ruby and going to koyukuk. But otherwise i guess if you want it marked you gotta cut alot of willows and put up your own markers.