This week has been full of first. First flying squirrel call (they turned me down for now), first beaver job, and first bat job on Tuesday.

The beavers are my current focus. They have dammed up an outlet on a pond that is around 2 acres. Its a pretty small dam, about 10 yards is all. They have removed it four times already. I cant imagine more than a few beavers here. I broke a hole today to relieve some of the water, its covering their little dock, and I wanted to ssee if it get fixed.

I have talked to Jim about it a little and learned a lot alread, but wanted to kick some more thingss around and maybe see some pictures.

I will order bigger cages if I need to, but I dont see doing to many beaver jobs and want to keep cost down.

Right now I have 3 snares, a 12x12 double door and some 10x12 and 9x11 double doors. I know beaver cages are usually ,much bigger, is there any use for the smaller?

I was thinking of putting the snares where I can see they have gone out of the water and maybe doing a dam break set and putting the 12x12 there. Would you put it on the break, leading to, or parallel to the dam? Or should I put snares around the dam.

You can use cages both parallel and perpendicular to dams, but my experience is with larger cages. I set two beaver locations two days ago and got 3 beaver the next morning, which I believe was all of them and pulled. Got one in a castor/shallow channel set, one in a deeper channel and one in a dam break--just put the trap right in the outlet after opening a spot for it, with just a small amount of water going through it.

A cage set parallel to a dam where there is a natural tight spot, like brush or a tree just inside the pond a foot or two away from the dam also works well by making small breaks in the dam maybe 5 feet from the trap on each side of the trap. The beaver will patch one hole and then swim through the trap to get to the second since the path is shortest. Minus something natural to work with, I suppose you could put a fence to push them into a trap also.

If you had to use a 9x11, would you use it use it normally so it is taller or set it on Its side wider

9x11 is bigger then some body grips

That was the theory I was working with Vinke. I will take one and see how it goes.

I would not educate the beaver so that another may take my job.

With a body grip the opening may be small but it is also short. The animal can see how he can stick his head through turn and pull himself through if the rectangular trap opening is small. With a cage it is longer more confining. If he is big, he will just go around. Differences are mainly found in committed or forced sets compared to baited sets and standard walk through sets on land.

Sometimes you have the perfect set location but even with a perfect set location it all goes back to the design, and size of the trap for the animal caught. I have found that the most versatile, "all around", cage trap design (for beaver) is one using powered doors that has an "actual" opening of at least 12" tall and an actual width of at least 14" when measured completely through the trap. Length depends on type of doors used as well as how the trap is designed.

Here is a picture of my son holding up a large beaver. Behind him is a 12 x12 x 36 swim thru. Compare the beaver to the trap.

Now picture putting that beaver in your 9 by 11 or your 10 x 12 traps. Taylor is 6' tall.

In one word the answer for using a trap that small for beaver is, no. I wouldn't fight it. I heard that one trapper once caught a small beaver in a 9x11 by accident, a medium I guess, but I wouldn't even consider setting one with that small of an opening unless I knew the big ones were all caught, it was early summer and there were only very small beaver left, muskrat or muskrat + sized, a few pounds. A 12x12 or larger are adequate for larger 50-60 pound beaver. I don't use many 12x12 but prefer a larger 12x18, some 12x15 for a bunch of reasons and also use some home made oversized traps 12x24 and 14x22. You might not get a sprung trap in a 9x11 if you are lucky as a lot of the time beaver will likely avoid the trap. For anyone just starting out trapping anything new, I would err on the side of caution, go with the proven methods and equipment before testing something outside of the norm.

Ok. I will leave it at home and take the 12x12 and snares for the minute

Vinke that must be photoshopped. You know tsc traps don't catch anytbing. I know a trapper up I, Washington was saying they seem to go into smaller traps out on our side of the world. But I don't want to tempt failure

Set my three snares in shallow runs and the 12x12 at a dam break.

Got to say, I dont know if I am doing it perfect, but I sure like beaver work so far. Something fun about putting on the waders and trapping in the water. Seeing a dam get knocked down and start to flow is pretty great too.

You're absolutely right, but enjoy it now. There comes a time, later in life, where the chipmunk is even more fun. They're just the

right size and you can catch them wearing your Sunday best.

I know beavers are nocturnal, but what time do they start coming out? Dusk? Dark?

Beaver are pretty much nocturnal, but come out often an hour or more before dark and are still out in the morning after sunrise frequently too. A lot of it has to do with temperature. They can come out to feed in summer at any time during the day in the north when there are cool rainy spells with a.m. temps in the 40's and p.m. high temps only in the 60's. Beaver will also come out in the day in early spring to warm up when there is snow on the ground before the ice is out and get the sun at any time. Part of the reason for being out a.m. / p.m. in summer is due to short nights., hunger. There are 16 hours of daylight or more in summer at the peak, so they are hungry before sun down after being in the lodge so long. In fall with longer nights I see them less often before dark.

beaver can and will fallow the noon tables in WA

Caught one in a 12x12 at the dam break. Just how I wanted. My most 3exciting catch to date!

So I looked up noon table and this is what I found: Our unique Solar Noon Calculator will provide you with a table showing the exact

time of solar noon for each day of the year at your exact location.

Then I looked up moon table and this is what I found: A table of the times of sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset, or the beginning and

end of twilight for one year.

I also tried coon tables, loon tables, and goon tables, which turned out to be a table for furbearers, water birds, and mob guys.

This beaver was fairly big. No other sets show any sign of beaver and the was little repair to the dam. What are the odds this was a loan beaver vs more out there.
He said this started happening a few months back.

Singles do occur often enough. Seems more frequent in summer. Just had one last week. Hard to figure odds, but this time of year I find males moving around to find a mate. They may stay at a location a few days or a few weeks, even build small dams and then move on. A first inspection of some of the sites, though they were active, shows a "stale" pond, no new mud, trails evident but not day old.

Pictures throw back pictures. I love beaver work best too, but I need pictures.

For the life of me I don't know how to post a pic. I will try tonight.

I'm guessing it was a single. No repair to the dam today, no sign of beavers at the slides, brush near the dam is undisturbed.

I'll try and post pics. It was in a 12x12 comstock. Whick makes me happy, after I bought it I asked myself "why did I buy this big trap". Felt a little ridiculous because I don't often use any trap longer than 30 inches, and much smaller.

Turned out there was a reason

I thought I was working with a single on
Job doing now and nope, it's mate is a smart one. Will reset later this wek if camera set up
Gives me the info I am looking for