This will be interesting. I haven't decided the best way to set this yet. It's on a large river. The poor lady's yard is under attack from beaver(s) & the beaver appear to be largely using this 1, wide, approach. I can't find the bank den or a lodge, & I couldn't find where the beaver are going with the sticks. There's a vacant woodlot next to the house, yet the beaver are preferring trees in the yard (probably because it's an easier drag). Beaver trapping is always interesting.

Is that typical of all her shoreline? is there current in the river?

An MB 750 with a piece of poplar behind it....on a drowner. They are seeking food right now for the feed bed. No need to waste time finding the hut or den....you found the sweet spot... 3-4 sets along that bank

I’d take a trowel, rake or hoe and ‘dig’ an artificial slide there. Then you could use a cable restraint on a drowning cable. Or a 220 within your states restrictions. Or a beaver sized cage trap (deKalb or Ztrap has them) at the waterline. You could do a castor mound and foot trap or 330 in the water at the base of the slide, but I’d fence it heavily to direct them and put foot trap on drowner.

Has the river level been changing quite a bit in the last week? Probably just need to put on my glasses but I'm not seeing a lot of recent activity.

I'd snare the slide but I don't think that is legal in Wi so I'd go with simple sets like Boco or just a couple easy castor mounds.

I think your wasting your time setting there.
But you never know.

good luck keep us posted

Ive set spots like that and it was always a crap shoot to see what you could catch. Variety of sets worked for me. A castor mound, a blind set, a baited set, and something completely different like a set lured with something attractive but non-castor like popular bud oil, birch oil, or maybe just sac oil.
If you catch some or even just keep seeing new sign while running these, you are in business, but if the sign gets old and nothing new shows up you have to assume the beaver are searching for food have taken what they wanted from here and have moved on.
One thing I'd did learn from Mr. Dobbins, beaver are always interested in work of other beavers. A little work with your spade making slicked up trails, peeled sticks like a mock feed bed, or even a planted beaver stump something new and different can be a great set location. If they don't give you a good trail give them one. Take your wet boots and spade and work a nice shiny trail right up into that bank.
Jim

Typical as far as steepness. Some of her shoreline has light riprap instead of sand . There is some sign up and down her shoreline, but this photo is the beavers main approach it appeared. They've lived here for years & not had beaver problems. It is a flowing river, though it's upstream from a dam...kinda a slow mowing area. Not a very fluctuating h20 level this time of year.

Yea, I was wondering more along the lines of the shoreline material, the beach sand not being the easiest to form or manipulate for sets like ADC and Nessie suggested but you can really make use of blocking too. I was thinking floating bait or lure sets if you had current and/or fluctuating water levels in the river, I don't use them personally but obviously others have good success. I got completely away from setting dry land sets for beaver very early on. Too high percentage for problems. Good post, let us know how you make out.

When inspecting sign like this just before freeze up check to see if the cut ends are still moist and/or sticky and if the wood chips are on top or under the recent drop of leaf debris to get a sense of how recent it is.

The chips appeared to be on top, but good point. I'll take a better look. I evaluated over my lunch hour today. The lady just called this week. Given the damage sustsained in her yard, I gotta believe its fresh or I woulda thought she woulda been on the horn weeks ago. I didn't see any tracks in the sand though. It rained hard earlier in the week, but I forget which day.

Lots of great responses above

You could set it best with a 3 swiveled chain and foothold. A drowned set if deep enough. I'd add a game camera to see in a couple nights if and how many are using that location.

Good points so far, thanks.

Some of the trees are gnawed thru pretty far but not yet toppled. I'm thinking the beaver will be back. It's a bold beaver(s), stealing trees from right near the house.

I got a call years ago because they were actually on the house, lol. (or cottage I should say)

Keep us in the loop on your sets. Thanks

I have a lot of that high bank territory also. Can make it tough on an old guy.

It never ceases to amaze me how much of this type of damage a couple beavers can do around a lake front property in a couple nights this time of year. Sometimes lakefront home owners pay less attention to their waterfront this time of year and can experience major damage before they have any idea.

I think I figured out where the beaver are coming from. I looked directly across the river & saw tons of sign. It's a wide river, probly 200 yards across. The other side is less developed & has a creek near it. It looked like they're living over there. But they've hammered this lady's yard. She's lived there 16 yrs & has never had beaver damage. I think that shows how hi today's beaver population is, given low fur prices & less trappers. I made 5 sets. I'm optomistic they'll come back across the river. I used some Backbreaker & Woodchipper

Good Deal
Hope is in the air!

Yeah, beaver trapping is so interesting.
I made a set with Poplar Bud Oil, and another with beaver Sac oil, too.
I'm hoping these beaver remain active until ice develops.

Wish we were ice free still

Hope the wind is in your favor

How are you making out AJE?

1st check was today. I got 1 in this set, with a 280 under this leaning tree, with Dobbins Poplar Bud Oil on the underside of the tree. It was a small beaver though. It was completely submerged when I arrived, so I'm hoping it didn't spook others. I'm thinking there must be more than 1, although I noticed a lot of the chewing is very low to the ground. I remade this set & added 2 more, so I have 7 sets now...2 footholds, a snare, & the rest 330s except for the one 280. We have 50° weather tomorrow. I'm hoping the scent carries far, although this parcel is on the East side of the wide river. I saw some chewing shreds in her yard that I thought looked really fresh, but the lady claimed it'd been several weeks since that tree was chewed on--- but there was no leaves on top of the shreds of chewed up wood. My next check is Friday. I propped its head out of the h20 for this picture so you can hopefully see the set. The house is between the river & a swamp, but I did not see any sign in the swamp.

Here it is, from a different angle, with a view of the river today. Nice long lunch break

Keep it up!

If you caught a small one, pretty good chance you're well within range of the colony. The bigger/older the beaver the further they venture from home in my experience. WTG! Good start.

Based on how far it made it through a 280, you might want to either reconsider trigger placement or tune your trigger.

Good Deal!!! Stack em' up!

I'd make my own slides, maybe 3 in the area and set 1 blind, different lures on the other 2.
Castor lure on 1 and BTO or sac oil on the other.

I forgot about BTO. I'll try to bring a bottle along on my next check Friday.

Hopefully I didn't spook other beavers.

Nice! Great picture also.

Nice! Great picture also.

Yeah, it is hard to beat beaver trapping.
I'm not used to trapping a large river like this though, so it's kind of an especially neat experience. The dry bank is steep, so making slides is tough. Luckily it's easy to walk the shoreline (in the h20) of this lady's lot. It's a large lot, so I wanna cover it well, but not put out so many sets that the lures becoming confusing to beaver. They appear to have 3 slides they are using.

Never know, too...maybe I could fill an otter tag since 2 of my sets are such that an otter cruising the river edge could get into (I thought about putting out a bottom edge 110 for mink even). But beaver is the focus on this situation. A creek enters the river across from where I'm at, & I think that's the direction they're coming from.

Is there a dam upstream on that feeder creek?

I have little experience in trapping beaver compared to these other guys, but from what I've seen small beaver can wander pretty far from home.

I once caught a small beaver in a bait-hole set I made for otter. (Never caught an otter there though.) There wasn't a beaver colony (at least there was no sign) for half a mile up or downstream.

It was after a mid-winter thaw and rain, and the water level was high. I always wondered if the little tyke had been washed over a dam somewhere upstream and couldn't get back, so he went downstream.

Jim

I didn't go to the other side of the river. I might though. As I look across the river, I see a bunch of limbs & some downed trees which I suspect is a feed pile with a bank den on private rural property.

Any update for us AJE? Friday evening was going to be the next big trap check opportunity?

ttt

HUH!...the MOST versatile lure in the bag, works on all land and water critters....now, go get em!

Sorry for the delay. I got busy with gun deer season. I got this 1 this week there. This being in a 330. I think it was its mate.

Thanks

The lady sure is happy.

good job ,

Nice work- It's hard to keep rats away from Poplar Bud Oil, They plug up 330's with bottom set triggers often for me.

Good work

It's been incredible. I nabbed 2 more on that slide today.

Good job gang setting pays off

WTG ,