If anyone's feeling generous, can we see some marten set pics using footholds? I'm getting a little frustrated with lack of action in my flower pot/coni sets and want to try some new tricks.

I've pored through archived posts for a couple hours now and found some good pics..but it's slow going to mine the whole backlog of posts for a few gems.

Thanks in advance!

I'd look at Familytrappers journal and consider ground set swing poles for them if they refuse your poles. They are refusing mine and it's starting to get my goat, I have some 110's going along for a ride this weekend and some stinky moose hide just for this purpose!

Ok, I'll take a look there!

Thanks..

BD,
Maybe just try some natural cubby sets like this???? You'll want to check them pretty often, to avoid fur damage though. Plus, they'll get REAL muddy, if it's warm. These are best, in protected locations, so snow doesn't put them out of commission. Under big trees, rootwads, logs, etc.

I like the leaning pole, it keeps the marten off the ground. I've found a more visual bait helps a little too

Thanks guys. I like both of those pics. Do you reckon I have to get further from the beach? I'm setting within 50ft of the high tide mark, but in a variety of locations.

set where you see the sign.....

Well, everybody's got different conditions & circumstances, so there's no one set of rules that will work everywhere, but after trying just about everything I can think of over the years on marten,... I'm one of the rare guys that uses all footholds & almost no body grippers on marten. And I agree with T4E that a ground cubby is the highest catch % of any set you can make for them,... but it has several big disadvantages too,... mainly deep snow & mice/shrew damage, among other things. Since the marten in my area climb with no hesitation at all, I have gone almost exclusively to wooden boxes, which virtually eliminate all the bad things about setting on the ground, and my catch % is somewhere over 90% of visits as far as I can tell. My boxes are simple, fast & cheap to make and at least for my area, just work really well. Here's what they look like, and over the years I have gathered a collection of the old short-spring style #1 Victors, which I really like. I also have a pile of the old Diamond double-jaw #1's too, which I also really like,.. but almost hate to use them, 'cause I don't want to lose any, as it's almost impossible to find them anymore.

I nail these boxes to the side of a tree or pole with 2 nails into the side,.. and angling slightly downhill, just to help keep the snow out & help keep the occasional bird from spotting the bait. I used to put a running pole up to the box, but it's completely unneccessary,... they hardly ever used it anyway even when I had one. I have watched marten go into a box, and they can just shoot up a tree a few feet in a single bound. You don't really need to set these any higher up on a tree than what you need to keep the marten off the ground,... I usually go for about 3 feet or so, depending on snow depth potential. I have used these on the coast in PWS in the past, and had just as good of a result as I do in my own area farther into the interior. Here's some examples,...

They work equally well on big trees or small ones,... spruce, willow, hemlock, cottonwood,... makes no difference. If your tree has no branches or anything for the marten to get tangled into, just pound a couple nails into the tree above your box, leaving them stick out as much as possible, and they'll get wrapped around one of them almost every time,...

Thanks for the awsome pics Wolverinebait....

Because the marten stay alive for a day or two in footholds, you might have a little more trouble with cannabalism, but when that starts happening, just add more sets to your area. Once frozen, other marten generally won't bother them.

Of course, once in a while you'll have one that is still alive,... which is good,... you can skin them right away when you get home, and they haul easy without damaging them like frozen ones can,...

Beautiful pics WB......

I don't know if footholds catch more mink/weasels than body grippers would or not,... but around here both mink & weasels will climb just as readily as marten do,.... anyway, if all else fails, give something like this a try if your other sets don't seem to be scoring,... good luck.

I like the simple set. WB I'm a KISS man. I won't use permanent boxes here because the bears would rip many down and they would attract the attention of bandits. I can think of one improvement. I don't like how many of your marten are laying up against a tree. The live spruce are going to get tore up and sappy. In a bad shrew year the shrews will climb and get your marten. I think I would attach maybe a 18 inch piece of 2x2 to the top at a right angle and attach my chain as far out towards the end of the 2x2 as I could. That should help keep them from tearing things up so much and also keep them from laying against the trees. JMHO.

X2

I am not a trapper, but I do want to know what Marten tracks look like. I have a good friend whom wants to trap a couple but we have not located a group yet. If I knew what a track looked like I could help him out. (Im a hound guy)

Like a mink track, only slightly larger.

Still losted, I hear they look similar to a rabbit? The photos I've found so far are somewhat inconsistent. I know tracks change in the snow somewhat depending on the snow type. We do not have a huge population from what I've been told, but figure if I spot some tracks I can relay the information to him.