We-sa,
You can also pull all traps for about 2 or 3 weeks and then return. Many times it will be like trapping a new beaver...if you use a little caution.

Maybe down there...I've not had such luck, but I'm not a very good trapper; at best.

For trap shy problem beaver go to discretely placed snares in tight travel routes or find a natural object they are used diving under on a regular basis, then place a BG trap under it leaving no sign of your being there.

Stick to the basic sets they have worked for years for a reason and at the end of the day castor based lures will get your biggest catch ratio.

That's nice for a fur line. But when you're getting paid to catch the last troublemaker, you need all the tricks.

And then when you have all the tricks, you may need to invent new tricks. Beaver eradication is a whole different deal than running and gunning for fur.

Absolutely true!!! That last beaver or two in a colony who have witnessed all their kin being killed can be very challenging. Standard sets aren't something that will take care of them. Beavers are dumber than a sack of hammers, until they're not.

I agree 100% on sticking to the basic sets and lures with the lures being optional dependent on the set. Paying attention, hard work and persistence are what 've taken away from everyone's replies and by golly it works.

I am pretty convinced that the last beaver I caught (the one that inspired my question) had been pretty well educated. She totally ignored four lured sets, three foothold and one floating bodygrip for days. According to my trail cams she would hole up in her den for 2-3 days at a time. I finally caught her in blind set using a snare on the entrance/slide.

I was sure hoping though that someone would come up and post something like, "psst, don't tell anyone, but when all else fails, grab a 4 foot nylon sling, a crowbar and a bottle of..." ,

I found changing up the brand of castor lure worked for me last week. The last one I used I concocted up a few weeks ago myself and got a couple more, kinda smells like aunts borscht….lol. Too much anise oil but it works. There’s at least one more big one left that’s trap shy. I’ll check this morning and change up my plan, all kinds of tricks to try.

we-sa
Ever tried to make a slide or castor set with a foothold on a drowning rod without any lure? just use the visual instead of any smell
Beaver are like pirates, dead ones don't tell tales

Blind set a man made crawl out near a castor mound. Will a beaver tend to crawl out upstream or downstream of a castor mound being the question?

More like down wind . I don’t deal with enough current to change a beavers approach, but the wind changes often .

I catch a lot of beaver that are returning to water and used to think they were avoiding my BG on they’er way to the bait or lure. After a while I realized the exited the water directly down wind of my attraction.

I have run a bunch of poplar limbs through a chipper then added a mix of gliserine with a few drops of beaver oil and mixed it all up nicely in a 5 gallon bucket and thrown that back of my sets. I like to slick up the mud first of course. The visual will get them even when the wind isn't right.

Interesting, I've thought of cutting some cottonwood or willow with a chainsaw, then adding the saw "dust" to some castor for a lure...any thoughts? I haven't had a lot of luck with peeled sticks (in my limited experience).

The thought behind the chips is that it looks like to a passing beaver that another beaver did some whittling at that spot and they may be inclined to check it out. With the added come-on of a faint amount of beaver oil. The other thing is with a big handful of chips there is a lot of surface area to disseminate the odor.

And finally, I have really good results with this method.

Definitely interesting. I've cut pine shavings and placed them around a piece of pine scrap wood lured with Woodchipper a couplemof time with mixed results.

If you were to use maple instead poplar, the chips will stay fresher looking longer.

I've actually used many different types of limbs including fruit tree prunings to good effect. I tend to stick to ones I know that they like to eat with the thought that there is some small amount of odor coming from the chips as well.

On those chips, do you see a seasonal preference?

I definitely do here and while I don't do chips I do try the "match the hatch" when peeling sticks for bait.

No, not really. Around here on our big rivers poplars are always, well, popular!