Big Fin,
Go make your own and find out!!! LOL
I really can't tell you one catches more than the other. I quite often use them both on the same pole. I sell way more Spikes than brackets because of the price difference. The brackets can be reused and are a big part of the cost. The brackets are cheap to replace the snare on, and will last a lifetime. The brackets are easier to use with choppers on in real cold weather, and has a swivel incorporated in the design. The brackets tangle more in the sled but bread twist ties will eliminate that. The spikes are deffinately lighter, but designed to be a one time use snare, but can often be reshaped(like the one Rob caught his beaver in looks to be) especially in 3/32"cable. I find the brackets easier to run the safety cable through also, and easier to differentiate the individual snares location when they have all been pulled down the pole after a catch. The spike is easier to change the snare angle by just tilting up hill on odd shaped poles. I like spikes better in house entrances and bank runs because there is less to see. The bracket is cheaper in the long run, but alot of trappers don't want to make their own snares.I wouldn't go sell your brackets to go to spikes, but they are handy in places.
Pscarswell,
I used 1/16" 1x19 for years and caught lots of beaver with it.The difference is in the amount of damage apparent on my beaver from the small cable. I went to larger cable to get away from the fine white lines on the beaver caused by small cable. I got a few extremity catches with the 1/16" 1x19 cable but had alot of snares pulled down to a small diametr loop with nothing in them too. I then went to 5/64" 1x19 cable and the marks were rare but extremity catches were non existant, and had a whole lot of snares pulled down to even larger loops with nothing in them. All my catches with the 5/64" 1x19 were just behind the front legs or in the center of the beaver behind the rib cage. I think I only caught one beaver by a back leg. I then went to 7x7 3/32" cable and eliminated the marks all together under ice and my extremity catches(feet, nose and tails)were quite common. I currently catch about 15-18% of my beaver by extremities, the most common being a front foot catch. I use 5/64" 7x7 when the otter season is open here as I find I catch more otter with it. It is a more subtle cable and catches more otter for me in a couple sets I use. The fine white lines on my beaver are more common with the 7x7 5/64" cable than the 7x7 3/32",but I get more extremity catches too, so figure it is a good trade when I want the otter. Otter quite often play around beaver pole sets, by grabbing the poles with their front feet and whipping theirselves around the poles while chasing each other.Also alot of the ponds I trap have substantial minnow populations and they congregate in the slots I cut to get air. A easy meal for an otter, which also puts them near my top snares. I can eliminate most of the incidental otter by using the 3/32" 7x7, which is a little stiffer and is easier to push through more slush and ice chips in the hole when setting and remaking a pole.
I don't skim my holes, but rather wear a 31" gauntlet and just throw out the big pieces of ice with my hand. I chop a hole adjacent to the pole and reach down under the ice to feel my top snares. If they have been disturbed I pull the pole. If a catch has been made they will knock down all the snares most often.
If you are curios about the difference in cable performance, there is an easy test you can do at home. Just make two snares of the same diameter cable, one in 7x7 and one in 1x19. Use the same lock, and load it if you load yor snares. Now use a finger and pull the two snares shut. When they get down to about a loop diametr of about 1.5-2"(about the diameter of a beavers front foot) which snare gets hardest to pull shut? I'll betcha a Lager it's the 1x19.
Rob,
Nice head catch. Now your hooked.
Last edited by Rally; 12/21/11 11:52 PM.
