I've been trapping since the early 80's...yet the critter I have the least experience with is the beaver. I'm trying to catch a beaver in a large swamp where they have caused some flooding of a lane. Another gentleman apparently trapped some out of there a few months ago and won't come back due to a stolen trap. They hired me and I am trying to be very discrete with my sets so as not to have the same happen to me. I have 4 330's, 2 snares, and 1 foot trap in a span of about 100 yards with varying food lures and castor lures. There are no amazing slides or anything right where I am allowed to trap so I have made some of my own. I have the snares near trees with food lure on the tree as I've seen others do in hopes the critter swims through looking for the source of the scent. Today was day 5 and nothing. I am trying to determine what a reasonable amount of time would be to leave the sets in there. The experience I do have with beavers is such that I would have thought I'd have something by now. Not sure what the matter is...these types of sets have worked for me in the past. I feel bad if I can't solve the guys problem. I know a number of things can happen...could the beavers have just moved on? Not sure if my customer will buy that. I hate to look like a bad trapper. Do I just offer a deep discount on setup fee and daily trap service fee if unable to make a catch? What would the seasoned experts do in a case like this? How often are you skunked and how do you handle it?

If he animal isn’t where you’re allowed to trap, you’re probably not going to get him until he decides to visit your area. It sounds like you were set up to fail if you’re only allowed to trap 100 yards of a “large” swamp.

I've been a NWCO for just over a year now. Not sure how long a wise trapper would leave the traps before pulling out. My hope is to see some activity within another 5 days or so. At that point I may have to declare the mission failed and move on. I wonder if it is common practice to alter the amount we charge when the critters are uncooperative and lack the decency to get caught in our traps? I charge a setup and daily check fee and then charge per animal caught. I know some guys just charge by the hour regardless. I'm wrestling with this one. I have worked very hard and spent time and fuel, yet I may not be able to solve the problem. Even if it's not my fault I feel funny sticking to my contracted fees. I charge $100 to setup and $40 per day to check since I am coming from a distance to do this work. If I trap 10 days and do not have a catch, that's $500 even if no beaver. Not sure what I should do.

Your time and expenses need to be covered. You can’t control whether an animal wanders by.

Give the customer the choice. Be straight with him. “Hey, the beaver hasn’t been by. I’ve done this, this, this and this to try to lure him over. He’s either not here anymore or he isn’t interested. I’m worried about costs going up without catching anything. Do you want to keep trapping?”

That's helpful. I appreciate your perspective. Happy trapping!

EatenByLimestone has good advise. Can’t catch what’s not there.

wws

I might add - you need to be able to confidently read sign. I have had a good many landowners tell me “there are a bunch of them!” and when I look things over, I can tell by the sign that there is only a single or a pair - and sometimes there is no fresh sign at all, and that is what I tell them. Beaver will show you if they are there, and where to catch them. They are not like a mink.

You may want to put out a few trail cams in suspected high travel areas to see if in fact you have any beaver in the area. At this point you are only guessing that they are not there. If you get one or more beaver on the trail cams you need to change your tactics obviously.

Take some fresh poplar...peel it a little and shove a few bait sticks along the waters edge.

They can not refuse a piece of candy

If the poplar goes missing...you have work to do .

Just slide a foothold under 4 inches of water...with a fresh piece of poplar behind it

Sometimes beaver are very smart.
I started my adc business cleaning up after government trappers….. stay off land
No conversational sets
No lure except what you catch in location
Never a dam break,,,,, first induction to the beaver that something is there.
Huts or back den,,,,, even if you have to manufacture a 15 foot stabilizer.
A boat is your friend for wise beaver