It's been a weird year. We've got a few coyotes and foxes (red, cross and silver), some cats, not targetting marten due to the market in the toilet. There aren't too many on my line anyhow, so farm them a little while the market is down. The wolves haven't been cooperating very well this year either. When they finally came back around, they hit several sets. Three different pee posts were hit, but had out of commission traps. One had a small drift over it, the other two were frozen down. All were #9s, which shows nothing is foolproof. Super frustrating.

You can see where they were all over this one.


You can see the dog sprung, but the trap didn't fire.



Here is another one that they were on, but trap did not fire through the crust.



Had one get hooked up on a blind trail set, he hauled the root wad around for awhile that he was hooked to, then left me with this. (there is a toe in there, hard to see in the pic) This one was also a #9. So some mis fires and a bad catch in 9s this week. I'm gonna have to go back to school.



We have a bait set on a lake, been there for a few years. Apparently there are some beavers living under the bank, they tunneled up out through this hole and were foraging for groceries in the willow patch behind where the bait is. Knocked down some snares in the process. There is a snare over that hole now, might get some fresh bail for the pile. Wish I had a 330 with me, but we'll see what happens. I'm thinking they are dumb beavers, didn't stock up enough for the winter. We've been on this lake for several years, never seen beaver sign there during the winter.



They had a pretty good trail dragging stuff down that hole.



Minor consolation, got this nice cat on a remade wolf pee post. Caught in a #9, thankfully got to him before he messed himself up. Pretty cool cat, has white toes on all four feet, and a little white patch on his chest. I'm thinking a taxidermist will love him.





Got stuff working again, hope the wolves hang around and play nice with me. They won't have anything to do with my baits, they avoid them. I'm hoping they weren't educated too much hearing that dog pop on the frozen pee post.

Nice cat !! Bummer on the conditions !!

I had a beaver situation like that. Put a 330 over the hole. When I skinned the critter his meat was a bluish purple with no fat or muscle tone. Rather than being oval like a football he sort of flowed like pancake batter once his hide was removed. It was Late February so I believe he was frozen out of his grub pile

Tough break on your line but hopefully the weather, sets and animals cooperate on the next check. Nice looking lynx and some interesting beaver issues there.

Yeah this weather has been crazy! Bites about losing the wolf and having your gear froze down. All part of the game Hopefully you will get cooler temps and some fresh powder! Thats crazy with the beaver, never seen that and hope you connect with it, Good looking kitty!

Same type of weather here Nate. I havent gotten out yet. Like you Im not going after marten this year. I will go out in Feb/March and concentrate on wolves though. What are you using to cover those #9s ? I use foam that goes under laminate flooring and rarely have a trap freeze in anymore.

You might run into Tim, he's down on the peninsula near Tony's for the next few months. He texted yesterday and said he's building a cabin down there. Apparently he forgot how hard logs are to peel when they are frozen so if you go for a visit take your drawknife!

I've caught 3 like that through the years, in every case, after freezeup the water dropped, creating a new layer of ice and keeping them from accessing their feed pile. Like White 17 said, no fat on them. I could see where wolves had already killed a few before I got there.

I was using some stuff that came with some traps I bought from an estate sale. It is like wax paper, but not wax paper. It was a pain the butt to use, but when I was out setting it's what I had with me. It will go directly to the trash. I saw your post awhile back about using that packing material, sounds like a good option. It's even the right color!

I might have to change my handle to 'toecollector' or something like that. I've got a couple from a snare a year or two ago as well. A few years back I harvested a toe in a pee post, then got its owner a few weeks later in a trail set. Hope to see the rest of this guy some time, too.

Weird thing on the beavers, I didn't see evidence of a feed pile in the lake. I was by there during hunting season and didn't see any beavers. We had lots of snow last spring and a cool, wet summer, so water levels were high. Will be interesting to see what's up if I get to skin one of these.

Another beaver thing, I caught one in the fall that had probably ten holes in the hide. Lots of trauma in the back area. It was caught in a drowner setup, so no 330 damage. I know that the juveniles get some nips when they are being escorted out of the nest, but this was worse than that. It must have had a run in with a predator and managed to extend its life a little bit. I didn't even flesh it yet, not sure what I'll have left when I do.

Cheer up .... we all have days like that. Thankfully they are not ALL like that
Those cats with white feet are always neat to catch.

We've got 20" of settled snow on the ground, looks like you guys could use some!

I had the same thing happen last year, only the wolf went into a wolverine cubbie! The NO B.S. grabbed a toe, and held on long enogh for the wolf to destroy everything within reach.

Looks like the trap survived the storm! Those things are tanks, I've got a few of them.

No BS are amazingy tough. Had one that got used as a "drag" for a Bridger 5 that caugt a 91# wolf by the back toes on Sunday. Slowed the wolf enough so we could find him after trailing him in the dark for an hour.. reset the No Bs...the #5 needed shop work.

ST, are you night latching those 9s?

Agreed. I have held four wolves in the last two seasons in them and they held up fine. One KO Extreme took the wolf and two wolverine with out me having to tinker with it at all. They were set at wolverine cubbies. With that I will say that there is no way I would set one targeting wolf.

smalltime, keep pressing forward, it’s what we do.

Mine 9s are not night latched.

How long did it take the wolves to cycle back onto your line? Mine take 3-5 weeks. Seen fresh sign on Nov 24th and they just showed back up on Dec 29th. They punkt all my sets and got a free meal. Not happy. Ready for 2021 already

Those dates are about the same as mine. I set that line right after Thanksgiving and they showed back up in force last week. There seems to be a couple straglers around too, as there are some random single tracks from time to time.

When I catch a random single it’s usually a young female trailing the main pack. The carcass makes a good curiosity bait for the pack when they return.

I thought I would give a little update on my line. The wolves have been really lucky this year, but I did manage to catch up with a couple of them. I got this beautiful big grey today. 100lb male, nice color and hair. He was in a snare that I set last week, frozen solid. It is nice when you get a quick reward when the voice in your head tells you to stop and hang a snare.



Got this female a couple weeks ago. The wolves will have nothing to do with bait this year, she got hung up in a snare on a go around trail by a bait station. Can anyone say waterhead.



I ended up with one beaver out of that hole. I should have taken a pic before I pulled it out. The head and shoulders were out of the hole, frozen hard. The back half that was still underground was soft. His buddy had chinked dirt and sticks around his butt to seal up the draft. After I pulled him out I came by the next week and whoever was still living there had stuffed up the hole and hasn't been back out since. Got a 330 waiting if he does.



Had this cannabalized cat a few weeks back. I used it to catch his mom, I think.





A few things I've noticed.
-You should always have snares with you handy and go ahead and set one if you think you should. Cost me a wolf when I didn't do this and the next week came back and they had used that trail again.
-The wolves seem to be more random on low snow years. They don't run trails as much it seems.
-When you use drifted snow and break it up to bed traps it seems like it is more prone to freeze up. I've had some really bad luck with frozen traps this year and that is some of what I attribute it to.
-This year it's been impossible to make the wolves do what you want them too. I just have to follow their lead and try to get ahead of them.

Got a few weeks left, hope to get a few more. Buddy flew over my area a couple weeks back and saw a pack of 9. I've got 2 of them now.

We had lots of rain last summer. There are some areas with bands of trees in open bogs that I usually catch marten in. I've seen no tracks, I'm thinking that the rain was hard on vole populations and consequently hard on the marten. I haven't set one marten trap this year, giving them the year off while the market is down.

Last year a lot of the coyotes I got were kinda ugly and ratty looking. This year, same areas, they are much better looking. Got 3 that were really exceptional. Don't know what makes the difference one year to the next.

Here's to Valentines Day bringing love in the air for the start of mating season. Seems the critters move around then. Good luck!

It's the season. Great post Smalltime, good tips as well.
Hang em high and hang alot! Lol
What cable and lock are you using?

3/32 1×19. Locks are Berkshire. My new snares have a kill spring (the dead male), female was in an old snare without the spring.

Nice catches! I agree that the wolves are much more sporadic in their movements with less snow this year.