I wanted to share my first beaver trapping success, and a little bit of the backstory that got me here.
It took me awhile to get here, but this past Monday on my first check of beaver sets I had a beautiful 52 pounder waiting for me.
The backstory: I took the required 2 day Trapper Ed course in 2015 here in NJ. I dabbled with dps off and on since, but lack of time really cut me out of the game. When I accepted the position with the Fur Takers of America in the spring I was excited to replace a 1 hour commute each way with time in the trapping woods. Even more exciting was the opportunity to attend Trappers College in September. I challenged myself to try new things (aka traps we can't own or use here - hello Footholds 👀) and to learn to set body grip traps. I spent 9 hours driving home from Indiana thinking about how I could challenge myself this trapping season. Silly me, I thought it would be using snares.
Enter the NJ beaver and otter permit lottery and I somehow got lucky and was awarded both 😳. Thanks to two of my favorite local trappers, both of whom were my trapper Ed instructors back in 2015, a landowner in need of some beaver management combined with knowledge from Trappers College and advice and tips from some of the FTA members, THIS ACTUALLY FREAKING HAPPENED.
My mentor met with the landowner with me, we scouted and then came back Sunday to set traps. Each beaver permit comes with 8 beaver tags. I can legally have 5 traps in, so that's what I did. We did a castor mound set on a few, and set mostly bank den/holes and a run. The lodge is across the other side of the pond that is not accessible without a kayak or boat. I have my kayak down there, but with the cold snap, we opted to see what we could accomplish from the banks. I was beyond when I check traps the first day, and so thankful my husband was there when I pulled the 52 pounder out. I won't lie, I was also happy there was only one, as it was a long walk back to the truck!!
Day two I was on my own checking traps, and it was the first day with some ice on the pond. And low and behold the same set that produced the day before, produced again. I was happy I must have done the reset decent. Again, just the one, but I'm 100% okay with slow and steady. Beaver #2 was about 30 ish pounds. Day 3 produced more ice, but no beavers.
I've never skinned a beaver out fully on my own, and my husband, who is a lifelong outdoorsman, has never trapped helped out, and overall it went pretty well. I even managed to get the castor sacs out.
Off to day 4 check!
