A Mountain Trapline

A trapping partner and I planned an extended weekend trip into northeastern Utah’s Uinta Mountains a week ago.  We wanted to target pine marten, and this is the only area open to marten trapping in the state.  We headed out on a Thursday morning, and were in the mountains setting traps by noon.

Most of our sets consisted of baited leaning poles guarded with 110 or 120 conibears.  We covered the bait with fir boughs or cloth to keep birds away from the sets.

 We also made some cage sets with the conibears, as well as some vertical tree sets.

We set hard for two days and spent the nights in a cabin not far from where we were trapping.  On the third day, we ran through and checked all of our traps.  

After picking up a few marten, we headed back home, to return in three days and pull all of the traps. 

We had a great trip, only took six marten overall, but it was a lot of fun.  I plan on getting out after marten again later this winter.  Marten trapping’s always a blast!