I really enjoy under ice beaver trapping and am gearing up to get after them but I'm having a hard time locating an active colony. I walked a good ways today on a couple of flowages that showed signs of recent activity before ice up but can't find a feed pile or active lodge. I saw fresh cuttings a month or two back but can't locate where they're living right now. How migratory are these things?

They look like smaller lodges and not mudded.maybe just an old batchelor beaver there.
If I'm trapping beaver in winter I look for the big colonys with 8-10 beaver.
Sometimes the wolves clean them out when the beaver are busy cutting in fall.Do you have wolves in Maine?

I was hoping you would chime in. No wolves. I thought I could make out a vent hole with some frost on one lodge a couple days ago but I couldn't be certain. I don't know how they'd be surviving without a feed pile. I know there are beaver along this flowage, I just don't know where.

Okay, I found them. Same drainage but a different colony. Look at how close the feed pile is to the lodge. Any suggestions on how to go about setting it? Our regs require me to stay ten feet away from the house and that feed pile is right up against it.

Baited snares or 330s around the perimeter of the pile as close as you can get legally and without interference from the pile.

Thank you. I've never used snares, just 330s and 750s. I may try the snares. I bought some with that intention but have never gotten around to using them.

Now that is a live house.
Find the entrances,I can pretty much tell from the pic where they are,then go out the required distance and drop your snarepoles.You may have to move feed out of the way or it may be clear.

I don't doubt that. Mind sharing your thoughts on it?

First place I'd check would be under the tree sticking out on the left of the pic.
Then I would check near 180 deg across the house for another.
Probably one under the feed bed too,but they are difficult to set.
If you have a tough time finding an entrance run with a pole,if you have chest waders cut a good hole with your saw and jump in-you will find the run with your foot.

I got one 330 and two 750s set on that lodge. The water was shallow and I had to cut quite a few holes poking around looking for water deep enough to accommodate the traps and still be somewhere in proximity to the feed pile. I don't know how you guys do it with a spud. I've done it in the past but it was a workout with the chainsaw. You can see the ice is about a foot thick.

I would assume those are some mighty spooked beaver right about now and it wouldn't surprise me if they're reluctant to venture out for a spell. I must have cut six or eight holes before I found something I thought would work.

I would look for thinner ice with some air bubbles encased within.

I tried moving the snow off to see if I could find bubbles in the ice but it was too cloudy from the rain packed snow. I didn't want to venture too far from the feed pile, either. I kept moving out until I wasn't landing on the feed pile.

I wired a piece of white PVC along with some aspen for bait.

I'm curious how far away from the lodge you guy guys have caught beaver under the ice.

hundreds of yards

Thank you. I've caught them under ice a ways from the lodge but didn't know just how far they would travel.

Here's a pic of the flowage I found the active lodge on. You can see the three posts sticking up just to the left of the lodge and the dam in the background toward the left of the pic. The water cleared up enough overnight so I can see my sets. They're just off the edge of the feed pile in about two feet of water.

Are beaver going to patrol the dam in the winter with no open water? If these sets don't work, I'm thinking of putting them between the house and the dam. Any thoughts on that?

Most of the time when we set we look for the main entrance between the house and the dam(on that side of the feedbed).That is the entrance generally used the most,so that is the one where we will set our multiple 330's.beaver use all their entrances and cruise the dam area when they go out.They almost always enter the house at the hole closest to the dam.They are running out of air by the time they are done cruising the dam and enter the house at the closest entrance,This is generally the most used entrance.
Study ponds that are drained in the summer and take note of the entrance holes,some large houses have 5 or more entrance holes but the one closest to the dam is usually the most prominent one.
Your baited sets will have more of a chance of connecting closer to the house/entrance.

Thanks for the input, Boco. I thought about what you said as far as cutting exploratory holes in the ice looking for a run but getting in near the lodge would have been a nightmare. It was bad enough trying to find a place to drop some sets...there's feed all over the place under the ice and I kept landing on it. I didn't want the traps fouled with brush from a passing beaver.

Any more ideas?

Some houses are like that.You have to pull a lot of feed to get a trap in the entrance.
If the creek is a continuous flow,you could put in a millette set at the dam.It looks like the dam is quite a ways from the house so you may pick up an otter or two before a big beaver shows up.

I guess these soaked for three days and nothing touched them. I suspect a combination of chainsaw activity along with the PVC. See the curvature in the ice? What do you attribute that to?

That's from air under the ice.
Cut half a dozen nice green poplar about the size of your wrist and shove them down around the feedbed near the house.A hand auger is sufficient for this.
Check a few days later which ones have been worked on and set your snarepoles there.