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.