First Night, First Beaver

First year trapper here and I just want to thank everyone for the knowledge and wisdom this page provides to those of us who are new and wanting to learn how to trap. I've spent countless hours in the Archives reading on tips and techniques to apply and finally felt knowledgeable enough to come up with a plan to target beavers. I decided to go with the foothold drowning wire method and learned a great deal from reading tutorials and tips. One member specifically, Goldy, who has a wealth of knowledge. I personally don't know you Goldy, but thank you so much for tips on proper trap placement and just all of the knowledge you have provided on this site.

I decided on Sunday (1/22) it was go time and went with the Bridger #5 coil spring on a 10 foot 3/32 cable with L-locks. The setup was a castor mound set, approximately 15-18" from the water with guiding sticks on the edge of the bank. The guiding sticks were approximately 14-16" apart and looked identical to the one Goldy posted in "Beaver: Footholds with pics" in the Water Trapping Archive. With the advice and picture tutorial of Goldy, I landed on night one with a beautiful 17lb wood muncher and was able to catch it by the back foot. Perfect execution and all the credit goes to this site. The unique thing is the beaver tried swimming through the cinder block and lodged itself in it so I guess if the drowning cable somehow didn't work, the cinder block provided extra support. It was a remarkable experience and I just wanted to share my success story with those who helped me achieve it. God bless and thank you again.

Great job on a first night, first time catch.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Great work! It’s just the beginning! Nothing like the joys of a first catch.

You're Hooked Now Man!!!

Congratulations

Yup, you done went and done it now. No blackberry thicket or briar thicket will be to thick to keep you from getting in and setting for them. lol

Might as well add one of these to your trapping sled.

Try some beaver stew. I can't believe how many I feed the dogs before I tried them.. now they all get eaten if it's cool weather.

Great catch!

It's official...now ya got beaver fever.lol

Thank you. I'm already chomping at the bit for beaver #2.

Way to go, that's awesome!!! First night beaver is something you can definitely hang your hat on.

Might add a stop on the cable so a larger beaver can't pull directly on the cinder block. Not taking anything away from your success. Just a tip.

One person you need to pay more attention to is jbyrd. Extend your arms out for the photo so it looks like a 60 pounder.
Congratulations. You are now addicted.

Great job, you will be hooked!

And extra points given ...for the foothold / drowning rig..

Nice job !

WTG might want to add a little more weight . great job

Nice job

Oh boy, now you’ve done it!!!! You gonna be sucking eggs and chasing rabbits in no time!!! Just kidding!!! Congrats!! There’s nothing like your first one!!!

Way to go congratulations

I think Roy was Joking....

Great photo too. We all love the smile, good luck in the future.....jk

Congratulations now up your game and go to a 10 foot rebar drowning rig you'll be happy you did .

Congrats on your first catch! You'll soon find that the great thing about trapping is the 100th catch is just as fun as the first.

I don't. Sooner or later that type of block is going to cause problems. You need two of them. Three hole model 1 will suffice.

That's great! Keep after it!

I was thinking on this and honestly it's not a bad idea to add some more weight. Would you add another cinder block or find something heavier and not mess with two cinder blocks?

Congratulations

Thank you. Great point and I will look into a stop but I have a question and think I know the answer already but wanted to ask. Does a stop take the tension and force off of the cable around the cinder block and apply it more to the anchor point (24" rebar stake) on the bank? I appreciate all tips and welcome any advice/techniques to increase my odds of success.

No the stop will not let a beaver get its feet on the bottom so it dosen't have the leverage lift the weight up and drag it to shore. It's kind of like long chaining land traps so they can't pump the stake out.

That makes sense. I better get a stop on there pretty quickly then. Thanks for the info.

I use ONE brake rotor off a 3/4 ton Truck..

And i ain't NEVAH found a beaver waiting for me on the bank

I use 12" block, not 8" block. Most 8" block have some lightweight aggregate in them now and only weigh about 28-30 pounds. I have a couple dozen 12" architectural split face block that weight around 70 pounds, that's what I use. Standard 12's weigh about 48-50 pounds

A 3/4 ton truck brake rotor is better than an 8" block but not as good as a 12" block. The brake rotors off my 99 cummins weigh about 40 pounds.

I try to use the general rule of thumb that my drowner weight should match the weight of the heaviest beaver that I could catch. Hasn't let me down yet

That being said, I am no big numbers beaver guy and I'm not making 100 sets at a time with 70 lb block tied to the end of the string. Most of the time I only have 6 or 8 out for landowners having trouble. If I was running a hundred sets I would be using rebar or fiberglass rod drowners

Congrats on your first catch!

I definitely needed to add more weight and had planned on doing that today when checking my trap line, but looks like the beavers had other plans and demonstrated exactly the concern you guys expressed. Thank you all for the tips and I will be adding more weight to the drowning cable after I get this one dispatched. I'll keep you posted on the weight of this angry beaver.

I added another cinder block to my set and it worked perfectly on this 34lb beaver. I could tell it pulled the cinder blocks a bit, but it didn't make it to the bank like the first 32lb beaver I caught.

nice catch!