I meant the right one.

Nice beaver YJ, I haven't been on any ice this year how
thick is it down your way.

Nice put up on the otter beaverpeeler.

Anywhere from 3-6" in most places, but will be gone pretty quick I'm thinking.

Another nice female otter over the weekend in the same run as the big male last week. I love little narrow runs/ditches like this. This one fits a fully submerged Belisle 280 like a glove.



I keep a trail cam on a little duck pond not far from the house all year. It is frozen over pretty good right now. Got this ice skater on camera passing through




We are going to have to start an otter thread, I feel like we are hijacking the beaver thread

Nice catch and pic, otters are very welcome here!

Not the purtiest otter, leather-wise, but it was a dark furred one. It also stretched 47" which is about as big as I ever get around here.

Thumbs up!

Question for you seasoned guys about ice. Do beaver make pushup holes as the water freezes, or is it more of an otter thing (or muskrat for that matter)? I've noticed some bigger holes pushed up, 18" or so, at random. Then there are some smaller ones, 8" or so, every 6-8' in a line. Just curious of yalls thoughts.

Beaver will break ice when it first comes on and is not too thick.
A big beaver can likely bust his noggin thru a half to three quarter inch of new ice.
Sometimes they will do this to cut feed and sometimes it seems they do it to just take a look around or to get some air in their travels under the fresh ice.
When they do it to cut feed you will usually see a muddy ice slick up the bank to where they are cutting.
When the weather gets mild in spring you see the beaver coing out on the snow near dams to cut fresh feed where current has weakened the ice
If they run out of feed and cant get out from under the ice they will chew out the airhole on the house to get food.You will see the muddy trail in the snow from where they have chewed out the breather hole to the nearest willow bush,
Sometimes here we will also see a large blood spot on the snow at these locations where wolves have taken the beaver.
So yes beaver will come out on top of the ice when they can for various reasons at different times in winter.

What I've been up to the last two days. Getting fur ready for this Saturday's ITA sale in Idaho. Going to have to get out and catch at least one more beaver tomorrow for the skinning demo I will be doing Saturday afternoon.

Notice one of my biggest skinning admirers getting his mug in the pic!

I normally leave the tails on my beaver.... but the tails will find a home in Idaho and a new life as wallets and such.

I tried leaving the tail on a couple, but got tired of it flopping around and such. I cut them off. Looks like some good cat bait there!

Good work BP, good luck at the sale Saturday, it should be a good one. All my stuff is pulled and I am planning on setting up some new stuff this weekend

That reminded me of one time the game warden drove up to my place while I was skinning beavers. He watched me for a while and then took a close look at my tire tread. Finally he told me I wasn't the one they were looking for. ....Somebody had thrown a bunch of beaver carcasses into the river from a bridge. But all had their tails cut off. He saw that I didn't do that so I wasn't the culprit!

Lol, I'll keep that in mind.

I'm headed off tomorrow for the ITA sale in Glenn's Ferry Idaho. I promised to do a clean-skinning demo Saturday afternoon, so I needed to make sure I had a beaver to take with me. I rushed down to the nearby river yesterday afternoon ( a section I already trapped a couple of weeks ago) and put in six sets, figuring I for sure would have at least one decent beaver for the demo. (For me ideally I would choose a beaver that will stretch XL...not too big, but not a kit either)

So today I checked those sets and pulled them. Three blankets and one XL

Thought I'd add a couple of critters from Southeast Texas.

Nice catches.Your piling the beaver and otter up.

Same set as yesterday. Existing castor mound on a lake job. Should of had another otter but I didn't have the trap in the right spot. I corrected that problem.

Got the couple beaver off boards that I did awhile ago. Shop was cooler than usual and I think they came out nice. Not so papery.

Looking good newfox. I miss putting up beaver.