What is the hardest beaver you’ve ever had to catch? I’ve ran into a few smart ones, and I usually have to adjust my strategies to catch them. Some I ended up catching, others ended up disappearing without a trace. Which ones made the top of your list? If you ended up catching them, how did you do it? Thanks

Momma of almost every colony if you don't get her first or second.

It took me 2 months to catch the last nuisance beaver at one location. I opened the dam all the way, but it refused to fix it. It crawled out of the water to avoid 330s in the channels. It abandoned the main lodge completely. It retreated to an earlier abandoned bank den which I could not find. It reduced its movement to a very small area, eating privet. I finally connected with an underwater snare, but it frayed and broke the snare. Feeding activity ceased and the dam was never repaired afterwards. It absolutely crushed me that I did not ever get to lay eyes on that one.

An old hermit male, I figure he'd seen this rodeo before. New pair in a narrow ditch creek. Nailed the female first night on a castor set on the first fork up from the dam. The male went hermit on me for two months. I couldn't set foot in that ditch that he wouldn't be aware of me. Had to go coon snare man on him and hang snares away from water and wait.

Maybe the smartest was one I ran into just before freezeup that had a thing for climbing over conibears and springing them and ignoring anything with lure.First I thought he was just lucky,but when I went back after the ice went out in the spring and used nothing but footholds he seem to have them figured out too.This was in a pond so I'd watch wherever he made his presence known and set with out lure and still he knew what I was up to.At one point I found a trail in shallow water alongside of the dam,and really not too excited about blind setting such a trail I put a No. 48 Newhouse in and used a rerod stake and staked it like you would a coyote set.There wasn't enough water to drown him so I checked it early the next morning.There he was caught by the hind foot,he was missing one front foot and if I remember right missing a few toes off a hind foot.He didn't fight the trap when he saw me,and I confess I just stood there watching him,and wishing to god I didn't have to kill him.This happened about 20 years ago and I was doing control work for the county so I didn't have much choice.He sure earned my respect,it isn't often you hear of beaver being as trap wise as a pinched coyote.

after freeze up had a house that was sitting on the edge of a pound that the water was 8ft deep. Could not find the runs because of the very soft bottom. Baited sets didn't even work.

Had one that wouldn't go near any kind of trapset-bodygrips,footholds,snares, lured,blind,baited,land,open water,under water under ice-didnt matter.
I set up an ambush for him but he didn't come out until late after dark,I had to estimate where his head was from the moonlight reflecting off the v waves cause it was too dark to see the actual beaver.
I let him have it with a 30 cal hi power rifle and that was the end of his reign of terror.

I trapped a place that the game warden had live trapped beavers out of but he had educated the last one.

I couldn't get him in anything. Then one day he sprung a 330 that I had in the house so I reset the 330. That was in second week of February well fast forward three weeks and bam! one morning I had him.

Near as I can figure he had holed up in that dang house back in February and must've finally felt confident I had given up so he went to exit and the 330 nailed him.

He was 68 lbs.

I had one female that gave me fits for over 2 years. I first trapped the entire colony except for her and then every year would trap the mate that she paired up with after that. She would not go for any bait or castor and avoided 330's and snares even under ice. I finally got her one fall in a concealed MB 750 where she exited the water to do some cutting...nothing fancy on that one. I have had two others that simply disappeared after I harassed them so long.

I had one this spring that avoided snares, 330's and even seemed to feel out the footholds I had concealed underwater with mud. It was firing the 330's and knocking down every snare and avoiding the snares that were submerged. It did have a weakness and that was stealing the occasional bait stick that it could get to by bulldozing the blocking I had to get to it around the foothold. I saw where it was going and buried a second 750 where it had taken an alternative route and that was that...got it in both 750's on long chains because it was shallow. Took me a week and a half but glad it was over.

I just remembered two other ones that I had a hard time with that fell for a partially concealed snare at the den entrance.

Had one in a small creek that was traveling up a field ditch and damming it off. The ditch was narrow so my buddy dropped a 330 right in the middle about halfway up the ditch to the dam. Next day the trap was fired and evidence that he had pinched it was found. Reset and the next 2 checks the trap was always tripped but the tall grass on the edge of the ditch showed where he was exiting and going around the trap in both sides.

Didnt get to reset the ditch till the following weekend. But knowing the beavers habit of tripping the 330 and going around. We set the 330 back in place as we had previous, but this time added mb750 on each side right where he was exiting the water to go around. Next morning he was waiting in us, caught by one toe.

The worst was an entire colony that had been shot at and attempted to trap before. Didnt have any other place to beaver trap that season so we gave it a shot. Needless to say we caught nothing, baited, blind, snares, body grips. Not even a tripped trap. There was always fresh mud and sticks added to the dam every night but those suckers we human shy.

The hardest one to catch was never caught--at least not by me. Each year it occupied a stretch of creek and worked it over like a bush hog--until I set the first trap. Then it disappeared. I carefully hid footholds so they were not visible. i used snares. Underwater conibears that were camoflaged with brush. No bait no lure.
In short, I used every trick I knew and that bucktooth oversized dumb water rat just beat me.The last time I tried was the first time that year entering the area. I sprayed my clothes with scent killer and set traps early in the morning before a predicted heavy rain. The rain arrived, the creek rose during the day. The muddy water concealed the traps perfectly. When the water went down the beaver was gone, the traps empty.

I had a control job on a creek that the road switched back on, so two culverts plugged, with a big pond below the last culvert. I think I had about a dozen traps set, with the plan to catch them all quick since it was out of my way. In two checks, about five days I had 7 beaver of all the sizes that should be in the colony except fort the big female. Another week, many traps moved, still couldn't connect. When I started the water was swollen and muddy from runoff, but now it was clear and dropping. I could see that there was an underwater run under a log. It was to deep to reach though, but the trail was still visible on the bottom where the water became shallower. I set a 330 right on the bottom, in that trail. Then I pulled every other trap set there. She was waiting on the next check.