I thought I'd ask how others would approach this situation. Received a call last year for beaver on a upper class lake. I never got the job because the lake association could never agree on how the job should be handled. Now the resident that originally called me wants to hire me to trap the beaver eating their expensive ornamental trees. Now the kicker is that I'll only be trapping their property and the lake is a old stripper pit with a water depth of 100ft right at the bank. The lake has been developed with large houses and a PGA golf course next door. How would you deal with water depth, neighbors, loose pets/kids etc......?

Tell them chain link fence works good. Seriously not much you can do long term. You can get temporary relief, I'd try Hancocks tied off to shore with just to very edge of the top exposed or just deep enough to trip the pan. But I've been in subdivisions like that and the folks with the best fences have the least damage.

Shoot them at night with a 12 gage.

This is a 12x17x38 or could make in a 14x14x38 short rail. I Don,t recommend a 12" tall trap to float, you will get refusals. Short rail will save on shipping quite a bit when the trap could go over 108". The traps can also be used as land trail sets or under water sets in runs.

12x12x36 swim through or 12x12x38 beaver getters will work on land or in water in runs and trails. The more open appearing the trap the better, especially in summer.


Float set- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_wziYPMYh8

12x12x36- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azdLlSMA0wc



Floating cage traps are good but if you have to use a boat to get to the edge it would make it more difficult.

As David said, a suitcase trap should work. It would be the most open.

You could use snares, but depending where placed, could tear up the yard. Unless used in drown sets.

Dave Wallace of Montana uses 12x18x39 cage traps on floats successfully in his business. The width seems to give the beaver plenty of confidence. Dave wrote a short article about them in Trappers World last year. And though these traps were designed for and work great in under water runs, wide or narrow, Dave says he has had great results using them in trail sets too, no wrong way to set them. In deep water lakes a Hancock would also work well as mentioned. They can be wired to a dock etc.

Wiring to a dock may be my only option here, as there it's the only thing over or near the water. I haven't seen the place in a year, but there were no regular runs anywhere nearby, just some chewed down freshly planted saplings as the only beaver sign. If I had the run of the lake none of this would be an issue.

I have had some of these over the years. If you have use of the dock and some Hancocks that will be a good and easy way to go. Since they are looking for fresh trees I assume tubers at the bottom are not ready yet. I would set one on each side of the dock. I put a very small twig dipped in Birch oil high above the dock so the scent drifts out across the pond, and then fresh sticks with Poplar Bud Oil on them. Been a killer baited set this spring here in the northeast.
Good Luck
Don LaFountain