Don, do you have any area's that are real sandy where you use these rods? Just wondering how they work in those conditions as i have a few spots like that and they are hard to stake down or use a drowning bag on as the smooth surface allows the bad to be drug back up and if you single stake the trap it's not going to hold.

Saw your set up on the other thread and thought id just start a new one so that one don't get too off course from it's original topic, lol.

I aint Don but I use mine in sandy bottoms all the time. I just shove em in a little deeper and they hold just fine. If the upper end is sandy as well Ill use a 36" 3/8 T bar stake.

Thanks Ky. Ive never used them before but can see where if I had a few they would come in handy.

I dont use them all the time but I keep some around. Their handy and can be carried in the truck easily. You can sure make sets fast with them.

If you use drowing rods corectly you don't have to stake or even drive the deep end Into the bottom. Build your rods with two places to stake on the bank end. I weld large washers about 12" a part on a 3/8" re bar and double stake, now the rod can't rotate back to the bank. The second washer Is welded off to the side.
O-------O-----------+

Interesting idea there Beav, thanks. Not real sure though what would keep the beaver down at the bottom without the rod either being pushed into the bottom or weighted down with something.

TTT since Don's woke back up, lol.

Good idea Beav. I believe that would work great in some deep water area I have. Real good idea.

Jackie, I dont think its meant to keep the beaver on the bottom but from reaching the bank. I would think the beaver would drown from the weight of the trap and drowning rod? Just a guess as I have never used anything but cable.
shane

round here its rocky bottoms, can only go in about a foot, little beavers no problem, medium beavers sometimes a problem and giant beavers are on the bank every time looking like a dog caught in the chicken pen, rod bent in about 10 ushapes, incredible destruction for a long was up and down the bank lol, the things work so well in muddy bottoms its scary, we drowned some last year in the run going to the castor mound hip boot high and no wider than 3 feet, water was ankle deep all arounf the little deep spot and they just worked that darn good, beaver getting them out and that suction that goes on here with any kind of a stake in mucky mud was only problems, took a come along to break the suction on 3 of them we had 2 foot into the mud.

I made 6 foot rebar stake with a cross bar welded on 18 inches up.......I stomp them into the sand of peat at a 45 degree angle away from my set (only as far as they will go not 6 feet).....no problems yet

J I just came in from the fur shed. I do use those rods in sandy bottoms and some soft mucky striper pit bottoms. Like Ky Boy said, I just shove them a little deeper. If I jhave a real soft bottom and top to anchor to, I use a 32 in. x 1/2 rebar stake. Like I mentioned before, I have had 2 beaver pull the rods out of the bottom. One was my fault and the other was a beavers fault. Also I use a lot of snares with these things and beaver can fight a snare a lot better than it can a steel trap. Make you a couple and try then, ifin ya don't like em , pitch them in the garbage.

Vinke...you mean on the deep end right? So the stake is actually a "T" stake with an extension?
shane

Yes.........We have lots of peat so it works as stilts too

Thanks Don and everyone else.

Has anyone tried the barbed stake besides me? I made them for dams but i am finding it works great in sand and mud "so far"!..lol..I think it would hold better than a T stake. Wish someone else would try it just for feed back from different soils.

It was intended for anchoring to dams but so far it has worked everywhere i tried it.
shane

at least if something pulls that its a drag too

Weave that sucker into a dam and it aint going nowhere!
shane

I can see where it has it's good points.

I can see where It will hold but getting It back out WOW.
I never had any problems staking or tying off at the dam. Just jam a heavy peel stick down and tie off close to the dam. Or weave your tie off through some poles In the dam and you should be good to go.

I have had a few twisted up slide rods but since I went to re bar It is at a minumum. And If they can't get back to the bank It's even less 3/8ths Is a minimum size for beaver. The longer the rod the more give It has It's kind of like a shock spring. The trap has to be well swiveled and lots of times I will add a weight like a tie plate or window weight to the trap chain to tire them out faster If I think they might pull the rod at the bottom end.

I made them for a particuler dam that was mostly mud, grass, and small branchs. But i have used them alot lately on about every thing and really like em. I am about to make alot more. I tyr to use snares most of the time but if i can drive up to it i use footholds and cable drowns with weight. I will have to try the drowning rod though on the sets i can drive to. To get those stakes out of dams i just pull up till it hangs push back down and twist a little. Not really hard to get out. They come out of mud and sand pretty easy but on solid ground i use regular stakes. I am a little paranoid when it comes to anchors and i want em solid as i can get. Never had an anchor pulled in 25 years or so.
shane

For what it's worth, here are the rods I use for drowning 'coon, 'rats and mink. This is a 10' length of 3/8" rerod:


I commented to Don on the other post that I thought 3/8" rebar didn't have enough backbone for beaver. Well, maybe I should try it on beaver before I make a statement like that. I have held beaver under 40 lbs in these, but have occasionally found my rerod bent up in a big pretzel due either to an otter or large beaver. So . . . I've been looking for a substitute, sturdier rod than the 3/8" rerod for beaver.

Anyway, here's the terminal end of the rerod. A nut simply welded onto it:


Now here's the business end of this rod. The nut welded onto the side of this rod accepts a 3/8" stake. I have stakes of different lengths, all the way to 4' when dealing with soft muck. To the left of the stake is simply 18" of rod. This part of the rod is jammed into the bank, with the nut flush with the bank:


The drowner lock is a bent washer with a hole drilled for the S-link. S-link your trap on, and the critter only slides one way.

With water say three to four feet deep, the terminal end is stuck into the bottom, then the rod is bent over and pushed into the bank 18". Stake is run through nut and it's set to go.

In situations where I've got immediate drop off, say 8 feet deep plus, I've simply allowed the rod to dangle out there in deep water. A 'coon, 'rat or mink will get out there, and with the weight of the trap and rod it sinks and drowns. In this situation you'd have a difficult time keeping that beaver from bending the rod.

Kudos to the Beav for pointing me in the direction of these rods, and with the help of a former student, Nathan here in Booland, I've got about a hundred of these I use during the season.

In a standard 14' V-bow, two dozen of these can lay on either side of the boat. Along with 4 dozen traps, one can knock out a pocket, S-link a trap, ram the rod down and in, set the stake and be on to the next set within minutes.

Don, I'd like to have something similar for Beaver.

Muskrat....Try 1/2" or 5/8" rebar? Still be cheaper than cold roll steel i imagine. Reckon either would hold a beaver? I like that idea myself as some of my places have bed rock bottoms or straight off banks to DEEP water (quarrys).
shane

Thanks Muskrat for the photo's. Already got alot of ideas on how to make/modify some of these for my own use, probably try a few different ideas and see which works best. Once I get some made and run a bunch of beaver down them i'll post sometime in the future what I come up with.