I'm going tomorrow morning to look at my first beaver job. A guy at work knows I started trapping and asked if I'd help his aunt with a problem beaver. I've caught 1 beaver out of my lake 2 winters ago. Besides that I have no experience. Its kind of on my way to work, so its not too inconvenient. I dont plan on charging anything except for the beaver...I want it for coyote bait this fall.

The home owner said she just started seeing sign this last summer, so I'm assuming its just 1 beaver that moved in this spring. I have a dozen 330s. Any advice? Anything NOT to do?

If its a pond beaver, be as commando as you can going in. They spook easy and you start building forts around your sets youll have issues.

Find a natural funnel/channel being used and set BG submerged under dive log. If wide enough set 2 BGs side by side.

A fake trail up the bank with no lure or bait will catch leery beaver

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^This, better yet under a natural dive log if you can find one.

When you set those 330s DO NOT leave the safeties on when you're done! That's my advice, good luck, you may find that there are multiple beaver in there if it's that big of a problem.

I’ve decided that any beaver that just moved in might have been bumped in to the area by another trapper. If you go in thinking it’s going to be easy you may cause yourself more problems. Go in quiet and don’t use any half arsed sets, make every set like you are dealing with the most educated beaver in the area.

You just might be !

I would bet two beaver at least.
Not too often you find a single beaver at this time of year,unless someone has trapped one.
In any case single beaver can be buggers to trap.

After buying three used 330 Conibears in in the mid-1980’s I volunteered to trap pasture land at the head of Cry Baby Hollow on a 5 acre beaver pond. Only two traps were workable that I set after a 1/4 mile hike off a steep ridge. The next day, not thinking I’d make a catch, I parked down stream scouting for mink sign. Just my luck both traps held flat tails. Of course I had to have pics of my first beaver catch weighed in at 37lb & 42lb. After a month no more sign and 17 hides. BTW, I have been caught by a 330 but that’s another yarn.

I was about a mile away from a substantial pond setting in a little creek this spring and got 4. 2 on a float & 2 in a run near the bank with a dive stick. Little bit of castor on a fresh scrapped up piece of poplar stuck in the bank. Seems the floats work best where there’s current.

UPDATE

I went and checked out the situation on 8/13. Its 2 ponds connected by a dam, and a third pond probably 50 yards or so thru the woods. All of the activity I saw was around the main pond, but an obvious path thru the weeds crossing over the dam to the second pond. I didnt see any cutting or slides on the third pond. I wouldn't say there is a lot of damage. I saw much more on my property with just 1 beaver, so I'm assuming no more than 2 here.

I didnt see a lot of great places for 330s, so I ordered (6) TS85's and waited for them. I went back on 8/18 to setup. I set (3) ts85's and (3) 330s. I set (2) of the footholds on slides and all of the 330s. I wanted to set the crossover but there really isn't much around to brush in a bodygrip, so I set the third ts85 at the bottom of the crossover on the 2nd pond. I dont have any drowning rods so all of the footholds were staked on 10' of chain. No lure at this point, all blind sets.

I went back the next morning. All were empty, but the ts85 on the crossover was sprung and pulled out into the pond with the chain tight. If it was just sprung I'd assume he belly flopped it, but it gripped him enough to pull the chain tight so I'm thinking I might have had a front foot.

A few days after the miss I added (2) more ts85's. One of them was added at the crossover on the main pond and lured with Backbreaker. The others were lured with Woodchipper. No activity since the miss.

I appreciate any feedback. Looking back it was probably dumb to set the downside of the crossover from the main pond with all of the activity. It would have been much better on the other side. Is it more likely that it left, or held up in its den? Tomorrow is 2 weeks since setting. Im thinking I should pull and go back later if the landowner wants.

Thanks

I have set both sides of a crossover with 330s, and had a double the first check. I like snares for beaver, I bought a couple Bridger 5s last season, but didn't catch anything but coon. I'm also new to this beaver thing (been missing them for 3 yrs now, lol). I'll get lucky here and there, but when I leave a set, I assume nothing will be there the next check! Been told that you should be confident in every set when you leave, but I've checked so many empty traps (of ALL targets), that I just take the good with the bad...hope you get em!

My wife and I attended an Alabama Trappers Convention in the mid 80’s. We sat across from some trappers hired by Paper Companies to trap beaver. Unmeasurable knowledge gained eavesdropping in the 15 minutes before the start. I learned a beaver house on a pond represents an average of 15 and a 330 fence set with a ducking pole works on low water canals even with high level. One guy added to make sure he fulfilled his contract he would hang a Colman lantern and a metal bucket with a loud ticking alarm clock 3 nights in a row some time before the inspection just encase of some he missed driving them off. I told a coworker that was having beaver damaging to his boat dock, he tried it and it worked.

How’d it turn out?


Sometimes they’ll leave unanswered questions such as where they went, but... they rarely give up. They may hole up or temporarily leave, but they almost never give up a place they’ve invested time and energy in creating.


After enough time has passed with no activity, continued trips can’t be justified. I would remove traps, put a small but obvious cut in the dam and then give it time. I would drop back in several weeks later, after a rain, and see if any repairs have been made.

A sometimes overlooked detail is that it is always possible someone else removed the beavers prior to your arrival. Someone’s word about who has messed with the beavers is not always reliable. Sometimes, unknown to the landowner, other trappers or individuals can come and catch them for any number of reasons. If they didn’t also break the dam, then it’s not always obvious if there is currently an ongoing beaver problem. So.... are you certain that it was in fact an active beaver problem when you started? Your trap being sprung could have been a beaver. It could have also been an otter, or something else that wasn’t squared up when it hit the pan. Is it possible that you’re dealing with young beaver(s) that were left behind by someone else?


These are all scenarios that you will encounter doing nuisance beaver work. One of the biggest parts of it is determining what you’re actually dealing with, because I don’t care what anyone tells you——It’s not ALWAYS obvious at first.


Keep us updated. Good luck