Don't give up. If you don't get anything, or see any tracks, (if snow is reasonably stable), in 5-7 days, move.

Any luck yet? How much public land is up there for you to play on?

Not to steal Aaron.F thread. There is about 894,900 acres in the Hiawatha Forest, and about 2.2 million in commercial forests lands open to trapping, and several thousand acres of State land. Most of the commercial forests lands is walk in only.

Unfortunately I only have one week off work and live about 6 hours away, so giving it a good try. I have never been in this area before so am spending as much time as possible learning the area as well.

print off google sat photos and make notes, pay attention to edge of habitats since fisher are edge hunters

Buy a 12 pack of pbrs. Drink them and smash the empties. Tie a string to the pull tab. Hang these at your marten sets. Marten love pbr.

Selecting marten locations

nice read you posted Dirt

in the paragraph starting with M2 is what I'm talking about edge habitats

best of luck Aaron.F

Well I returned from our trip empty handed, no fisher, marten, or bobcats. We had plenty of snow, more than I planned on, our access was limited a bit, we also left a day early to beat a storm.

We were told by locals that we needed to be further north, but who knows. I ended up putting in most my sets around waterways with good cover and debris. With also some sets around small lakes and beaver ponds. For fisher and marten, I was using newspaper tubes and for bobcats it was mostly cubby type sets. I had never trapped in this much snow and it was definitely a learning experience. Thanks for all the helpful advice.

Chalk one up for learning experience. Pulled out in the right amount of time - you bet-ya
How much snow did the area get after you left ?

I am not sure, they were calling for 12-16” last I had heard.
And yes, it definitely was a learning experience.

What county were you trapping in? I too am from southern Michigan and have traveled to the UP three seasons to chase marten. My limited experience was that mature timber along streams and rivers were the ticket. The loggers generally leave a 50 yard strip of trees along a waterway so everything away from water was much younger trees.

I am not sure of the county, but we were trapping near Cutis, MI.

That would be in Northern Mackinac County

Not sure if trapping is allowed there or not but I would try the Baraga State Forest area next year if it is allowed