I can't seem to connect with a beaver @ castor mound sets! I seem to be able to get them to the set, but my trap, #5 Bridger cs, is down the drowning rod with nothing in it! I've tried deeper water, shallower water, can't seem to figure it out! Can anyone help - what am I doing wrong? Thanks for any advice, Chris

At the top of the page Paul has a section on Basic Sets.

Make you a fake crawl out. Nothing big and fancy, just something small. Then grab a couple handfulls of mucky leaves and place above the crawl out. Make your water depth at the edge of the water say 5-6" deep. You can use your boot to dig the bed or use a shovel. I don't know how you place you LS in the bed, but when placing the LS place one spring towards the bank and the other spring towards the deep water. Reason for setting the trap this way is to avoid lifting the beavers foot with the trap jaws if the trap was turned with the springs turned the other way. Then I'd find two sticks about 12" long and on the deep water side of the trap, place each stick against the trap, one on each side of the LS. Push them down so the tips will be level with the water. The sticks will make the beaver step over them and hopefully you'll have a front foot catch. They also will keep the trap from sliding around as they're walking over the trap. You can also grab a dead limb or two and choke down the crawlout so the beaver doesn't approach from the side.

The last thing I'd do, is to get a stick about 3' long and jab it in the ground making the tip of the stick directly above the fake caator mound. Place a dose of Backbreaker on it and it'll make any beaver work the set.

Here's a pic of what hammers them for me. This whole slide was man-made. I like to use MB 750 laminated. The nonflip jaws are a real asset. I make a kind of a horseshoe of dirt around the trap. Make sure you bed it solid. The horseshoe helps guide for a rear foot catch. The front legs pop out when they hit the horseshoe edge. Then they crawl up onto the bank with the front feet missing the trap and the rear foot hitting the trap. You can see the trap in the water, by the sticks.

Be hard for a beaver to pass that one up, good post TLC.

i have been using the slides that they have made to cut trees baiting them with lure and using a 330. for me the trick seems to be finding the freshest cuttings. i do use the old slides for castor mounds, saves on making a slide.

Right where Chicken's furthest out stick is where my 330 would go and then brush around it a bit. Sets just like that have caught me over 200 beaver this season so far.

I took 6 beaver off that one set. One every night. Must have looked good to them as well...LOL. I use conis and snares as well and as beaverpeeler stated...that's right where I'd hang them. Doesn't matter what catching device you use...just try and set up something that has this look and you'll be into beaver if they are around.

How much below the water does the horseshoe go? I have been trying to guide them with logs, up to the castor mound, think I might be overdoing it somewhat! Thanks for all the replies, Chris

The horseshoe of dirt is made so that the trap pan will sit at about 2" deep in the water. The outside edge of the dirt horseshoe is whatever height it needs to be to get the outside lip about 1-1/2" to 1" under the surface. Think of it as a step down dirthole set.

The horseshoe just serves as a trap platform and a landing pad to direct the front legs. Kind of like a poke stick set where the beaver drops the front legs when it thinks it has hit bottom when the stick pokes them.

In some cases I'll even pile rocks up to make the ledge/landing pad and then put dirt on it so I can bed the trap.

In this particular set,the current was pretty fast and came from the top of the picture to the bottom. So the beaver would work in from the bottom going up. I was attempting to guide them to crawl up on the far left edge of the bank, or else just about up the middle. You can see how that's the easiest way for them to go. Most importantly,with coilsprings vs conis, see how the trap is offset to the right (or could be left...depending on the set), so I'll hit just that one back foot and not the belly.

Additionally, I place them so if they go back down to the water using the the middle path they'll hit it with the front feet while sliding in.

I normally get about 90-95% back foot catches, but do also get some front foot catches with this type of set. So...try and plan for both ways. A 330 or a 660 would be "easier" as all you have to do is plan for the head to go in....and not worry so much about foot placement. If I'm in areas where I can use coni's then I do. But sometimes beavers avoid conis and then this MB750 setup works better.

Here's a picture of a beaver taken in that exact set. Note how I caught it by the back foot just as planned. Sometimes you get lucky...LOL. I love those MB 750s!! That stick jammed in the jaws was the size of my thumb and the trap still held that beaver solid.

It's funny were them beavers will go for a mound...
Chris Do you have good pan tension???? 5 pounds.. I have never used your #5. TLC traps are tricked out MB 750.....that is why that Beaver is still in that trap.

I like the CDR Beaver trap....Padded.......

This trap had a pan tension issue.........but I set it anyway.....1 1/2 toer....still swimming......CDR's make you look marvels.......

TLC, with you setting that shallo, 2"s, don't you have issues with catching coons? I know at times I forced to set that shallow.

Creektrapper....I have never caught a coon in this type of beaver set. So......can pretty much guarantee I'll get a whole bunch of them after saying that.LOL.

I've caught otter in my coon sets...and coon in my coyote sets... and otter in my beaver sets. But, my trapping area is not crawling with coons like in some states. It definately could catch coons, no doubt about it. And some coons love castor smell.

It could be the way I run my lines. I normally put out a coon line for 2 weeks up and down both river banks and stretching about 100 yards onto the shores. Any resident coon get thinned...so very few left to mess with my beaver sets. Then I start beaver trapping.

It might also be the river I'm trapping....it is pretty much barren of water critters that coon would hunt. About the only thing they could eat would be caddis larvae. The bottom is pretty much solid rock and the current is fast. No aquatic weeds or anything like that. In this area, the coon don't seem to be drawn to water sets. They are more of a dryland coon. I catch many more back 100yards from the river, than I ever have in pocket sets on the water's edge. I know this sounds "off" for coon behavior...but it's how they are in this area. I can watch a mud river bank for tracks for a couple of weeks and maybe see a set of coon tracks. Now...if I'm trapping the Willamette the coon act "normal" in terms of working the river.

That set right there is one of the best and how I make mine. You can set the trap the same way when setting natural castor mounds or if you have steep banks like many of the creeks I trap just slap a snare on the trail.