Ryan, glad to hear about good marten numbers. I havent gotten out yet...stuckat home until after Christmas it looks like. My youngest daughter and her husband bought a trapline that borders me to the east. They have been out since Oct. and are reporting fantastic numbers this year. I expect this will be the peak year for lynx so looking forward to catching a few. What was wrong with your Ace?? Take it easy on your back!

Cross shaft for the front shock in the rear suspension had both bolts snap last spring. Seems like a peak year for lynx lots of tracks and I see one almost everytime I’m out setting or checking. I’m just starting to go after them now. Had a few traps out but not many. Now I’m trying to set as many as I can but of course a couple bad disks in my back had to act up. Teach me to move my trailer by hand I should’ve known better

Have you tried one of those back braces like weightlifters wear? I know a few guys that use them and they say they help. You sound like me, Im always moving my trailer by hand! Moose quarters are what gets me. Each fall it takes me longer to heal after guiding season, and I swear moose are getting bigger! Have you had cold weather? Its crazy down here. Whitehorse area has been incredibly mild but Watson Lake country has had a normal winter. My son has an inreach and it is -37 down there this morning. -10 here in Tagish.

Wore a back brace all weekend Dave. Watched you pull Cody Robbins around in the boat when he arrowed the moose this morning while skinning this monster caught in my 2.0 snares. Monster. Easily one of those non existent 50 pounders.

Wow! Very nice Ryan!!

Thanks. I made some snares like yours too. Haven’t set them yet but I made some in 1/8 and 3/32.

Love seeing these thawing in my cabin. This is the one that hauled away 4 snared lynx last weekend.

Pretty!!!! Glad you got that chow hound

Those four lynx sure fattened him up going to get my moneys worth out of my fleshing knife

Feeling healthier today. Round trip to the camp is the plan. Late start but at least I’ll be back this year.

Not the best picture but the break in cold weather finally has some Marten running around. Picked these four up while resetting and rebaiting a short line close to town.

Could hear wolves howling in the dark from somewhere in the hills that night. Hopefully they find my wolf sets. Wolves been pretty scarce on my lines this year.

Its good to see you still picking up some fur. Good luck on the wolves!

Hey ryan what kind of traps are those marten in? Those springs look awfully long.. I'm assuming sauvageau?

I think one was savageau and the other is a trap I don’t really like but it’s all I’ve got left to set on that line. Some kind with a kill bar welded on. Works well and the style has caught a bunch for me this year. But it takes some extra brushing to get the hair straightened out.

If only the moose knew what I had in mind. I was travelling home late last night from my cabin. For the first time in weeks I felt healthy enough to get more sets out and the 32 new sets were on my mind as I raced home at around 120 km/h. Wolf tracks came down the bank onto my trail and I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing tracks since the wolves have been a bit scarce compared to other years. Looked fresh so I kept on going thinking maybe I’d luck out and get a couple in the dark. Anyways a bit further on I hit a lake where a couple moose have been hanging out. That’s when I started seeing the moose and wolf tracks all mixed together. Some hair and blood here nd there. In a small creek joining one end of the lake to the other I come around the corner and there’s the two moose blocking the path, wolf tracks bounding in every direction. The moose were looking pretty aggressive and just stood there. If only they knew my intentions huh? Finally I revved the skidoo and yelled just right I suppose and they got out of my way. I got to the north end of the lake and grabbed my throttle like my life depended on it. Then....5 wolves running. Too late though. I see them just as they’re closing the last 50 feet to the cut banks and thick timber where I can’t go. They beat me because the moose held me up too long. If only those moose knew my plan. I’m sure the wolves waited a few minutes before returning to finish preparing their supper. Too bad but what can you do? Cool thing to see but I’m not generally a sightseer. I’d be back out there looking today but I have too many things to get done with a time limit. Oh it felt good to see the tracks, feel that old familiar feeling but no wolf smell on my Boggan today. If only those moose knew I wanted to kill those five wolves for them. I’m not sure it would’ve helped though because the pack was about 3-4times bigger than what I seen. I always remind myself that if you don’t get a shooting chance then you didn’t really miss your chance right? Our paths crossed alright but not the way it needed to be. The moose calf looked to be in rough shape, had a limp going. The big cow looked violent as heck and had what looked like a decent cut on her nose. I’ll look for them some time. A fat well fed wolf doesn’t run nearly as fast as a hungry wolf. Hopefully I have daylight on my side when we meet again and hopefully the moose don’t hold up the guy who just wants some wolves.

Creek is about 12 feet wide with 4 foot cutbacks otherwise i would’ve skijumped right past the moose.

That has to be a rush Ryan! Someday I hope to run into a similar situation. All I ever find are older wolf kills and no wolves around.

I’ve interrupted a few wolf hunts in my life. Mostly in the mountains where we have room to get the wolves. One year I could see some musk ox backed up to a cliff so I went around the long way and came at them from above. Turns out there was two black wolves and a grey keeping them at the cliff. Those wolves didn’t even hear me coming over the wind and I shot the two blacks before they even realized what was going on. The grey was shot less than a 1/2mile away. Interrupted the wolves hunting caribou one year when we were hunting caribou too. We quickly became wolf hunters but that’s a long story spread over two days.

Ryan, That wolf hunting is certainly fun we had a moose hunt interrupted by a pack one day long story short I left the soon to be son in law with instructions to just follow my trail. Boy I caught (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) from the daughter when she heard but it was worth it we gave a few wolves rides home to my house that day