The big river near home produces some if the nicest castor around in my opinion...






This last shot shows some Willamette river castors (left) next to some coastal Oregon castors.

The 387 gram shot is semi-dry castor...just as I sell it. (454 grams to the lb) Takes about 5-6 days in my drying room and done.

Oh wow those are really good size. Do you sell or make lures with them.

Sell 'em all. In some years I've made more off the castor than the pelts.

They sure look nice. I ground castor today. I ended up with two 5 gallon buckets full of ground castor. After washing up, I still smell castor on my hands. Love that odor.

Does ten gallons of ground castor fulfill your needs for a year Paul?

...I'm thinking that was likely a silly question...LOL

Lol, not even close. Last year I used 538 pounds of castor.

That’s full blown castor porn! Never have I seen that nice of a batch.

Pelts were much sexier….but good job!!!

Our's are the ugly shriveled up black looking things. Pine sap makes them smell EXTRA strong like turpentine, lol.

All I can say is WOW! I can't get my head around that much castor.

That much castor Paul can fill up his grandkids wading pool, get a rubber duckie and swim in the stuff.

So do I.

That’s some darn sexy castor…

Holy Donna! Wicked!

Thats great looking castor mine look like the last 5 on the wire as far as color goes.

Dang,,, you make some good cash selling lure.

bp: That is some nice looking castor!

Paul: Love the smell too!

In the 1988/89 season, fresh out of the Army, I got back into trapping in a big way. I had a hiatus during my hitch. Not much trapping around Schofield Barracks. Fur prices were terrible. No one was trapping much at all in my area. A game warden asked me if I wanted to trap a section of a local river. Lots of beaver and all private ground. He introduced me to all the landowners and I got permission from all of them. The beaver sign was everywhere and I ended up taking 88 beaver that spring. I sold about 40 of them in mid February and kept going until the end of season. I was saving all the castors and hanging them over a closet dowel I’d hung up in my fur shed.

When the season ended and I got the last hide off the boards, I headed up to one of the fur buyers in the area. Actually a couple hour drive away. As a last minute thought I grabbed 60 of the castors. I kept the remaining 28 for myself to make lure. At the buyer I presented my fur and he made his offer. It was disappointing but in line with what I had gotten previously. I asked him if he wanted to buy any castor. His eyes lit up. I brought in the box and set it on the table and his eyes got really big. Some how I had accidentally handled them perfectly. I forget what the box weighed or how much he paid me but it was more than double the fur check. I’ve saved every castor since then. Sold a lot of them and used a lot of them in lures.

Was that in Idaho Marty?

When castor was going for $90-$110 a lb I was making about $15-$20 per beaver on castor.