I have a beaver trapping question. I trap beaver in the fall and spring but recently had someone ask me to trap a beaver near his house. I haven’t been there to see the situation yet but I’m guessing I’m going to have a hard time with this one. Here’s what the homeowner states. The beaver comes out when it warms up. It’ll break the ice and come and damage his trees. The water system is a very large reservoir used for hydro power. Up here in Michigans UP, warming up means 30 degrees or so. What would you recommend I do to trap this thing. I have body grips and footholds. I’m wondering if I should set a baited bodygrip under the ice near the location the animal exits the water. I do need to set the bodygrip in the water here.

You are going to need to go and look at the location. It might be a slam dunk you never know. Until you see it its hard to say what type of sets to make. If the beaver is leaving the water for food my guess he is short of food plus would guess there isn't a lot of them. It is just hard to say without looking at it.

Those relying upon conibears and footholds for beaver where all traps are legal often don't consider the swim through cage trap as a viable alternative, a trap that actually outperforms conibears in many ways. I was a bit hesitant to make that sort of claim in the early going when I first began using them, though I knew it to be true. Now that others have made those statements to me, I have complete confidence in the the superiority of cage traps. I don't get many beaver calls this time of year, but finished one job in January under ice, caught 2, and just caught 4 more in the last two days, cleaning the colony. I have caught thousands of beaver in conibears since the late 60's, but now use swim through cages in all conditions with a 9 year total of 1,334, which accounts for 95% of the nuisance beaver we trap. In summer a Hancock or Bailey are great traps to finish a job if there is a square shy beaver. I haven't used any snares or footholds in years and only a few conibears. Cages are bulky, but when carried on your back with bungie cords or dragged in sleds it makes it worthwhile. Once you get the traps on site, setting takes little more than seconds or a minute as all you have to do is set the trap and drop it in without wiring or stabilizing and often without any fencing.

I think I remember someone from this forum trapped in CA. and can only use cage traps. They said they would never go back to any other style trap.

It is interesting how mindsets change about equipment. Shifting gears going from fur trapping to nusiance wildlife was the catalyst promoting the change in my own approach. One western trapper noted that even if they got their footholds back they wouldn't use them for bobcats, showing just how much confidence they had in their cage traps. If anyone had suggested to me back 50 years ago that I would be using cages over conibears I would have said they were nuts, but...here we are. We used to put footholds in the ends of double door open cubbies. Now many use cages for bobcats even where cages are not required, which is cubby and trap all in one. Double door cages are quicker and easier and very effective even for muskrats in runs. I once watched a rat swim around a 160 set up against a den. Cages can be pushed up tight with no chance for a rat to swim around the trap.

Jim way off topic but...have you done any testing using your cages on coyotes yet?

make your own slides, lure only 1/2, each of those with different lure
the other 1/2 just slick em up
make them at least 2-3 ft long
blend in the 330s so it looks like stuff drifted or fell from above, not picket fence look
if there are lil bays you can set them like this, too
keep in mind the water dropped bout 4" in 1 day here
Sullivan Stabilizers are the cats meow with 330's and should be in a few of the 10 catalogs on your desk

^^^or a lil bay/indent in the shore even

^^^I've used footholds in the same set ups too, with great results
shave sticks and put on shore so it looks like someone new in the hood has been eating there...in the lil bays