Any luck yet?

Hey guys, thank you for all the advice and especially the encouragement. Most of it I’ve already read somewhere else, but it takes more than once to drill it into my dense head! Here’s the thing- I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do, and negativity and shooting me down just puts me in a bad mood. What can I say, I’m a sensitive snowflake. So again, thank you for the positivity.

I did catch the beaver - it wasn’t two beavers, just the same one that got out of both of my traps. That’s what I believe anyway. I did a remake on the castor mound where there was skin hanging from my no4 LS, but replaced the foothold with a snare. That got him. Checked his rear foot and saw the little bit of skin missing and on the same foot, the toenail that was in the OTHER trap he tripped.

This is all happening about 100yds downstream of their lodge and main dam on the river. I assume they travel down there at night to investigate my sets. I cannot trap the dam (illegal) and also not the lodge - on a neighboring property where I don’t have permission. Is it a good bet that I can keep intercepting them traveling onto my property since their lodge is just past the edge of the property?

Good deal. Make sure you get them all. Sometimes it’s not obvious there are more, especially when they have been pinched or frightened

I think we are all supportive of new trappers!

Honestly my own response may have been my misperception due to how I read your initial post. It sounded as if you were presenting yourself as a paid nuisance trapper. Perhaps a more accurate way for me to think of it is that you are a beginning trapper who is learning by going after some beaver that are a nuisance. As I said earlier “Go for it!”. If you end up with one or two that you just cant seem to fool, maybe the person who finds them to be a nuisance will call your local “LAST ONE Trapping” to come get them.

Leave the footholds at home and use snares.Way less problems with snares and just as effective.

#4 longspring is my trap of choice for beaver. Make sure they aren't offset though. And follow Boco's advice on trap placement. I want them to step between the jaws, not over either jaw. I often don't use a chest stick, but I have a fair amount of experience trapping beaver and can judge whether one is needed or not. On uneducated beaver a chest stick will never hurt, so for someone with less experience I would recommend it. Educated beaver can be a whole 'nuther ball game. I don't want anything to alert them to the fact a trap is there, no guiding, no chest sticks, and often even cover the trap with mud or dead leaves, blending it in just like a canine set underwater. My preference for educated beaver though is, if I know what they were educated with, switch to a different type of trap than they were educated by (like you did).

If you have more issues with another beaver educated there, sometimes the best route to go is to pull out for a couple weeks and then slip back in making as little disturbance as possible, no pounding of stakes or anything to alert the beaver you are even around, and setting just one or two blind sets to pick up that last beaver.

Like.

I love snares for beaver!

Don't know why he couldn't use all types. I get he lost some, but he's learning. I learned so much from y'all, and I've had good results long chaining them away from any entanglements. I use 10 feet heavy with swivels tho. Still getting used to snares, but have caught multiple with them. Get some knockdown of course. I say keep trying all options man! Thanks again to everyone here helping along the way.

An educated beaver can be about like having hemorrhoids removed by a dentist.

Rickey

lol, it still just a beaver programmed to do their thing. They can only NOT do it for so long.

I will admit that I’m a 3’ of chain type guy. Not many places I can use 10’ of chain without causing problems with entanglement . But I know how to use a number 4 long spring for a good back foot catch and have good luck anchoring on the bank with 3’ of chain and 3 swivels. That being said cable is the best way to not spook a beaver .

Nice tips guys. I'm comfortable with cable restraints for coyotes, so snares for beavers is feeling like a natural extension of that.

So in thinking about my #4 ls that I lost the beaver in, I wanted to ask if you think this should have held. I do wonder if maybe they are significantly weaker than they were new.


Everything below the red line is approximately what was inside the jaws of the trap. I could see the abrasion from pullout.

I think you should make a note, let it go and move on.