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