First, I’ve taken hundreds of fall and thru the ice beavers, but I’ve never trapped them in the spring. My partner decided we should give it a try and we’ve had a blast! When the ice was going out, we noticed beavers would charge the scent and they readily entered snares. Most were DOA but some weren’t. As the weather warmed, we noticed the beavers would make a detour from our inviting pathways and head towards the mounds 2-3 ft usually down stream and then up the bank.

I guess we should have taken the hint and blind set them. But, I’m too entrenched in the give-them-a-path-and-they’ll-follow-it school of thought. Slight blocking didn’t help—they went right over it. It was obvious they were intrigued by the lures but they sure didn’t like the roads made for them.

Submerged 280s, 330s and 660s all connected for a while. The snares connected more often. I think the catch was 75% with snares but we didn’t have very many body grips out to begin with.

I suspect it would have been better if we wore gloves when handling the snares. Beaver noses are pretty good despite what a lot of people have written. From the beginning of March to the first week of April, we did very well. But from then on, the beavers wised up or we got complacent. All in all, it was a great season and we’ll do it again.

If you ever put a trail cam in video mode on a snare for beaver on land.. the they'll literally sniff every inch of the snare.

The side approach to the sets is why I despise flat banks for castor mounds sets.

I’ve got the Teachers of the Night videos and it’s obvious a snare would be seen as something new and checked out thoroughly. The snares 1/3 out of the water did work better. Centered out away from the bank, with minimal (short twig) blocking, must not have gotten the same level of scrutiny. The last snared beaver was a 2 year old that probably smelled the castor 3 ft behind the low set snare.

You got lure smell on the snare.

When using castor lure for beaver its tough not to get it on everything you handle.

The beaver were going into the wind to the lure, thats likely why they plowed your blocking. I've watched beaver leave the water as far as 12-15 feet from the set and walk the bank to the lure when the wind paralleled the bank.

Guess I’ve got a lot to learn about beavers before next spring

First thing you need to learn is if you are harvesting for the pelts dont use snares unless under ice or under water(positive drowner).Body caught beaver held alive in a snare for any amount of time means damaged grade.

To the best of my knowledge, all our beavers are going into the felt market. That being said, we’re getting $5 apiece as long as they’re large or above. The real value this year is the castor. It’s $5 an ounce. So, a snared beaver doesn’t need to be scraped or dried—just skinned and frozen. Getting the membrane off the castors sometimes takes more time than the skinning.

I’ve already sold some so I’m familiar with what’s getting paid and by whom. Scraped and dried has no real market for us this year.

Are you selling to local buyers or large buyers?

We’re selling to Cumberlands. They’re not huge but have been good to us in the past. Groenwald hasn’t been much different over the years. And we still have fur at FHA so Cumberlands is ‘where it’s at’ for the time being.

Seriously, we didn’t expect much out of this market. It’s been fun just getting out and feeling like trappers again.

^^^^^^^^^
THIS

Locklear, and others, have talked about this. Finding exactly where they leave the water is the trick, I guess. We did a lot with snares, to see how effective they were and to keep our costs down should the sticky finger types be in the area. No losses to thieves this year. Nobody wants to steal $5 beavers.

Too many (4) coon showed up in beaver snares. I’m confident we can snare a bunch more next fall. They weren’t the target and we called them in. But finding them at the end of the drowning rod was always interesting.

The only time I use snares in the spring is if I am working bounty beaver and am not going to save the pelt. But where I can catch with snares a body grippers can be used. If there is a possibility of losing equipment I will use cable.