I have successfully caught several beaver this year in conibear and footholds. I have had a few drag my concrete block up to shore. Should I be using a larger house block or two or does it all depend?

Thanks to the knowledge base for some ideas.

Go to a 10 foot rebar drownong rod can't beat them IMO

I have one of those and have used it with success in the past. Some conditions require a cable though. thanks.

As I too found out, concrete blocks are not always the best way to go. Concrete is porous, not very dense, so they just absorb water and are not much heavier than the surrounding water. Steel is good, solid rocks bagged, but it takes quite a bit. I too have had big beaver even drag steel up onto a dam when I didn't use enough. At least thirty pounds of steel or rock I would think. I know the rods are good too, but the truck bed is short and I don't have a rack on top.

It all comes down to front or hind foot catch. With a hind foot it's always good. I sometimes just set for a hind foot with chain and grapples without a slide wire, which is a good catch every time as we all know. Just have to make sure it's not a front foot and they can get on the bank.

I have had them drag blocks back to the shore also but usually on a back foot catch. Not very often though.

The bottom of your waterway is a huge consideration. Hard bottom is bad news for "moveable" weights. Put the same weight in a mucky soft bottom bottom and it is not an issue. Heck in some cases its hard to pull the weight up after the job. I'm like Jim I use a heavy trap, heavy chain and grapple hook the or stake them off.

^^^^
Long chain and a t stake

Drown cable and 2 rubber coated boat anchors at 15 lbs a piece and it’s a drowned . But 99% of my catches are front foot

The T bars and long chain does work well. I was too lazy to set up the slider so did that a few weeks ago. Would have been good in any case as he was caught by both back feet, really wound up. The T bars would be really good for a front foot.

Railroad tie plates. 2-3 work very well. Be sure to tie a rope handle. Cable is rough on the hands when throwing it out.
Sarge

I made some 8 foot rebar with the t about 2 foot up from the bottom for when I was setting a lot of sliders.
Light weight option if you are wearing chest waders. Now I try to get away with hip boots.

I just made a second drowning rod. Unfortunately for my neighbor, he informed me he is in need of practice with his new welder. I'm giving him some practice on rods and stakes. The 10' fit perfectly in my trapping vehicle; Subaru Outback with a towel on the dashboard. There is no glitter, unicorns, nor rainbows on the backglass.

I did 8 because the rod is 20 feet= 2 at 8 with a 1 for t

I once took some RR plates and welded some spikes thru the plate holes for a guy, set them spike down and stomp them in. Said they were spectacular!

Great idea even with brake drums. You could make the spikes run up and down though the holes and then you would be able to just toss them into the water.
If a wco is doing long term contract work, there weights can stay in the same place you constantly capture beaver.

That or choot 'em! What else can you do?

Who wants to waste precious line time dealing with a bunch of live animals.
Not to mention the wasted time having to check sets too frequently.

Where do you all get these concrete blocks? Is this scrap concrete? After reading this thread I thought about using a bag of hardened Quick Crete. The only thing is transporting it to and from the pond. That’s a real workout since carrying a beaver carcass to the roadside has me a bit winded.

We call them concert shoes on lake Powell

Hope the water goes down a litttttttttle more. My uncle Jimmy’s been missing for some time.