For those who use wire on you drowners..what size of wire do you prefer? Thanks

No less than 11ga for me. I may use 12ga if I had it.

14 gauge worked fine for me, just make sure you have enough weight in the deep water and no tangles or weak spots in your wire, also enough water depth to drown the beaver. 14 is the smallest I would go!

Go with 1/8 inch cable, you won't be sorry.
Tom

For wire...9-11ga. Although, I would recommend cable. You can go to Home Depot or Lowes or someplace like that and get cable pretty cheap.

I use 3/32 cable with a drowner lock and a swivel on the snare
Cheers
Pete

When I buy my cable I go to a company that is making chokers and cables for either the logging companies or for fishing and buy from them. Currently we are paying about 7 cents a foot for 3/32 cable.
Pete

If you want to go the nine yards , Buy yourself some 3/16 Stainless cable install a home made lock also of stainless i/8 thick and 2" angle iron , cut the one end shorter on the angle iron and put a eye on each end of the cable with a swivel and a quick link. You will never need another replacement for a long while, wont rust, won't kink, and can be dipped to camo it.That,s a serious no problem drowner.

I quit using wire or cable for drowners when I discovered drowning rods. It's the only way to go, IMO.

3/32 CABLE!!!

I find that adjustable drownders are the ticket....I like to make mine 12-15 feet long....I trap some lakes with shallow sides...use feed bags or sand bags for weight...

14 gauge

but im switching to cables

there is no way i would ever use onestrand of 14 ga. for beaver, i try and use 11 ga. for any drowning wire and check after every catch and replace wire after 2 or 3 catches, cable would be best, but it tangles too much, i heard of flex cable?

I used to use 9 or 11 gauge wire. I switched to 1/8" cable years ago and will never go back to wire (way to much mess). When I pull my traps, I just coil up the cable and put 1 wrap of 14 gauge wire around the trap and cable and everything is secure. I can make a mound of traps in the back of the pickup without having a big tangled mess.
Just make sure you use a swivel for your drowning lock, as I tried the L type locks with no swivel and had some beavers that looked like they were wrapped in a ball of twine (Cable actually)
Drowning rods work great and are an excellent choice for trapping areas with easy access, but start lugging them through the northen bog swamps and you will really be earning your fur check.
Just speaking my opinion and from just a few years of experience (Trial and Error, actually more Error)!!!!