To lessen the chance of spooking other beaver, which is best procedure when setting a new site?

1) use footholds on a drowner rig...so caught beavs will go down and drown..outta sight/outta mind?

2) use footholds on long chains...so live beaver will attract others?

3) use snares (with extensions)...so beaver can get in water and attract others?

4) use bodygrips with extensions...so beaver can flop into deeper water..outta sight?

I have the best & most consistent results with footholds on drowner rigs, but other good beaver trappers use long chains or long snares and swear by them for repeated/continued catches.

Others like a bodygrip with a dead beaver and see no issue with spooky beaver.

Which ya'll think is the least intrusive to an observing beaver? The commotion of the foothold-caught, snare-caught, or bodygrip-caught beaver??

I'm with you, though I have seen the attraction of a live one and gang setting. The problem with a live one is that it's a one trick pony that alerts the entire colony. Best live has been in cages.

I'd rather slide in and make them "disappear" with footholds on drowners.

I've caught multiple beaver at well used crossovers using snares. They would get spooked of the crossover and start crossing over in a different spot. Just move snare and catch them there. Overall though you probably wouldn't go wrong choosing footholds on a drowning rig.

Bodygrips in a channel don't really seem to spook beavers much, but that's if you can make that set. Seems like a dead beaver on dry ground can spook other beavers somewhat. Never tried a live trap cause bodygrips don't leave holes in the pelt. All the holes in my pelts are hand made.

If I am on a ADC job I use footholds on a drowner every time if I have enough water. Body grips would probably work most of the time but I worry there might be a trap shy beaver and I don't want it to know I am trapping.

I'm always time limited (fuel costs) and a lot of sites here have a very narrow area with most of the locations in these thick piney flatwoods being right there or nowhere. The beavers refuse that location after the torn up area left by a snared beaver. But, I've used your method where it presented itself and the beavers showed me another spot b4 I pulled out.

Bodygrip in a channel (submerged) is good for outta sight/outta mind (after the catch), but my experience is that the channel location is killed too....for a few days anyway. Channel locations get used up quickly.

And I need to catch all the beaver....

Yes....I've leaned strongly in this direction too....footholds only.

All my beaver'in is ADC.

Bodygrips can be efficiently used down here only in winter.....turtle and otters...and an occasional gator, ruins the location fast in warmer months.

I need to spend the money and buy 3 or 4 beaver cage traps. May help me grab the local colony faster at some spots. I get many jobs where I can drive close to the set locations (or by using the SxS).

Keep the comments coming. Im always learning.

Watching a few of Dale Billingsley's YouTube videos got me to thinking about this topic.

Cliff Notes: Dale likes long chains & smaller footholds. And longer snares.

Beaver are stupid until they learn.
A near miss on any set is what they learn from.
Lure is probably number one on education in a miss….
A beaver in a long chain that made it to land is going to leave lots of sent.
A beaver that got slapped going under a dive pole,, is going to swim around if possible.
If the female is the last beaver, in my experience she will move upstream to a old den.
Always a good idea to set the exit points up and down if the area allows.
Kits will be far away in late summer building their own dam, if the water shed allows it.

Good info Vinke!

I've seen some of these beaver responses over the years.

Can’t go wrong with option #1. Sending a beaver down to Davy Jones Locker. They can’t be seen, won’t get bit up, and won’t be slapping their tail to spook other beavers. I don’t see live beavers in a trap as an attractant. More like a target. Drowning reduces the likelihood of theft, and done right, you’ll have nearly zero beaver escape. I haven’t had a live beaver in a trap in my last 150 catches.

If I can’t drown a beaver with 95% certainty, I’m not setting a foothold there. My buyer doesn’t pay for toes and feet.

I go back & forth from setting up a new job with no lure (pinch points, crossovers, dam breaks, etc) and then sparingly using sac oil at remakes as the days go by to setting up a new job with a castor based lure and all remakes with a little sac oil.

Some sets never get touched (both blind & lured), so after a few days there is a mix of sets. Like a lot of trappers, my lure inventory is well stocked. I keep about a dozen different commercial beaver lures on hand. And I make my own castor tincture and sac oil tincture. I also save the sac oil from brood females and keep it seperate for use.

I've had em get bit up pretty bad at the end of a drowner (probably occurred b4 it drowned). I've also been leary of the attraction of a live beaver in a foothold or snare. Other beavers sense the danger by seeing that caught beaver.

I dont have to deal with theft, but out of sight down in the water is always better.

I still snare several beaver annually. Some sites scream "SNARE!"

Sometimes those sites are in the water (between trees) and others are easily blocked crossovers with good anchoring available.

I got that vid “Teachers of the Night”…..if you google it, make sure to add “trapping” or you’ll get other cool videos. It’s all night videos of how beavers behave around sets at night. I thought he set a couple footholds, one short to keep it alive and the other on a drowner. Can’t recall, I’ll watch it again and see what he did.

The last 2 years I've used dales long chain/cable options and love it have caught multiple big beaver in the same sets.using earth anchors #3 bridger and 10ft of cable it's light weight and easy easy I make the beaver come to where I want to catch them.

Option #1 has been my favorite. I love having one down at the end of my drowning rod and seeing signs of other beavers continuing to work that caster mound throughout the night.

Thanks for the tip on that!