Here's another quick question for you guys, how much weight do you think is enough for the deep water anchor on a beaver drowner? I read in the NTA trapping handbook that 10 pounds (or more) is sufficient, but the picture they had showed a cinder block.

I have about 12 to 16" sections of lolly column filled with mortar left over from building my home. They weight just about 10#. A cinder block weighs closer to 40#.

You have some pretty heavy cinder blocks in your area I'd say the cinder blocks around here maybe 15 lbs I went out and got one and it weight just over 25 should be heavy enough for beaver I know I wouldn't last long with that on my ankle lol

Make them as heavy as you can. 20 pounds or better. I use feed sacks and I put as much weight in them at the set location until they are almost heavier than I can lift.

Well, I was a little surprised too...I got on the scale and it said 247, which is about right. I picked up the cinder block, and it was well over 280. Maybe it was well over 270 and close to 280. Whatever it is, 30 or 40#, doesn't matter.

What is sufficient weight or what do you guys use for a weight to anchor a beaver drowning rig?

I have 24" rebar stakes that I plan to use for the top anchor.

Read my last post :P

I use three 10 lbs square home gym weight and have never had one pull them out yet,
If caught by a back foot they can get into four wheel drive and with oxygen Meaning not deep enough water they may drag a twenty lbs weight on clean bottom , But in the muck they are toast providing the water is deep enough
Front foot NOT A CHANCE! Most Beaver only weight 30 -40 lbs, and to be able to pull UP with a front footcatch ? Try getting into a pool over your head and lift a twenty or thirty lbs weight WITHOUT having your feet on the floor IE: using your legs to lift , see where that gets you! Its the same for Beavers.
24 " rebar is more than adequate, PROVIDING its good solid ground , If its hard for you to pull out straight up then the Beaver only pulls away from the anchor Sidways , Now if he pulls uphill be more carefull, Lets say on a steep incline.

3Bridger, I had a live beav using one of those on a slow sloping sandy bottom last year. The weight started off in 4' off water. I'm sure it would be good with a steap bank & muddy bottom. If your not sure about the bottom just use 2.

Bottom condition and curent are huge factors in determining the required weight. 10 pounds where I trap wouldn't be enough. I usually use around 40 pounds. Some of the 70-80 pounders I have caught in fast current and solid rock bottoms would pull a 10-20 lb weight to shore pretty easy.

I've found a yard square piece of chicken wire makes a great wrap for around rocks.
Used to wrap #14 around rocks in a "web". The chicken wire is faster and easier.

This is an example of what 20 pound drowner weight will do to a 42 pound beaver.

I've had cinder blocks setting high and dry too many times for me to trust them.

TLC - I've thought that using chicken wire might be a good idea. I've done the wiring up rocks for mink and coon...it's not the greatest. I think I'll give that a try.

Trappinia - You must have those 15 pound cinder blocks like Wildcat's got. The cinder blocks I have weigh nearly 40 pounds. Seems like a lot of weight to bring with me.

I should be able to find some decent rocks without too much trouble, and try the chicken wire like TLC said.

Thanks for the help guys.

I think that one of the problems is that people are calling concrete blocks cinder blocks.A conrete block looks the same as a cinder block but weigh about three times as much.

I carry a sand bag that is used in construction for weighing down the traffic barrels. They're half the size of a grain bag and easy to carry. I fill them as full as I can,probably #50lbs. or more.
My theory (for what it's worth) is the weight must be equal to or more than the heaviest beaver you hope to catch!! I to have had them sitting on the bank just a lookin at ya,starting with #35 lbs of lead in 6 ft. of water. RD

I won't hump that much weight into the areas I trap. I'd be crippled before ever pulling out my first beaver. I use drowning bags. My wife makes them for me out of my old jean legs (I've got a 36" inseam). I haul those in and fill them with rocks and gravel on site. If the rocks are big and one bag doesn't feel heavy enough I just add another one. I like them to weigh at least 30lbs.

Here's one in the lower left of this pic:

MT, Great photo!!!!

Baldknober 1
Give us a little more info of how your 40 lb Beaver got that high up the bank , I,m not saying it hasn,t been done ,It has, But give us the specifics ,The weight , the cable, lenght, swivels the trap , depth of water , current , bottom conditions? So the next young trapper will not have the same results. By the way that beaver is not happy with you! LOL

Baldknober 1
Give us a little more info of how your 40 lb Beaver got that high up the bank , I,m not saying it hasn,t been done ,It has, But give us the specifics ,The weight , the cable, lenght, swivels the trap , depth of water , current , bottom conditions? So the next young trapper will not have the same results. By the way that beaver is not happy with you! LOL

I use a Missouri Stream Team trash collection bag for my drowner sack. (pic here:http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2004/05/10.htm). They are nylon weave, exactly like a feed sack, they are just the right mesh about; 1/16 inch holes, so they drain water far better. They are asbsolutely tough as nails. You will NOT tear one. And.....here's the kicker...they are FREE. Any MO conservation office will be happy to give you a dozen if you just tell them you always pick up trash when you are trapping.

I have my Sleepy creek #11LS coon traps and my #4 DCS Beaver traps permanently attached to a 10-12ft 7/32 braided cable with a slide lock. Both ends have a two inch loop at the end doubling back to the ferrel. On the dry end I use a pogo in mud, or an earth anchor in gravel fastened loop-to-loop. on the bag end I fold the bag twice, making it four double layers thick and feed a split ring through the mesh and through the cable loop. And to top it all off when I pull a set, I just wrap the whole trap-cable-stake-combo up in the bag, and stretch an intertube slice around it like a rubberband. The intertube slice is permanently attached to the bag by a loop-through-loop(dont know what else to call it) run through the mesh. It stays on the bag at all times. The white middle section of the bag is spraypainted glow orange for #11s, and glow blue for #4s. the spray paint is an E for an earth anchor and a P for a pogo. These are easily interchangable of couse due to the loop-to-loop, and I carry extra loose anchors and pogos if i need to change out. (wish I had a pic of the whole rig. Ill make a thread next week or so)

I run a series of water lines from a canoe during the season. They average about 7-9 miles each and are VERY MUCH one way trips If I dont put something in the canoe before I set off, I'm trapping without it...period. I usually throw in about 30-40 sets on the 7-9 mile line. No way could I have all my needed gear in the canoe, and then add blocks or tie plates too, I already float about 450 pounds down the 35 degree water as it is, and we dont have enough mud bottoms for slide rods.

I use rocks as I find them...half of what Im looking for at a set site is ballast. I usually carry one full bag for the perfect rockless/graveless set. If I fill the bag with big rocks it weighs abiout 30 lbs, with gravel it weights over 50.

That particular Beav was retarded I think. He didnt 'go to water' like every other beav Ive pinched. He simply pulled that cable up the bank untill the bag doubled in weight as it hit the edge. Then he stopped and layed out for a tan or something. In other words the slide lock was pretty close to the middle of the cable, the bag was half out of the water and half on land, (Im practically sitting on the bag in that pic) and the cable made a perfect arrow point from the stake to the beaver(at the tip of the point) and back to the bag. The stake and the bag were about two feet apart, and the cable was stretched tight. The beaver was Bone Dry.

That was my first foot catch beaver by the way. He was bank denned, and the entrance was not hip wader friendly for a coni(my preferred set). So I popped him with a combo chewstick/castormound set. My pard prefers foot trapping beavs, so he has taught me a couple GREAT tricks for forcing foot palcement on the pan. We basically build a shelfout of solid mud(actually we shave a chunk off the bank and turn it mud-side up much like Hal's upsidedown dirthole set). the shelf is about 14in by 14in and about 4in deep. That puts the pan at about 3in deep after the base is bedded nice and solid in the mud shelf. We then tuck the trap right up close to the bank, and offset about 20% to the right (my pard swears that beavers are right footed) and add the normal guide sticks. ****Here's the trick**** Then we build up a little ridge with left over mud all the way around the outside shelf edge so that it is about 1 inch under the water, leaving our trap in kind of a little bowl, or a step down.

When mr beaver comes along and finds the foriegn chew sticks, and the strange castor he will circle a couple times and eyeball the circus-hoedown-excavation-contraption to figure the best approach...we all know that. But he will eventually commit, and swim in at pretty much a 90 degree angle to the bank. When his chin or chest (depending on speed) hits that "bump ridge" he will pick up his right foot and *step over* it, smack onto the pan.

I dont know if theres any thing to that right footed superstition, but I do know that we front foot 90% of our timbercutters.

Hope that kinda answered your question.

Charles Dobbins advocated 40lbs of weight on the drowner for beaver in his video (dirt/sand in a feedsack and wired shut).

Thanks Man you use a lot of weight ! Then of course if you are in a canoe that would need to be the case , I can access most of my areas by vehicle of some type so I use regular square weider home gym weight bolted together, 30 lbs to a weight and have had good luck so far , i mainly do ADC so Its the same same all the time , except for winter when I use stricktly 1/16 snares with an Adams lock. under ice of course .I just use a good nylon zip lock tie to secure the snare to the pole , they can,t break that as they are rated quite high .