....from past couple days:

750 in tray in front of pond drain pipe.

Captured in NoBS Beaver and BW stand at a crossover.


Bridger 5s in a tray at dam break and artificial castor mound

Traps pulled. One had a nice male water weasel in it.

What are your hatters bringing down that way? $15 hatters seem to be the common price in these parts.

Don't know yet. I get one shot to sell in late March when Groenewold makes the annual buying route down South.

Last March, skint/frozen beavs avgd in mid-20s.

Care to expand on the "tray" method?

Can't remember ever seeing that unless it is called something else

Nice job on the beaver and bonus critter

Swamp, looks pretty nice there, been real cloudy here for months, that one beaver in middle has a really long tail.

Nice catch and pics Swamp.

NF is right, what a rudder on that one beaver

Good work SW! Those trays are a lifesaver here

Nice to see your trays at work for you. Keep getting them!

I sold some large day before yesterday for $17a piece. Coons went for $7 on 2xl, $3 on xl, $1sm, opossum $1 on Smalls $7 on red fox and they don't want coyotes.

Nice weather you got there swampy-nice catches.
What is the purpose of putting your traps in a tray?loonshit bottom?

Yes...but no loons here. It's pure knee deep black mud on high side of every dam....right where the trap needs to be for a back foot catch. The trays give a quick and stable platform for the footholds. Beaver swims up, bumps into tray, climbs up on it...

4 sure

Swamp have you got a picture of just the tray ? I’ve got two locations that I could use something like that . I see what looks like 2 drowning rods how many time you picked up a double on it ?

BTL,
It just a tray built from 1x4s with a 1x1 wire bottom. I put 12" wooden legs on em. It serves as a bedding platform in soft mushy bottoms. I use mostly at dam break sets and occasionally at castor mound sets. Mine are stout enough that I can stand on em and push the legs into the mud. All mine are wide enough for 2 traps like in that pic. I've double so many time that I've lost count.

Gotta give credit: Main idea is from a guy David Lafforthun. He has a video called Annillation of Trap Shy Beaver....F&T has the video. His is somewhat different and he uses it in deeper water. But the idea originated from him.

Too many to count. Always use seperate drowning rigs.

I'll get a pic of just tray out of water tommorrow. Check back.

Thanks , I will be watching .

I remember Dave. It has been some years since I have seen him and spoke to him.

Another at that same black tile pipe this morning. Tray with a single 750 on one side....piled mud on other end of tray and put a couple drops of castor juice/sac oil on the fake mound.

Tray was about 10" deep. Back foot grab. Down rod/drowned.

I'd win a contest every year for tail LENGTH.

Not so much on width.

I remember Dave. It has been some years since I have seen him and spoke to him.

Swamp,are you using all 750s on those trays? If using other traps what are you running for pan tension?

No...not all 750s. Currently have 750s, Bridger 5s (see pic above), and NoBs Beaver Extremes....all in trays. Also have 3 or 4 of those same traps on the Black Widow stands I have.

I have some CDRs too, but they are not currently in the water. Will be soon.

I haven't measured pan tension, but I run em stiff....probably 5 to 6 lbs. I miss small beaver but usually snare or 330 those nearby anyway. Or I have to return and trap there again...uughh!

All my beaver'in is nuisance control.

Yeah that tail is a long one. Interesting the solutions we come up with for beaver trapping issues. I probably would never go to the trouble as a #’s type fur trapper but certainly see the value of those trays in the ADC realm.
Thanks for sharing!

Patrick turned me on to the trays a few years ago.
Absolutely deadly. Allows the placement of footholds on those complete muck spots that bedding a trap is pert near impossible.
I built mine with plywood bottoms and cut a slot for the baseplate on my CDR’s to fit into.
I agree with beaverpeeler. If I was blowing through fur trapping, I wouldn’t bother with the extra baggage, but for nuisance work in open water it’s the cats behind.
I too have taken a LOT of doubles.
Another thing I love about them is it allows me to set deep enough to pretty well stay away from the coon. Important for me in this high population coon country.

Very good share. Especially the adaption of the guy's DVD you mentioned and coming up with the trays. Very good idea. It is awesome that you gave credit to the guy. As soon as I saw the tray I thought to myself, hey, sort of cool take off.
Thanks

Mac

Those trays are a pretty slick idea. This is a great thread.
I'm jealous of the green grass and open water!

Where can these trays be purchased?

They are easy to build yourself.

Just some scrap lumber

I see where those Missouri beaver have been tasting that lumber...lol!! Until they climbed up on top of the tray....

That’s the first tray that I built Patrick. It’s been through the wringer lol.
It’s accounted for a bunch of troublemakers lol.

I like your narrow design and slots to snug the trap.

How deep is the tray?

Inch and a half
Frame is a ripped 2” by 4”

great photo WOLK !

Clay sent me a picture of his trays and I manufactured about 2 dozen or so to fit my T85’s. Works like a champ on knee deep muck in the river where you can’t stomp a good trap bed in. Not a very good picture of mine but good results.

Those sit ok right on the muck? I saw swamp wolf put legs on his, jut at wondered if you tried that ever or no?

Mine set good on the muck. Stake right through the plywood in 2 spots. Before using them the beaver were stomping the trap down in the muck with the goop under the pan preventing it from firing.

Just remembered to take a pic a few min ago. I like the legs as I can take my foot and push them down in mud and they don't try to float back to surface b4 traps are placed. Don't have to carry extra stakes. Once down...I stand on the tray edges to seat them good in the muck.

Mine are built with 3.5" sides so the beaver has to step down onto trap after he climbs onto tray. I've trapped coyotes, fox, and bcats for so long and it's ingrained in my small brain for the quarry to step down onto the trap.

The tray pictured has been repaired after 5 or 6 years of beaver battering.

Next job....setting tommorrow. This is an impressive dam for this area. It's over 6' tall at base..in bottom of that ditch. Backing up water into ag field.

I wish I had taken pictures, years ago I was asked to trap a ditch with a nine to 10’ high dam . It had little to no water coming over the top , which is a rare occurrence around here.

I made a good breach in this one today. Gonna place two 750s in a tray at the breach and two 750s in a tray at the other end of dam in front of a castor mound.

We are not allowed to molest the dam as long as it is being maintained. It would be a good tool to have in your bag of tricks.

Thanks for the picture Swamp

Anytime my friend!

Brood female..biggun too. I think she is the last one here. She was #6.

I like to make the break sets at or very close to stream channel center, but the lodge was only about 30ft away..just across some deep water. I tried to be quiet, but it took her 3 days to come out and play. NoBS Beaver Extreme in a tray. She took one trap on a back foot down the rod.

A 330 on the low side where I had the water pouring thru had a nice water weasel ...about 10ft away...

Nice catches and some great ideas!
How are you estimating the colony size? This year it seems the house & feed bed doesn’t necessarily indicate the number of beaver in there. Very late beds too, like they knew something about the coming winter.

Any gators in the water that you're trapping?

It's a SWAG (scientific wildass guess) on my part. I never know how many remain and 1 or 2 can leave about same amount of sign as 10. Nearly every place I've trapped for a few years now (all nuisance calls) are places where others have tried to shoot em, trap em, blow em up....you name it. I'm surprised if I pick up more that 3 or 4 beaver per location. Several locations lately there have been no adults to be found...only yearlings and maybe one 2 year old. Have recently found a .22 bullet in one, bird shot in another, and one a couple days ago with a broken back hip that was trying to heal.

Gators are in nearly every location, but they're mostly dormant right now. I've never had any issues with em....even when I've seen em while initially setting traps.

Oh...and I've snared a few 4, 5, and 6 footers. Hold em with choke stick and cut em loose. Biggest one caught (7') was in a 330. No need to hold that one....trap did its job.

I’ve done a few beaver jobs over the years that we’re close enough to home that I could stay awhile. Even went back in the spring on the one job . I’ve taken 10 beaver several times and 11 on the one I went back in the spring on. Only one of those jobs looked like their was more than 4 or 5 beaver . On one spring job the owner swears the beaver were not there during harvest . I’ve just learned to warn folks before I start a job how many could be there.

That's a great idea, wolf.

I really like the trap tray Idea swamp wolf.. I'm gonna give it a whirl.

Haha! It’s pretty much take your best guess. In one of his videos, Thorpe tells his buddy that the beaver central that buddy found would hold 2 beaver tops! And they pull out 10. So after that he said his confidence was lost in his ability to estimate the size of a colony…lol

And a 330 killed a 7’ gator? Broken snout? A Belsile crushed the skull of a beaver I skinned last night, alotta jam there.

Shakeyjake,
Belisle struck Wally behind the back of skull....nite nite termite.

3 of these from yesterday. 80 degrees here today...had to peel em all....


Other 4 today....same swamp with the tall dam. 2 in footholds at the dam breach in pic. Other 2 in 330s in pinch point as they swim the dam. Made another break further down dam. Beavs gotta swim that Belisle gauntlet to get to that break due to downed trees....3 have tried in 2 nights, all failed.


Hmmm....this guy was one of the above beavs. Was likely my fault, but trap chain got hung on BW trap stand (probably hung thru a link when I set it in that black water...didn't see it. Stand is stop-loss cabled to top of drowning rod. Beav couldn't slide down rod. Glad it was a small beav and back foot grab. Beavs is in a Bridger 5.


After dispatching and resetting that trap, I noticed the other trap was gone. Thinking that little beaver had threw it and it had slid down, I pulled the rod....Ha! A large male at the end of rod wearing a 750.

Still ain't caught the brood sow here...yet.

I bet she's getting awful nervous.

JStaton,
I'm sure she is.....and so am I.

She's got to go...and I sure don't need to linger at this job long waiting for her to come out and play.

2 more beavs at the tall dam. But no brood female. One at dam break...1 at fake castor mound that was scent free, until day b4 yesterday when I milked some juice from one of the locals onto it. Both in footholds held by BW stands...and went down rebar rods.

Also had a water weasel in a 330.

Small lodge at another site. Have captured only 1 here (adult male) in 3 checks. He was in a snare at a crossover. Three 330s, 6 snares, and one B5 just to attempt to catch a couple beavs....

3 footholds here. 2 at breach. 1 at castor mound..

Lots of good information on this post. Thanks for sharing.
Were I am in Eastern Montana on the Tongue river the beaver all bank den and the river bottom is a rock gravel combination that you cant drive anything into. Most of my trapping is with 330's but when I do run footholds I use Montana #5's with ten feet of chain and weights attached next to the trap. No way to get a drowning rod in the river bottom and I am not dealing with sand bags and such.
Pretty neat seeing how different folks are successful in different parts of the county with different conditions. I do have a few back eddies that I am going to make some of those trays for. That is a new one on me and I really like it!

New job start today. HOA storm water retention pond. Should be easy and quick.
Submerged 330s at four crossovers. If I could shoot the .22 to dispatch here those fence crawl-unders would be deadly.

Put my signs up for any stupid/nosey adults and any kids. No sign of any human activity back here...or I wouldn’t have taken the job. Pond dam looks mowed but it isn't maintained at all.

Lots of beaver sign there and very good info Ty SW

wolf! more photos like this should be posted so that young hunters would know where and how to set traps correctly.

here ya go boys! feast your eyes and be jealous! I think I can case him and pass it off as a Mushrat, LOL

Those little rascals cause me to have to stay longer..and loosen pan tension....

Like the sign, one of the better ones I have seen for Damage control. Has a warning but does not entice people to go looking for anything and nothing about trapping to get the Anti's upset. Did you have them made?

Yes..had them made. Only have 5. Don't use them in many places, but they are handy when needed.

I intentionally left off the words "beaver" and "traps."

Nice catches swamp getting the job done...what are those thing in the back of your pickup like wooden stands?

Probably his foothold stands/beds.
Hey Swampy, take a pic of the next gator you get in a 330.

Look back at page 1 thru 3 of this thread....

Might be a while as I've only BG'd a couple gators in over 40 years.

Today...

Cleaning them up ...an 10 4 on the stands cool idea

County road dept manager took some pics of me yesterday. I'm usually alone and the one taking the pics...

Nice going Swamp! I just wrapped up a job by the house. 22 beaver, 2 otters, and a nutria later I finally pulled everything

I've never captured that many beaver from one area. 9 or 10 has been the most.

Heard that another trapper caught 36 (in about 2 weeks) from a 1/3 mile long creek swamp that had about 5 dams. Swamp was about 200yds wide at its widest.

Company hired me about year later and it took me 2 seperate week long stints to get about 10 more out of there.

I'd like to get in a spot where I could get 20 to 30 out of a small area.

Nice pics SW .That little boat is the ticket.

Jet Sled...like duck hunters use to float decoys in. One of the best things I've bought for beaver'in. I haul gear in...beaver and gear out. Put skint carcasses in...load in pickup..dump at my carcass dumpsite. No bloody mess in truck bed. Wash blood out next day at beaver job site....

...then do it all over again...

That little sled is also great for hauling deer out.

Good work

Good info Swamp...and Sportsman94.....nice work!

One of the advantages of that color of beard is that those reddish colored beaver bugs show up real good when you need to get one out of there.

Beavs down here don't harbor such parasites.

Think it's would be of a benefit if you could weld one of your stand up full metal?

Is that a fact? I'll be darned.

Wolfdog,
Yes! A lightweight metal frame would work well.

Ok another question, how well do you think this would work with two smaller traps around the Bridger 3 /duke 4 size ?

It would work well.

First check from north Florida beaver job.

Required a steel trap permit to legally use submerged BGs. Also had to get a few Florida CITES otter tags beforehand...to be able to cross back over to Ga with their otter. Lady was super nice and cooperative at FWC office. Process was a little drawn out, but not too bad.

Also had to order new trap tags as Florida requires name. Most of my Georgia tags have our trapper ID number only.

Took about 3 weeks to get permit and CITES tags. License purchase was quick....online on FWC website....$29 for non-resident.

Slower day today...

Good work

Copy of yesterday today..
..

SW
Do you run into venomous snake's or Gators down there? Seems like working the creek banks in snake country might get very interesting.

Yes, on the cottonmouths. I don't like fumbling around when they get active...which is about to occur in a few weeks.

Gators = I see them a lot but not much of a concern until one gets into a snare or a BG.

SW, have you sold any fur yet this year?

No. Only have GFW as an outlet....unless I want to scrape and board...and I don't.

GFW runs the southern route in late March. I'm on my last freezer now, but it has plenty of room to get me thru until then.

Very nice geographical features and beauty in this area about 3 miles below the Ga-Fl line. Lots of deer and turkeys.

Large sink holes over 100 ft deep and 100 yds across and lots of exposed limestone with waterfalls along the creeks. Water in this main creek flows into a large sink and disappears underground...no water outlet.

Nice terrain to trap. Beavers are messing up some of the natural flow.

Swamp, What's the temp down there?

Nice Pics Swampy,the last one looks like the African Jungle.

Today...rainy all day
62F high
44F low

Tommorrow
Lows in upper 30s F
Highs upper 50s F

Gradual warming thru next week to highs in low 70s...lows stay in upper 30s to mid 40s.

Thought this was a beaver, but closer inspection showed it was a gator (about 4 to 6 feet). Why he strolled out ino that bedded ag field...who knows.



Only captured an otter on this check..

Enjoying the pics! Keep ‘em coming!

Perhaps someone had a FoxPro blaring the bunny blues?
Gator came to investigate and caught the downwind. Lol.

Thought..., can a gator be called in?

Patrick, does Florida have a limit on otter?
So many states do that have long term, established populations.
So stupid.

That’s some pretty awesome country you’re trapping there!

No otter limit in Florida. Otter season ends March 1st....one day longer than Georgia season.

I'm pulling the Florida job tommorrow.....that'll be 7 days.

Had a surprising check today (after moving some traps to other locations and setting a couple new snares yesterday.

5 beavs and another otter today. 4 beavs in snares, 1 in Belisle, otter in Belisle. 10 beavs and 7 otter as of today down there.

Get'em houndone!

Swamp, I'm wondering about those gator tracks in that field...is it possible it was a turtle? Egg laying time with that heat possibly? Just wondering....

I'll try and take better pics in the morning.....long toes as big as my thumb on long back feet...

Thought beaver at first due to flat drag marks....then I figured a nice snapper.....but....

After seeing those bigger long toes and better tail drag marks...it was definitely a small gator. They're moving down here.