Those look great!

wws

Those look really nice. You'll feel even better pulling up a nice one on something you made. My welding skills are a little lackluster compared to yours. Nice job

DD , nice job. I do my safeties like Sniper, or try to.

Here is the dam I needa set and ima be setting on some slides anolg the bank for a few hundred yards.

How many you dealing with? Leave the dam alone for awhile (or, set crossovers only), and find out where they really are.

3 or 4 based on what the property owner and another trapper in the area told me. There are slides, trails, and very large holes going in the banks.. like sockerball size holes...

Should catch a few quick there. Nice spot

Well we had a rain the other day.. so I figured it would help me find the slides and paths these beaver are taking... well looking at the tracks it looks like I'm currently only dealing with one beaver.. only found one set of tracks along the pond side of the dam where its comingfor an inspection... found two caster mounds, but when I got down on all 4, I couldn't smell anything other than the grass and mud.. should I be able to smell that caster smell if I get my nose close to it?...O... I did fi d an otter toilet, but it looks old.. nothing fresh..

DD, bottom photo, two spots I would set, right side in that narrow ditch. Left side between grass clump and dam.

Unless someone already trapped there I would bet there's more than one beaver. Set it up. A few days and you'll know

set what ever you have on it and you will know within a few days if you have gotten them all. After it slows down pop a hole in the dam and set a trap deep on the dam break. I normally set slightly offset about 3ft out away from the break

I got 6 drowners out lastnight and going run some snares this afternoon. made some snare supports last night.. some 2 ft and some 4 ft..

Now it's on..had an empty trap at the bottom of a drowner rod that was set with a caster mounds with anis oil as a lure...toe catch?????? I did something wrong

Make sure your trap is bedded well and offset for the beavers approach.
Depth and distance back from the bank is something that takes a little while to learn. Also pan tension for a deep grab on the foot.
Toe catches and misses happen to us all but can brought to a minimum.
Keep at it, your learning and doing good.

Ok... so I re-did some of these sets. I did it the way Dale Billingsly shows it.. since it's steep banks I cut a shelf and did a caster mound and then made a pool at water level with a Mudd berm around the trap area... I turned the trap to the side and offset it to where the front edge of the loose jaw is even with the caster mound and the trap pan is on the down stream side.... there was fresh tracks within inches of my pan on two other sets other than the one that got tripped.. hopefully we will see in the morning if this method will help with missed catches.. what yall think about large pans for beaver?? Think it's worth the extra effort??

Tighten the pans like Dale suggested, a beaver is heavy, you want him pushing down on that pan.

Yup... did that too... don't have a scale, my 4 pound hammer moves the pan slow then sets it off... so I gota be close to 4-5 pounds... ish

Well got some Bridger #3 dogless.... was looking at the 650, but this #3had a taller jaw...and was way cheaper...let's see what these can do..

I don't like big pans for beaver, I want their whole foot in the trap. I've had too many toe catches to convince me otherwise.

BTW DD, you got any otters out your way yet? Just curious how far west they've made it.