slick, that tournament thing cought be fun but i think still some people would cheat. just leave the animal in the trap and check it for 3 days. not sure but nowadays hardly anyone is honest. i like the idea though. maybe next year.

Slick I've never noticed that!! I need to watch more closely. A person could mark the side of a snare in such a way to test how often that happens.

You are the man Dew!! It is nice when the water is shallow enough!!

i like this idea of the beaver and weasel thread... it should almost be a how to sort of thing... like everything we do from scouting to making sets to the harvest and skinning and fleshing part... the pics you guys put on say a thousand words..and we could be doing this for all the other animals also... ahh i see it now... the best trapping site ever with the most info ever.. i dont know how many years it took before i thought i knew what i was doing was right... if i could have only had a website like this... i will start taking pics this weekend to contribute to this idea of mine

I will try and remember my camera tomorrow when I check & show what I did at one of my locations. If in current beaver will typically swim into the current to feed, this is my thinking anyways.

I typed this up for another forum today. I figure it fits into the thread for those of us in colder area's.

Dangers of winter trapping in the UP eh?

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Well I worked my schedule all week to get today off to play in the woods. Packed up the sled and snow machine and headed out. I had great plans today of setting the rest of the ponds with snare poles and baited 330's.

I got to the first pond about 5 miles on snow machine and pulled off and buried the machine. So after using the snowshoe as a shovel I dug it out and found a better parking spot. I was really hot by this time so I just laid down my wool jacket on the machine along with the helmet and started looking for poles to use.

No aspen to be found in the area or poplar so after searching I settled on trying birch on one pole and dogwood on the other. I find dogwood in the feed beds often up here.

Ok so pond number 1 and I am snowshoeing in about a half mile with some snares, tags and wire in bag two poles over my shoulder and a hatchet in the other hand.

as I was getting close to the first hut maybe 150 yards away I was passing some dead trees sticking out of the ice I felt the ice go out under my feet

It wasn't a fast plunge it was a slow sink down to my armpits. It’s strange but I have often thought about how to react going through the ice. Remarkably I did exactly what I had always thought I would. I caught myself on the snare poles, one side of the ice where the poles were on top of the ice started to go down. I turned around the way I had come from and used my hatchet (really a small axe) to stick into the ice and pull myself out.

Pulling yourself onto snow covered ice with snowshoes on is not all that easy I have come to find out. But I was able to do it without need for the ice spuds I carry around my neck.

I remember feeling sticks under my feet when I was in the water. What I felt with my snowshoes / feet makes me thing I went though in a feed bed. I never saw one there this fall and there was no evidence of one showing above the snow. Now the stupid part is I snow shoed to this spot on purpose because I saw what I thought was a breather hole for otter. My best guess is there is a bank den nearby I didn't even know existed and this was a feed bed for it.

After getting out of the water onto the ice I was breathing really hard and obviously adrenaline is pumping. I considered weather I should drop my bag and shed any clothing. I decided against both. The bag was light and I would have to come back for it if I dropped it. All of my clothing was wool with the exception of my shirt which was fleece and the snow/shell pants. I considered taking off my fleece since it was heavy with water but decided not to do anything until I got back to the snowmobile. You would be surprised how hard you are breathing after getting wet at 20 degrees and snowshoeing a half mile while wet. You may also be surprised that you talk to yourself

Back at the snowmobile. I took of my snowshoes and dropped them in the sled. Pulled phone and camera out of my pockets and popped them apart and dropped them in the plastic box. I was dressed fairly well and wasn’t feeling effects of the cold water after that walk. I had on wool long underwear. Wool pants and a pair of thin snow pants over all that on the bottom. The pants had actually kept me fairly dry underneath and where I was wet through the wool was warm even though wet. My feet were also warm for the time being even though soaked again my body heat had warmed the wet wool socks. My upper body was not in as good of shape all I had on was wool long underwear and a fleece shirt when I went in. I shed the shirt and threw it in the sled and pulled off the long underwear shirt. Rung it as dry as I could get it and put it back on. Lucky for me I had shed my coat earlier I put that on as well and felt fairly warm.
I had extra gloves and a facemask for under the helmet so believe it or not the 5 mile ride back was not all that bad. My stomach and back were cold but that was all.

Back at the house I discovered that the water didn’t get to far past my snow pants the wool pants underneath were wet but not soaked and the wool long underwear was similar. My feet were a different story my boots were soaked and my socks were dripping. Hind sight I should have pulled off my boots and dumped them out and rung out my socks when I did my shirt.

Sorry no pictures guys the camera got a little wet


The main reason I am sharing this isn't to brag about going through the ice in the UP. Trust me that was really DUMB. But hopefully the info might be helpful to others out there.

I realize several things worked in my favor. The weather was truly not that cold today 20 degrees with little wind beats the 5 degrees with -15 wind-chill I did a check in a week ago. Had that been the weather I would have been in serious trouble. Wearing all wool is probably the smartest thing someone could do in the outdoors in the winter. It retrains 80% of its insulating value when wet. It takes abuse can be dirt wet or both and still work. Gortex or other miracle fibers are amazingly warm and thin but don’t do anything for you when wet except freeze solid. They make a nice outer shell but that’s all you should use them for. The other thing I did right was to have safety equipment on my person. Every one of us is guilty of cutting corners. Had I not had the hatchet or the ice spuds? What would have been the outcome? I hate to think.

Three years ago when I first got serious about winter trapping beavers up here things would have been very different. The hatchet would have been in my pack. I would have been wearing synthetic long underwear, blue jeans, the same fleece shirt and a wool coat. I also would have been 2 miles in on snowshoes because I trapped a different pond back then. I would have had a survival kit with me something I did not have today. But even building a fire back then wound not have cut it because of the clothing I had on. Warm wet cotton wont help you one bit. Warm damp wool certainly will.


After effects are not to bad little horse in the throat but that seems to be it. I will try and take a picture of the hole this weekend when I get out to set the rest of the line. This time I will take the picture for the safety of shore though Also plan to check the ice near the huts before heading out onto it. I was shocked it was thin the pond had been frozen since November.

Wow quite the story! I have one wool outfit love it. Need to get more. I fell in up to my knees a few weeks ago,legs never got cold or even seemed wet.

Nothing is more exciting than taking a sudden waist deep plunge! Waders do help.
I've never had to dive in after an ice spud. I showed my boys the video and told them thats why I need their help. I did tell them I'd hold their feet. LOL

Brandon welcome to the polar bear club.
When I'm walking on ice I use a old grass weed wacker 1960 model and take off the grass cutting blade and temper the tip to a spud/spear shape, Then you sound the ice around you as you walk.
You probably found an area there is a warm spring flowing and it melts the ice underneath and the snow insulates it from freezing over. When ours start to flow in the winter they will thaw 3 feet of ice in a week. Otter and beaver will go to them to have HOT water baths underwater, much like a hot tub to them.
If you are allowed; blind snare set them there, no bait just suspended snares.

Awesome story Brandon!!

It will be great to see more pics 34!!

SquirrelChaser,
You could be correct on the warm spring. There was a small spot of open water on the cross over and the stream was flowing and clean of ice. I have put a leg through many times around huts in runs especially on bank dens. This felt very similar like I had walked out onto a snow covered hole and the snow was the only thing supporting me. i kinda sunk and fell forward at the same time onto the snare poles that I placed across the hole.

My phone has dried out and seems to work. Good think too its a 300$ phone I use for work and to keep my life straight. I just got the darn thing and certainly could not justify another one anytime soon. Plastic bag for it from now on.

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit. I will take some pictures of my snares this weekend when I am out and post them up. Also thinking of setting for a few otter. I am allowed two more this year.

In michigan we can snare as long as its the correct season ( after december 1st) and it has to be set under ice.

Cell phones and zip lock bags and a small pac of silica gel inside. This should be in every beaver trappers supply list.
So now you know what a "hangmans knock sounds like" when you are going down.
You have not hijacked anything, as long as it is a learning experience someone can learn from.

this is what i have been trying.. i have not got anything with it as of yet but i will find out this weekend..

ttt

connibear1 how you make out with those sets anyway? hope you did good i'll post some more pics this weekend going south to trap some flooded farms about 20 lodges,

I still have to set them Fisher.

It worked out I didn't have enough time. Today or tomorrow I will get them out. I want to wait until the temp. reaches at least -4 before I venture out to my secluded spots. It is -13 right now. I don't have a snowmobile...only snowshoes and an otter sled.

ttt

When beaver go back and forth from hut to dam, are they traveling just under the ice or on the bottom?

I believe either and all in between. It all depends on why and what they happen to be doing at the time. For the most part nearer the lodge or den, they are on the bottom following their grooved runways on the bottom. When they arrive the dam or feedbed, I believe they go pretty much anywhere.

CountySmith. You will catch beaver with that method (photo) but take a look at 330-Trappers setup above. The "Bait" is located alot closer to the jaw allowing more room for the beaver. You will get more snapped traps with your method and give out more "beaver headaches".

After trial and error, I use Moles settup with a shorter bait stick and wired lower on the jaws with the trigger wires even further to the side (Johnny thorpe method).

well, i just got back from the trip to the flooded farms, had 23 lodges, set three traps at each lodge, ended up with 21 beaver, 3 lodges didnt have anything but i expected it since there was no feed pile on them, nothin great a few over 60 pounds and most around 45 had 2 really small ones but got one by the hind foot with a duke 330, it was about even catch ratio using baited the jaw 330 and baited snare pole. although every 330 that was tripped had a beaver, there where many closed snares. i will still use both at each lodge. i laso found the bigger beaver in the snare pole, but pretty sure it was just luck.