Gulo gulo

Well I haven't posted here in awhile and with all that is going on I have been reading forum and like to hear about all the adventures other trappers and outdoors enthusiasts are having so i thought i would post a little about my winter.
This winter before trapping season started i was just about to move into a new home we had been building for awhile and decided that this winter i would not throttle down as hard during trapping season and would give the lynx a pass this season. With all the projects we were trying to finish i figured i could still squeeze in some gulo gear during the opener and just target them this season. I was able to get 8 sets in that day, all being bucket sets with belisle 330's. I would return in 10 days to check sets and camp out and set another drainage the following day. I was able to collect a 39 pound Male wolverine on this trip. Setting the tent up that night was a pain by my self with 20 mph winds the arctic oven is a giant sail. The following day i was able to get nine more sets out 4 in one drainage and 5 in another. Upon returning to check I agian brought more gear, the tent, and my brother that had just finished working for the season and was ready to get out. We checked sets that day and picked up a 25 pound female a few hundred feet from where i caught the Male last check. We traveled up and down several other drainages until we started to put more sets out, and got another 11 sets out and hoped that the weather would hold and not get the big dump of snow for 5 or 6 days to let the gear have a chance to work. We got a load of snow this year and the drifting snow was impressive with drifts 20 feet tall in areas where i have not seen drifts in ten years of trapping this area. Upon the next check we picked up 2 more wolverine both females and both 22 pounds. We cleaned sets out drifts and relured everything. We came back next check to pull sets and move to another area farther north, we pulled gear most of the day and picked up another gulo, this one a 38 pound Male with long hair, bright diamond, nice throat patch and big. We moved sets into the other area and left 8 original sets out in one drainage and returned to pull those and upon arrival of the trail head it was 45 below and I had a frozen safety switch. Got that fixed and we made our way slowly down the trail pulling these 8 sets as we went along. We picked up a 19 pound female on this check, small but pretty. The final check of the season found us pulling the last of our gear which is always a little bittersweet but knowing that we put in extra effort makes it a little better. On this check we were in an exploratory area and we picked up a 25 pound female to finish off with 7 gulo. During the season I was involved with a camera project and had 16 cameras set up at likely sets and I did capture some neat images and learned a bit in the process. In windy country alot of times animal sign doesn't last long and on a few sets I had visits by wolverine and would of never knew it had I not had a camera there.

Stay safe all.

Nice job ! On the pics did thee Gulo notice the camera or get spooked by it ? Let’s see some pics !

That sounds like a great season! Would love to see some of your pictures.

Yes, pics please , of those colour phase wolverine !

Jakeland the cameras did not seem to spook them, and this afternoon I will try to figure out how to post pictures.

Broncoformudv thanks, I will try to include some pictures this afternoon.

Sharon I will try to get a couple photos loaded later.

I have tried to load a couple photos off my phone as that is what I use for picts but I think the may be too big. I will try to resize a d load a couple.

I have that problem also with the file size being too large. I get around it by emailing the pics to myself. I have the option to resize after they are attached.

Hope that helps!

Nice to hear you’re still having fun down there. Good job on the catches. All sets the same( bait/lure or a mix?)

Mad Mike thanks for the tip. I might have to try that.

Full freezer yeah good to see you out and about as well and we like the February issue, she is adorable. I prebait all buckets with a few different bait types as well as lure, 3 lures and alternate between these so it's not the same thing at every set they encounter.

Here are a couple pictures.

We were participating in the same study. The Bushnell's they used this year were crap compared to the reconyx from two years ago. We had nothing but problems with the bushnells, from the plastic cases braking during transport, to pieces breaking when setting them up at 30 below, to them taking 20,000 photos the first three days after being set out.

We never got any of our catches on camera as the SD cards were always full. We didn't have any of those issues with the reconyx cameras.

Fisherman I agree about the bushnell cameras, had nothing but issues. The cases broke, the sd cards would not click in if it was - 20 or colder, I would put camera in my pocket to warm up and card would go back in. The "honeycomb" cover over the ir would catch blowing snow, and of course full cards of nothing, and several missed catches. I am using reconyx hyperfire cameras on another wolverine project currently and these cameras are just awesome. No problems, nice pictures, batteries last forever.

My, oh my....look at those beauties ! Love the varied colour tones , and that long lush fur. Can't help but be curious about that dark one in the middle ! I tend to like the darker ones

Nice cam shots too -thank you.

Very nice collection of well handled pelts.

Thanks Boco.

Have any pictures of your sets? I am curious about the wire fencing you have setup.

Gorgeous variety of colors on your wolverine!

Nice work on the Wolverine. Got some nice variation.

I was using the 5ft tall fence and would dig around the set location to get fence buried a foot or 2. I did have one climb up fence and work the bait and climb back out. First year trying these as I had left over fence from my dog yard. These just take longer to construct and if they are in wrong location after a big snow and wind it will have to be completely dug out are remade, but having a bigger bait inside the fence certainly helps keep them in the area. One fence set had 3 different wolverine coming to it anywhere from every 7 to 10 days, and never at same time. I put these sets about halfway down the line so they go by other sets to get to this one. And they get refusals just like buckets.

Interesting idea with the fencing. I figured being open like that would make it more attractive to animals.

Great pic of the marten!

Nice pictures.

Thanks for the set info. I had quite few refusals this year. I like that wire fence set, looks fast to set up.

Congrats on the Ds tag I hope you guys find a good one.

Sharon you and I must be total opposite because I like the one second from the left with the nice white stripes, I can’t help thinking what a nice mount it would make even if it’s smaller then the others

I was part of that project too,.... but they sent me all Reconyx, half Ultrafire, half Hyperfire,.... and I had a few issues with them too, but overall, they're good cameras, but for what they cost,... they better be. I think their best feature is taking both pictures and videos at the same time. My personal cameras are now almost exclusively Brownings. IMO opinion, the video quality is on par with Reconyx, especially at night, which is when most of your action will take place. I think the Brownings have a little wider field of view, and a little better audio, at least some models, than the Reconyx. And the cost is about 3-1. I could post a bunch of pictures of how things went for me too, but I don't want to invade AKbeardog's thread. I never take pictures with my trail cams, because the audio is almost better than what you see sometimes. My biggest problem again this year was keeping all the riff-raff out of my sets,... marten-mink-ermine-rabbits-coyotes-lynx-moose-other stuff. I don't want to find out the hard way what happens when a moose sticks his snout in a 330 Belisle,...

Hahaha they sure do love the smell of some of the lures we use for wolverine don't they .

Good stuff! Nice pictures.