Nice photos. You use bait in those cages Jim?

Looks like the 12 x 12'' Comstocks. Wire mesh is 1-1/2'' square. I've been real happy with my 12x12 Comstock traps.

Actually I haven't used bait or lure in the cages, though I know some who have. One trapper put poplar branches in a cage and caught a couple of beaver under ice nearly 7 years ago. I usually use the 12x18 for most locations, but do go both smaller and larger depending on circumstance, width of the run, sometimes using 12x12 or 12x15. The bottom trap is a 12x18. The top trap is larger, 14x22. I have used traps as wide as 24 for wide runs. One trapper in Iowa is using a few 15x24's since it covers such a large area without fencing or narrowing, drop and go.

A lured cage trap for beaver needs a minimum door height of 14" (from the bottom of the set door to the ground) and works best taller. The lured trap works best if at least 14" wide, the shorter the better. A lock bar door limits area inside the trap after the doors close. Also a swing bar trigger hinders the effectiveness of the trap when the trap is lured inside. It effects how the beaver works the set inside the trap.

I can show pictures and video to prove my point using the type of doors and traps mentioned above. I use them all.

A trap made to fit the requirements of a cage that can be baited, and can be used as a swim through in water or under water allows for more variety and set choices at catch locations, therefore increases the chance for a catch.

Two in the last three days in this float

Yesterday one had gone over the side of the float and must have slipped in to the water between the "castor mound" and the 330

Both caught are one year olds The are staking cattails on top of a drain

Castor sure is the ticket, while using just about any kind of beaver trap to go with it. Just have to use the traps and sets that run the best percentages with the fewest misses so you don't end up with wised up beaver, the biggest fear.

Sometimes I could choke the guy who made spell check when the computer picks a word you never wrote!

Yep. Sometimes it takes me twice as long to go back and fix it than I'd did thenorignal post

By the way Jim. That big ole 24X12 I bought from you at NTA convention in Kalamazoo has paid for its self. So every beaver from this point forward is profit.

Also caught : turtles, bullheads and muskrats in it

Maybe if you used another trap you could avoid turtles, bullheads, and muskrats making your days on the job more profitable. It all gets back to design. If you never used one how would you know?

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Maybe if you used another trap you could avoid turtles, bullheads, and muskrats making your days on the job more profitable. It all gets back to design. If you never used one how would you know?
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I've caught turtles, carp and muskrats in 330s also

Don't believe that there is any trap that will not on an occasion catch a nontarget

Michigan Trappin is on the money. There are no traps or sets completely immune to non-target catches. The type of sets you make have a great deal to do with catching non-targets, placement, location. Different baits and lures. Castor sets for beaver in out of the way places as well as positive sets for skunks and chucks at den sites greatly reduce non wanted animals, not reducing it to zero, but running a very low percentage, which is all you can expect.

Yep. Location location. Set and bait/lure

In that comstock all those non targets came on the same job when I blind set a channel

That was a public park

Returned to the same park for another go and just trapped it for the last month. I did zero sets in that channel and I was a little more discerning on my locations. Used the comstock and 330s. Caught 13 beaver and ZERO non-targets in one month of trapping

Doing ADC vs Fur trapping will mean a different type or amount of non-targets to avoid. For example I have only ever caught one turtle while fur trapping. That was this late winter when we had a big warm up

Same with how trigger wires are set. I have a feeding den used by both beaver and rats and for some reason the miss' of the landowner does not want me catching rats. So a good bend of the wire and the dog set to the side. And I get beavers and no rats


DEKIRK Not saying you don't have a trap that not good bad or ugly. I honestly know nothing about you or your traps. Just saying and agreeing with Jim that methods probably mean more to missing non-targets than any trap design that I HAVE SEEN

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Maybe you missed what was stated earlier. Especially the last sentence of what I said.

Very nice float for beaver can be found on youtube. Just type in beaver float dimensions. Just set my first one and got my first beaver on the first check. Floats very well. The only way I adjusted the trap was I used 4 nails to hold the trap on the top rather than the holder from FnT.

I have some wood drying in the garage that I cut to make a float. I heard the 4 nail option is the way to go.

I haven't caught a turtle yet, but probably will. I worry more about an incidental otter.

Any tips on getting that last dominant female beaver? Castor mounds haven't worked, shy of 330s and probably pregnant. Any tips appreciated

330 set on bottom in a deep channel.

I have had good success using the castor from another beaver caught at the same location. Just finishing a beaver job where I had two beaver leave toenails in a trap. Caught them both a week later in the same sets using the castor from the first beaver that I caught there. One in a MB750 and one snared at a castor mound high up on a bank.