The (smart) beaver I had trouble nabbing earlier this summer is caught and it only took two nights

Got it and another kit.

Good job. There's nothing quite as nice as finishing a beaver job with a smart one, a real relief when you know you have got the last one and it's finally over. Sometimes they can drag on from one season to the next when winter sets in. They don't seem to forget much either.

Here is a question for you beaver experts: we had our first year in over a decade that we did not have a single beaver call. We did

not have a lot of rainfall but we had plenty of muskrat jobs; probably as many as ever. In my travels, I did not see any water backed

up by beaver dams either. We have only had beaver in this area for the last couple dozen years or so. Isn't this sort of unusual that

suddenly we have zero beaver issues?

You are too good Paul and cleaned them all out.

Beavers become decimated from overtrapping,or undertrapping,heavy wolf depredation or freezeout,disease,or a combination of above.
When undertrapped, beaver populations will expand to unsustainable levels,and being a fairly large animal they will destroy their habitat.This leads to starvation.
A stressed beaver population during periods of low water in summer leads to not only a reproductive failure,but rampant disease(tularemia) which can spread rapidly to areas of managed beaver populations wiping them out for a long period of time.
Another thing that will decimate a beaver population in the north is a freezeout event.We had a freezeout event here in the early 90's which killed off a large amount of beaver.Aerial surveys on one line in the Cochrane district that had a managed population of over 80 live colonys had only 6 live colonys the following November after the freezeout.
Because of the beavers ability to reproduce rapidly as well as good feed on a managed trapline beaver populations bounce back rapidly after a freezeout.
Trappers that continuously maintain a large beaver quota also harvest wolves,as in order to maintain a maximum harvestable population of beaver and to keep the ecosystem in balance on a registered trapline wolves must be harvested in conjunction with beaver.

Thanks for that reply, Boco. We have no wolves ( yet ) and I'm not sure about diseases, but we have been extremely fortunate in our

trapping success. We always insist that the customer calls us back if we miss any and the only call we ever got was a new family

moving into a pond the year after we trapped it out. I never considered myself a beaver trapper; especially reading about all the

beavers some of you guys catch. After thinking about it lately, I guess I have caught a couple hundred so at least I know which end

has the teeth!

After a couple of hang ups it sure is nice to finish some jobs in but a few hours, as it should go and does go the majority of the time when the beaver aren't wised up and they don't spring any traps. Did 18 beaver in the last few days. Nailed 4 at one location in two nights, 3 at another. Asked another guy, "how many you got?" He said 10. I was on the road, got there in 5 hours, set heavy on his word, 6 traps one day, 10 the next, done in 48 hours, 3 rats---9 beaver. He had called fur trappers the year before who never showed and did not return calls so he was glad to have someone show up. This one was a muck hole. Found a waist high hole with hip boots right off, ugly. Next day I managed a chest high swim while getting back into the canoe in 30 inch deep muck water, water is chilly mid November. I was too old for that stuff 40 years ago.

Lol Jim. ...swimming ain't as bad as stepping crotch deep into one of those bank den cave ins....tough on the knees.
I still wonder how many trappers perished from beaver made stuff, chewed sharpened sticks, deep water runs on the ice, beaver fever from contaminated water, etc...?

I fell through the ice last year into a beaver channel. Lucky for me it was right at the edge and was able to get up into only two feet of water and pull myself up onto the ice. Was close to a 1/2 a mile from truck and it was in the single digits Col. Cold cold. All my layers of pants were froze stiff , except thermals, tough to take off when I returned to the truck.

Did confirm that beavers were still present lol

Ah winter coming. I remember pants and sleeves freezing solid too after falling in when it was 0, but after they freeze the wet longies keep you pretty warm, just a bit boardy and stiff when trying to walking. Haven't used many conibears, but when I do I like the safties that stay in place on the Belisles. I was removing a client placed Duke 330 before I started, safety jumped on one side, managed a purple thumb to go with the swimming to round off a more complete set. At least we got the beaver with the pain and suffering. Finished two other jobs in a night for some redemption.

I froze my feet while trapping when I was a kid. I should have immediately moved to a hot climate. My feet have been cold ever since.

That doesn't sound all that good. Never have been frozen, but my friend Bob's face started to freeze, had a while circle on his cheek snowshoeing into 30 mph wind on a zero day checking beaver traps. I like palm, orange, grapefruit and coconut trees growing in the yard. Very warm fall this year, no ice yet, about like summer but minus the bugs, sweat, but awful short days of course.

It's not all that dehabilitating. I was not only the best shot in our outfit, but also the best dancer. Ask any gal in our unit.

Nothing stopped me from trapping in my younger days.
Under ice beaver trapping 80 miles from the nearest road was the norm,even at 40 below.
Of course a prime beaver pelt was worth good money back then.
Frostbite was part of doing business.

I used to trap under ice years ago too, in the 60's and 70's, no open water trapping season in NY at that time. I'm quite content to look at photos now and read stories. I have grown to like water in the liquid state, top to bottom. We had fun in those days too, now we have more fun making money.

We still trap a lot of beaver all winter here.Only way to access most traplines is in winter after freeze up.
I'm a bit old now for travelling in the back country in Dec\
Jan.
Best under ice trapping is mid Feb to April.Milder weather.

Is this ADC under ice?

Not usually but I have 2 jobs going now for the Hydro company under ice.Picked up 3 a couple hours ago.Sure is nice when you can walk up to the run and drop a few traps in.

Anytime i catch them under ice,,,there seems to be shrinkage

I remember seeing that pic before Vinke,that is one weird looking beaver tail.