Thanks Allan! I've been thinking to rename the boat after her. I know some people say it's bad luck to rename a boat but this boat has already had 3 different names haha.

We usually use the hides to make hats, mukluks and different garments. I'll have to share a few of my sewing projects on this thread at some point.

Just got my video uploaded to YouTube this morning. Here's the link for anyone who wants to check out my trapline in more detail.

2025 Trapping Season Opener

I've still got my spotted seal skin hat that I got when we visited Fairbanks many years ago , I wore it until it gave me a headache because was to small ha ha

I for one am looking forward to seeing what you make .

Well its been a pretty rough start to this season. I've been out a few times since setting and picked up just a few marten. There is more sign around but they don't seem to have had a couple refused sets. I noticed quite a bit of vole/shrew tracks and holes around the area. I'm thinking that the marten are busy hunting the small rodents and some are not interested in what my sets have to offer. The trail itself is in very poor condition with large ruts and trenches in these low snow conditions. I started using the snowmachine but it's still very rough and slow going. I would like to have a lot more sets out by now but these conditions are preventing that. It does look like we'll be getting quite a bit snow next week. Hopefully by then we can get close to breaking through the loop. So far I have just 28 marten sets, 4 wolverine sets, and 2 wolf sets. I'll have to rough it out one more trip before the snow and plan to make a small bait for wolves with snares set around. The few marten I have so far are in good condition, the first ones had some nice full coats but hairs were still a little short. The next ones had some better looking fur, plenty prime to be trapping. I have another video out of the first check on YouTube. I'll be posting one more soon combining footage from my last two trips.

I'm missing something simple here I guess. When the cubby is mounted with the opening down, with gravity being what it is, what keeps the connibear trap from falling out?
The two slots don't fit close enough to provide any kind of friction against the compressed springs. Do the jaws of the set trap provide enough friction against the inside of the cubby to keep it from falling down?
Looks to me like critters would worry and aggravate the box enough to where the trap would fall down.
Good looking box.




[Bunbun]

My 155 fits nice in there it'll fit a belisle 120 also and regular 120s. I could've made it a little narrower but better to be on the safe side so my springs wont jam in there.
[/quote]

Rotate the spring arms up in the slot. Should make the trap stay put. The reason I say to move the springs up, rather than down, is that in this instance the dog of your trap looks close to the top of the box. Rotating the jaws down might make that dog tight to the lid.

My marten boxes are largely mounted to the side of a tree, and the trap stays put using the way I described to you.

Ahh....... I can see that now.
Thanks Mike.

Yup Mike described it good there. Plenty of friction to hold the boxes in against gravity.

Made a trip out to check the traps on Saturday afternoon after a long night to help fight a fire that ultimately burned down a house. We were able to contain the fire to the one building and the residents made it out safely. Unfortunately their two dogs were devoured in the blaze. It is times like these that our small village communities really shows how tight-knit and supportive we are.

After the incident I was not feeling up to making anymore sets the next day so I just did a run-through. I ran into a lot of animal sign, starting with the small pack of wolves I'm familiar with. They were travelling among the trail close to town that heads towards my trapline. Before the line, they hopped off the trail and went a different direction. The pee post set I made the last trip was untouched and I added some wolf urine to the set. When I pulled up to my favorite marten set, it was quite the crime scene. My LDL 120 trap was dangling below a vandalized marten box. After Investigating I came to the conclusion that a young lynx had came upon the set and reached inside with his paw. He must've barely got caught on a toe or two and had pulled out of the trap while ripping one side of the box out and had the audacity to steal my bait after the whole ordeal. Next marten set, about a 1/4 mile away, the same cat strategically batted out the 120 from the box without tripping it and stole the bait. Right then and there I grew a vengeance for that cat. I plan to make some foothold sets near those set locations to make rid of my trapline bandit. Marten weren't so lively in the first half of the trapline but after I crossed the second creek I started to fill the fur bag. I picked up just a gorgeous female in the first catch and then 4 more big males, most of which were orange in color. One of the males was chewed up by another marten after being caught and before freezing. Things certainly have improved in that area, however there were a couple more sets where marten refused or ran by. I set a trail cam on one of those refused sets to monitor their behavior. Just before pulling up to a milk crate set, a set of decent size wolverine tracks crossed my trail. Without looking at the tracks I was excited to see what happened to my 330 in the milk crate. It was missing, and bellow it was a marten. Disappointed, I reset the trap then investigated the tracks. He was much more interested in a close-by beaver lodge, where he climbed atop and stomped around a bit. I figure that I'll move my milk crate by that beaver lodge at some point and replace the bait with beaver carcass. The dusting of snow on the trail still proved to be a major inconvenience that hinders my being to make more sets. We had a decent snowfall since but it came with wind, which helps fill the ruts but blows other snow away. I'm anticipating good results coming off some cold weather with a warm front that hit today. Looking forward to hit the trail tomorrow after work.

Video of this experience is out now on YouTube.
Link: YouTube Trapping Video

Get that gulo!

Have you seen the vids of the guy in Bethel who has a super cub line for wolverine. He sets on beaver lodges quite a bit. He uses 330 boxes.
Did/ will the fire Marshall investigate the fire? Any idea how it started?

I think my buddy was showing me the same guy. He sure likes to set bucket sets for them too straight up and down on a tree. Cigarette butt is what I've been hearing, but I could be wrong. Not 100% sure.

Did my midweek trapline check yesterday. Quite a breezy day with the wind blowing east at 30, however the temperature was warm. The little bit of snow that stuck to the trail gave it a little more cushion and after going over it, I have somewhat of a base for a smooth trail hopefully coming soon. There were some fresh wolf tracks along the trail just after one of my pee post sets. They were older tracks and looked like there were about 4 of them. They passed by a couple marten boxes and a couple milk crates just minding their business. After a couple miles, they took off to the hills. I set a simple lynx set not far from the vandalized box and used beaver tail and the same lure that was used on the marten set. As expected, the marten were quite active with the weather warming up. But it was a very poor check for me as I ended up with the old goose egg. Marten tracks were around or near almost every set but nothing climbed. It was pretty disappointing seeing all that, nothing is wrong with my sets and I'm still not catching a thing. These marten are fat and happy right now I figured. Their natural food source is abundant right now so they completely ignore anything else. Once it really snows and gets colder, it should get harder to hunt their shrews and voles. I may have to just play the waiting game to get these marten in traps. I will be adding some new lure and fresh bait this weekend though. Bait em 907 sent me a new marten lure recipe to test out so I'll be using that to see if I can break this slump. The new lure I can smell mint, anise, castor, and fruity/syrupy base. There's a lot of different scents in there and I have a good feeling about this one, it should have those marten very curious.

Gusto.

Wolverine love to investigate beaver houses especially older ones I have seen them dig into them like a bear and pull beaver out seen wolves do it too something to keep in mind along the way