I set some 330s in my dads swamp after seeing plenty of beaver sign. I took my son with me to check the traps. He loves tagging along with ol dad to check the traps. I put the first trap in a well traveled channel. Success! I put the second trap in front of a dam break I did. The second trap was gone. I knew instantly what happened because It has happened before. Large beaver will jolt the trap straight up off the stakes and roll into the deeper water if not anchored down properly. I usually tie a rope to the trap and to a tree to make retrieving the trap easy. Unfortunately I forgot to do it in my haste to set them. I took a stick and probed the bottom until I felt the beaver. I tried multiple times to hook the trap with the stick but no luck. Finally I rolled my coveralls down and reached my bare arm in the water and pulled the trap and beaver out. It was bitter cold that morning. By the time I put my arm back in my sleeves my hairs were frozen. Ill definitely never forget to tie a rope to the trap after that. Very good morning though!!! 2 large beaver. My son had a great time too!

Excellent, some big ones too.

Nice.Congrats.Nice pictures

Nice going!

Thanks guys!

Great job Dad!!

That’s good Dad’n!
Love it!

Nice, great pics, thanks for sharing!

Very cool!

Nice job and a good day.

Duck hunting too? I see a shotgun shell in the boat.

Nice catch.

Me and some buddies tried it for the first time a couple weeks before that pic was took. We didnt hit jack squat!

Its funny when I was younger I hunted a 750 acre ranch that my father’s friend owned. He had flooded 85 acres and turned it into a duck swamp. It was eat up with beaver. The owner told me you and your buddies need to get out there and kill those things. Since deer season was coming to a close I thought heck ya more time to hunt just different prey. I would take a jon boat out to an island near the middle of the swamp set up with a rifle and wait. Since they are nocturnal I only had a very narrow window of light to shoot. I shot many of them. Including one I was tickled with at 200 yards out with my 25-06. It looked like a hairy basketball on a mud hump through my scope ha. Eventually I grew tired of wasting time and gas with so many unsuccessful hunts. I started looking into trapping. I caught my first beaver with a snare and I was hooked. Before I knew it I was getting almost too good at trapping them. I remember a few times I would head out to check traps on a Sunday evening. Actually hoping I wouldn’t have anything because I didn’t feel like skinning any on a night I had to work in the morning. I would check them and jeez I would have one in a snare and one in a 330. Oh well I would skin them and look forward to the next time!

Be careful reaching for a 330 you cant see, it may have a live snapping turtle in it. I caught one last week.

Or a gator, I've caught one about 4' long before, and at about 5:30 am in the dark, when he hit the surface I had to gather my thoughts again and realized he was dead.
Caught some turtles with a bad attitude plenty, especially in ditches. LOL

Thankfully Ive had no snapping turtles in my traps so far. Not much in the way of gators up here. I might here of one in a local lake or pond once in a blue moon.

Cool pictures and great memories in the making!

Looks like the beginning of a long term trapping partner. Thank you for sharing the pics.

Nice! Good for you guys