Best beaver trapping in the lower 48?

A friend and I were talking about this today, and it really got me thinking. What state/ states in the lower 48 have the best beaver trapping as far as numbers go? I said southern states like Mississippi, Arkansas, etc. He argued that New England states would be better. What are your guys’ thoughts? What would your top 3 states be? Thanks!

I think a lot of Southern states have year round trapping if you’re talking just numbers. I’d imagine your northern beaver have a better fur market value. Not a beaver trapper so I really don’t know fur value, just guessing.

I would guess Minnesota, Wisconsin and UP Michigan have lots of puddles and lots of habitat.

Land of 10,000 lakes would hold a bus load of beaver

And Maine too

Caught 49 out of 15 acre oxbow/swamp here in Arkansas one season. My best ever one area catch. What kind of numbers up north.

I'd say Maine and,Minnesota.
Lots of trappers in Minnesota for sure that trap a lot of beaver.

I know some fellas from up here that kill a lot of beaver in Arkansas and Mississippi.

In the 1980s there was an article in The Trapper by 2 guys trapping in WV. Caught well over 400 beaver.

I don't no about other states, but Michigan DNR at their December meeting said that Michigan is overrun with beaver,

Wisconsin has more lakes than Minnesota but Minnesota probably has more beaver would be my guess... Nessie- don't believe everything on a license plate- we were America's Dairyland once also

To my knowledge Maine and Minnesota offer the longest and most fruitful beaver trapping.

New Mexico, Arizona and Texas

North Carolina with a few cotton mouths thrown in.

To the topic at hand, I have no idea on the “best” and/or most numerous. I would guess some of the southern states would definitely be in the running.

As for comparing the number of lakes in MN and WI, this is an interesting read.

Happy trapping! ScottW

Caught one in a Girl Scout pond at a cement dam. Beavers were trying to plug the overflow. Pool was enclosed on three sides and fed by a creek.

Central NC

I’d say Maryland it’s close to water.

I think you might be referring to Thorpe and Comstock and they were in Va..over next to lake Anna...not WV.

WV does not have that beaver population and in the 80s we had a 25 beaver limit.



We don't have that kind of population even today. Our total state harvest is right at 1000 and we still have to tag them so we know the numbers.

If had tha kinda beaver population jerryd never go out of state to trap them..he wouldn't need to.

Louisiana and Maine would be our guess. Jerrys trapped Lousiana and said it was yhe highest beaver population by far he'd ever seen.

And.maine just changed their laws where you can now trap the dams.

Yes, but if you go up north and try to trap, the locals will pull your traps and leave you a letter telling you to clear out or they will leave your body in the swamp.

As for Maine, dam setting is only allowed is some zones.

"You are not allowed to set a
trap within 5 feet of a muskrat house, a
muskrat den, or a beaver house, and you
are not allowed to set a trap within 5 feet
of an active beaver dam. A beaver dam is
considered inactive if it is breached or is no
longer being maintained by a beaver and
shows no evidence of beaver activity.
The exceptions to this rule are that in
WMDs 1-6, 8-11, 18 and 19, there is no
required setback distance from an active
beaver dam or beaver house."

You know how this works. The bestest trapping is always.... always in "that other trapper's" area.

Maybe in MN. Not so in Maine. I have probably averaged more than 2000 trap nights for each of the past 13 years. To date I have had four traps stolen & with lots of snow anyone can find your traps there. My guess is that out of state deer hunter took my four traps.

I think the south has a pile of beavers. I've trapped beavers in the UP of MI, southern Maryland, central VA and by far the highest density of beavers I've been exposed to is right her in NC. I know someone here who caught over 1000 beavers a year for five years. And that was getting the last one at each site, not just skimming the cream. I know MS, AR, GA and AL also have large populations of beaver, but I've not trapped there, so I have no first hand knowledge of those states to compare.

Having gone to school in the great State of Cheese I heard this more than once. Based on everything I saw it didn’t quite add up and the USGS has my back on it:

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/which-has-more-lakes-minnesota-or-wisconsin/

I trapped SC for about 15 years and on a average caught around 250 beaver In 2 months. That's along with the live market and all the otter. Access was easy, we had farmers waiting at the house ready to take us to the beaver. If you were pulled over along the road checking traps when you came back out there would be some one waiting asking you to trap their beaver. Some times they would bush hog a trail right to the dam.

We never got paid to trap but we always had FREE housing. Some of the places were a bit on the rough side. But the boss said If 15 Mexicans could live in the house 2 white guys could make It work; LOL
There was a few G man trappers and one county trapper but I never ran Into any trappers. Heck the county trapper gave us all the beaver he caught. He knew were we trapped and he would just dump off his catch at those locations.

I miss It but at my age It's all over.

That's sure a bold (stupid also) statement to make! I've killed alot of beaver in MN and have never pulled anybodys traps or left any bodies in the swamp. I've killed beaver that were alive in others traps and thrown them off from the bank so that they were out of view of the public and predators bit never been a jerk about it. I've also had others do the same for me.

I would still trap in South because Its warm and your not dealing with ICE. LOL

NY’s Tug Hill Plateau and Adirondack Regions. I know multiple trappers that catch annually 100 + beaver each year in 2-3 weeks each fall.
And season is open all winter and closes April15. Plus, northern NY beaver always grade well.

These are NOT my pictures but some of these tough old MN boys pile up a few Beaver. You may even recognize a smiling face or two in the pictures.

Lots of Minnesota trappers that know how to trap under the ice!! Fall and spring beaver are only good for hatters.

I have never seen anyone write a note, but there are a few (small territory) locals that will sneak in , look at stuff and tamper, but that type person would never face you with a gripe. You'll have that about anywhere.

Jim Ronerud from Minnesota always attends our trapping convention in North Bay.
Jim takes hundreds of beaver each season most thru the ice.he is getting up in age nowadays but I heard he still produces lots of beaver.
Jim told me he remembers back in the day when Paul Millette from Hearst,Ont was brought down into the northern states(likely in the early 70.s) to show them his methods of taking beaver under ice.

Access and favorable trapping weather would figure into that call in addition to high populations.

Rally Hess has taken his fair share from under the ice too. That guy is a Beaver killing MACHINE!

I trap beaver in 10 counties from Fall through Spring and have never ran into one of these evil trappers throwing traps in the swamp and leaving threatening notes. Must be in Maine where this happens.

I try not to catch too many at once.8 a check in open water is all I would want to do.
I have clean skinned 30 beaver in a day a few times,and froze the skins to put up later.
Some guys do more than that I'm sure.

The rough skinning crowd are probably under 10 minutes a beaver (including extraction and care of the castors, oil sacs) Clean skinners that know what they're doing are probably around 15 to 20 minutes per.

I figure I can rough skin 5.5 beaver an hour, and can double it with help. The skinning itself probably half that time, and the rest is all the other work. When doing it for time I can skin a beaver in under 4 minutes.

I have skun 80+ in a day after working or trapping all day a few times with help. But much prefer to keep it around 24 a day.

You are an animal!

X2

Mike I watched your video and you CHEAT! A sharp knife? That is cheating.

Thanks for the video Mike.

Never heard of this
Plenty of beaver to go around up here, come on up.
Heck the last few years hardly anyone including myself has been trapping.

Best is Oregon but don't bother, I got the state covered!

Oh yeah. Everything piled up just out of sight on the first culvert where he went in. Note on traps clearly explaining the consequences of putting the traps back out. Palisade. Out in the tamarack swamps. Happened to a few others too. Police didn't want to deal with it.

Definitely a lot of beaver in Michigan. The Upper Peninsula is loaded with them.

If the opportunity ever came that we could use conventional methods of harvest i could without a doubt catch between 500 and 1000 beaver and easily over 100 otter her in the Commonweath, it would take the entire 5 month season and a lot of work but they are here!

Your state deserves lots of beaver.

hey boss there a lot more beaver up here now than went you were here in the 70s , also a lot less trappers , just saying , probably still more beaver down there ,

I'll bet that's true. Plenty of habitat for them up there. I was there from 77-83.

Can anyone tell me "of those states" where there are a lot of beaver, and-also where those states also border the ocean...

Are the surplus of beaver mostly near the coasts or not?

Example: ME, NC, MD, VA, MI (near the big water), etc.

That's called wishful thinking......in that State

Oregon borders the ocean and our coastal streams have a fair amount of beaver, but the Willamette river that runs through the interior western valley has probably more beaver per river mile because of superior habitat (lots of willow and cottonwood). Eastern Oregon has some beaver but desert is the dominant ecosystem. Our harvest has been dropping from around 10-12,000 30-40 years ago to barely over 1000 the last year or two.

Mike is being modest here since he does not tell of all the beaver he and his partner catch in a season. The year before last when we had decent conditions, he and his partner caught over 500 through the ice. This is a photo from several years ago with what I believe was taken of a one check catch. The work had just begun for them that day.



Here is another picture of their mixed bag to show the work ethic that they have. It is obvious that there have to be a lot of beaver in MN in order to accomplish these sort of numbers.

NOT true. The 2 states have differing criteria for determining what a lake is. If you use Minnesota's standard then Wisconsin isn't even in the game. If you use Wisconsin's criteria, well you really can't compete. Here is a good read on this subject. https://www.politifact.com/factchec...o-has-more-lakes-minnesota-or-wisconsin/