Posted By: Nunyacreek
Beaver feet and innards - 04/03/23 05:57 AM
I don’t get a lot of beaver so I’m pretty careful to try to use all the parts, primarily for marten box bait. The meat and fat are easy, but I’m wondering about tails, feet, and liver, heart, and lungs. In the past I’ve just used whole feet and chunks of the tail, but don’t think the work as well as meat chunks. Anybody ever try grinding or chopping them to make bait that might smell a little more or be more enticing? Maybe it’s a waste of time. Also, same question with liver and other organs. Any ideas are welcome, even if the advice is don’t bother. Thanks!
Any & all of this stuff will work down in a dirthole
Posted By: CountryCletus
Re: Beaver feet and innards - 04/03/23 10:52 AM
What PA trapper said above! beaver feet seem to be the first thing taken from my carcass pile, but perhaps its because it's easy to grab and run... There is some merit to potentially having some different beaver scent in their feet, maybe like a hot pad in canines, but that's just a guess... Tails are great for beaver tail oil, if they are large you can skin them, flesh them and take to a tannery for tanning the tail and use the fleshings of the tail and the main chunk of inside stuff for beaver tail oil- or just chop them up in 1-1.5" squarish chunks and toss in a clean jar,
Posted By: Trappeur Gunny
Re: Beaver feet and innards - 04/03/23 10:57 AM
The hearts and livers are fine eating and make some fine boudin. But I try to save most of them and the lungs for September as alligators love them. It works much better than chicken quarters. I place cutup tail pieces in a jar and make tail oil, and the rancid tails are great for preseason baiting. You got me thinking of saving the heats, livers, and lungs from beavers and nutrias this season, as it would make fantastic bait.
Its hard to use beavers around here for bait. I have three families that have to drive on a access road through my property to get to their houses. Whenever I'm skinning they always stop to see what I have piled up. Beavers are always requested. I don't mind cleaning a couple for them as each one has given me access to their properties. The three properties are full of coons, mink and otters. It also gives me access to a small bayou you can only use a pirogue in, and its full of otters, mink and beaver. Its a good trade off.
Posted By: beaverpeeler
Re: Beaver feet and innards - 04/03/23 04:21 PM
The neighbors dogs and my own always grab beaver feet from under my skinning tables and haul them off, so you can imagine my surprise that a big pile of tainted beaver feet did not get molested at all in the high desert that is full of coyotes. I left the pile and came back a couple of weeks later and it was totally undisturbed.
Posted By: Boco
Re: Beaver feet and innards - 04/03/23 10:26 PM
Beaver that get eaten in traps by wolves and cats are opened up at the cloaca area and the guts,liver heart and lungs ripped out and hindquarters eaten first.
I freeze beaver carcasses whole,store them in a shed,and chop them up as needed.Some are frozen after being gutted as I often need buckets of guts to start jackpots before winter. I use fist size chunks of meat in the marten and mink box.
Feet tails and heads go in the gutbucket.
Sometimes I will use a half a head in a marten box.
Posted By: Nunyacreek
Re: Beaver feet and innards - 04/04/23 05:10 AM
Thanks for all the responses. Looks like I’ll save the feet and innards in bulk and just use for my regular bulk bait piles. Grinding sounds like a lot of messy work and I may not be brave enough for the boudin quite yet..
Posted By: Nunyacreek
Re: Beaver feet and innards - 04/04/23 05:13 AM
And I almost forgot - I sold green beaver skulls at our fur auction for over $5 a piece, so if the fickle green beaver skull market holds up… that’s where they’l go!