Idaho Pine Marten

Mason_Jarr

New member
Most of southwestern Idaho is sage brush desert, but just an hour north of here you cross over a divide and drop in the Boise River drainage. The area changes to mountainous and starts to green up with Ponderosa pine and some other conifers. We put out bear baits in the spring in this area and while I've sat in my tree stands I've seen pine marten running around. So this year I decided to trap it for a couple of weeks to see if it was feasible. This area is only the fringe of good marten habitat and I didn't know if it would be worthwhile....but it beats sitting at home.

Here's a few photos of the terrain:

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The season opened on Nov 1st, so I took my camper up on the 31st of October. On opening day I made about 14 sets for marten and then put out 6 mink and another 5 marten sets on the second day. I let them sit on the third day and then ran them on the morning of the 4th (we have a 72 hour check requirement in Idaho). Notta. It was raining or snowing almost every day so most of my lure was getting washed away overnight. I re-baited and lured my sets and then came home for a couple of days. I went back up there this past Friday and ran the line again. It had rained heavily while I was home and I ran the line from beginning to end and relured as I went. I'd checked all the mink sets and was almost to the end of the marten traps. The very last trap I checked had a nice male that will grade out as XXL. It should be worth $40-60 depending on the market this year.

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I ran the line again this morning after another two days of rain and pulled traps as I went. Nothing again. I don't think this area has enough marten to make it profitable, but I had to find out by trapping it. Next year I think I'll head a little further north and try it again.

I did run across an interesting site. An old mine shaft in the side of the mountain. It didn't look very stable, so I opted not to venture in.

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Time to get after coyotes for a few weeks and then bobcat season opens in mid-December.

Mike
 
You doing the tree sets for these? 110conibears? Trap fires(hopefully get the game), and then swings out away the tree?



Scott (got a video somewhere) B
 
Yes. Tree sets with 120 Conibear placed in a newspaper motor route tube. Bait wired in the rear and lure just in front of the tube. They're pretty easy to catch if you have a good location. I trapped quite a few when I lived in Alaska.
 
Congrats on the catch Mike /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif Ive never seen a Pine Martin before thats awesome /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Kerry
 
Saw a couple of martin in Alberta, supposed to be some here in the Olympics but have never seen them. Neat little critter, they will go after a meat pole especially if there is a moose hanging on it.
 
Great story, Me and the kids are headed out tommorow to put out a couple dozen sets. Plan on leaving them out a couple of weeks. With the gas price down if I catch a few it may pay for the hour trip up and back every other day.
 
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