If I had to choose between a strong smalling bait and a strong smelling lure, I would choose the bait. However, the bait either has to be very visible or noticeable. A visible attractant, feathers, pieces of hide, surveyors tape will help when airflow fails to distribute scent.

I do like tainted bait. I know some claim marten and weasel need fresh bait and replace it if it is warm weather and it taints. Personally I have found I have better success with loud tainted baits. I've had no success with lure alone, but have found my best success with a lure and bait combo rather than bait alone.

One thing, (of many), I have learned on this site is that not all things work equally everywhere. What worked for me may not be so hot for another.

every good imfo, I'm going to Maine this fall to trap, sure wish some of them would comment, just to see what works out there

Thinking out of the box in my opinion makes a better trapper.

To expand on that thought from Oh Snap when others offer suggestions on how to trap or snare whatever target species keep it in mind as you never know when it may come in handy to catch it when other ideas didn't .

I've been using concentrated scents on a q-tip when setting my boxes. A chunk of beaver in the back, q-tip of castor, one dipped in raspberry scent, one dipped in blackberry scent, and pure quill high up on the tree. I trap a bunch of mice and freeze them, and throw one in the box for eye appeal. Seems the fruity scents have worked better for me. Don't know, maybe I got too much going on there. Lol.

Not a AK or Canadian longliner, here in MI we get 2 marten max.

Partner and I have it down to a pretty good system and we do well.

90% mailbox sets. Deer hide/beaver/muskrat or venison in the box with a gob of castor. Something loud up high, we use Gusto, Skunk Junk, Bailey Hollow and used to use Thorpe's Bad Medicine before it got bought out and tripled in price.

Paul's Skunky Backbreaker worked great as well.

Y’all ever used beef heart for marten? I was given a bunch and was wondering.

Beef scraps from the butcher is excellent marten bait.

Another thing I will add is that I used to use way too much lure, especially Gusto, at each site. Where I trapped, we had a lot of changing temps. Sometimes it would be 40 degrees and raining on December 1st, then 2 weeks later it could be zero. It would warm back up, cool back down. I always re-lured, and there were times that big winter storms would blow in, preventing me from getting to my line, sometimes for 10-12 days. Even after that, I could smell the Gusto well before the skiff touched shore. And some of those sets might be 200 yards into the woods. I probably didn't need fresh lure. And come spring, around April, months after the season closed and weeks of rain, I would stop at each set location and take inventory of bear destruction, both gulo cubbies and marten boxes, so I knew what work lie ahead, and could sometimes still catch a whiff of Gusto.
The cubbie destruction from bears was reduced after taking a cue from mad_mike and raking out the bait and surface dirt as soon as possible after the season, though might not be able to when pulling the final traps if it's still freezing.

One of the benefits of setting marten boxes with the opening down is at the end of the season when picking up traps you just cut the wire outside the screen at the top of the box and the suspended bait drops to the snowpack.no bait smells permeate the wood so nil problems from the odd bear.
Sometimes I will collect the old bait and dump it near core marten habitat and other times I just leave it on the snow under the box for the foxes.

Exactly; like, "beaver is universally the best bait for marten". Not necessarily, in some locations, like along the coast, I have found that duck is much better.

When we first had a 5 marten limit back in the 90s I used beaver meat in my box and a little sac oil at the base of the tree, always setting on sign.

"Set on sign" is one of my favorites. Maybe I don't know what the sign is, but I think it is tracks. You have to have the right conditions, at least here, to see fresh tracks. Has to be soft snow and not snowing that day. Hard snow, wet snow, ice, no snow makes this tracking impossible. Sometimes this can last up to a month. No real opportunity to preseason scout the area here. It happens in a blue moon.

Marten is the one animal I have found where "set on sign" doesn't really work. When a marten comes through it will often leave tracks back and forth across the trail every fifty yards for two miles. When I first started Trapping for them I would set all these places. And often enough never see another marten track in that two mile stretch all winter. I've learned to set every little drainage I cross when going through marten habitat, at least when trapping new territory. After I trap an area a couple of years, I learn which locations produce and which don't. And if I see tracks crossing multiple times in a spot, I may set it also. But like Dirt, we seldom get to preseason scout for marten, and if I wait until I see tracks in an area before setting during season, there is a good chance I am too late. I've either already caught the marten using there somewhere else, or he ain't going to be back for a while.
I set heavy, check for a week or two, then move on. If catch two marten in a trap I am pulling that trap until next year, also. We don't have a lot of marten, and I don't want to overtrap them, or spend all winter running the same section of line to catch what I figure it can produce without hurting it. So this method works for me.