And its probly just off the bank in 3 and a half feet of water. I have made multiple attempts to retreave it except to got swimming after it. Now before you guys crucify me for poor staking . I have gotten the ear full from a mentor. Im not going to ever make that mistake again. So the set was a 6 foot drowned cable with a 15 to 20 pound weight. I have done the garden rake and a heavy magnet. I don't really have a grappling hook. Any other ideas? Yes Im sure the weight was moved from its place but certain I have a set still under the water.


#3 leghold

If you have a grapple, or can make one, tie that on a rope and toss/let it sink/ pull in. I have a small fox/coon grapple on a length of about 30 feet of light rope. I've use that many times to retrieve beaver. Make a loop on that opposite end from the steel grapple too. Put your hand thought the loop and grab the rope that way it wont slip out of your hand when throwing the grapple out. The weight of the grapple sinks pretty fast too.
One of those pool safety hooks on the extendable aluminum pole works OK too and dont ask me how I know that. You just need to hook the cable or chain of your setup and pull it in.
You can make a pretty good grapple with a short section of 2" metal pipe drilled to accept a couple large metal screw in hooks like you would screw into your garage ceiling to hold up something. Put the rope through the hollow pipe so that the hooks face back to you when you pull the rope.
Happy fishing!
Jim

If you have drags or know someone that does, there's your solution. Unfortunately had to do that trick last year as a 330 extension came off the tree it was attached to during a flood.

Will report back on my findings to night. Its not deep. Just deep enough. Ugggh

Hope you find it and it's not stolen by some thief.

Unfortunately that appears to be the case. Unless someone wants to help me break this down. So it is silt mud for the first two feet from the bank after which becomes Hard Rock gravel. I raked for a few yards in any direction to see if maybe he drugged the weight. This river is only about maybe 15 or 20 feet wide. And that is a big Maybe. The river goes from the 2 1/2 ft deep play said it was at. To a foot and a half and almost nothing flat. In some places it's got wide swaths of only being a few inches deep. And then you get another one of these holes. This river is really not known to be deep consistently. So with that hard bottom I wonder if either a I got a two-footed thief that picked my setup. Or be this Beaver was industrious yanked my steak and managed to drag and nearly 20 pound weight until he reached breathing air again. Which case I've already looked for potential entanglements there's no short-sighted of it and I have not found him. In the water a 6-foot cable you think would tangle with the phragmites. In either case the DNR is getting a call tomorrow about a stolen trap.

Its only 2 1/2 feet deep?Just walk in and feel with your feet.Surely if your trapping beaver you are wearing hip boots at least.

I looked for one for almost an hour o ce before I realized I was about 12 feet to far to left.

I waded in. Started at the set and moved off both up and down stream . the river yielded nothing. It may not be that deep but it sure is murky.

I remember spending an hour looking for a trap which I forgot that I had pulled 3 days prior...

With a 20# weight it's unlikely an animal took off on land with it. If the location is not too far from your home I would suggest going in there at night with a light to try to shine eyes.

Go to Menards and buy a 20' stick of 3/8" re bar. Have a hack saw or bolt cutter with you. Cut of as much as you have to to get it in your vehicle but keep it as long as poss. When you get home, bend a hook on the end. go back to set location and run hook out deep and along the bank for several hundred feet in both directions, listen for the "click" of metal.
Im guessing if the Bev had enough jam to pull the stake he also pulled the weight and is waiting under the bank close by.

Good luck!!!

From my experience, a 20 pound weight on gravel won’t hold much. I think your beaver pulled it to the bank and with sheer force, pulled the upper anchor and walked away. Go up and down stream a couple hundred yards and see if you spot him or sign he was there. Or might still be.

Was it ever determined what actually happened at that set?

Well its not there. Not foot prints other than my own. (15ee)No way for a person to pull it without getting wet. The obvious place to step had my Castor mudpie on it. No boot print in that.

So Im 75% sure Mr beaver ran away with some new jewelry. Had a buddy assure me I should have used heaver weight. Another is convinced it was heavy enough. Either way Im still looking. I found a bank den or what looks like one not fifty yards away down stream. Be trapping that hoping to find somthing

I have a 18 foot duck decoy pole for just such an occasion , it is collapsible .

I FOUND HIM!!!!!#

Pictures?

What he said.....

A big first