Setting up these two dams in the morning. Some deep water here...and snakes and gators and beavers and flooded newly planted pine trees....



Looks easy...but we'll see .......

That looks like it will be a fun project. I kind of miss it.

Glad you miss it, i don't! lol

Yall come in down! I'll be pulling out after a cup of coffee about daybreak. Got to get a clear head so I pay attention to where I reach my hands....can't be side-tracked.

Keep an eye out for serpents.

That's why I have to set those up with a clear head....can't have anything on my mind those days other than paying attention...lol

Swamp, how long can those newly planted trees take the high water?

Not long....a few weeks, if their tops are still above water. If totally submerged, only a few days. They are planted on mechanically raised beds, but near the stream it was already wet dirt....now flooded and not draining.

thanks...good luck!

I'll take a few more pics tommorrow. I'm gonna set a couple breach sets at each dam with 2 footholds at each breach on drowner rods. I will hang a couple snares in obvious locations too. No 330s...can't keep turtles out of em.

I don't envy you at all. I know all too well how aggressive those cottonmouths can be in hot weather. Stay safe man.

yep snares and footholds, slow going and beaver only move about 40 ft. from where they live in summer, worst time of year to do anything with them. PLUS as an added bonus June is deer fly month, enjoy, lol

Yep...I hate wading in that mess in summer, but timber company wants action. And I'd like to keep them as a client.

A trapper does have to be dead on location (with fresh sign) or its almost a waste of time.

Dang, can't make it because I'm on my way to the FTA convention.

Do gators take alotta beaver down there? You’d think they’d be easy pickings for them? I guess you wouldn’t really know unless you cut em open…

Looking at the photos. Swamp Wolf sounds like a good user name for ya

Gator eat's a beaver he probably won't eat anything again for a month! So don't eat enough usually to keep them in check.

Paul is out on tour like a rock star!

Are the yeller flies out yet Patrick?

Looks like a job heat and humidity is what I wouldn’t like

Like Jtrapper said....gators do get a few but not enough to control them.

They are, but for some reason they are not as bad this time as they usually are. Might be because we had some very unusually cool days a few weeks back right when they typically peak in numbers (late May-early June).

It is a blessing!!!

Maybe next time...lol. Drive safe!

I'd sure like to have been able to make the FTA, but Wisonsin is a ride from here and the beaver calls just will not stop coming in.

You figured me out!!! Lol

wow , hope you're getting pay good money! keep us posted on your catch and please more pic.

First to fall....the brood female..at a breach set. Other sets undisturbed. But, with all the recent rain...water is pouring over dams in many places.



Had some company this morning at one location...4-footer.

The next location to be set tommorrow...

Beavs eatin' pine cambium...

Complete dam removals by excavator. Timber company is about 2 weeks behind me, but catching up to me quickly....lol

What a mess but looks like fun minus heat and humidity

can you shoot them ?

Yes...but no time 4 that. Plus, most of that would occur at night....can't see under my feet as good in the dark...lol

Have about 7 or 8 locations in 4 counties to trap 'em ahead of me....all timber company work. This much nuisance beaver work never seems to come up in cold weather..

Good Job Swampy.

What timber companies are you working for?

Adult male stepped in a NoBS beaver trap and a MB750 last night..

Glad I didn't bump this bush...


Surprised I caught a beaver last night at a breach set. It rained several inches and water is pouring over the dams.

Just one...it's a local privately owned company. They own over 100 thousand acres in 6 or 7 counties in this area.

Yea, glad you didn't get in those red wasp they get angry quick. I still would rather them over a cotton mouth I believe.

Swamp, you got those black wasp down there like we have along the coast? Dont have to bump the bush with them, get within 5 ft of the nest and here they come! Id never seen nor heard of the things till working on the gulf oil spill down there, i quit whinning about how bad i had it up here after that ,lol.

J,
We do have a mostly black specie of wasp that are a little bigger than those red wasps. They build paper nests, mostly over the water. But here they are not overly aggressive more than the others.

…. Be careful Uncle Swamp…. You ain’t gettin any younger

Timber company must have some swamp gear. Where we are they’d get stuck and seriously destroy some landscape.

That's a fact Nephew!

The humidity here has pulled me down past 3 days. I get back to truck drenched in sweat.

They have 2 or 3 excavators....one is large. They do what is needed when removing beaver dams. A couple of their guys are very skilled heavy equipment operators.

I sure enjoy the pics and this post more beaver sign than I've seen in my life

Watching out for snakes ,wasps, and gators.Stepping in muck that has no bottoms and heat that’s hard to breathe in. Sweat falling off of you like rain drops and you’re thinking to yourself am I having fun yet? Yep, you can’t to do it all over again tomorrow. Stay safe SW

You described it perfectly!!

Another single beav today. Very poor physical condition, no fat...(it's likely the one that's been eating pine cambium.) Caught in a snare that was 2/3 submerged in a shallow channel leading to an artificial scent mound (Backbreaker was the lure.) It was a female and her castors were big as chicken eggs, but the membrane was tissue thin and the castor inside was hard a rocks.

Watching out for snakes ,wasps, and gators.Stepping in muck that has no bottoms and heat that’s hard to breathe in. Sweat falling off of you like rain drops and you’re thinking to yourself am I having fun yet? Yep, you can’t to do it all over again tomorrow. Stay safe SW


What are gripping about, ive seen you in action, you sit in the mule and let poor ol Lonnie do all the work, lol. Hope your doing well old friend.

It was a female and her castors were big as chicken eggs, but the membrane was tissue thin and the castor inside was hard a rocks.

Ive only caught 3 of those in my life, folks on here said they are barkstone castor's.

JTrap,
I think that was the 3rd one with rock hard castors I've caught too. Other 2 were males, if I remember right.

Nice country, you're getting some action.

Gotta love them one a day summer beaver jobs, lol. Like pulling teeth.

Do you have to pretty much wade everywhere in the swamps?

Are there roads or canals that give you access to the areas you are setting?

Keith

I do have to wade/walk the length of these dams to find the right set location (if possible.). Got to be dead on location in summer. At most of the timber company beaver sites the water has backed up (flooding logging roads or planted pine plantations) due to a clogged culvert or a dam built in the right/wrong spot. At most sites the extent of the problem is not known until I find it......can't see it from road. The primary dam is where you have to set traps in summer to catch em and that dam may be hard to get to. The secondary dams or plugged pipes may be easily accessible, but beavers may not care if you release the water there. Gotta find that primary dam that's holding water around the lodge or bank dens. If my Honda sxs can drive in there...I do. I'm too old to tote that gear very far.

I also use a Jet Sled (like duck hunters use for decoys) to float the gear in if possible.

That jet sled is a handy piece of equipment. I had a guy bring one in this year to help me get a deer across a Bay branch. I was impressed.

Way to get after em'!!!

Mine don't have a motor...lol

Adult male today at another jobsite....ag field ditches. Caught at breach set at dam in background.

I had one of those for duck hunting and pulling deer out. “HAD” one until the boys decided to tie it to the 4-wheeler and pull each other around in it. Going across pavement and dirt roads eventually wore holes in the bottom of it and that lead to bigger holes and basically destruction.

Its a chore for sure!! I put a few beaver sets out at my ol man’s swamp last year. Fortunately we are far enough north we don’t have to worry about gators but the occasional cottonmouth still makes his appearance known from time to time. Nothing like stomping around in a marshy area. You think well that looks solid enough to hold me. Afterward you sink down 3ft and you have to pour the water out of your rubber boots. Keep after ‘em!!

Don't know where this brood female has been the past week, but she stepped in a NoBS trap last night. She may have came from downstream off adjoining property with this high water. There has been no fresh sign here for 7 days. And I was planning on pulling this location this morning...reset it...will pull tomorrow.

Isn't fat folks weather anymore, lol

That's a FACT!!

I got a little heat stroked feeling this morning by the 2nd stop. 93 with humidity so bad I couldn't breathe....

You need to begin using "tropical hours". Be on site at daylight and on the way home by noon.

Looking at 111 heat index's here this week, probably be 199 heat index down there, lol.

Yes....been stopping by local store for coffee and a bit of BS with the locals, but I've gotta get to the woods much earlier next few days. Supposed to be 98F next few days and the index will be what JTrap says....

Beaver must blow up like balloons after a couple days in that heat.

Not days, HOURS!

JTrap is correct. It's hours and they will be swollen belly and slipping.

This morning I left at 430 am to run my nuisance line for beaver and coyote, and was done by 830, my shirt and hat were soaked in sweat.

GaryM,
You still trapping beavers?

You and I both should've quit a month ago.

I love the South. Born and raised in the Mid-South. I now I live in NC. The south is Hot, Humid. We're swarmed with Yellow flies, Deer Flies, 2" horse flies, 12 different sub species of mosquitoes , ticks, Cottonmouths, copperheads, and crocagators .
But! there ain't no Yankees in this blessed time of environmental torture. The ones that are here are on the beach cooking like a roast. I really look forward to June, July, and Aug. Oh heck throw in Sept now!
I'll never move from the South. I'll just keep investing in thermal cells and Deep Woods Off.
Thanks God for who ever invented the air-conditioner. My luck it was some dang yankee!
In the mean time i'll trap summer beaver till I don't.

varmintshooter you jogged my memory of this past spring, lady had a dead coon in her yard i went to get. Could tell from the accent 'she aint from around here', lol. She started in on tornado's then worked her way to this horrible heat down her, only reason she moved down here was because of her husband but since he passed 3 years ago she was packing her stuff up and moving back to ohio, lol.

Im REALLY hoping she tells all the locals up there what a horrible place this is so no more of them nose talker's move down here, lol.