I have caught beaver in foot holds but have never been great at it. I guess my main issue is when using Bridger #5 or MB 750 is that I check them and more often the trap is at the end of the drowner with nothing in it. I usually set castor mounds or cross overs. I use bump sticks. With these big traps is it better to set the trap so the beaver steps between the jaws or over a jaw??

Between the jaws for back foot beaver!!!!! A full grown beaver puts a flat foot pad on the ground that is around 8 inches long. Very easy to have that pad across both jaws if stepping over them, and actually difficult to not to have at least one jaw under the foot when the trap trips. This is true even for full size 7.5 to 8.5” beaver traps.

And offset left or right of the centerline. Beaver have wide backends.

Yes.
For me a backfoot pan placement is about the length of my fingertips to my elbow from shoreline or poke sticks.

I might add placement consideration for backfoot can depend on angle of terrain of course.
Also you can sometimes see a depression where the backfoot is settling down.
For front foot placement you want the beaver putting it's feet down first (poke sticks, etc)
As Loosanarrow said - always between the jaws

I set the trap where the beaver will be walking,fairly shallow and a berm of mud in front of the trap dug out from the trapbed.
A couple of guide sticks to line up the beaver on approach so the trap will be offset from the center of the approach.
I dont worry about front or back foot catches(i catch them both front or back with the same set) with drowning sets since i will only make them where the water is deep enough for beaver to slide the lock down the wire into deep enough water.
Set the trap with the dog at 3 or 9 to the approach so the beaver steps between the jaws.
I also like a fairly light pan.
If you watch beaver work these sets and get caught you will find a surprizing number of beaver getting caught leaving the set when using lure.

Offset your trap and have about 4 pounds of pan tension.

between the jaws and light pan tension, offset.

Thanks everyone, I really think this will help.

I'm with Boco on the berm in front of the trap. I stomp down a bed so the top surface of the trap is at or just below the level of the surrounding bottom and use my hand to mold a berm to make a protective rim so shuffling feet don't foul up the trap. You want that foot coming straight down on the pan not tripping over levers or jaws.

I'm guessing you arent offsetting your traps enough. Set them just like this and you will rarely have a snapped 750. .
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1707388/beaver-footholds-with-pics#Post1707388

X2 that is an excellent post!!!

I use poke sticks. Set my foothold in the bed, with trap offset from center. Then I will use 2 or three finger-diameter sticks jabbed in the mud pointing out at an angle from the trap, but pushed in deep enough that they are below the surface of the water. Beaver swims in, sticks poke it in the chest, it starts to flail and try to put its feet down to climb over the debris, and steps right in the trap. Also when set deep, it helps keep the tail off the trap so it doesnt get tripped.

Never had repeated success with poke sticks or bedding traps in the muck at beaver dams and many crawlouts.

Since I built and started using trays to hold traps the success rate has increased to near 100% visit to dead beaver ratio.

I use the trays as a trap platform. No more worries about poor bedding in muck, fired traps, low grabs, etc. The beaver swims up to break or crawl out bumps into wooden edge of tray....climbs over and steps into trap(s)....rolls off side of tray and down drowner rod or chain.

Trays are another item to carry in but are so effective at enabling solid trap stabilization that I now grab them nearly every time I need a foothold for beavers. The only time I don't use trays is when there is a firm sand or clay bottom....and that isn't very many areas here.

Yup, bottomless muck is a problem. Fortunately up here it's georgia clay for the most part. Some places I almost need to break out the trowel to dig a bed.

In some places I've run into muck bottoms I've been able to firm things up with waterlogged sticks, logs or scrounged up rock.

Do you have any pics of these trays?

Those trays were supposed to be a secret! Shhhh

kidding!

A Tray?,you trapping him or serving him lunch,lol.

I've had better luck with bowls....

I've explained the concept on here b4.

It's not my idea, even though I've modified the original idea to fit my needs.

I've shared the concept with a couple beaver trappers that now rarely set a beaver foothold without a tray.

The original idea was from the mind of a fellow named David Lafforthun. He has a DVD...."Annilahation of Trap Shy Nuisance Beaver" that describe his original ideas.

I won't post pics on here again as Boco (and a few others) might get offended because it works good....lol

Swamp Wolf I have your post on the trays. I understand the use of them also. We have a lot of poor bottom areas here so I am glad you brought the tray discussion up I forgot all about it thanks. Can at least try one or two.

I use them entirely as a trap platform in deep muck. They speed up and increase efficiency of foothold beaver sets, especially at dam break sets...or castor mound sets on mucky edges. No more fiddling around trying to stabilize the 750s, B5s, NoBS', or CDRs....yeah, I got a few of each...lol.

I prefer front foot catches.

The trays work as well as magnebeds for soft muck as far as just getting the trap stabilized, as long as you have room for them, and different shapes can help with that too. Matter of fact if soft mud were the only challenge I face I might have never come up with it. My original was not even intended for soft mud, it was for placing the trap at the edge of a vertical concrete abutment to deal with an educated beaver, and it worked so I kept messing with it. But it turns out they work so well in soft mud that I now use them for that alot. They have a “footprint” that sits completely under the trap, so they can be set tight to clumps or other vertical structures, and are generally vastly more versatile than a tray when it comes to other situations besides deep mud.
Like swamp wolf with his trays, I dont even mess around with old fashioned bedding unless I have “perfect” bedding bottom mud or sand. Even then, if there is flow I often use the vertical control of the magnebed to hold the pan up just a bit in the current to keep the underside of the pan washed clean and not packed with sand or silt.
Which makes me think, I have never tried the trays in flowing water - swamp have you had any problem with the whole tray silting in or anything like that?

Me too, but I end up with too many problems involving raccoons and geese when I set shallow.

Why not just snare them? It don't matter what the bottom is like then.

Well in Maine, we have laws that prohibit setting snares unless they are under ice. I suspect the IFG is we might snag a Lynx out for a swim. Actually not allowed to use them underwater for beaver in open water. Now doesn't that indicate a progressive fish and game department.

Mac

A snare at a dam break set?

I use snares, but typically only a 100% blind set location where I don't have to use any artificial blocking.

I think we're talking about 2 different approaches to beaver trapping. I dont do much fur trapping for beaver....so I tend to keep it sneaky...

loosanarrow,

I have used the trays many times in a current, usually at dam breaks.

I have had beavers push mud/leaves/small sticks from bottom into trays, but with the wire bottoms it hasn't hindered the trap(s). I can count on 1 hand the times I've had to remove traps and dump the debris out of the tray. I did that just to be sure of the trap's function....but they were still able to fire.

Set as a live holding device,a snare is Ok on daily check for nuisance beaver in some cases.
On extended checks like is common when fur trapping and some nuisance trapping, I wont use a live holding snare.
Not humane and limits the market to hatters due to the damage.On the other hand a snare for beaver set to drown is a great tool.

I much prefer snares to 330s on dam breaks.

While a foothold guarding the break itself reigns, but if the dam has trees or obstacles in or around it you have a good bunch of pinch points on the approach to the break. I'll gang set these and include one or two each side of the break running 90° to the dam to snag the one swimming the face of the dam.

330s get mud and sticks shoved into them. I'd rather them knock down a snare than fire a 330 in their face.

I guess I set in current at dam breaks but I was referring more to those stream situations I sometimes encounter where the stream is carrying fine sand or silt and will pack under a pan unless the pan is above the bottom grade a bit. In most dam breaks the water upstream of the dam is barely moving and does not carry much silt/sand load as it flows through the dam break. No worries just something I was curious about with the trays since I have never used one in a situation like that. Around here that is not even a condition I deal with very much, but what I have found is that holding the trap so the pan is just SLIGHTLY above bottom grade seems to keep the underside of the pan washed out and not packed. I admit going into it I would be concerned that the whole tray could silt in, but the only way to know would be to try it.

loosanarrow,
I'd say the trays (the way I use them) would likely silt in if used along muddy stream edges where the water rises quickly and falls like after a heavy rain. Would depend on where your set was.....if at a location on the stream where mud/silt collects = bad.

On the opposite of that...if the set location is where the mud/silt washes away it would be just as detrimental.

I want thank everyone that replied to my question. I turned my traps so the step between the jaws instead of over them. Haven't missed yet!! Thanks!!

That’s great!!!!