crowley,
The tree does not have to be from the immediate area of the pond. In my area aspen is king for beavers they will eat it first of anything else so I bring the poles in from other area's if there is none near a pond. My catch rate this year is much better using it instead of the alder or other trees near the pond.

Do you have aspen in your area of Maine? If not maybe Rally will chime in on what he is using.

I will answer your question. Yes I have used this set. Unless you are close to a beavers travel route the set is rather small for eye appeal. A little bait stick underwater in the dark is going to be hard for a beaver to find.I generally use this set as a change up. If I have beaver cutting off bait poles below the snares guarding the pole a couple times, I drop in one of these sets and I almost always have a beaver waiting for me next check. They get used to checking the area where they have been cutting off my poles and getting a free lunch, then they come back to find mister baited conibear waiting for them. No more free lunch! Death by blunt force trauma.

We have poplar which is about the same thing. I'm going to cut some around the house tomorrow and try that. I'm glade I decided to set up just one spot until I get things right.

Most of the pictures I've seen of snare poles have been good sized, 4" or so. What Family Trapper had to say has got me thinking, (look out world). When I first looked this spot over there was no visible feed pile so I cut a few holes and put branches in them, (green maple, 1" dia. about 2' long) The next day, they had all been cut off just under the ice. why I didn't keep that in mind when I made the sets???

Some times it just takes a second mind to get us to refocus. Hope that helped. Poplar in Montana was ice cream to a beaver. Cottonwood is king meal in our country. Let us know how it turns out. I would think slender two inch would be good. Be interested to hear rally comment on this as well.

I use popple, and prefer it to be about 2.5-3" in diameter, and the best resluts for me have always been when the poles are slick and green. When it starts to get grey and scaley I quit using it. I've used maple I've pulled out of a feedpile, and nothing else was close, but had much better luck after replacing them with fresh popple. The scores should be under each snare, where the loop hangs closest to the pole.
I usually check every third or fourth day depending on weather. I'm usually running three lines, and staying home one day to catch up on skinning and do repairs(snow machine, chisels, chainsaws, my body). Daily checks probably cause as much damage as good, spudding around the house, and I feel my time is better spent setting a new location. Cold spells affect beaver movement, even under ice. The colder it is the less the beaver move. I tend to spend more time setting during cold spells than checking, so I have a bigger line out when the cold spell breaks and beaver movement increases dramatically.
The later in the season the harder beaver work bait poles. What you are offering them is just a fresher piece of what they most likely already have in their feedpile. The later in the year it gets, the longer their feedpile has been under ice and getting slimy. Also if you keep your scores on the poles bright white, they seem to be more attractive/ look fresher.
I try to get on the ice as soon as it will hold me. The beaver are still in the "Gathering mode", and will hit poles to either add them to their feedpile, and to get them out of their runs, where I try to place them , especially early, when I can see them and find them more easily, with thin ice. That works well here until about a week or so before xmas and the beaver seem to go intio a "doldrum period" and it gets hit and miss unless I place them in their runs, and they work them to get them out of the way so their access while they are returning to the lodge with brush in their mouths. This doldrum seems to last about three weeks or so and can be either shorter or longer but usually about three weeks here. I use this excuse to go pheasant hunting. LOL Then it seems the later it gets the better they hit the poles. Now to the middle of March (here)it isn't too hard to catch more than you want to skin. Hardest part is skinning them and making any money from your labor in this current market.Kinda gets in your blood though. Nothing prettier than a february black beaver coming through a couple feet of ice and snow dried.

GREAT Info.!Thanks to all !

I've used willows(guessing poplar ) I've got to give cottonwood a try. I agree that the diameter is a bit big, I've just used about an inch in diameter is all and seems to work good to get them to the snares.

Has anyone tried white birch. a house that i set up a couple of days ago was full of chewed sticks, all white birch. Just wondering if it would be a good substitute if poplar wasn't right handy.

I have not but I have not ever seen beaver eat them to any extent. Tender young cottenwood before is starts to scale is about as close to the popple Rally is talking about. If you ever find beaver near a grove of cottonwood they go great guns knocking it down.

Only thing available for my beavers is willow, alder, and birch. I look for a stand of nice white birch about 2" and cut all my bait at one time. I like to nail 2 pieces,cut ends at 45 and 12" long, onto a dry fire killed spruce pole (strong) and use 2 snares.Works well and looking forward to getting some in the next few weeks. I've found the river beavers, that are in murkier water, to be more active and quicker to catch.

I have seen people use white pvc pipe. Don't think it matters too much.

alaska viking I have tried that here but they just seem to ignore it .

I have used the following set when nothing else is working.. I cut a trench about 8-10 ft long in the ice and jam it full of fresh poplar branches /sticks mark them up with an axe.Push them into the mud aways so they have to work to get them .I put a couple of gaps(snare width) in the row with a sturdy dry pole on one side of the gap and a sturdy 3-4 inch poplar stick on the other side. Then I place a sturdy dry pole at each end of the row. I locate the row so it sticks off the lodge like a finger pointing to the feedbed. Leave it a week. Then remove the chewed up poplar. Put fresh stuff in and hang snares on the dry poles at the gaps and on the ends.Whats happens is the beaver have gotten used to feeding around there and going through the gaps and around the ends of the row.

I set up a colony the other day, thought I did a good job, at least until I checked it today. I'm hoping someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong.





I had a problem with the beaver chewing the poles off just under the ice and started putting the top snares just under the ice. This pole was chewed off about 2" form the top of the ice. There is about 2' feet of ice here. How he got by the top snares and into the hole is beyond me. When I reset it,I put 2 more snares inside the hole. I don't know if it will work, but it made me feel better anyway.




All the snares have been pulled down tight but there is no kinks in the cable. All of the poles are set in channels. I can't believe a beaver can be that lucky, I've got to be doing something wrong.
This is how the poles were set. The first pole in the photo wasn't touched

I have been catching a few but my catch ratio is low. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

I'm not an avid beaver trapper but catch a few each spring, using an armful of brush (birch, cottonwood, or willow, which ever is close) wired
to the pole with three snares set in a triangular pattern around it and
positioned to be just below the ice. Use the upright pole pushed against the bottom of the pond to get a measure to the top of the ice, then use your axe to get a measure from the top of the ice to the bottom of it and
position the snares accordingly. I've always been told that the first
thing they do when they come to the bait is swim a circle around it just below the ice. I've had better results though using the brush for bait
rather than just a pole.
I'd use a heavy dead pole for a cross pole on top though, if they hit your set before it freezes over they will take the whole mess under ice.

Crowley,
Your making your holes too large. The beaver are coming up into the holes and chewing your poles. The loops being pulled down that small, are an indication the beaver are knocking them down with their feet as they are working the pole. I cut my holes the size of a 30" chainsaw bar, or about 4"wide and 30" long. If you can pull a caught beaver through the hole without chopping it out, it is too big. The deeper the ice the more important this is.
Are your holes freezing every night? If not the beaver could be pulling the bottom of your pole around, knocking all the snares down, and then cutting the pole. If your ice is declining and the holes aren't freezing, push the bottoms of the pole into the bottom to stabalize them, even if you have to sharpen the bottoms like a pencil point. Then roll your safety cable up tight to the pole on the pole laying on top of the ice, to sabilize the top. They'll still be able to cut the poles, but stabilizing them will make them have to circle the pole a couple times, enhancing your chances of catching them. It is also a good idea to use a dead stick on the top, especially during thin ice periods, in case one gets up on the ice after being caught.
The poles look good, but I've had better luck keeping the loops away from the pole, or so they swing free. If the snare overlaps the pole it will go dead if it drags against the pole while closing.
Some of those loops that are close down to about a two inch diameter may also be beaver pulling their front feet out of stiff loops when they get close to closed. What kind of cable are you using, 7x7 or 1x19?

I'm using 5/64 7x7 with bmi slide free locks. All of those poles were pushed at least 6" into the bottom. If you look at the white birch pole, I put a half hitch in the safety cable at the top of the ice so when I roll the anchor to the bait pole everything stays tight. We had a warm spell and the ice didn't freeze good. I'm sure that didn't help. There were teeth marks at the bottom of all the poles.

dead stick for anchor
make sure bait pole is stable
smaller hole
loops swing free

I'll give that a try, thanks for the input.

If you have 330 conibears this is your opportunity to drop in one of the sets described earlier in this post. Your on location and the beaver are going to find the 330 set. If your not freezing up at night you have a high probability that a snared beaver is going to come out your hole and not drown. It will then likely have snare damage.

I would add to the above recommendations by crowley that you try using a thicker bait pole say 3 or 4 inches diameter at the top. Something that would take more than a few bites to cut off. This should keep them working and swimming around your snares longer.

I second Dirts choice, if you have them set a couple of 330's with bait on the jaws. Works great.

its called a hanging suzy or a swinging suzy. the set works .thorpe showed that set in his under ice video. its been around for more yrs than anyone can remember.....what i dont like is poeple dont give credit to those they learned it from..so sad.