Hello,
After a long time lurking and a few comments, I've decided to attempt to write more and to start one of the journals you see on here. My family and I lived in Stebbins for 9 years before moving to Kotzebue last year and then to Unalakleet this year. We spend our summers commercial fishing in Dry bay near Yakutat. I was not able to trap or hunt as much as I had hoped in Kotzebue, so that is part of the reasoning for doing this writing as well.

We started direct marketing our fish this year, and it went way better then we could of ever imagined, but the best part was that my kids are getting to the age where they can come fishing on the river with me more and more often. Fishing was good, if not great, particularly the king run. This summer we also added a new pup to the family as our old bear dog left us after 9 great years of service to my family and our friends family. We got an American Leopard Hound. She's our first ever hound, and its been interesting to watch her hunting instincts slowly come out.



My kids favorite game of run under the net haha

My wife has an odd love of mending net, not that im complaining



It was also a banner year for morels, and it might be one fo the best ways to spend an evening as a family.




After the summer and putting away fish we were up to Unalakleet for work and moose hunting. My hunting buddy and I set up a nice camp down the coast and hunted every weekend of September. Was great and we each got good meat in the freezer.



My buddys 65 1/4 incher, only picture I have of it and its super blurry

My small tasty bull

Called this brown in to about 25 yards while we were trying to call a bull to us. Not the biggest but a great coat and one less calf eater. I'm also probably one of the few people in the super minority who really doesn't mind brown bear meat.

My new traps, snares, and supplies came in today. I'm excited to get ready and have been planning my line since last winter. I ordered from Ted's for the first time and have to say I'm super happy with how the snares came bundled. The HOT latches look great and simple to use, but best of all I didn't get accused of shipping in pot as he vacuum sealed the lures! My wife even let me bring the box in the house!

I am excited to start a new line with some friends who have been in the area for a while, and really just getting out a lot more. I'm far from an expert and welcome any criticisms or ideas.

Great start on your journal. Look forward to following it.

Looking forward to reading your journal this year as well!
Good deal on filling the freezer! The smaller moose taste better by the way IMO The one your buddy got is a dandy!
I love bear meat brown or black. Honestly believe if you take care of it right it turns out great. I have only had one fall brownie that there was no way I was eating. Had three inches of fat on its hump and you talk about stink!
Hope you have tight chains this year!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks everyone, and HFT I know what you mean. My buddy shot one last year and I had bear sausage already frying in my mind, first cut into it quickly changed my mind. Smelled worse then my out house after cabbage night haha.

I lived in Unk from 2000 to 2003. Heard the bad news there today.
I had a marten line that ran up some hills in a NE direction from town. Produced 30 marten a year the last 2 seasons I trapped it. Would switch to lynx by Xmas. The iditarod trail from Unk to Shak was good lynx back then. Also would run south on the beach and then run east along the base of the hills and cut a trail thru each drainage and set for lynx. All the drainage between the beach and South river had rabbits and lynx. Dang wind and warm spells kept me from trapping the south hills the last winter I lived there. No snow to get down there. No shortage of wolverine either.
Miss that country!

That is where we are thinking of running some lines, or way up river past old woman. Went out over the weekend North of town to check out some spots and so lots of promising sign. Excited to get started soon, just need to get the new traps boiled and dyed, which is this weekends project. Has anyone ever used FMJ? I bought some this year but am still on the fence a little.




We got out Saturday morning looking for some birds or even an awake black bear but no luck. Saw some really good trapping country and sign though so that was a positive. My son told me all the spots we were going to put sets, and apparently thats every tree haha.



Finished up grinding the last of the moose on Sunday, tried making the imitation bacon they sell at Alasaka butcher supply and have to say it came out pretty good.

I think I remember HFT tried full metal jacket, maybe he'll chime in. Otherwise, I haven't heard of anyone else using it.

I used it once years ago. I used it on some brand new traps I got right when the season opened one year. Degreased them and dipped them in full metal jacket, had them in the ground a day or two later. It was easy to use, but you want to put at least two preferably three coats. I thought it worked pretty good but I preferred waxing them old style. Been long enough since I used it I don't really remember why I preferred hot waxing, just know that I did, but didnt dislike the full metal jacket.

Pretty country!
Yeah I used that FMJ on traps once. If you read on the trapping page alot of guys say not to use it in water or wet conditions, that it gets cloudy and stinky. I found out the hard way that FMJ and my snow conditions didn't mix well together. And when you go from nailing fox and yotes consistently to having refusal after refusal you know you messed up.
Had to run 4 dozen traps through the concrete mixer to get them cleaned up and FMJ off of them.
So my opinion is stick to waxing the traps On the other hand I have had good luck using FMJ on snares after I spray paint them. I get quite a few years from them after dipping them in that stuff.
Another opinion is that formula one stuff is junk, used it one year and in the middle of the season it started flaking then rusting up under the stuff. Easier to remove then FMJ but didn't meet my expectations.
After those 2 experiences I will stick to the tried and true method of waxing

Couldn’t find any big ones huh? Just kidding. That’s a nice bull. Nice to see your kids involved.

Thanks for all the comments.

I saw that it wasnt good for water sets, didnt think of snow as a water set honestly but now will probably stay away from it. Might put it on my snares and marten traps after I spray paint them as I have a bunch of it. I also had a poor performance with the formula one stuff. Was supposed to be brown and it ended up a bright shade of green and then rusted off.

Ryan, yeah it was a nice bull with a huge body of steaks haha.

I’ve been busier then I intended and fell a little behind, which has really been ok as the weather warmed up quite a bit last week but has dropped back down this weekend. Finally got traps and snares boiled and dipped. Still haven’t decided on using the FMJ, as I have gotten advice saying how great it is and also how terrible it is haha. I think I’m leaning against using it as I don’t have anyway to get it off if need be.

Have gotten some new ideas of where exactly to set thanks to a conversation with martentrapper.

Traveling next weekend for coaching, then hoping to start setting some steel.

First batch. Being behind from schedule my buddy wanted to dip in his shop, layer of cardboard made clean up easy. Once dry well place them in a tote with willow leaves and beach grass till ready to set.

Good deal! Looking forward to your adventures!

Looking forward to following your progress this season. Good luck and be safe..

Fun to follow along on your guys northern adventures.

Good luck!

Well the best laid schemes of mice and men as they say...... Havent had a chance to set any traps yet. Got stuck in Kotz for 7 days with wrestling and now my wife is heading out early to SVA to help with volleyball regionals and not sure ill find a baby sitter. Hoping to get going this weekend and if not definitely will over thanksgiving.

Finally got out over the weekend and got some steel set. Open creeks made travel slower then we had hoped and got less of our short line out than we had wanted. Planning on checking monday or Tuesday after work and adding a few more sets. Was a good day regardless but hoping the temps drop a little more and we can start getting out to where we hope to put most of our effort.



My Son likes his job of Carrying the lures


First Marten set out

Good to hear you got gear out and love seeing you doing it with a youngster! Hope you guys connect!

Did you find my old trail on the ridge?

Hoping to head that way soon, we went towards Tom Cod on this trip. Thought the trails would be better.

Was a busy week again here, flew out to Savoonga for a tournament and had time to quickly check traps after getting home. Picked up our first marten and had to others steal the bait from our leaning poles, so ill be moving the bait on the pole back a little. This is also my first time running leaning poles as I had always trapped marten with boxes before this, would changing the angle of the pole help? They were clearly climbing up them but if its too flat or too steep im wondering if they were just able to avoid the trap easily? Im also thinking to add some branches to funnel around the side of the trap.




When I first started trapping someone told me a back leg catch is lucky, and with where we had the bait positioned to the trap I have to agree on this one.

When you lean the pole against another tree you give the marten the choice of going up the larger tree to the bait. Thus it avoids the trap. The pole should lean against the stump you left after cutting the pole.
The other alternative is conibears in boxes of some sort.
Also, your trapping activity will certainly attract a wolverine or 2 eventually. Best to be ready BEFORE it shows up. See bfisch thread on conibears and plastic buckets.

What Martentrapper said. You can either put your trap at the end of the pole near the bait or on the pole in front of the tree that way the marten only has one option, up the tree and onto the pole with bait. You also don't need a large pole, I've caught them on poles where the end was about as big as my thumb.

This is another style of leaning pole that we use. I cut the tree a little over waist high at a slight angle and then nail the leaning pole to the top of the stump. I like to cut a flat spot where the trap sits and also a notch where I wire the trap chain to the pole. I use a small chainsaw for this and it's pretty quick and will last for many years.

Thanks a ton guys, that makes way more sense! All my previous experience catching marten was using boxes and conibears set on tree trunks in South East, decided to change to leaning poles here due to snow. Good news for me is it will be easy to fix haha.

Good luck, nice to see someone else out there with some youngsters

After practice yesterday went out with my trapping partner and changed some of the poles and rebaited them all, hoping for a good check later this week. Also were hoping to double the amount of sets we have in this weekend. Were figuring this could hopefully be a good week night run and then have a much longer weekend run to the north.

We havent seen any wolverine activity out but have two sets out for them, but we have seen a lot more lynx sign since this last snow fall so were going to start putting out more cubbys too. Its been a lot of fun to be starting a new line again!

If your two mentioned wolverine sets are in places that you have either caught them at, or seen their sign previously they tend to use those places season to season. I hope you connect!

Had a big cold snap come through, not a ton of movement with even less production. Was a good time to make some more sets on this shorter line. Had some change of plans and am now going to get our longer line running end of December.

Hope everyone else is doing great.

Had a decent check today before our trip to lower 48 for Christmas. Havent been to Christmas with the family in 14 or so years and with the kids old enough to remember it now seemed like a worth while trip.

Picked up two nice marten and cut a little more trail for what we are calling our short line. Oddly enough still back leg catches. My trapping buddy is hoping to get a few more sets out there while I’m gone. Can’t wait to get back and start going up river to make our linger line.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas. My kids holidays have already been made as they got a hamburger in Nome today haha.

Congrats on the marten, interesting you are getting so many rear foot catches. Have a great Christmas down south!

Finally got back to town after what was supposed to be a 7 day trip turned into a 14 day trip due to a mechanical issue and then weather left us in Anchorage for an extra week.
Went out today and reopened our short marten line and had dreams of setting a few more sets but found myself super stuck, thankfully years ago I heeded some advice and always bring a come along with me. Took longer then I planned to get out so hope to get out again tomorrow after work and finish that line then head up river to get a longer life e started.
The dig out, thankfully a buddy came by and made it a little easier

I like the chain winch and rope because it packs so small

UGH! I hate getting stuck! At least you were prepared enough you didnt have to do the walk of shame! Hope you get more gear out and that you connect!

It was my first time ever being that stuck, not something id like to try again haha.

Thurman

Pictures sometimes are deceiving. Where you were stuck doesn't look that bad. What happened and what snow machine are you running?

I agree with the idea that the picture is deceiving, but it also wasnt a crazy stuck situation just took longer then I wanted to get going again.
I was going along the side of a hill that had been drifting over all year and broke through the hard crust into about 4.5 feet of sugar fine powder. I would dig out then immediately break through again, doing that for about 200 ft. I run a skidoo with the 900 ACE which isn't light if I had just pulled the winch out sooner and used that to pop it onto firm snow or been with someone initially it wouldn't of been that long.

Thanks for the additional explanation. Glad you made it home safely!

Stuff happens and are worse when ALONE. Many miles and many years alone. Much more productive and safe with a partner, especially with good ones!

A good trapping/antlering partner is a blessing. I've got a good one, we were helping each other get unstuck today a few times, deep snow, warm temperatures. Got a moose, retrieved a broken down snowmachine, found 5 antlers, gave a lift to another feller who broke down that we bumped into. Do you know Michael Forss, the Pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church, in Unalakleet?

Couldnt agree more! Glad to hear you got a moose, I used to love winter moose hunting dont think its open here. I believe I bumped into him one time at the post office but would not say I know him. He is relatively new in town correct, I am as well.

Yes, he just moved there about a year ago. He grew up in Palmer, trapped over there pre-marriage. Friends of ours.

Finally got started heading out to where we plan on trapping our long line, and the sign looks great. Was a great day Saturday running about 75 miles round trip and opening up an older trail. Cant wait to get back out and get even more going.
The start of getting to really good looking marten country




I know they make really solid GPS mounts but with how amazing some of these newer maps, like base map, are has any one found a good mount for phones on their snow machine?

I would check out the scosche terra clamp for your phone. They are pretty heavy duty and made just for those types of scenarios.

I would check out how long your phone battery will last in the cold mounted on your snowmachine. I put a handlebar mount for a gps on one at one time, just like I run on my fourwheeler. But the cold sapped the batteries of the gps so fast mounted out there on the handlebars that I went back to carrying it in my shirt pocket, inside my coat.

Thanks those clamps look great, bearcat I plan on using an old phone and hard wiring it to that battery with a charger sort of like I did with my old GPS.

You are taking the regular trail up to chirosky, crossing the Unk. river and following the base of the hills? Cutting trail or is one already there? Glad your making progress. Who used that trail before?

I wired in a thumb warmer and put it on the back of my GPS for warmth, worked great!

That is some neat country, I caribou hunted up at the end of North River with Tim Towarak. We went up over the ridge and into the mountains and came across 25 or so freshly dead caribou in one spot, I asked him what killed these, he said wolves. They didnt eat anything ? he said they sometimes they just eat the tongues. You could see they just killed for fun.
No humans had been there yet that year, so they were not shot. Lots of wolves and wolverines there.

Ram mounts makes everything you need to mount a phone to a sled or anything else.

Thanks for the idea, Ill probably do that as well.



It is really beautiful country. Wish the caribou still came down this far!

Good country back there alright. I,m on the other side the valley from you in Chiroskey. Seem like the weather has been hindering animal movement the past couple weeks, hopefully since it's nice out now they'll start moving. Nice to see that you're taking an interest in trapping this country, but keep in mind what land you are on. Lots of native allotments in that country. Also at the store and post office bullitens there is a flyer about allowing only UNC shareholders taking fur on UNC lands.

For sure! Thats a big part of the maps I look at while traveling, just like during moose season.

Definitely agree with the weather patterns too. Are you trapping with LA I had heard he was trapping up Chiroskey this year.

Alright cool, just making sure you're in the loop. Not sure where LA has his sets, must be east of Chiroskey and towards old woman.

Any news this weekend, Thurman? Bunbun, now that you're on here how about some pics of your trapping? Maybe you can get LA to join too! Been a long time since I seen him!

Long time no post! Ive been forgetting to take pictures is the main reason, Weve picked up a few more marten and am starting to see more and more promising sign as we expand. Will have to remember to take pictures next trip.