Marten Trapping Question

[Sage Dog]

Is a leaning pole necessary, or can Marten be taken on straight trunked trees?

[dj88ryr]

On a straight trunked tree you would need a platform. The reason for the leaning post is that it cuts off about 7/8ths the circumfrence of the tree that the Marten approaches the trap. I have also caught them in cubby's.

[Sage Dog]

If I had a coni in the bottom end of a vertically mounted baited box, why would I care which side of the tree he came up?

[musher]

Sage: Your coni in a vertically mounted box will work. The hassle is keeping the coni in the box and the caught marten away from the tree. On the Quebec forum a bunch of pics about such boxes was posted awhile back. Some were pretty trick with good, bird friendly designs, and easy to fix after meeting a bear ideas.

[dj88ryr]

Sage, you didn't say you were using a box, with a box I suppose you could do it, but why? A leaning post will serve the purpose better, once caught the marten hangs from the chain and makes it harder for anything to grab it. If verticle, the marten would be against the tree, making it easy for vermin to climb and fill your pelt full of holes.

[Sage Dog]

Thanks for the info .

I was thinking of a way to make the trapped Marten hang out 6-8" from the trunk of the tree. Do you reckon that would be enough to protect it?

[dj88ryr]

It would certainly help with mice etc. With the value of their pelts, I wouldn't want to take any chances.

[musher]

It's a minimum. You don't want the marten to touch the tree if it spins during dispatch. Sap and banging won't do a fragile pelt any good. If you have fisher the distance is even more important.

The further your tie pole is from the tree the longer your wire is. The longer your wire the higher your box so your catch is way off the ground. The higher your box the more refusals you'll get. I think most refusals are from young or female marten so I can live with that.

Many trappers around here put their stuff at 5 feet.

[thebeav2]

Some Pics with marten boxes and marten.

thebeav.topcities.com/Canada.html

[Sage Dog]

Thanks guys.

There probably are not enough Marten where I trap to pay the gas bill, but I would like to catch a few while pursuing coyote, fox, and bobcats on my forest line.

Sage

[Furhandler]

Gibb is supposed to post a pic. of his set-up sometime soon and this thread would probably be the place for it.
He sets 5' off the ground and the box straight out. I'll let him explain as it's his "Baby".

I have 2 different sets; under tree and over tree.
I find a fallen tree which is somewhat horizontal and put box on top of it if it's no higher than 3'. The other is if the tree only has about 6 or 7" under it, I'll jam the box under it and set there. I check every 3 days, and have about 1 or 2 mice chews a year. But I still prefer to set low as I get too many refusals any higher than 3'. My season is only 2 weeks and it's early and those Marten are very often finicky if there's no snow and lots of feed, hence the low boxes.

Here's an "Under Tree" one, notice how little snow there is under tree. The trunk protects the set from snow. The over tree would be on top of tree, but I only put on top if I have really good cover overhead like a huge spruce for example.