I'm running %25-30 catch rate on my checks every 10 -12 days. Not sure if that is good or not or tells you much for numbers but that is what I am finding on mine Tundra. I figure thats pretty good but better would be fine by me as well.

you have a 10-day check law in Alberta??

With kill traps I can check whenever I want to. With my shift schedule sometimes it works out to every 10 days for me yes. No big deal if it's freezing out.

Great pictures Brian! What is with the red traps?

Just back from the hills, very beautiful with lots of hoar frost on the trees.

Tundra - Marten numbers seem to be up actually. I'm seeing them in spots I haven't before. Also my buddy Rick reports the same increase on his local line.

Rich - If BC Ron can have pink traps why not red for me? Actually I wanted to see if there was any avoidance or attraction to the color red. I painted some lynx sets as well and it doesn't bother them either.


I'm taking a pretty casual approach to trapping so far this season. I haven't set a trap yet on my foothill line, I went hard there last winter in anticipation of high marten prices…and we know how that worked out. Still got a freezer full of marten pelts. But I am looking to kill wolves, but my mountain pack is on a walk-about right now and weren't around the cabin the last few days.

In the mountains you have to be careful where, and when, you place sets. At this time of year you can get access one day, and have open water a few days later. Last week I drove my sled right across three frozen channels to get to the cabin, this week I have open water. My wife hates driving her snowmobile across water, and it's not great for the machine either so I built a few bridges, again!


This channel was pretty small so I saw up a bunch of small spruce poles. I place poles across the channel and cover with all the boughs. Later on I may shovel snow and throw a bit of water on it for a bridge that'll last until break-up.

This one is a little wide for that approach however.







But in under a day I have it spanned

How deep is the channel Bushman?

4'

Looks like it was a heck of a project! I hate water in the winter with a passion and I feel for your wife! Fortunately I only have two crossings and both of them freeze hard early.

I see we lost three in western alaska to open holes that should be froze. Didn't help that Alcohol was involved. Going to be a tough year if we don't get some cold.

My worst year ever and your 100% correct alcohol aint helpful and these Bahama temperatures are ridiculous

The data is starting to come in from the satellite collars on the wolverines. Some of the researchers have back-tracked to areas where the collars showed "clusters," areas the wolverines hang out in for extended periods. So far they seem to be focusing on areas with lots of snowshoe hares. It'll be interesting to see if that changes as the winter progresses.

Now the work begins. Hauling it in is an all-day-job, just to get it to stage one where I'll be storing it. It's going to take another day heading upriver to get to it's final resting place. Once the creek freezes harder. Tip - cut legs off.

Bait or food? Either way it sounds like a tough job!

Bait AK. My son and I hauled two road kill moose in. Those Alaska sleds slide a moose around like nothing, I'm still impressed with them.

It's been my slowest year starting ever, and its by my choice I guess. I decided not to harvest on my foothills line this winter, which I usually trap heavy Nov / Dec while mountain trapline is freezing up. However last year I hit the line hard in advance of a major logging project and took a lot of marten as I figured they were loosing a significant amount of habitat. This year as marten prices are probably low I decided to let the line settle and see how the fur adjusted to the new landscape.

But here's something of concern for me. I've been participating in a research project. I send my furbearer carcasses to Phil Thomas at Ottawa University for analysis. Phil is studying the presence of industrial toxins in furbearers. I had the dubious pleasure of being told my fur has some of the highest toxin levels he's found to date. For those of you who know Alberta we're talking the Kakwa River, which has a reputation as a wilderness river. But is interlaced with oil and gas facilities.

The marten had high levels of an industrial rodenticide ( mouse poison) that is not available to the public. From this I surmise that the O&G companies are hiring professional exterminators to poison up all their facilities to reduce mice or else the companies themselves have access to a poison not on the shelf to consumers.

So these poisoned mice are being consumed by marten and building up in their system over time. This cannot be good for furbears or birds or anyone scavenging on mice. Another example of small actions that can have big outcomes. I intend to follow up on this and make my trapping association aware of the situation.

Wow that does not sound good. Hope you can uncover some of the cause to keep it from going on further.

absolutley sickeining what Alberta industry gets away with....

Thanks for the journal thread Bushman, i have really enjoyed reading it. Keep up the good fight!

After meeting with an oil company and seeing how much is going on in Alberta especially on my line I am utterly disgusted on what is going on and this news makes it worse Brian. This province is getting raped plain and simple and nobody seems to care much. The Gov't needs to give it's head a shake and take a look at things. My line is getting torn up left and right and I am slowly loosing my line

They call it progress. I call it the destruction of our world for one more buck.

Wow, that is weird and concerning about the toxic levels. Hopefully the research people will raise the flag and find where it is coming from. That can't be good for any wildlife or the ecosystem.