Seems like good timing for a thread like this. I happen to have a lot of experience at it since I run rivers and lakes with a jon boat and I live in western Oregon. The one thing that I can say that has been the biggest game changer for me is the fact that I can access the NOAA website and look at forecast models for river levels. Back in the day it was my best guess and at times I waited weeks to retrieve traps that were 8 ft under water or more. Pretty depressing to be pulling rotted otters and beavers out of conibears let me tell you.

Good tip. Thanks for sharing

You think beaver run on really high flood waters? Or wait till water starts to recede some?
Do you think beaver will go to the end of a flooded out area and mark a tree(chew bark off a small section)?

Just got off that site NOAA.
Looks like Grand Forks is 1000 % flood level for this year for the Red River.
Looks like 96-97 levels are going to be surpassed.

I'm setup on the USGS website to get text messages on the different rivers I trap on that give me daily updates once it hits a certain threshold.

The big deal here in the spring is floating a flooded rivers and shooting them with a .22 then dip netting them you just need to keep an eye on the ice flows early in the spring!

I like to wait until the rivers have crested and are starting back down. Then I cruise along in my boat looking for fresh mud-pies. The first thing a beaver will do after flooding is get out there and mark their territory. It is also of great benefit to know that every bit of sign you see is hot. Flooding also will get beaver moving much greater distances so you pick up a lot of L and XL commuters. All these commuters are looking out for other beaver activity so your castor is going to work to great effect.

Some of my highest catches are made during flood time.

Start setting Tuesday Carl. LOl