I think Ill run a marten line next year I have a bunch of 110 conibears Ill convert to 120s.

I have oodles of mink, fox rat coon lures and baits.
plenty of 5/8 and 23/32 ply for boxes.

SE Idaho

I plan on setting boxes vertical with the trap hanging off the front top of the box
Hardware wide covered hole in the back. a ledger and spikes in the back to hold bait.
I was using 1/2 lb meat, plumb jelly,, beaver castor, inside skunk above the set and tree tinsel

What is your preferred manmade flagging material?

How many different baits lure combos do you use at a set?
I have maybe 10 oz of mink gland ( my secret lure stuff for coyotes 35 years ago)

What ideas to keep bears away ?

How deep do you make your boxes?

What's your prefered method of attaching a box to a tree?
I don't have a great back, so boxes will be set 50 plus inches up from the ground
Anything for additions to the box?
How long or how many checks to you run ( iand if your willing to say which state)
And what about snow?
And what about big/ thick trees? good or not so much?

I posted this pic earlier: what I tend to set as a rookie

I use to set into the waterway when trapping mink,, always worried about loosing fur,,, so is theft a problem?

I know nothing of martens but your dog looks un-impressed.

Yeah just a moment before she was saying exactly that..

She is all about snow geese and that's about it or dirty camo

We did the Grand Marais area of Mn 4 years ago. Then my wife got sick. Next year I was sick, last year my partner had surgery just before we were going to go. Our sets were just like you’ve posted. Our bait was beaver. Lures were gusto (partner) and I used strawberry jam laced with skunk. Nothing happened.

Last year, southern Mn had a fisher season. Same set up. My partner got a beautiful brown fisher. We had our boxes on the snow surface instead of hanging from a tree. The trap was a Bridger 155 with a pan attached to the trigger wires. This year I got a fisher. The trap was a Bridger 155 but the trigger wires were bent into the box. We don’t have martens down here to any great degree.

We used big chunks of beaver and duck heads. My partner used “40-below” and I used “Skunky Backbreaker”.
Last year we had no snow. This year we had a foot of snow and below zero temps.

We trapped a lot of state land. I caught my fisher on private property where we had permission. Looking back, with a 3-day check, I put on 500 plus miles for a $60 animal. To me, it was worth it because I don’t rely on a fur check to survive. But you may need the $ and will have to decide if you want to trap or get a seasonal job at Walmart.

Make your box tapered, smaller at the top, so they will stack together better.

Make your slots for springs only wide enough so you can pull springs towards you to force the jaws against box bottom next to tree. This will be the line of travel the marten take going up tree.

I’ve used surveyor tape in the past and it works but also other people will check it out. There are other things that are very light that will move with the slightest breeze like tinsel.

Are you going to trap early with little or no snow? If so then set your box horizontal on deadfall logs closer to the ground.

Keep your focus to drainages however slight as long as there is dark timber.

Well its 128 miles one way to my first set
Once to set boxes and prebait
Set
Check
then check/pull 1,100 miles 5 marten,,,
And my two cat sets,, checked every other day for 20 days,, no cats no geese on mangey coyote

That surveyor flags was for me that little place I lost a trail cam in there it felt like I covered miles to find it I always get turned around otherwise my flagging is is tinsel

Trapping early Nov 1st

so you put trigger up?

I set 12 years ago,, a light snow was predicted,,, I eneded up with 18 inches of snow , 1 marten so I just plan on snow



I don't know if I understand pulling the springs toward me?

Go to the Wilderness Archives, at the bottom of the Forums page. We put several Marten threads there for just this situation. You will find a ton of information there. Enjoy!

I use beaver for bait (unless I'm out, then I use whatever meat I can get my hands on) and prefer it "loud". I make my own lure, but I tried some of Bob Jameson's new Fisher/Marten lure this year and although it was a poor marten year with marten numbers way down, I had as good of success with it as with my homemade lure. Only commercial lure I can say that about, and it is a nice smelling lure that the wife won't complain about like my homemade lure that is loud and skunky, if I've just held the open jar of mine for a couple minutes the wife can tell hours later when I walk in the house. I use screws to attach the boxes to the tree, I have a half inch hole drilled in the upper part of the box, I put a screw in the tree with about an inch sticking out, hang the box on that screw by the 1/2" hole and then sink one through the bottom lip of the box to hold it solid. Most of my boxes are tapered and have a chunk of cable with a loop on the top of the box and I attach the trap to the loop with a small carabiner. Also, rather than messing with wiring bait in now, I toss a fist sized chunk of meat in the box, and have precut squares of wire mesh (half inch squares, may be what they call rabbit wire?) just a little larger than the inside of the box that I shove up in there to hold the bait in and prevent mice, weasels, etc. from stealing the bait. I usually go vertical with the boxes, and I like large trees, although I have never seen a measurable difference in catch ratio between large trees and small trees.

Yes, check out the Wilderness marten threads.

I run either post register boxes or wooden boxes , chunk of beaver in the box and a skunky lure above. Used to use lots of gusto or montana long call. I have switched to my lure that I have been testing for a couple seasons. Nothing fancy and have done very well. Depending on where you are at in SE there has been a real increase of marten trappers. My areas got hit really hard the last 2 seasons and I am planning on going way west ( about 2 hours to the start of the mountain range). I try and stick to mature lodge pole and douglas fir patches. Don't use subalpine firs for box placement since they leak sap really bad. I try and run my line every 48 hours and once I catch a female I shut down that line. Normally I run everything off a snow machine and try to keep the boxes above 5ft to 6 ft high. I use screws to attach the boxes or wire for the plastic ones.

As for bears I haven't had any problems ( yet ) but have had fox and a wolf steal the bait and destroy boxes. Feel free to pm me if you have more questions and good luck.

I have not used any flagging of any kind and I tried the adding springs to 110s and don't recommend it. I am working some extra jobs and assignments so I can order new traps for this upcoming season.

Jmack, why do you quit that line when you catch a female? Is it any female or a mature female? How often do you catch a female on the first check of the line?

Martentraper. My area doesn't have large population and the areas that folks can get to are fairly small. We have lots of county but with the normal amount and conditions of snow access can be very difficult even with sleds.
Me shutting down and moving is a decision I have mage to try and not hit the population really hard.
I very rarely catch any females until about 2 weeks in and by then I am extending my line into newer county.
My new line and area is quite aways away and should be around 50 miles of good trapping working on logistics now to try and will scout a lot of it this summer when I can hike it. Should be good for marten, wolf,coyote and Bobcats.

Do you plan to trap the same area for many years? I'm reluctant to believe that the loss of more than one female in the area you're trapping is going to overly knock down your catch over time. Do you know how to tell if a marten is an adult or a juvenile? You can do that by looking at the skull after you skin it. Google around and maybe you will find some pics.
It is more Important to know juveniles per adult female in the population and you have to catch several marten to do so.
Check the species specific threads. I think there are some really good photos and info there on marten.

At the top of the Wilderness forum, White pinned a thread on how to age marten.
And I agree that "managing" your line by pulling traps when a single female will preserve your marten population isn't really a differentiator. How big is the refugia surrounding your line, and how much "marten habitat" does it encompass? If you are running a river valley, and there is good habitat up both sides, you will have dispersal from surrounding marten populations fill in what you harvest.
Also, if you are running a short line, say just a few miles, and have sets spaced out a bit, you probably can trap that area every year and not notice a decline.

Definitely not arguing with any of you and really appreciate your guidance and learn a lot from both of your posts.
I normally have several areas I run and try to switch lines every year or so depending on sign and catch numbers. I normally catch 40 to 60 per year. My lines are between 15 to 30 miles loops or single out and back. There are multiple trappers that run close to where I am and one had over 100 last year and under 60 this year running the same area and and amount of gear. When marten prices are high we get a large amount of everyone wanting to get rich and it gets really cut throat with stolen catches ,stolen gear,tampered traps,and people setting on top of each other.
I do know how to age and catch a majority of adults with 20% juvenile ( or close to it)
In several large tracks along the high county we have great habitat that doesn't get hit very hard since it can be extremely difficult and unforgiven with snow. I can't ride into it with my sleds.
Again this is just the way I try and teach my kids and not trying to start a war with anyone. I do greatly appreciate all the knowledge and experience on here.

Sounds like you live in Armpit , Idaho. I too have similar issues with all the bandits that can and will show up and kill before, during, and after the season. Not just marten. Conservation is not their strong suit.

Personally, I have never understood the females get caught more later. I catch them as soon as I start trapping. Maybe if they refuse to climb in your area, or you are trapping an area marten disperse to and do not set up territory I could see it. However, If I set up a trap in a females home where she raised her family she has about as good a chance of finding my traps as anybody. From my experience, it appears my female harvests are always a little on the high side compared to what the few trappers I know catch in their areas. A 60 male to 40 female catch ratio would not be an uncommon year here. Mostly management is based on declining harvest and sign and pulling and moving on and trying to leave seed for next year.