Looks like it may already have been knocked down at least once.

Never have much trouble with bears.But I drop all the bait when done trapping.Frozen bait doesnt leave much scent in the box I guess.
The worst problem with bears is about once every 10 years or so they stay out late into early winter because they have a food source.
When one finds your trap in november he will follow your line and wreck everything until you kill it or he goes to sleep.They seem to get the mink boxes on the ground more than elevated marten boxes.The buggers also take the catch and trap.

I have about 300 boxes out on all my lines.i rarely run more than 50 at once.
The set up I showed here is easy to move,just unwire and pry off the support pole.

That box is actually in good shape compared to some I find and jury rig together to make it functional until I can replace it.
it is necessary to elevate the boxes since if you set on the ground the boxes will soon be buried under 3-4 feet of snow and be useless.Plus marten on the ground get their fur clipped.A very bad type of damage.

Years ago we used to use ground cubbies early in the season.Next time I go out I will build one for fox to show you how it used to be done.The ground cubbies set with footholds would catch a lot of different animals compared to the more species specific boxes.
I still set the odd one for fox.

There are many thousands of marten boxes all over Ontario.Plastic is no good when its 25-30 below,when the LDL or Sauvageau goes off the plastic shatters.

Next time I go out I will show the Tony Joanis mink box set up.Its a vertical box over a running log out from a beaver dam.I like to make it a mink/rat set by placing a foothold on the end of the floating log.Best place for the Joanis set is off a rat toilet log.

After freeze up I will also show how to properly construct the Millette set for otter.

Thanks Brian.

Boco
Just heard about a Canadian study that said grizzly bears were losing toes to small traps set on the ground. They figure this will be the next argument used to end trapping in the Intermountain west. Do you know anything about this study's?

Never heard that one,lol.
I know there was a push against snaring by some AR nutbars,but the FIC is working pro actively with the trappers associations and the provincial wildlife managers to shut down that BS with some factual data from scientific research.

Marten

Weird to see a marten in a deciduous tree chasing and gray squirrel for me. Out here it all conifers and pine squirrels, but it was the first video i found showing their climbing skills.

Heres one of my boxes I put up when I bought this line in 94-pic taken a couple years ago.
Boxes set like this outlast all others for some reason.

Boco,can`t wait until show the other sets.I live In Michigan`s U.P. and the Millete under Ice set would be handy.

Thanks Boco for this thread.

I’d like to see the Tony Joanis mink set too. Think I already know what it is.

I met Paul Millette back in the mid 1970’s at the Ontario Trappers Convention in North Bay. I sure learned a lot from him and Alcid Gereau(? spelling) about handling beaver, especially frost scraping. The next year I entered the beaver and raccoon skinning/handling contests. I didn’t place in the beaver but won the raccoon one. It was the first time most of the attendees had ever seen a fleshing beam used to handle beaver and raccoon. Those were great times for me and I would have never attended if it were not for Alex Scheiff, whom I met at our Colorado Trappers Convention earlier that previous September.

Also that is where I met Ron Lancour(known as Trapper Ron hereabouts) from British Columbia, who I later visited and learned how to make my first marten sets.

Those were the Golden days of the OTA Kelly-some great times and great people.
I've been to the OTA/FHA conventions every year since the 80's.They cancelled the last two years due to the covid-only time in 40 years I missed.
Made lots of great American friends there over the years from Michigan,Minnesota,New York Penn and Ohio.And I'm sure some other States I forgot.
Hope they have the convention this coming spring.

yes hope they have it to

Thanks for sharing Boco. Looking forward to the mink and otter methods.
Like the bird perch method beyond the box. I do not know much about marten but suspect the bird activity attracts them like i t does fisher.
Love that country.

Thank you
Mac

BOCO: Make your Millette set for Otter on a separate posting.

Do you have sets for muskrats under the ice?

Thanks

First ,need to look at the big picture.
We strive to target juvenile marten and avoid adult females.
So I will make sets along timbered drainages that run thru more open country(like old burns,old clearcuts),these timbered drainages are best when they connect core marten habitats(old growth with lots of standing chicots).Marten here avoid open areas so these are natural funnels.Juvenile marten seeking home range will use these areas as travelways as they disperse from family groups in the core marten habitat in late fall and early winter.
You can identify these areas if you fly your line doing a beaver survey,or by looking at aerial photographs(back in the day)
Today google earth is used.Old large growth along rivers (where the ground is drained better) are also good dispersal travelways(natural funnels) used by juvenile marten.Other good natural funnels are strips of land between larger lakes,and dry older growth along eskers that run for miles thru swampy stunted growth.
On a smaller scale,the best sets are those made in good overhead cover(80%) and lots of coarse woody debris on the ground.These are the areas marten seek out to hunt,especially when snow gets deeper.

In short- the better you know your trapgrounds the more marten you can take with less effort and less sets.

Understood.Where Marten and fisher co exist do good Marten locations make good fisher locations?It looks like the same type of habitat

The best sets are those made in good overhead cover(80%) and lots of coarse woody debris on the ground.These are the areas marten seek out to hunt, especially when snow gets deeper.
/quote]

I dont think fisher go under the snow in mid winter like marten do.
Fisher here like more mixed bush less mature boreal forest.More similar to lynx core habitat.
We dont have big numbers of fisher here,but there are some.
I think the fisher have a tougher time in winter competing with lynx for the rabbits.

This has been very interesting .Thank you

where I trapped marten and fisher habitat is the same.

".Plastic is no good when its 25-30 below,when the LDL or Sauvageau goes off the plastic shatters"

I don't use ldl or sauvageaus but milk jugs don't shatter at 30 below. or 40 below. If they get sun rotted they shatter when you look at them.

There are several reasons I don't use a permanent cubby. I'll give you one. If and when they fall down. ( from a bear, rot, tree fell over, whatever) that box may be froze to the ground and or buried under snow and not immediately( might not ever find it or be able to use it) useable when I show up to put a trap and bait in it. That is not very efficient. I can slap a baited portable cubby up in the time it takes to bait a permanent.