a little background first. I am doing a beaver job and the beavers have been trapped before. Recently the landowner took out 3--2 adults and a small one, then hired me about 2 months later. There is a decent sized river, a beaver pond above and a watershed lake above the pond he wants trapped. I caught a large female and a male on a castor set with a 750. this was the first two nights. nothing for the rest of the two week peroid--no fresh sign, nothing in any bodygrip(i think they are avoiding them anyways). we busted the dam to let the water drain to dry the field out so he could plant, and so i could see if they came back to try to fix it. nothing until now--i pulled traps 10 or 12 days ago. he says they are working on the dam again--but i don't know to what degree.

there is a den in the middle of the swamp that i can wade to. then there are some holes in the bank on the upper end of the swamp which is pretty deep.

I was thinking of trying to find the den entrance to set it and see if the one or two left are staying there or up the swamp. or maybe i have one smart one that has survived the landowners last couple of years of trapping, so i figure if he is in the den and i can set it, he has to come out eventually and i can get him there--just don't know how to find the hole.

So is there any way to find the dam entrance being unable to drop the water level below it??

if anyone has any pics of a den entrance they have found that would be good to look at too.

or any other ideas--i know about the food sets, but haven't really found what they are eating--plenty of sweet gum and privet around, but they ain't touching that--found some food piles around the den, but didn't really notice any activity around them either.

If the houses are the same as here it is easy to find the entrance to the house.Get a long curved dry pole and feel for the grooves on the bottom of the pond in front of the house.The bottom will be harder from the beaver crawling in and out.Once you find the channel(groove) take your curved stick and you can use it to find where the hole goes into the house.Some entrances are quite wide while others are just the width of a beavers body.There are at least two entrance holes and sometimes three.
To note, you will have a high percentage catch rate when setting the den entrance.

Just walk around the house and set the trap where you see your hat floating . Sounds like a new breeding pare moved in , seen this nice place to setup camp . I would grab a hand full of snares and walk around the edge and set them where I seen fresh tracks , his way your not spending all this time wadding out to the lodge that they might not even be in , I watch that show duck men and there love for beaver had me dieing

I would set down stream from the pond. He won't come everyday because he is trying to make it downstream. Probably a family member not feeling safe with y'alls good work left the original area. Now it's not feeling to good about his new area. Remembering the old area and life being so good, it's over the trauma of his family. He is swimming back up stream and wanting to recreate what he had not knowing it can never be.
I know this from trapping and living my own life:-)

lol There is nothing more amusing than the truth.

Good!--Perfect!

Now it's time for blind sets with footholds at dam breaks with breasting sticks so they drop their foot right into the trap, just like in Pauls video Beaver Sites and Sets.

Scott Conley is right. Pesky's floating hat isn't new but it is a classic!

It's new for most people Mr. Methusla

yeah rick, there are a lot of bank dens, but in older established ponds that i usually get called to, the beavers have started out in a bank den and eventually flooded the creek up above the bank den where they are forced either to move or build a den above the water level.

talked to the landowner and the beaver seems to be reparing the dam back to full level as fast as he breaks it--so either a female has come out of the den from nursing a recent litter, or another has moved back in. either way, his days are numbered.