Thanks for sharing WB!

"OK day", he says.....

Good eye, them things sure do fludder in the slightest of breeze when hung.

Good day WB , that looks like a great day

As of two weekends ago, Boondocks hadn't bought them out. Apparently Boondocks made an offer, but it wasn't accepted... at least not at that time.

What's their number?

Quick question for you guys i was looking at the ATA membership page and wanted to know if the Lifetime membership came with the magazine also or without. I am planning on getting the lifetime but just wanted to make sure about this. Thanks.

Sure, it comes with Alaska Trapper "forever!"

Jus got in, reopened my trail reset my gear. Pretty uneventful. Some sign. Lots of moose counted 10. Last time was 11. odd no wolf sign on this run. But gear is reset and waiting.

Hope you got'em next check YT!

Thanks AKN, not a whole lot of sign on this run. Couple cat tracks, no marten sign, and a few fox wandering around. jus have to wait till the wolves come back through. Was thinking about pulling the line on next check and jus concentrate on wolves rest of the year. I still have to go hang my baitsicles where i want to predator call rest of the season. haha i can't wait till geese hunting season :-)

For the first time in over 40 years of trapping,... I caught a deer mouse today in a marten box. This is still a little troubling to me,... because this species has never been around here before,... something has caused these guys to expand their range into this area,... and the foundation rule of science is that "every cause has an effect,..."

Hope for you WB your marten population doubles due to the nature of so much more food availability. ;0)

WB, Some years I'll catch in excess of 200 of those Keen's Deer Mice in my marten sets. Marten here seem to thrive on them, along with the voles, so maybe you'll see a population boom??!!??
You may see more marten fur clipping, and you WILL see more bait theft, if those Deer Mice take off.

Yeah, I hope you guys are right. Never seen a new species of anything show up before,... so it's just a little weird I guess. I've seen changes happen in the ocean over the years tho,... and it's not always for the best. But mice are for sure part of the base of the food chain, so as long as they don't bring any new diseases, etc with them, hopefully it will be a positive thing. Now I carefully check every little creature that ocasionally trips a trap,... but still it's mostly the red-backed vole,.. like this one today.

A few days ago I had what is normally a routine event turn a little exciting,... but I'll stick with routine, thank-you very much. I pulled up to a wolverine set,... a natural cubby baited with a deer hide, and I had a nice tom lynx in it.






I always take pictures of everything, I can't help it,... I just have to,... but it can get quite expensive, as I've watched everything from mink to wolves pulled out & get away as I'm pulling up to the set/taking pictures, etc. Anyway, this lynx was just sitting there, not moving or doing anything,... and I always look to see how well it's caught,... and as you can see, it was caught by at least 2 toes. 95% of my cats are almost always full-paw catches, but 2 toes on a lynx is fine,... that doesn't worry me, plus he was pretty docile,...





So, I unwrap my choker snare, had just slipped it over his head,... right as he made a lunge out of there,... and he popped right out of the trap!! I never even got to pull on him, he just sprang up & out and he was free!!




So, now I'm hanging onto this big tom lynx, which isn't attached to anything except me,... and he's flying around, going nuts. I swung him around a few times just to keep him away from me, but the snare almost slipped out of my hand doing that,... so, not knowing what else to do, I quickly ran the snare under the front suspension of my snow machine, so I could wedge him under there & pull him tight. Good thing lynx expire quickly & easily,... not sure I would have wanted to drag a live wolverine right into my machine like that,... (I did have this same thing happen once with a wolverine tho,.. but that's another story). He was just one more tug away from freeing himself,... but like they say,... all's well that ends well,....

That sounds like a heck of an adventure, but my mind wandered as soon as you said (I did have this same thing happen once with a wolverine tho,.. but that's another story) I just cant help but want to hear that one!

Man, to have seen a pic of your expression when the lynx got out of the trap

One time my partner and I drove up to a wolf set after a big snow, could see that we got a dead one and was a bump of snow in the trail, got about 10 ft to the bump when it exploded standing up, shook off and trotted away with the snare around it's neck into the brush and was gone!

That's pretty exciting Wolverine bait. Might be a good idea to get a 36" or 48" piece of PVC pope to run that snare line through.

Be careful with the deer mice everyone!!!! we ust had a local pass away from the virus they carry. and were not far from alaska.
Here is the story.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2013/01/28/north-hantavirus-yukon-bc.html

CC:

Thanks for the link.


I was aware of the threat, but dismissed it as a lower 48 problem ie: people messing around in old cabins contracted the virus and died. A few years ago, I cleaned out an old cabin that was loaded with droppings. I wore a mask and thought about the issue . I don't know if there is a realistic possibly that they could ever go state wide - but it is something to keep in mind.

Glad you got to keep that one wb! Nice story.