Recently moved to Missouri from New Mexico, needless to say I have no water trapping experience. I had permission to trap along a river I saw some limited beaver sign. I set out a few sets, castor mounds, and was able to catch a half dozen beaver. It dried up on catching beaver and then I started catching some otter on my castor mounds, is this normal?

Not uncommon.

Not uncommon.


However if you want to catch even more otters with beaver sets, focus on swim through sets at Channel pinch points and crossovers.


Making typical castor sets that are on the waters edge helps to possibly catch fewer otters, if you can believe that. If you make swim through channel sets and lure them with castor, you have a set that will hammer both species, because it combines the advantages of well placed blind sets with the attraction of lure.

Thanks for the feed back. I have six beaver and four otter. I'll stop for the year as I have to stumble through the put up. I'll study up on otter and give'm both barrels next year

Good deal.

In your search for otters, you’ll learn that blind sets are king when it comes to otter. Channels, crossovers/crawl outs, and feeder streams are where the best otter locations are. Feeder streams can be as small as the width of a trap, they have the energy to check out just about anything they want to and will.


Crossovers/crawl outs include beaver dams, culvert crossings, and shortcuts between waterways/river bends. For some reason, it seems as though they’d rather cross dry than wet when it comes to agricultural culverts in my experience.

If you ever want to verify what I’m saying about their leaving the water, look for trails where I described. If you find their dry trails, you can count on otters using them over and over.

Toilets are popular for setting although I don’t have a lot of experience with those. I always focused on getting them while traveling.


Good luck

...but it sounds like you’ve already done well.


Good job

What part of Missouri are you in? I trap some in Missouri and in the areas I am trapping catching otter in beaver sets is a daily thing. To catch a bunch of otter though you need to cover a lot of area, same with beaver. Crossovers, runs, and feeder creeks like said above are the best bets for otter. I rarely even make castor mound sets for beaver anymore - much easier and faster to nail them at crossovers and in runs and pinch points. Set enough of those and you can catch more than you really care to deal with in a day. With the 48 hour check on kill sets in Missouri you can even set out two lines and check them on alternating days and really stack up some critters if you want to.

When you get ready to put up your beaver and otter don't be afraid to use the sharp side of your fleshing knife. Beaver aren't tough to flesh if you use the sharp edge to slice the fat and gristle off the middle of the pelt from behind the ears to end of rump. The edges can be pushed off easily. Otter aren't tough to flesh but you may have to start behind the ears with the sharp edge. The tails are the toughest part and will need a sharp edge and a light touch.