Time to up the marten game. Appears your numbers are up!

Been really busy with a lot of stuff and when I made it to the trapline everything was either snowed over and drifted in or froze from the rain. I know I am not the only one that had to deal with that. Here is what has been going on otherwise:

A lot of moose on the trail. They don't like the deep snow either especially with the frozen crust of ice about an inch thick under 6 inches of powder.
I had two standoffs. One lasted a 1/2 hour as she blocked my portage. Another was a cow with a calf. After about 10 minutes the calf ran off the trail and the cow followed.



Had a lot of misses with buried traps not grabbing good enough, sets completely buried with fresh tracks walking by, and froze down traps with bait taken.


Saw some blood in the trail with a bunch of moose tracks. Looked all over the area but no wolf tracks. Bled along the trail for 100 yards and then wandered into the willows. Not a lot but noticeable. Wonder what caused it???



A problem I hear many of you talking about is having catches stolen by wolverine. I have never had that happen and don't see much wolverine sign on any given year and have never caught one. Well there is a first for everything. Wolverine stole my marten.




And now for the catches!









My wife's fox line has died down. Must only be smart ones left. She did get a marten in her only marten set.

Beautiful!!

Good deal !!! Nice kitties !!

That blood looks like what drips from a bull moose's head when it's antlers fall off, back track it to find the antlers. Have done that many times. Especially when it is beside the tracks on undisturbed snow, and not in them, like it fell off the side of it's head, and not from an injury to the leg.

Yeah I think the weather bit everyone! Good deal on getting some fur! Hope you connect with the wolverine! Agree with FL cracker, if you back track from where that moose came from you should find a shed or both. You did the right thing waiting those moose out on the trail. Good karma

Didn't even cross my mind that it could be from a bull losing an antler. I might look around some more.

Well your doing good with the footholds and pole sets! Still got time to extend the line.

Hope the weather cooperates with you from here on out. Looks like the animals are making it into some of your sets.

The second oldest and I went out and enjoyed some nice weather on the line. It was right around zero with no wind. A good day to have a tag-a-long.
Fortunately, there was a little action as well.

Right off the bat we ran into fresh wolverine tracks about 200 feet from a bait pile. However, they were going the wrong way. The wind must have not been right because he didn't mill around the area much. Just as well though otherwise he probably would have eaten the marten that was waiting for us.


There is a nice little ridge that the lynx always work that has willows on one side and spruce on the other. The small section of spruce is full of squirrels and I have had a marten pole there for a while, but never caught one there until this check.


After running the line we back tracked and worked on getting some firewood.


Then we enjoyed the heat of our big fire.

Fisch
Watch out for those squirrels they love to line their nests with marten fur

Good deal on the fur and getting to spend time with your youngster! Hopefully the wolverine will eventually make a mistake in your favor!

X2

I suppose if I was a squirrel and could safely have a nest of marten fur, I would too.



I think so too. It is just a matter of how long. . .


I went down the willow line where I found the moose blood but didn't see anything. The other place where the blood was was just to thick and we had gotten more snow. I guess I will know for next time. Thanks!

Yeah I get the how long part It will happen though

One marten last check. Caught it at a makeshift pole set not one of my permanent ones. It is located in the bar willows right before I hit the river at one place.

Bfisch
Great journal looks like awesome family time

Good deal on getting some fur! Better then getting skunk that is for sure! Any more sign of that wolverine or the wolves in your area?

You seem to get an above average back foot catch on your marten.

Wolves are super sporadic and I can't figure them out. I guess another guy moved in pretty close to where I have sets. I guess he found a moose kill and got one wolf off of it. Lat wolverine tracks bypassed one of my bait sites and that was it.



Seems to be about 50/50. I don't know. Is there a way to target one foot over another?