First check

I only was able to make sets for marten in 4 locations due to the wind and tide last Friday.  I decided this year since the weather is so precarious in getting to my traps that I’d try setting 3 traps at a set, let it sit for about 4 days, then pull it.  I figured if nothing came by in that time, nothing would.  And if something did, I wanted multiple traps there if there was more than one customer.

Kurt went with me to set and was there today to check.  I couldn’t have got to all of them had he not been there to hold the skiff offshore while I went into the woods.  The first 2 sets were empty, and I collected the 6 traps and newspaper boxes and returned to the skiff.  On the third set, which has produced in the past, there were 2 marten.  The last set held one marten.  Not bad.  And there were 3 sets for which 2 the tide/wind was wrong on Fri and the third which I could not quite find that I’ll set later in the season, since I think I got a pair at each site last year.

We ran the beach to try to find a deer for Kurt. When we went to turn for home, we saw the weather had caught up to us, and rather than beat into it all the way home, we decided to go around the island to another boat launch and have a friend pick me up to go and get my truck and trailer.

We crossed the pass and got to the beach where we’d left the skiff to hunt on Friday where I saw what I thought were wolf tracks and headed north, looking for deer on the beach.  As we rounded a point, we saw two hunters struggling to get their skiff off the beach.  Been there.  Done that.  We pulled in to help them.  Turns out they had gone into the woods to call for deer.  When they returned, there was Mr. Wolf, having walked in their tracks.  It was a black wolf and it took off before they could get a shot off.  Had to be the track maker I saw last Friday.  We helped them get their skiff off the beach.  As we idled on our way, they noticed the newspaper tubes in the boat and said they’d seen blue ones in the woods in another place they’d called.  I had trapped that same ground last year and got nothing even though we’d seen what we thought were marten tracks along that stretch of beach.  Could be I was trapping on someone else’s line without knowing it and that trapper had already taken the fur that was there so I was glad to know that.

We continued up the beaches on the island and never saw a deer.  Jeff picked me up and took me to the other boat launch for the truck and trailer, and I returned to get the skiff which Kurt was tending.  A big blow is coming the next few days and glad we got out when we did.