instead of sending in all my castors i was going to try making some beav. lure. never done it before, anybody got any tips on what to do?Does it work as good as store bought lure. Thanks

grind it up with enough glycerine to make a paste and add a small amount of 100 proof vodka to prevent mould,works great!

anise oil,bergamot oil,fennel oil, or valerian extract works well. i like using valerian with just a few drops of apple oil. i used this castor mix in some dirt hole sets for a change up. the cats liked it to.

Ground up castor, a little nutmeg, maple syrup. Beavers love it.

Mineral oil floats on water, when they cover the castor at a mound set it rises to the top. This will give you multiple passes over the trap.

Easiest way to make lure is mix the sack oil with the castor. It does not get the same plow down everything in its path responce as Backbreaker but works well.

1.Grind up a couple semi-dry castors, or chop them...
2.Add some Sac Oil, but only a squirt or two...this can overpower the whole lure if too much is used.
3.a Cup of Glycerine added to make it Thick Paste texture..add until it is Thick but not runny...
4 Capful of Pepermint Schnopps...one bottle should last a lifetime.
5. Add some Birch Oil, Or Popple Bud Oil... bergamot oil etc.
6. Teaspoon of Sodium Benzoate.. Preservative.... I use it, but you don't absolutely need it.

Mix it all together and Use. You can split your batch in Two before adding the last ingredients and make Special trial batches with different Oil extracts... I buy them from MTP because they are Pure. and they Work!!! Write your ingredients down with a permanent marker on Tape to the side and top of each Jar... or name it and number it with your recipe on a card in your shop... keep track of your catches... Making your own change up lure is Super easy, and Fun... most of all you have all you'll ever need.

Sometimes in the Fall when the Adults get wary in a colony if you haven't caught them the firs couple nights. You can make a Feeding station slide set using their own small white feed sticks. Only Use a squirt of Birch Oil OR Popple Bud oil to the mud allowing a couple drops to get in the water and create a slick.... Complete your set Using Non-Castor lures allows for me to catch many Wary Adults, that won't come near Castor Base lure anymore

thanks evyone, i will try my luck on a few different creations

I agree with 330-trapper,caught a lot of my beaver this year on their own peeled stcks, mud and straight poplar bud oil,letting it drip down the stcks into the water

I use "cheap" red wine with some of the listed ingredients

cheap red wine for an extra smell Vinke? or a larger quantity to make it more freezeproof? Cuz I add the Peppermint Schnopps just a capful for Smell... just wondering

There really is no secret to beaver lures like there is with canine, bobcat, mink and weasel lures as examples. The main essence of beaver lures is the castor which ground and something like glycerine or sac oil added to make it sticky will catch beaver. Adding some extra appeal like the things that have been mentioned like nutmeg, cinnamon, valerian, birch oil, etc can make for appealing to a wider interest by the beaver. Some of the secret added ingredients is what separates the run of the mill beaver castor based lures from the exceptional ones. asa

I have found some good food lures (most overlooked lure in beaver trapping) by experimenting with preserving "summer" beaver diets and jazzing it up a bit....

I'll go a different way with this...when I first started trapping i bought a 4 oz bottle of one of the major lure maker's beaver lure. After using it for several weeks I began to refer to it as my "beaver repellant". Once I learned to make my own there was no going back.

But one day I ran into an old beaver trapper on the river (originally a coon-as from Lousiana) who used a liquid beaver lure that he kept in a gallon jug. It was so strong I could smell his sets as I went past them in my jon boat. Ever notice that real beaver mud pies are overpoweringly strong? Well I also noticed he always had a pile of beaver in his boat and that if I went past his sets before he did his wires were almost invariably stretched out into deep water.

Long story I know, but when I started to mix up castor like he told me... my beaver catch tripled overnight. Twice I have taken over 500 beaver in a season with this method.

Here 'tis: Take a FRESH full beaver castor of a male beaver and chop it up into pieces in a gallon water jug. Make sure any juice is not lost. Add a couple of squirts of beaver oil. Add a quart or so of luke warm water and shake it up vigourously. You're good to go. Make your mud pies and dribble on a copious amount. As you catch beaver milk off some of the juice from their vent that would probably spill out anyways during skinning. It's getting better every time you do. Sometimes I will use two or three castors. (Always male). I smell the castors and go for the ones that have the creamy mustard colored effluent. They work the best. Also this is open water trapping of course. If you're in freezing weather I'd go with s simple paste with ground FRESH beaver castor and a little oil.

By the way, I've experimented with poplar oil, and all the other little extravagant smells. I find they add nothing to my catch and actually may detract.

Happy trappin' pardner!

Beaverpeeler: Did you ever try adding vodka or everclear instead of water and let it tincture a while, it really brings out the odor of castor. Asa

Beaverpeeler mentioned something that matches a trick I use. I keep some paper napkins in a zip lock bag handy when trapping and skinning beavers. If the vent starts leaking I use the paper to wipe up the leak and keep these to lure traps. A small piece stuck in a hole behind a trap at a slide will catch a number of beaver before you need to relure. Also works in a dirt hole for canines. I have also had success with saving the last few inches of fecal contents for caster mounds. This material has a fairly strong beaver smell on its own.