I’ve heard that maple extract and honey are both good changeup lures for some beaver. Anybody try or have luck with either of these on beavers.

Also, I saw a video where the guy put a mini chem light on a snare pole (meat trapper maybe). Has anyone tried this and had good luck?

If there are any other “odd” or little known tricks I’d be interested in hearing them

Just do the basic set 1st. then try something new, you will get more fur that way.

Forget about all that gimmicky stuff.
Most of that junk on utube etc is made to separate new trappers from their money.
Stick to one or two good lures like Backbreaker or Bob Wilsons,and also a few basic bodygrip and foothold sets-that will get you 98% of your beaver.
Only use live holding snares for beaver as a last resort for nuisance work.That said,snares are a great tool for under ice fur work.

Stop running junk snares on beaver and youd use them more for fur work. Good, swiveled snares are not a problem on beaver, just the fur buyers that are scared of any line on the leather. There isn't any dresssing issues and ive gotten a bunch of tanned, snare beavers back.

One thing I've found with dealing with beaver, especially Nuisance and public land beaver and trapping them out of a boat/kayak is that you can't be limited on what you do.

Portable pockets drive beaver crazy because when you use castor in the pipe, they cant obliterate it so they'll pound and roll all over it untill they get caught

One set that is my favorite when the opportunity presents itself ehen traditional sets dont is smear sets. Especially out of a boat

A beaver held alive in a snare for any length of time is a damaged beaver(and I know since I have dressed some).whether you are downgraded or not for the damage depends on where it ends up in the market-if it is bought for making felt damage dont matter.but who wants a good higher dollar beaver going into that lower paying market because of their own doing?
A beaver caught under ice in a snare will have no damage.Faint white line on the leather,and no broken kinked guardhair.
Live held beaver will have a noticable dark snare mark on the hide and kinked and broken guardhair.

Check out the NAFA beaver grading video for more detailed explanation and pics of snare damage.

My snare marks are very light, not much different than a 330 mark. No lines or broken guards on the fur side either. No pulled hair in the cable.

Lets see some pics-dried pelts of live held beaver in snares fur and leather side of each.

Part of my reason for starting this thread is a nuisance beaver job I'm on now. I've described it here: Getting My Hat Handed to Me

I'm new to snares and what I have are 3/32 7x7 cable 48 inches long with Southern Snares mini pro lock and a swivel on the end. I've added a barrel swivel to a few of them but have not got to use them yet. Currently we can only use snares on nuisance animals.

The portable pocket with castor is interesting.

I've got Backbreaker, Wood chipper and a couple others but I know sometimes these don't work especially on educated beaver. Is there any other lures that might work as a change up if beaver are ignoring the usual stuff?

Snares are a great tool for nuisance jobs involving educated beaver.So are footholds,Beavers normally get lureshy as well as trapshy,starting with bodygrips and castor and sloppy sets.They can learn to avoid all sets connected with a castor lure when they get lure shy.
I learned on here that a little oil from the oil stones can attract a trap shy/lure shy beaver if care is taken to keep other aspects of the set up natural.I have used it to take a couple difficult beaver before resorting to the gun.
If you employ good sets from the get go it will make your life a lot easier,but sometimes others will leave an educated beaver or two behind that we have to deal with from deeper in our bag of trapping knowledge.
I wouldnt consider these specialized sets on a par with "tricks or gimmicks"

Sold all i had so will be a year before i have some again. I snare roughly half my fur beaver and they just dont fight a snare much beyond the intial jump, depending on the terrain that jump is fatal as 80% of my beaver are neck snared. Most times i can almost reuse the snare if it wasn't for the one kink right behind the lock

We-sa,
Some things that work for me on nuisance jobs is to keep any bodygrip COMPLETELY submerged. Use all narrow spots in channels/runs to your advantage...use a dive limb/log. Footholds are my go-to trap for nuisance beaver. I use lure but not much and only at a set or 2. I prefer just a drop or 2 of sac oil. Using skint sticks for "bait" does not work in my part of the South.

I see where you are restricted to snares only for nuisance beaver. If the beavers haven't been messed with much they can be snared using common blind snares sets. I would still submerge some if the location allows it. Snares out in deep water (set and accessed by boat) are effective on timid beaver......hang em side of tree with a swim-thru type set. Beavers are less timid in deep water as opposed to shallows near the bank.

Thanks fellas, lots of good info here. Based on my limited experience and what I’ve learned here, educated pond beaver are the worst,

The very worst. Best thing for them is blind set anything that looks like even a crawdad used to get on the bank with a foothold after you've exhausted the normal sets. And don't make much noise doing so so avoid pounding stakes if you can't push em in.

Don’t leave tracks.

Make sure BG safeties aren't latched!

There are really no tricks and gimmicks to taking large numbers of beaver other than hard work and what has already been said, "Stick with basic sets" and "Make sure BG safeties aren't latched!" when leaving a BG trap set.

They are dumber than a sack of hammers.....until they're not.

Yup, and I like to keep them dumb.

Lol, no kidding. I'm betting the one I'm dealing with now has been well educated somewhere else.