After many years of saying I was going to go after Marten and Fisher, I have finally decided to actually make the trip, heading to the U.P for the season on them Dec 5-14, with it being a very short season I was planning on running around 18- 160 bucket sets, I’ll only be able to trap from the 9th-14th, any advice on bait-location- or any other tips? I do have fresh beaver meat from this past week for bait. Any advice is appreciated.

Satellite maps are extremely helpful. Use several sources, including bing, google, etc., to study the area.

Look for combinations of several good habitat factors. Natural bottlenecks and travel coridors, protruding pockets of good habitat surrounded by inferior habitat, rivers and creeks (especially where they have deep valleys, and places where one creek falls into another), steep slopes, spruce-dominated areas, and especially old growth areas (biggest trees, easily visible on satellite images). Relatively fresh burn sites after low- to medium intensity forest fires and areas of mosaic habitat (including man-made aberrations such as cleared areas for oil pipes or power lines) bordeing large areas of core old-stand habitat are also good. The more spruce (= the more red-backed voles) the better, but it all works for areas with no spruce or conifers whatsoever.

If the area has considerable elevation changes, when looking for bottlenecks and pockets, take into account the downward direction of marten movement as they descend into valleys early in the season.

Combine that with ease of access. This way you can single out spots with high potential very precisely and eliminate the need to waste time hiking and exploring the general area, so it will only take you a few minutes to assess and set each spot (or decide against it) when you visit it.

It will save you a ton of time on actual scouting.