Wearing out skis, lost guns, wolves, weasels and marten

December 5-14, 2015: Again I'm pressed for time, so I'll condense two trips to the trapline here into one blog post. As I've said before, this trapping season has been a slow one for me and many other trappers that I have talked to. I can only surmise a lack of snow and cold weather is the reason why. Short of three marten, weasels have been the bulk of my catch so far. And on this trip, it was thievery at its finest. I would bet that 60% of my marten boxes either held no bait or just a snapped trap with nothing in it, except for two boxes that held weasels. I must have at least 60 boxes set but with the bait missing from the majority of them, catching a marten is nearly impossible, if not completely impossible.

This weasel tried to pull a squirrel out of the box and got caught in his greed. The squirrel I had caught there earlier but the Belisle 120 magnum had damaged it beyond it being salvageable so back into the box it went as bait.

Adding to the weasel count.

On this entire trip, I only caught two weasels so my morale was low. The South Trail wolf pack have returned though and are doing and marking the same things they have in the past. I left the trapline vowing to get my foothold traps dyed and ready for the next trip in. I only have two foothold traps big enough for wolves but they would definitely be going up. I can't seem to catch very much in my other sets so it's time to add to my arsenal. I also planned on getting some footholds up for fox and coyote that are still hanging around the trapline because of the low amount of snow. Normally, they disappear to lower elevations because the snow gets too deep.

The logging operation decimating part of my trapline has turned my main route to the Extension Trail into about a mile of rock, making snowmobile travel a disaster. I'm going to be talking to them about buying me a new set of skis for my snowmobile and a new sled, as the bottom of mine is getting perilously thin from traveling this section. Not sure how they are going to react to my request but I wouldn't be wearing out equipment if they weren't there.

This section that I have to travel is about a mile long and really causing damage to my snowmobile.
This used to be a nice trail that I used every year, now it's a rock road.

At home, I went to work dyeing my traps. Satisfied they were ready for use, I hung them up outside to stay free of any foreign odors. Wolves have an incredible sense of smell (estimated to be 100 times that of a human), so you have to take every precaution to keep them free from human scent. In the photo below, the traps hanging are Number 3 Soft Catch traps, not the much larger MB750s that I have for wolves. The MB750 isn't the best wolf trap on the market but they work.

Number 3 Soft Catch traps dyed and ready for use for lynx, coyote and fox.

While I was at work one day that week, I received a phone call from a guy named Paul Christensen. Apparently, he was moose hunting on my trapline and had his gun, a 30-06, in a scabbard on his snowmobile. Somewhere in his travels he lost it. He talked with the loggers who gave him my contact information and then he called me. I informed him that I hadn't found his gun even though I know I followed his tracks along my trails for many miles. He said he had put up a sign and that he would be back up there the following Sunday and might run into me while he was looking for his gun. Sure enough, the next Sunday, I ran into him on Old Forest Trail. A real nice guy. He had moved to Canada from New Zealand in the mid-70s and loved living here. He still hadn't found his gun though but he was sure he knew where he'd lost it. He said he had gotten into some real rough stuff off my trails and had tipped his snowmobile a couple of times. He was on his way there hoping to find the missing gun. Later, after coming off the Extension Route, I ran into him again - he had found his gun exactly where he thought he'd lost it.

The sign Paul put up looking for his gun. I know I'm the only person that saw the sign.

On this second trip, the day before I ran into Paul, I ran the north end of my trapline. The weasels were running short of luck, as I managed to pick up five of the little thieves and three red squirrels but the marten were still eluding me. I put up three foothold traps for coyote and fox, one on Center Trail and Two on Clear Trail. Both of these trails have had good coyote and fox activity this year so we'll see what happens. The sets I made for them are called "dirt hole" sets. Essentially, you dig a hole into the ground about a foot deep and five or six inches wide, put a blob of nasty smelling bait down the hole, and then put a small grass plug in the hole. Then you set your trap about 10 inches in front of the hole and cover it up, using snow and some of the dirt from the hole. You want to make it look like an animal has buried something there. A little urine behind the hole, a couple of small twigs to guide the animal's foot into your trap, and you're good to go.

That night in the cabin, I skinned out three of the weasels and all three squirrels. Two of the weasels were frozen into the traps, so I left them hanging on the porch and would do them at home. Below is a couple of photos of more weasel catches.

A big male weasel. The vast majority of weasels I catch are males.

On the Sunday morning, I headed south to run the bottom end of my trapline. My first order of business was to get my foothold traps up for the wolves. Setting wolf traps is serious business. You can't get off your snowmobile and disturb the area or make tracks in the snow. You have to ease your snowmobile up to the spot you want to set, climb over your snowmobile and get into your sled or skimmer and set your trap from inside there. In this case, these wolves travel an open area so I had to attach my trap to a drag, which is essentially a green log about six inches wide and about seven or eight feet long. You can't use a chainsaw to cut the tree down because of the odor that would be left on it, so a handsaw must be used. As well, you have to prepare the drag well away from where you're setting your trap; again, so as not to disturb the area. The idea of the drag is so that when the wolf steps into your trap, he can still get away but not very far with the drag trailing behind him. Once he gets into the bush, he gets hung up until you come along and dispatch him.

The first set I put up was a scent post set. Wolves like to pee on tufts of grass, mounds, brush piles etc. This is to mark their area to let other wolf packs know that this is their territory and to stay out. In this case, the wolves continuously mark a spot where I have two trails that intersect. With my trap already attached to my drag and ready to go in my sled, I pulled up to the spot I wanted to set. After climbing over my snowmobile and getting into the sled, I went to work. I tossed the drag out into deeper snow behind where I wanted my trap. Once that was done, reaching over the side of my sled, I cleared the spot I wanted my trap to sit in. I laid down a piece of crumpled wax paper first; this will keep the trap from freezing down. Then I covered the trap with another piece of crumpled wax paper to keep snow from getting between the trap pan and the bottom of the trap, which would stop it from compressing once a wolf stepped on it. Then I proceeded to sift about 3/4 of an inch of snow over the trap to conceal it. I also pushed the chain deep into the snow and buried both it and the drag with more snow. Then with a whisk broom, I smoothed the area out so it looked natural and undisturbed. I added a little wolf pee to where they were peeing and then made some fake tracks leading up to the spot. And then I was off to set up the next one.


Standing inside my sled, I put the MB750 on a piece of plywood I used as a work table and set it.

Here you can see the drag tossed out into the snow behind the small tree and the chain leading to my trap.
The wolves mark the spot beside the small tree where my trails intersect.

Here you can see the trap covered in wax paper both above and below it.

A little wolf pee collected from another pack is a sure-fire way to get this pack fired up. They think their area
has been invaded and will get excited and start marking even harder, especially where you have your trap.

Here you can see that everything has been concealed and looking natural. I've applied the wolf pee to the
spot they mark after pushing the snow back a bit to give my trap more room. I only had to do this because
I got too close with my sled when I pulled up to the spot and didn't have a way to circle back around.

The bottom of a two-litre pop bottle is a good way to make large, fake tracks.

They look more like lynx tracks but a track is a track in the eyes of a wolf.

A few tools of the trade.

The next trap I set was a blind set, which is simply a trap set in the same manner except it is without foreign wolf pee and directly on a trail they use. In this case, it's where they veer off of my trail and head off into a different direction. I've seen their tracks veer off at this same location for quite some time now so I feel more confident of a catch here than at the scent post spot.

Catching wolves isn't easy. You have to be absolutely scent free, you can't disturb the area, and you have to know exactly what they are doing. They only come through the area once in a while as well, sometimes not even showing up again until three weeks later. And if you think about it, I have a 48-square mile trapline and I'm trying to get a wolf to step on a 2-inch wide trap pan. Not an easy task to say the least.

Once I was done, about two hours later, I resumed my trapline check. After traversing the rock trail through the logging area, I hit the Extension Route and three traps later, I had one more weasel and a big male marten, my fourth of the season. Things were looking up, or so I thought. A dozen traps later, I only had one more weasel.

The big male marten frozen into the trap. This one came home with me for skinning.

Once again feeling disappointed, I hit Old Forest Trail, which is a good lynx trail but not a trail known for catching a marten on. I set four boxes along this trail at locations where creeks run, as creeks are generally travel routes for furbearers. One particular location has baffled me for years. It's a prime location for both marten and fisher and even a mink should be using the area because there is a good creek running through it that is open year round in spots. However, I've never caught a thing there except for weasels, which are everywhere. However, this time pulling up to my trap, which is secluded behind some trees along the creek, I immediately noticed marten tracks crossing over my footprints that lead to the set.

Here you can see the telltale two-two-two of a marten track heading straight over my trail.
A set of weasel tracks are also visible coming out from behind the small tree sticking out of
the snow at right and passing over the marten tracks.

Another male marten, only this one is a young-of-the-year marten and exactly what you want.

The three weasels frozen into the traps came home with me for skinning.

I've been holding off on setting up any lynx cubbies, as I'm hoping they'll be more prime with the longer wait. Contrary to popular belief, cold weather doesn't make for primer fur, it's the amount of light in a day that dictates primeness - less daylight means primer fur. With the shortest day of the year fast approaching, it's time to start getting some cubbies up. Stay tuned. I'll let you know how I make out as the season progresses.

Catch Count:
Beaver - 2
Weasel - 17
Squirrel - 4
Marten - 5