spring beaver !!

who's out trapping them. we got 6 on first check, lots of ice and no water , very dry spring so far , let hear how you guys are doing ,

I’m done tomorrow here in Pa. I think I have 36. Lost about a month here do to deep snow, ice, and high water.

Got a couple jobs for friends, caught 2...nothing but an aggravation! I did start a new pond today though, fingers crossed!

Nice catch!!

Water is down in the dams here too. Snow is gone so unless we get lots of rain they will stay low unless they are on bigger streams.

WTG off ti a great start.

Still waiting for the phone to ring.......

Setting up a new river this weekend.

I'm thinkin about it

raining today ,and rain coming tomorrow, so this should get them moving

First time with spring beaver in my zone. Caught two males yesterday both so bit up I couldn't believe it. Probably 15 bites and slashes on each one. Pulling sets tomorrow. Fur still good but hides are terrible with that much damage. Seeing as these hides are for my personal use I'm done till fall. I had a good season

Into the flood again!

On em!

Caught a huge female and very large male out of 2 snares set on one creek yesterday. This is the 3rd section of this 1.5 mile creek I have removed beaver this season. 1 section yielded 8, the next 6 and now the 2 at the very western end. Rained pretty good yesterday and more in the forecast. I am ALMOST caught up with 7 days left.

Maybe I should clarify my response. This creek flows from a small lake, that is where the 8 came from. The next 6 came from section of the creek 1/2 mile down where a retention pond drains in. The the two I caught yesterday originally were from across the road in another creek but were dredged out earlier. Their dam on this creek was removed a couple weeks ago but they stayed, they had plenty of water and trees.

Spring was always my favorite time of year to trap beaver.

I am trying it for the first time ever. Have caught 5 so far, 1 good sized(47#) male and then 4 yearlings(15-19#). I wouldn’t know what to do with 4-5 at a time!! The smaller ones are much easier to process!

12 in the last 8 days including some biggins.

I am going to start setting on Friday...can't come quick enough!

Got my first nuisance job of the year on Friday. Actually had another call, but he wanted me to do it for free.

Are season ends March 31, i was able to get some sets out first 10 days of march.

Ended up with 6 beaver with 330's the river is'nt deep enough to drown them. Not many around these parts, find some about every couple years to trap.

Mainly doing ADC trapping on the river for the farmer i work for.

got a few more yesterday, got some nice size castor ,

Remember in the old days when we took photos of those beautiful put up beavers?

Today we admire castors and carcasses with the back straps cut out. Crazy how things change.

That’s a dandy set btw!

^^^ that's for sure nimzy. Them some fine castor's TD

12 so far. All for nuisance control. Several 50-60 lbs.
Let's hear it for RTS setters!!!!!!
Seven days left in the season.

Still waiting.

Try slicking it down from the water up a ways on the bank.

Things are just thawing out here. Going to check a few places this weekend.

That won’t be necessary.

Well he slicked it down for you!

All but done for the season. Got one yesterday, he’s drying on the board now.

That’s a lot of work.

We picked a few up the last week of our season. The boy finally wanted to go at the very end of the season.

I'm setting in a couple of days where the beavers have built a lodge on a pontoon boat.

Get some pictures of that. Kinda like prefab beaver housing.

Looks like a lot of work, but very well done!

X2, that would be interesting

Spent the week up in NW Wisconsin and ended up with 21 in total, I was walking on ice when I got up last week and it’s all gone now. They were replacing poles on the powerline in one area where I trap several properties so that made getting around a lot easier. We sure need a later Muskrat season- ended up with 5 incidentals, bonus was a nice black beaver. Those days in the high 50's felt nice!

Nice black one. What size?

Never weigh him but probably 30-35 lbs

Eagleye I like that black one!

Nice week, good black one. Best I have seen for awhile.

Here ya go Nimzy.

nice job guys , great black one eagleye, great put up bigbrowie, I'm headed out today on a trap check

I hope you get another nice haul, good luck!

Good luck out there TD

Glad to see some guys still handle those trophies. Some of my favorite times in the woods was chasing beaver in the spring. Good for your soul (hard on the back)

Nice,Thats a true black-no brown on the cheeks.

well it got cold and ice over here , but i got 4 beaver an 3 rats ,
headed out the door to skin and go check and set

On my way out right now. The river came up a foot so I raised everything the day b4 yesterday. Probably going to lower them all today.

got two more today ,only check 3 traps , put in more traps , will check again Monday

How many are you aiming for Dahlgren?
It dont take long to pile up some beaver in spring if you got lots of locations.

boco , I've only got about two more weeks to trap , then I will be gone out of town, so I'm trying to get thru the people, that I said I would trap beavers for, so as many as I can

Two outta 3 is awesome TD! I got 5 Beavs and a Muskrat out of 13 traps today. Water dropped a foot so had to lower everything.

We’ve been at it for a couple weeks. Best day was 5. There is no money in the fur but the castors are worth going after

Got 6 more today. Thought I’d have them thinned out by now. Was having a beer with the boy down at river after I was unloaded and a big adult swam up on the sand bar right in front of the boat and started to make a castor mound. The things you see when you don’t have a gun. Lol

Trapset- What river in Nebraska or does that give away your honey hole...?

headed out to check traps in a few minutes ,have a ride along today so hope some moved before this cold ,good luck everyone , the wife is going to check our one line by her self today ,a first for her , wish kim luck

Good luck Kim, you have a good teacher you know how to do it right!

Never seen this before. 48# male.

TD That's awesome, divide and conquer!! Hope Kim does well!



It's the Elkhorn River Non PC. We live on it so it kinda ends up spoiling me a bit. Pull the wagon right up to the boat, leave the boat in, drive 4 wheeler up to shop.

That’s the snub nose model.

He was in the cooling pond for fuel rods!

I missed that pic b4. Never seen anything like that. Had one with a deep ring around base of tail I assumed was from wire or an old snare.

Never seen stub tail like that, see. Ones with like cut tail many times

But that one doesn’t look like the notch is cut, more like it grew that way. That’s how it looks to me anyway. Should get honorable mention in the T Man Beaver Tail contest. Lol

only two today everything frozen , tonight temp. in the forty's,50s for a high tomorrow, then the bottom drops out , 9 at night an 29 for a high ,Wednesday an Thursday,

Hey TD how did the wife's first solo check go yesterday?

TD:

Just got back from checking, still have ice on, nothing showing on the banks, with the cold weather coming it will freeze back up pretty tight over here

Gonna be another week or so here before good access for open water.
Could get a few pressure sets in at the dams but not worth it without a few castor sets along with it.

the wife [kim] did great , first trap she came across a set of bear tracks , she did not have a gun so she was a little upset , but did the whole line by her self , she didn't get anything

all set to go out tomorrow morning , got a bunch of traps out of storage 2 dozen got a bunch of calls , yesterday ,

Season ends here tomorrow. Scraped 2 today and I'm done.

season goes thru april here

I could have regaled y'all with my beaver trapping but it's spring beaver trapping all winter here. Wasn't sure that would be fair.

Anyway, our season ended March 15th. I've been taking it easy last few years. 193 last year and just 120 this one.

Glad to hear TD!
Got 5 more today and going to pull tomorrow. Got 29 so far and should make my goal of 30 for the week unless something goes real wrong tomorrow.


Ol Sue is eyeballing the carcass pile we hucked on the way out. Their his favorite but gotta watch it cuz it really puts the pounds on him.

Great pic!

I am also done. Recaught one today, been fretting him getting away (snare), but he's in the freezer now! Happy trapping!

Thanks brownie.

Put another batch of backstrap jerky in to marinade tonight. Got everything on the boards except for the 5 from today.



I love this set up for boarding and take off. It’s an old swivel chair with top removed and a couple trim boards screwed on sides. Sits on trash can for great height and easy to throw scraps and staples away underneath. You stand in one spot and rotate the board when on and offing.

I like that, thanks for sharing!

I got a table just about the same. Sure does save time doesn't it?

Oh yeah, I love it. Do you have kind of a lazy Suzan deal peeler?

The 44” height helps my back out too, which has taken a beating this week. You could actually adjust most of these type chairs up and down to find what works for you.

It was a thrift store table that I bought with a single bottom support post. I sawed the post off and put a swivel brace on it from a bar stool and then bolted that to the underside of the table.

Did the same thing with my skinning trough.

It means I can both skin and put up beaver without having to move around a table or trough.

WTG trapset , your a head of me this cold weather is killing my line , signal digits tonight , think I'm at 16 , would like to get to 50 , firday its going to warm up ,but we need rain to get them moving ,

beverpeeler post some pic ,

You’ll pass me for sure TD. I’m heading out to skin a couple then gotta work a few hours then pulling, today’s the last day of season. Should end up with 30ish. I have a dozen or so to add to them from the fall.

That’s funny peeler, I was just looking at my boarding set up and wondering if I could rig it for swivel skinning as well. I’ll have to give it a go next year.

Our last day here. I have 2 snares set and a 330 set on a small creek that dams have all but washed out. Yesterday I caught a nice sized male at a 1 of the snare sets.

Big zero today. Well that is it for this season!

Headed out to pull, just as soon as the Aleve kicks in. Stupid back, may have to jump start it with a CC bump.

Got 5 more today and pulled everything. At my last set yesterday I was pretty much out of Backbreaker. I put a little river water in my jar and shook it up to get all the dregs. I dumped the works on the bank above the trap. Boom, last Beaver on the last of the Backbreaker, 50 pounder. LOL!

wtg trap setter, ratbrain what was your total catch this spring , I set a new location yesterday a river with at lease 4 house den an a lot of feeder den , I counted 24 holes in the side of the river , I have never seen this much sign , hopefully they are still there :), I will check this place tomorrow

That’s how my river looked this year TD. I haven’t trapped them very hard the last few years maybe that’s why. Have never caught that many in such a small stretch of river before. I usually have to keep moving up or down stream every few days. Good luck out there!

Pulled my gear yesterday and ended up with five more beaver. Ten total out of this area here in northeast Michigan in about ten days, not bad for not having any sign around. Gotta love spring beaver trapping, all there moving around and traveling gets them into trouble. Had a couple otter come through and pooped on one of my castor mounds to show me who's boss around here.. As usual had a great time in the woods with my dad anyway and didn't get any ticks on us this year which is a bonus.

Finish two a day. Takes an hour each day if you keep at it every day. Some of my properties are hunting camps and I always ask them if they want the pelt, most say yes....jk

Looks like you had a good time. Are you tanning them em?

Jim how long are those stakes?

Trapper Dahlgren-- Our creeks mostly have pairs on them however I had a location that I caught 12, one I caught 10, one I caught 8 and another 6.
The small channel I caught 12 I also found a dead one floating one day.

I know of some who will use the empty jar and lid for sets.

"How long are those stakes?" My rebar stakes are nine foot long. I have 11 gauge wire running from top to bottom for my CDR'S to slide down. Seems like I've had better luck using the wire compared to just running a piece of pipe down the rebar, but either way works I guess. Matt.

Having an awesome spring season. 41 so far. First line of 22 traps produced 20 beaver and 4 muskrats in two checks. Second line of 20 traps produced 10 beaver on first check. Pulling that line tomorrow. Third line of 26 traps produced 11 beaver and and three otter. Partner and I pulling that line on Saturday. The last couple of nights have been really cold, so I do not know what the final result will be. Hoping for 50 total.

6 so for for us. A couple misses and a couple coons on the drowner castor mounds. Been pretty good for only a couple sets out.

I’m planning on sending the jar, and lid, back for a re-fill.

I’m going out of town tomorrow so my plan was to just skin the five from yesterday and put them in freezer, then board the 5 I skinned yesterday. Ended up skinning 5 and boarding all a
10. Good feeling to have them all boarded.

I made a staple puller out of a gasket scraper from Menards. Just ground a “v” in center and slide pliers along for fulcrum. Works great.

wtg guys ,I'm looking forward to todays , running the long line today for the first check of it , should a good long day and the wife is coming with :), hopefully everything is not frozen up , been some cold nights again , 15 out right now

I just saw this thread, lol, no time to read it at the moment though.

well it was a long day , lots of ice on ponds an slow moving creeks , low low water on river's , only got three beaver and 3 rats , something ate the biggest beaver ,a female with 6 baby's inside her, something pulled it out of the water with stand and ate the rib cage off but not stomach, it could not get it all the way out of the water , had a trap stolen on private land , I was cutting out glands of beaver that was eaten , slipped and put knife thru my chest waders and into my leg , my leg is fine , had 7 traps trip [330] on one site , don't no if it ice or people ?

Thats a rough day on the line.
Did you re-set or pull.
If your traps are all sprung again next check likely someone playing around with sets.

Rough day indeed. Looking at your pics I just thought back in March I DID NOT catch 1 muskrat in a 330. And this spring season I set more 330s than I usually ever use. Tomorrow will be better TD.

A couple of mine from earlier in the week. I got 9 at this spot. They obliterated the shoreline. There's a bank lodge in that debris behind me. I never was able to find the main den entrance, but I think I managed to get 'em all. I wouldn't doubt more move in this fall. The biggest was 55# and 3 were only 16 pounds.

Dahlgren, I like how you set them on a milk crate to dry them out

WTG trapper dahlgren, you have even managed to get ole trapper Les to post, haven't seen you post much lately Les.

A good stiff fur comb will rake those staples out 8 at a time. Very fast

Stolen traps in the middle of no where.....I hate when that happens

well todays another day , got to go to a trapper's meeting to , so wont get many traps check maybe a few on my way home ,

TD I hope things are way better today!

I used a comb for years and it was fast. Last few times i tried it it just kept bending. I switched staplers a few years ago, maybe it’s too strong.

That sucks about the stolen trap TD. Are you sure a Beaver didn’t pull your stake?

All traps pulled. Final pull was interesting to say the least. The water went down so fast from no rain and the cold days, had several 330's totally out of water. All were several inches under water when set. Had a couple of beaver and an otter that were out of the water. I believe they were caught before the water dropped so much. Thankful that a coyote or bear did not get to them and drag off. Partner and I ended up with 51 beaver, 6 otter, and six muskrats. Spring trapping is all about timing and it was perfect this year. I know season is open until April 23, but tagged out on otter and there are way to many in the area we trap. Left plenty of beaver for next year. Retiring in a couple of months, so already excited about next year.

Brother I would say almost assuredly that it was a cat that ate through that beavers ribcage! I have had that happen to beaver I have caught in all regions of the country and every time it has been a cat! Most of the beaver were caught at a dam spillway and easily plucked up on the dam and a hole through the ribcage and generally just the liver gone!

trapset I'm going back on that line monday , bring another guy with me , to see what he things went down , GJ , it could be a cat ,would have to be a big one , wish i had a trail camera with to put there , get ready to go pull a line today ,

Don't know if any of you guys are incorporating floats into your beaver trapping agenda but I put one out in front of my house on Thursday and have caught a beaver in it every night so far. There is still too much ice on the lake to get to use my trapping boat yet so I am content to just watch this one trap from my window. It's the only float that I built but it produces at least a half dozen beaver for me every spring. Nice that it does not involve any travel on my part.
You can see last night's beaver partially floating just to the left of my old float.

I like that. Looks like something even I could make.

Nice. I have the material in my shed to make 2 floats. 'Keep saying I am gonna do it but didn't get it done this Spring.

mnman looks good , one guy up here use them a lot he does real good, on the big waters with them ,

I'm headed out in a few minutes , try to be at first set a day light , long day today ,going to start pulling some , pulled one line yesterday , got nothing water is real low ,

Best thing I ever did was make a few. Set them at roadside end of culverts for quick checks and easy hauling.

well today went good had a ride along to help pull traps , only have one spot left for one more check , water is so low that a lot of bank dens are out of water , no beaver moving , hopefully we get some rain or the farmer will be in trouble ,

Cool pic, luv it! Perfectly lit

headed out today to pull the last of my spring beaver line , wish me luck , photo's to come

Good Luck, water is way up in the rivers here.

Good Luck TD!

Go get em!

well pulled the last of the line 22 traps , can't figure it out ,don't no if someone beat me to this spot , should have been a lot of beaver here , by the sign here , 5 bank dens , and 15 feeder dens , in about a 1/4 mile ,they leveled about two acers of 3-5 inch aspen last fall , here some pictures







I was thinking 12 beaver easy , and still some left for next year , got one big beaver and 4 from last year this is on private land but people snowmobile the river

there was a feed bed about 500 feet long this winter, the spring run off took most of it down river

Strange, looks like pretty fresh sign.

TD Any fresh mud on the banks or light brown poop on the bottom of the stream, or is the current too strong?

Just set a couple of days ago wearing regular rubber boots to know checking with hip boots with the rain we have had. Body grippers set in runs are now all under knee deep water. Huh!!!

current to strong , ratbrain, i will check this spot this fall and summer

Thanks for sharing Trapper Dahlgren looks like you had a good season.

I had 2 locations this spring the beaver vacated, they left a mess but were gone.

TD....did you shove any poplar sticks near the waters edge .....to see if there were any takers ?

yes nessmuck , had a foot hold sprung , they got a free meal :D, but would not come back , I will get them in the fall