Hi everyone, first of all thank you to all who contribute to this site. Not enough places like this
I am pretty green to trapping, have been looking for a place to run a short fisher / marten line. I Have been looking at maps of some state land nearby. I took a walk ( on the stupid hottest day of the year here). And found the beaver have been working. The land is flat for quit a ways around this little brook so it is a pretty wet sponge of ground farther into the balsam and cedar than I expected i I was hoping to skirt the edge of the swamp in some of I could find some trails My question is how wet should I be looking? The edges of dry ground are steep and probably half a mile from the brook . There are lots of down trees for running they look used but I am not very good at spotting action. Below the dam of course is private land Thanks

Will that water be hard during trapping season? if so will that change the animals behavior?
Seasons change the way animals use the country so much that I find it hard to scout now and believe the animals will still be in the same spots six months from now, although I do believe they will be right there again in twelve months. This time of year any scouting I do would be just see the lay of the land and possible places to come back too in winter. The ridge land state forest near me is full of song birds and grey squirrels right now and so attracts a fair number of predators, but by December will be as barren as a desert. With the leaves off and little under-story there will little cover and no attraction.

I love Cedar swamps for fisher. My own findings are that the Marten and fiusher don't mix very well.