Ok Star I appreciate that ........ So I take it the 120's kill quicker than the 110's, is that right? If so I'll git me some. Bein it's my first year trapping I've got lots to learn

Well heck yeah ! My house is right across the street from Mike & Laural, and Ernie's son lives just south of me.

Great folks!!!!!

Absolutely !

They are stronger and also easier to stabilize in the box. Definitely worth the extra buck or so IMO. Good luck, it's highly addictive

W-17 I've been thinking about your comment about trap cubby visibility being a visual draw for marten. I know I use to hang wings and attractants at marten cubbies but stopped because I saw no difference in catch ratio…but I wouldn't have if the cubby itself is the drawing card.

So yesterday when setting my boxes I thought about it, and cut all the spruce boughs that covered or camo'd my boxes. I've got them all exposed where they can be seen from quite a ways down the trail. I'm going to try and keep track of any differences.

What about lures? Some trappers claim there's no value for marten, others swear by it. Personally I believe it can help pull them in. My favourite commercial lure is Forsyth's Marten Magic, but I've had just as much luck with a glycerin / skunk essence mix. early in the season I use Anisette

I think lure makes a difference. I've seen many times where a marten will cross my trail and smell a set further away and turn at right angles to get to it.

Here's an observation that I made a couple years ago. I may have put it on here before.

I was sitting at the kitchen table looking out the window. The hill falls away from the cabin at that point. I also had a pile of beaver guts below a tree on the other side of the cabin out of sight of the down hill side. ( i had just dropped the guts out to freeze and use elsewhere).

Anyway, i see this marten working his way uphill toward the cabin. As I watched, he moved back and forth from one side to another. Every once in a while he would stand up like a bear and look around. He probably did this 8-10 times. Eventually he found the pile of guts but it was clear that he could smell them but not see them. He was standing in order to get a look at where the smell was coming from. Possibly looking for birds too.

My take on it was that they hunt more by sight and sound, but when those two fail, they use that nose to get them on the right track.

A marten has excellent hearing,and uses it to key in on food sources in a lot of ways.Marten are attracted from great distances to your boxes by the sounds of birds and squirrels working the large bait.
When luring animals sight and sound are much more effective than smell for longer range and they are 360 degrees. The animal doesn't have to cross the scent line.

Boco logically it makes sense that a marten seeing a bird may investigate, but do you really think it makes any difference in your overall harvest. My boxes used to have large wire at the back so whiskey jacks could work them. All it did for me was result in more dead birds, and traps put out of action. Since I closed up my backs I can't remember killing a bird. I think lots of times we just hear a theory and assume it's right, me I'm a born skeptic and have to see for myself. Birds on my marten sets are a liability to me. But Birds on Lynx gang snare set - bonus!

In truth what I think we're really talking about is how fast you catch a marten, not if. If you leave a set in their territory long enough you'll likely catch them. But if you set up on their travel routes, with a highly visible set, and a good lure, you can take them faster, and move on.

It sure helps in my situation.I now catch the same amount of marten or more with 30 boxes as I did with 80 before using a large bait attractor.
Bird (whiskeyjack) catches in the vertical box opening down are virtually non existant.
I trap the one side of my line for about 3 or 4 weeks(4 or 5 checks) and the other side(much better marten habitat) for 6 to 8 weeks.
On my managed registered trapline the catch varies very little from year to year,it is the effort and expense that I strive to control.Efficiency equals profit.I also trap all species simultaneously,except after land fur closes,then its just beaver and otter.
To me it is all about having a catch in most of my traps on check day.

The "big move" that nobody knows why! yup, you got to be ready! A few yrs ago a old guy here asked me if I noticed anything different on the marten catch at full moon, tried to think of a intelligent answer but couldn't, he said next full moon count the ratio of male to female, I was shocked and still am to this day I get almost all fm when checking just right before and after a full moon, anybody else notice this?

I think they hear them first, similar to a fox.

I have found lure makes all the difference.....like Bushman I use marten magic or any skunky type lure. Going into my line I have to go through a FN line that a friend of mine traps. This area is incredible marten country....the best Ive ever seen actually. Anyway this guy NEVER uses lure. On that 40-mile stretch of trail catching 100 plus marten would be simple every year.....yet his take is always dismal. Many times I have seen where marten run right past his sets. He does two things wrong IMO....his boxes are to high and he doesnt use lure.....

I think you can just look at an animal and tell what senses it relies on to a large degree. Marten, when compared to other members of the weasel family, (especially mink), are set apart mostly by the size of their ears,... they're huge by any standard! And their eyes too, are bigger than the other family members, for the size of the head/body. But very short ears, and small beady eyes seem to be the norm for the rest,...







Cats don't seem to have anything lacking,... clearly their ear tuffs aid in their excellent hearing,... and no eyes shine at night quite like a lynx,...



And the canines are well-equipped in all areas it seems too,... whether you stink, shine or squeak,... they're gonna find you,... maybe that's why predator calling doesn't work all that well on otters, unless you can make a sound like a fish,...






But maybe the biggest ears of all belong on the very thing everything else wants to hear & find,...

Neat pic WB! A very sensible observation too!

A great set of photos WB. I have heard marten vocalize. I ran one off out of my yard as it was stalking a robin's nest. it was making some cool sounds like a rolling chirping noise. It was agitated and showed me who was boss by coming back at night and killing the Robin chicks.

Who's going to step up and put the rodent squeak machine at their marten sets. you can buy them for photography purposes and i know a guy who gets dramatic cougar photos on still cameras using them. he uses bird chirps. hard on batteries but deadly on lynx perhaps.

We talked about marten that are reluctant to enter sets. it seems to happen from time to time. Ever use any tricks for reluctant marten? I've frozen mice i catch all year at our place, used weasel carcasses, know a guy who saves his egg shells and uses those. I was thinking about saving the fur I comb out of marten and placing a small ball of it in the cubby. Marten don't go cold often but when they do it can be frustrating.

Marten never hesitate to enter a box in the vicinity of a large bait.Their penchant for taking away a bone to hole up with leads them to the box with the smaller piece.

Boco - when you were talking about birds as an attractant you also mentioned you're using a big bait. That got me thinking as I have a lot of trail camera footage of baits from the last three years of wolverine research. Basically a whole beaver hanging where only a climber can get at it. We got thousands of images of wolverine-fisher-lynx-fox-cougar-squirrel - whiskey jacks - and lots of marten on film.

I could see no link between a whiskey jack showing up and then a marten appearing. I'd say 80% of the marten pictures were at night also so bird action is minimal. I'm still not convinced bird activity at marten sets makes much difference.

I do agree though that a vertical box on a tree prevents whiskey jacks from getting caught but it's my least favourite marten set. I like a leaning pole set.