Simple Beaver Lure...

Good Morning,

I primarily send my beaver castors to FHA, but have I been doing a little Castor based Beaver lure making the past couple of springs when I run low on my favorite manufactured stuff. I only use the ground castor, glycerin and some Vodka which does seem to peek an interest and I caught a few beavers using this quick recipe. I was wondering if anyone could suggest 1 or 2 more ingredients to see if I can peek the Beavers interest even more. I typically catch 30-40 beaver per year running traps on weekends only. I primarily trap on 4-5 private properties, a Lake Association, one private Hunting Club (spring only) and public river access.

Thank You,
Jeff

3 or 4 big drops of Sac. oil

Birch oil , not much ...few drops

Popped bud oil same

Make 2 or 3 types and test them .I use Peppermint schnops

A pinch of Grizzly Wintergreen chewing tobacco.

A couple drops of anise oil.

A couple drops of cinnamon oil.

As mentioned above, add some sac oil.

I have used popple bud oil, oil of anise, cinnamon, sac oil, and glycerin in with my castor in different amounts and it seems that they all effective. Sure smells good.

Shove a stick in a raw green castor and give it a twist. Never found a difference between that and any magic commercial lure. NO perfumes for me, most of my beaver work is nuisance and the last thing I want to find is a muskrat or coon instead of a $140 beaver plugging up a set. I'll switch it up to an all food based lure when they seem to be (or I made them) lure shy. Cinnamon and poplar oil.

I've never used anything other than castor in castor based sets. I used all the other scents in food based lures like poplar, anise, cinnamon, mint, etc. All this based on the idea that I got when I read Mr. Dobbins book Open Water Beaver and Otter Trapping. He seemed to say that food scents aren't natural with castor scent.

As seemed to be recommended in the book, a castor-shy beaver can be caught using sac oil on it's own, which I found to be true.

Like "Crit-R-Dun" and "Trapper 7", I have never used anything other than castor as a beaver lure. Generally it will be castor from a different pond or a mix of various beavers.

Poplar oil does attract beaver but also muskrats as well, which I don't like. For me 50/50 castor to sac oil. But I only trap beaver spring season when territorially activity is high.

Poplar bud oil works good alone at bait sets. Should work as an ingredient