You know how this works. The bestest trapping is always.... always in "that other trapper's" area.

Maybe in MN. Not so in Maine. I have probably averaged more than 2000 trap nights for each of the past 13 years. To date I have had four traps stolen & with lots of snow anyone can find your traps there. My guess is that out of state deer hunter took my four traps.

I think the south has a pile of beavers. I've trapped beavers in the UP of MI, southern Maryland, central VA and by far the highest density of beavers I've been exposed to is right her in NC. I know someone here who caught over 1000 beavers a year for five years. And that was getting the last one at each site, not just skimming the cream. I know MS, AR, GA and AL also have large populations of beaver, but I've not trapped there, so I have no first hand knowledge of those states to compare.

Having gone to school in the great State of Cheese I heard this more than once. Based on everything I saw it didn’t quite add up and the USGS has my back on it:

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/which-has-more-lakes-minnesota-or-wisconsin/

I trapped SC for about 15 years and on a average caught around 250 beaver In 2 months. That's along with the live market and all the otter. Access was easy, we had farmers waiting at the house ready to take us to the beaver. If you were pulled over along the road checking traps when you came back out there would be some one waiting asking you to trap their beaver. Some times they would bush hog a trail right to the dam.

We never got paid to trap but we always had FREE housing. Some of the places were a bit on the rough side. But the boss said If 15 Mexicans could live in the house 2 white guys could make It work; LOL
There was a few G man trappers and one county trapper but I never ran Into any trappers. Heck the county trapper gave us all the beaver he caught. He knew were we trapped and he would just dump off his catch at those locations.

I miss It but at my age It's all over.

That's sure a bold (stupid also) statement to make! I've killed alot of beaver in MN and have never pulled anybodys traps or left any bodies in the swamp. I've killed beaver that were alive in others traps and thrown them off from the bank so that they were out of view of the public and predators bit never been a jerk about it. I've also had others do the same for me.

I would still trap in South because Its warm and your not dealing with ICE. LOL

NY’s Tug Hill Plateau and Adirondack Regions. I know multiple trappers that catch annually 100 + beaver each year in 2-3 weeks each fall.
And season is open all winter and closes April15. Plus, northern NY beaver always grade well.

These are NOT my pictures but some of these tough old MN boys pile up a few Beaver. You may even recognize a smiling face or two in the pictures.

Lots of Minnesota trappers that know how to trap under the ice!! Fall and spring beaver are only good for hatters.

I have never seen anyone write a note, but there are a few (small territory) locals that will sneak in , look at stuff and tamper, but that type person would never face you with a gripe. You'll have that about anywhere.

Jim Ronerud from Minnesota always attends our trapping convention in North Bay.
Jim takes hundreds of beaver each season most thru the ice.he is getting up in age nowadays but I heard he still produces lots of beaver.
Jim told me he remembers back in the day when Paul Millette from Hearst,Ont was brought down into the northern states(likely in the early 70.s) to show them his methods of taking beaver under ice.

Access and favorable trapping weather would figure into that call in addition to high populations.

Rally Hess has taken his fair share from under the ice too. That guy is a Beaver killing MACHINE!

I trap beaver in 10 counties from Fall through Spring and have never ran into one of these evil trappers throwing traps in the swamp and leaving threatening notes. Must be in Maine where this happens.

I try not to catch too many at once.8 a check in open water is all I would want to do.
I have clean skinned 30 beaver in a day a few times,and froze the skins to put up later.
Some guys do more than that I'm sure.

The rough skinning crowd are probably under 10 minutes a beaver (including extraction and care of the castors, oil sacs) Clean skinners that know what they're doing are probably around 15 to 20 minutes per.

I figure I can rough skin 5.5 beaver an hour, and can double it with help. The skinning itself probably half that time, and the rest is all the other work. When doing it for time I can skin a beaver in under 4 minutes.

I have skun 80+ in a day after working or trapping all day a few times with help. But much prefer to keep it around 24 a day.

You are an animal!

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