Spent the day skinning marten. I must say the trapping part is alot more enjoyable. But, the first ones are the tough ones getting a system down. Must take me at least an hour to skin, flesh, and board each one. I realized I got mostly large, male marten, and perhaps I was trapping ground that hasn’t been trapped in awhile. Seemed like much more to flesh than the ones I helped my brother in law with on Prince of Wales Island. Maybe because we are further north the marten have more fat, or maybe mine are larger on average and that’s why. Anyway, I just turned the four I skinned today, and they look pretty good. I also noticed it takes a long time to thaw out marten that have been frozen whole, so another lesson learned.

Tracked down an old friend, too. A Lebanese coffee and diamond trader from Koidu town in Sierra Leone who is now in the Congo. He made his home a rest house for us when we were in the Peace Corps there – fed us, too. So good to hear from him, and I passed on his information with many others he helped like me, and they, too, were happy to hear from him.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Not one marten today. Pulled traps as I went to move them, then just decided to bring them all home as there’s a big cold front coming.

Beautiful day on the water. I saw a small pod of orcas on the way in. A large one was jumping out of the water and returning head first as if it were doing a sea world trick through a hoop. Others were slashing, and there was at least one tiny calf just watching on.

Time to start getting the fur ready I already caught and put in the freezer.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

4 more marten today in the traps. I hadn’t been able to check them for 6 days due to crappy weather this weekend, but all were in good shape in the freezing temperatures.

I pulled some of the traps at the start of the line that had no marten, putting them in sets in between other beach sets. Saw one deer on the beach.

The winds were surly today. When I ran down the channel, the winds were southerly, and when I turned the corner, they were north. My first sets had a swell right on shore, and I repeatedly went over my boots getting the boat offshore enough with the anchor to keep it off the beach. Thank goodness the tide was flooding or I’d really been cranky.

I had one trap where the marten must have moved the box, and it sent the bait down the newspaper tube and the deer backbone was caught by the conibear trap. The marten then went to town chawing on the free meat, leaving scat right on the log where he was dining. I’ve already caught 3 marten and a mink at this site, with other trap snaps, so there’s more to come.

Had a Peace Corps friend pass away on Friday from cancer. A great lady my age, with a husband and two kids. Way too young, and made me really appreciate the day being alive on the water and in the woods and remembering her during our time in Sierra Leone.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Hi Everyone,
Mark sent me this photos after Thanksgiving, and I’m posting them now.  Here’s the big guy in Craig, AK, during their Thanksgiving Holiday.

Maryann (Mark’s sister)

Went to check traps today. Matt and I made 6 sets on Friday, 2 box/conibears per set so 12 traps out. I also tried strawberry jam as a second bait/attractor after reading others who had success. Makes sense, as marten eat berries.

The day started out in usual fashion. On the way to the ramp, my boat trailer practically disintegrated. One side of the back cross piece that has the two sets of rollers came clean off. I heard a scraping sound, and thought it odd as I couldn’t find the plow truck making it. Then I realized it might be me, so I got out, and surveyed the damage. At that point, with the weather fair and supposed to blow, I just got back in and scraped it right through Douglas to the ramp, launched the boat, and said I’d deal with it later.

At the first set, I knew it was gonna be a good day, regardless of the trailer. A double – and I saw 3 deer in on the beach, but of course, hunting season closed on Sat., so they are scot free now. The next 2 sets had nothing, but set number 4 had another double. Set 6 had a single with the other trap snapped. 5 for the day – equal to last year and year before’s total, so I’m getting the hang of it.

Flat calm, just about, except for the wind shipping out of Sheep Creek. It’s an interesting piece of water, as there may be only a 1 foot chop, but the wind can seem like it will roll you over if you let it.

Came back in a snow squall. Used the GPS to get across to Douglas Island shore, then around the corner and back to town.

I called around to find out about a new trailer, since this one seems to have about had it. Bolt holes are rusting through. When I got a quote that a new one was $2200, I thought twice, and headed to Western Auto and bought the new parts I needed. I used some cross bracing with pressure treated lumber scraps, and a couple hours later, went back to the ramp and got the boat.

I put the 5 marten in the freezer box with the other 4 and 2 mink, and was dog tired when I walked in the door. It’s Sara’s birthday today, to I better get something on for her for dinner. Halibut sounds good.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Matt and I went out to reset my traps and try to get Matt a deer the last two days of the year, which is also the last 2 days of deer hunting season for us. On our second or third set, I was looking for a place to set when we saw a fiberglass cruiser off shore aways. We were looking for a good place that was deep right up to the beach so the tide wouldn’t go out too quickly if I was checking traps alone. Then we saw what we first thought was a punt being towed by the cruiser, then we saw someone paddling the punt. Matt finally saw a deer on the beach, and did we feel like dopes. Here they were trying to stalk a deer on the beach, and we probably sent the deer into the woods!

We then boated to the stern of the fiberglass boat and apologized to the skipper, who then realized we weren’t trying for their deer. He said there was a bigger deer than the one we saw that had already gone into the woods, and that was the deer the person in the punt was going after anyway.

We continued setting and saw a deer later on the same stretch of beach I’d seen 2 last time out. I put Matt in on the beach after the deer walked back into the woods, and left to make another marten set. When I came back, Matt said he crept into the woods and stood still for awhile trying to pick up the deer, and then he saw it running away and couldn’t catch up to it.

We finished setting traps, and had a couple hours of daylight, so tried to hunt a point. I went along the beach fringe and had Matt side hill about 100 yards up thinking the deer would likely be on the deer fringe, and any deer I moved would go to Matt. We didn’t see any deer, and started to circle back to the boat as the snow was coming down pretty hard, filling in all the older deer tracks. Then we cut a fresh track with no snow in it, and knew the deer must be near. We traveled through deep snow and brush trying to catch up, but never did see the deer. It did lead us back across the point to the beach, except when we came out we were pretty far from the boat. We humped it along the beach and glad the tide wasn’t higher or we’d have had to climb inland and over some cliffs had we been 30 minutes later.

We finally got back to the boat, and went to the cabin, sweaty and tired and feeling good about a some real exercise. We hunted north the next day but didn’t see any deer and came home. End of season. Not as good as last year for Matt, but never a “bad” one when you are out in the woods.

Another friend who went out earlier in the year was in his driveway when he heard a car slide and a thump. The car drove off as he came down to the highway, and there off the road lay a beautiful 3 point buck the vehicle had hit. The deer was still alive, so he grabbed his pistol and put the deer down, and was set for venison for awhile.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com