i'll include the animal in my next post otterman.

lots of good area wish i lived up there
get those mink NAFA says they will be in better demand than the last few years

That area is HORRID to acess unless your doing it with a helicopter. I will be back at some point this winter for both beaver and mink. Perhaps on Christmas holidays.

cool
I also have a lot of areas that are great for mink and beaver only problem is you cant get there without a helicopter like you said might make some trails to get there with the snowmobile next winter

Yes, in this case your going through waist deep water in summer to cut down brush though.

December 19,2011

Put out a couple of fox/coyote/fisher sets tonight. Snapped a few pictures for the sake of it.

Here's a box set at the edge of a field, with some cow bones not far off. Show's that there are both coyote and fox coming to the bones.
220 Belisle and Some wrotten Partridge for bait




and here's the cow bones that the fur bearers are attending


so there is no lure at that box. Just the bait. But the coyotes go over a ditch bank behind that regularly aswell as sign of a fisher. So I tied a stinky striped skunk up in a tree a few hundred feet down the trail and set a #3 soft catch with a drag on the trail.
Probably didn't need it, but I put a few drops of Caven's Gusto on a tree a few feet behind the skunk just to try out that smelly stuff.

Pictures of any catches will be here.

Good luck!

December 23,2011:

Well two days until Christmas time. Went out today for a 5 1/2 hour trip on to one arm of a large swamp I trap. Was disappointed in the number of rat houses on that arm of the slough, but the other arm is usually better for rats anyways. Didn't count, but maybe 30 rat houses and pushups on that arm.

Main thing I was looking for was beavers as well as fisher and marten. Well, in the end of the first arm I counted 20 beaver lodges. 15 of which were still live. Most lodges were loaners, there was a few double lodge scenarios and one triple lodge scenario.
Keep in mind this is all in about 2 1/2 - 3 miles of slough.

Managed to dump the back end of the bike through some thin ice at un seen springs a couple times and managed to have alot of fun in the cold. Will check out the other arm another day with a full tank of gasoline.
Here's a few pictures of what was out there today:




Even managed to put the bike through the ice on a spring (above)

more lodges




Here's one of the largest lodges on this arm of the slough:



So once I got to the big lodge above, I turned on to the Sleeve Lake Wildlife Management Area cut line, went down about 300 yards toward my best marten and fisher territory and saw something horrible.
Flag tape with a 220 Belisle in a cubby below it!
I wanted to check out further down the trail so I kept going and found 3 or 4 more boxes. One holding a weasel. Was a bit disappointed that the are was taken. But unlike certain people I know the trappers sets are the way they left them. So I made a left on the management line and found this.
Two beaver lodges, not much more then a 100 feet from eachother. Dead square in the middle of the trail.
The feed bed on the first one is the largest I have ever seen.



The feed bed does not look nearly as big in the picture.

But anyways, alot of the houses I won't be able to trap because it's too long to drive by ATV after school. I will how ever get a bunch of beaver snares made up to hit the closer houses pretty hard.

Your probably all sick of seeing stuff about beavers but, there is not shortage. Catch pictures soon ( I pray )

Thanks for looking

thats to bad about the traps you found
looking forward to seeing your catches

Yea well, other people have to trap as well I guess.
First competition i've had around here.

I'm looking forward to pulling some catches up.

Do you have a good population of Marten around there?

Scootermac - we have a few. Most of which are way out in the middle of no where. My best marten/fisher area was taken as stated above.


Whats the best place to look for marten sign? I know the sets to catch them just not much about finding them.

Look for tracks in the forest along the edge of swamps. Do you have a large area of coniferous trees close by?

Not sure how old you are, but since the fire of 1989 here we don't have many spruce trees left. And the ones we do aren't in big bluffs really.

December 24,2011 (Christmas Eve):

Went for a trip to the bush today to set up some beaver and mink traps at the large lodge and dam from a couple posts back. When I got to the end of the trail where I have to walk, I looked up in the opposite direction and noticed another smaller beaver lodge through the bush. Now keep in mind, this is only a hundred yard or hundred-fifty yards north of the other lodge.

I walked over and couldn't help but notice all the mink tracks in the snow, leading up to a hole in the top of the house.


they come from 3 different directions up to this hole. I placed a 120 over the hole in hopes for the best.

Then I noticed something strange along side the mink trails. Some large slightly un clear tracks in the snow. At first I thought it was a fisher, then closer inspection showed that it was no fisher, no coyote and definatly no wolf. Now the only other thing it could be is a wolverine, In high hopes I took a picture of the tracks and shared with the rest of Trapperman and got positive remarks. That it was most definatly a wolverine:


But anyways I was walking away thinking to myself:
There's no way it could be a wolverine here?....

You must understand, though I am further north then some of you I don't have wolverine and lynx. This is the first wolverine sign I have ever found, and I see the odd bit of sign from a passing lynx.

But I walked back to the trail and over to my original destination which was the large beaver colony, got over and put a set in by the feed pile. There was no sign of a run underneath the ice in this pool of ice so I walked over to where I thought looked good for a set, one swing with the axe and it went through and all the air from underneath the ice shot water out for a minute or so.

Snostorm@home requested pictures

Here's one of my favorite beaver sets, a 330 set up on a long pole in the run, with some green poplar peeled a bit and wired to the lower jaw:


and this picture isn't the best, but the top of my hand represents where the ice is, and my jacket blends the trap in some, but thats how far I place my trap below the ice:



and this is what the finished set up looks like, I like to use a pretty long stick so if we ever get a good snow storm it's still poking out above all:


so after that was in I saw a bunch more of the weird tracks on the ice that turned out to be that of a wolverine. So here's my poor attempt on a natural cubby with a 330 and muskrat/squirrel for bait. All I had with me.




and yes I know that a wolverine will probably just tear this cubby apart, but when I was out there all I knew was that I had to try something in case he happend to be back that night.
It is illegal to trap wolverine in Manitoba this season in my area. For that reason I will not be targeting the wolverine and this above set has also been removed

and put in a few more mink sets, and example of a hole in the ice from mink with a new present hanging there for them tomorrow morning


and on the way home I put a few weasel boxes in aswell as another beaver set:

This set is just another way of suspending the 330 in the run, if the water is deeper you can turn this into a ladder set by adding a second trap and nailing sticks between each pole to make it look like a ladder.
Once again, green poplar peeled a bit and wired on. The trap is about 8 inches below the ice here in 6 feet of water:

and the finished set is below ( I fill the hole with snow so it doesn't freeze as hard )


that concludes the trapping for this post. Thanks for viewing.


Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Looks like you had a exciting day! Good looking sets! Looking forward to see what you connect with!

Oh yes! Always do have an exciting day!

thanks for the pictures
hope you get that wolverine
do you get better results when the conibear is at the bottom near the mud or up high near the ice

Beaver trapping looks like a lot of fun. Lord help me if ever run into a beaver lodge this far north.

If it's a set with two trap I put one nearer the bottom and one nearer the top.
If it's a single trap I like to have it about 'center' where I think the beavers will be swimming when they come out of the lodge. Regardless if they spot the partly peeled stick they usually work the set pretty good.

Remember if you disturb anything under there the beavers may not come out of the house for a few days.
Leave the trap checks to atleast 2 days, longer is better though.

Yea under ice beaver is alot of fun!