I watch videos where the guy walks around the lodge, nearly falls in a ditch with a hard bottom. He puts a 330 in the bottom, then BAM, success. I can’t find runs. Obvious sign, new chewing and slides but no runs. What am I doing wrong?

What kind of spot are you trapping? Lake, river, creek, etc. You can catch them without finding the runs. 90 percent of the time that I'm trapping a river or creek, I catch the beaver without finding dens. Find the slides or areas where they are cutting trees, and make a couple castor mounds. If you can’t get to them, make them come to you.

What kind of bottoms do you have? Not all locations will have established runs, especially new lodges or locations where you have rock or heavy clay bottoms. If you use a wading stick to feel the bottoms the runs are easier to find. Dragging the stick across the bottoms parallel to the lodge will find the runs easily as you'll feel the dips. Randomly stabbing the bottom does t always cut it.

Not a beaver trapper, but I’ve found plenty in waders while duck hunting, lol.
Of course those could be gator runs as well.

I have been in small farm ponds and a small pond that has just grown up over the last 15-20 years and now the guy wants to move to this property so beaver has to go. These ponds are covered in mud 5-6”s deep. I’m seeing fresh cuttings and found a lodge on the bank. It is nothing huge but it has been there for a while. I walk around them and don’t feel nothing but sticks and mud. I am setting up on slides and added a few castor sets, but I just can’t seem to find the proverbial slam dunk

How clear is your water?

Very murky

If you're not feeling any dips, you can only do this with a stick/rake/what have you and not by feet, then there's no runs to find unless they've cut a trench to a feeding area where they're cutting trees

Water has to drop or be dropped to expose runs in some locations. Even when exposed the runs may be too deep to access or set a bodygrip in. Set the crawlouts and mounds with snares and foottraps along the banks. Stay away from that lodge, especially in a pond setting.....or you're about to find out what a spooky beaver is.

If it’s a pond even with a lodge built they almost always have a bank den or two around. Those are where to place your 330s. Go to the opposite side of the pond that the lodge is on and make some castor mound sets. Also if you know where they are going in and out of the water to cut trees or gather saplings to take back to the water blind set them with foot holds or snares. Don’t waste lure on known trail ways this will keep you from making a beaver castor shy. If you miss with a lures set they get pretty smart pretty quick.

All the old timers had chest waders and jumped into the water at the beaver houses and found the runs/entrances with their feet.
That is a good way to get the experience of what to look and feel to set the runs/entrances.Once you get the experience of what you are looking for by using your feet,you can leave the chestwaders at home and feel for the sides of the run with your pole/feedhook.

I can't imagine not being able to lure a pond beaver to a castor set, unless it has been educated.
Make a "slide/enterance" to your set, using a shovel, a large castor mound, a helping of castor, place a foothold and drowner rig, and bucky should be yours.

Boco, that’s what I’m trying with the waders. I just am not finding what I think is a run. I found bank dens before and let’s say when I stepped in to a rut where I went from waste deep to tiptoeing to keep my waders from going under, I had an Eureka moment. I’m just not finding that kind of sign on these lodges

Try some snares (if you can) with some leaning stick sets, or smears...use your imagination! If you can find a spot on the bank that has a hole, set a snare or 330, they will come by eventually. Crossovers are deadly, good luck! Don't be afraid to make your own "slide" on a steep bank, they are very curious, just slick it up and make it look natural!

Thank you all!

Just jumping blindly into any water beaver have been is a good way to float your hat.

It is also a good way to check your boots to see if they are cottonmouth proof especially around a dam or hut. Be careful where you put your hands this time of year or you may wind up with Ole Larry No-shoulders latching on.

Rickey

In the South beaver trappers will figure this out pretty quickly...lol

Not sure from the description if these are manmade ponds or beaver ponds. If they are beaver ponds walk across the dam, there will always be at least one spillway, usually more. This is where the beaver will cross the dam. Put a foothold there on a drowning wire. Castor mounds are good, also and I would put a couple of them in, but blind sets on dam spillways are deadly.

Well it was no monster but it is a beaver on a crossover.