Cage Trapping Beaver

What would be a good bait to use in a cage trap for a beaver?

Please keep in mind I live in Wisconsin.

Thanks

No bait except for eye appeal(pealed stick, black berries,grass, mud,ect),,,,LURE........

The only 2 baits I've used for beaver are peeled sticks of whatever it is they are currently eating and apples.

Lures, of which there are many, seem to do the job a little better than bait.

So throwing some mud, peeled sticks, and backbreaker in the cage should work ok?

I haven't used Backbreaker myself but it should work.

What kind to trap are you using?

I am gonna have to use a extra large Tomahawk. I don't have any cage traps specifically designed for beaver.

If it wasn't for this job being less than a mile away I wouldn't even be doing it. To busy right now to spend extra time trying to learn how to cage trap a beaver. But since it is just a few blocks away I will give it a go.

I caught one this week like this! comstock beaver trap,some peeled sticks,mound of mud,backbreaker.found where they were frequenting nightly and made the set there,the next morning I had him.Its a castor mound set in a cage

You might want to try this. It should work with a pan if set in 2" to 3" of water. Put lure on grass wired to trap and made a dam break.

Caught this one today.Here is set.
Here is catch.

Here is another example that you might use with your trap. Set same, about 2to 3" water and place against steep bank. Put lure on inside- side or on bank side of trap and block access on water side as well as bank side. You might want the lure high so as to get him to put his wieght on the pan.

This was taken at the southeast rondi. Very effective in a creek or small stream.

Here is another set I just made with the trap in my first post. It had the smell of the beaver I caught earlier and I was afraid to use lure on a house set. This is a double door, but you could use a single doored trap. I might have used peeled sticks if I hadn,t just taken a beaver out of the trap. If set on bank away from den I probably would have used peeled sticks and then added lure on the sticks, if that didn,t work. Should work with a pan type trigger. I have found if the trap is 14 or more inches in height it works best. Width, when they are trying to be inticed in the cage, seems to be best if it is 14" or more. On a run it doesn,t seem to be as important.

Kirk very helpful.

I went and checked out the job and the beaver is climbing up a steap rocky bank to chew on the bark of a willow tree. Guys property really gives no good place to put a cage due to rocks going up the bank. I am just gonna use a snare on a drowner as it is the best option for the location.

great info kirk.would you set up a dam break set similar to the set in pic 1?

have you ever had a problem with them dragging sticks with them and jamming the door up?

By having a trap with a larger opening it reduces the chance of that happening.(A large trap will accomodate some debre) Also, by putting lure on grass or sticks in the back of the trap(inside) the beaver is more apt to investigate instead of carrying sticks. The key when using lure is to block off the trap in such a way that the beaver can,t get close to the lure unless he goes in the trap. Blocking and trap plcement is very important, as it is when using a body grip on a castor mound set.The beaver react basicly the same way.

If you use no lure on a dam set, you increase your chance for problems, especially if the trap has a small opening.

Here is picture from earlier post. There was a concern about debre.
I took the trap out for one night and set this trap the next night which was last night.
This is what the trap looked like when I left it.
Here is todays catch.
I am posting this to show the difference in set as well as to show backing is not needed in a dam set like this with a cage trap.This is the 6th beaver caught here. One was in a conibear, the rest were in cages. I have two conibears set. The beaver have been going around the conibears and getting caught in the cages.If I would have used footholds I think I would have had similiar success, except I believe I may have had a snapped trap or at least one miss due to the conditions for the set. (awful muddy and water depth is shallow)

In your situation it seems they never really used alot of wood to begin with because you have a very muddy bottom.I have a place this year that has a very rocky/sandy bottom so 90% of their damming material is sticks and debris.I can picture in my head a beaver dragging an 8 ft branch through the water by the butt right into that trap and 4 ft of it still sticking out the front.Has anyone come up with a way to set that trap in this situation? both of the traps pictured look like great traps, ( I have three of kirks traps,just not those)Just looking for different dam set options than the beaver traps I have.(two comstocks and a hancock)I try to keep conis away from the dam

Another good Option this Time of year, that dosen't add the territorial aspect of castor based lure, is to use a few drops of Popple Bud oil - or - birch oil. Many times these few drops of lure are the Ticket when trying to catch that Shy Old Adult.

330 mentioned castor, incredibly effective. It must be noted that lures, baits or attractants of any kind do not necessarily have to be placed inside of a cage trap for the traps to perform. In fact, I have found it better to do just the opposite, keeping trap and attractant separate, in proximity, but not together. When doing ADC work, like fur trapping, words like finesse, subtle, hidden, practical, versatile play an important role in how I approach each job. Size and weight are a big concern. Going back 20 years, Don Lefler had a really solid, well built cage trap for beaver, like those traps pictures above, just the trap was bigger and heavier than what I would use.


See the trap in the picture below? Barely, and that's the way I like it. No one else sees them either.

Cages take the worry out of potential conflict with kids and pets, while providing a great night's sleep for the NWCO and are certainly no lesser a device than anything else that is available for beaver work. Cul-de-sac catch with small dam break at a culvert.


Making it work in any environment with cages. Four for four first trip, five for five second trip, no misses, showing the effective nature of cages even working out of a canoe while breaking ice.



Another caged beaver in dam break. A small hole is all it takes and will in time will drive them nuts because they can not raise the pond without plugging "the leak in the cage."



No wiring, no stabilizing, , no lure or bait, just set, place and go.

We have so many turtles and the weather is warm until Dec so I make sets to draw the beaver through the trap off away from a main run. Here is one I caught today that way. I placed lure so the beaver would investigate. Set trap in ditch where wind would blow scent to pond.

First picture shows trap with beaver in it in the water(in ditch)

Trap placed on bank at location.

Trap with catch set on a run and just blocked off with log that was laying there.
Trap set in shallow ditch.
The catch.

Dulling pictures,,,,,,,,,LOVE IT.....keep up the good work!

Jim, I mentioned that castor is sometimes a detriment... and should be used sparingly on certain jobs... What I was bringing up was the less territorial essential oil of birch and popple many times out perform a castor based lure.

So Wednesday we finally got this beaver job started. I set the cage and tried to dig up some mud and of course the river in front of the house had no mud. So I had to go get mud from another part of the river and bring it in.

This morning I show up and look who was waiting for me.



Very happy to see it only took 48 hours to cage trap my first beaver. Now we just got 5 more to get.

Let's hope they don't freeze. Yesterday was the warmest Thanksgiving I can remember. It was almost 60 degrees. Today reality struck; 25 degrees.

330 is right on when it comes to castor as a deterrent when beaver get wised up to it. They will avoid it completely, never go near a set with castor of any kind if they have been pinched or may have seen several beaver caught at a castor set. Having different castor lures works well on beaver if you are catching and have not had a problem with a sprung trap, but if they are wised up, anything with castor in it, any brand or batch will have the same negative effect, a huge deterrent.

I do have some birch and poplar bud oil, but have not used them much, relying on castor or blind sets most of the time. I have a bottle of Bob Wilson's green beaver lure and have used a little food lure, but again have not used it much or had great luck when I did so can not definitively say if it is good or not. Wondering if there is some kind of food elixir someone has used outside of castor that is effective like castor where beaver are spooked to castor? Would love to have a dependable change up attractant I could do the same as castor.

Awesome looking sets there Kirk

Sometimes I just do not Understand you Jim, You can read... agree with someone, know the animal and then say "Wondering if there is some kind of food elixir someone has used outside of castor" Think about it! What does a Beaver Eat? as a Stand alone lure when going after fall feedpile binging beaver OR when they have been spooked by castor based lures ... and I will say it again... Popple Bud Oil or Birch Oil is as good as Anything ever thought up. and When using it, all that is needed is a couple well placed drops.

I guess I will remain an enigma, but thanks for your input just the same. Will definitely try it as I do have some poplar bud oil. I have always been very skeptical of food stuff having tried a couple of well known brands that garnered little in results. I did do well with a few poplar branch tips, but in summer they cooked in the sun quickly. Castor does so well most of the time I had expected or hoped for similar results from the food lures but it did not happen. Sometimes in the past when I asked about food lure I was referred back to that which I had tried and had not produced in the past, so kind of forgot about it and the reason for skepticism. There are sometimes attractants and there are lures people rave about, which is what I was hoping to find in a second sure fire lure for beaver when castor becomes a deterrent.

Now I don't want any of you to construe this as bragging because that would be as far from the Truth as you could get. While beaver are fairly new to my part of Wisconsin, ( We never got one single call this year ) I have never had a dissatisfied beaver customer that I know of.

I've probably trapped around a hundred beaver because they come up the Fox River from Illinois and the ADC guys in that state are about as good as they come. Because I know nothing about beaver, I set Conibears in runs, snares where I can, and footholds on drowner's in breaks in the dam.

On my very first job, I caught seven of them. ( I think the last one took me a month and a half ) No one has ever called me back ( which is free of charge for three months ) because I seem to have done the job. Since I'm too dumb to use attractants on beaver, maybe castor ain't all that necessary.

With my nuisance beaver calls I do a lot of what I call "mink trapping" of beaver. By that I mean a lot of blind setting, be it foothold/cage or snare. Most of the attempts to solve beaver issues around here include 330's and castor. Though never as well as castor on a fresh colony, poplar bud and birch oils have worked at times for me as food attractants/alternative lures. BUT, not all lures/attractants work the same for different trappers or in different areas. Sometimes it just comes down to what you've got confidence in. Might even be as simple as geography. How many northern Minnesota swamp beaver eat corn or build dams with the stalks? Very common here in Iowa. Same goes for Iowa beavers knowing what popple or birch are. The food sources here are corn/willow/soft maple/box elder/etc.

Very Good Imput hvtrapper. Confidence in a lure/ or method is something only learned from time on the Line.

Good thread

It is good Boco but even though it is only 5 years old, it is out dated. There is much more available, it just hasn,t been updated and shown. Maybe a new thread?

Is this archived??? If not I feel it should be.

Kirk, what would you add? Maybe we could add to this one and make it a super-thread.

put your cage with peeled sticks and lure in cage right next to willow it's feeding on.

wire to tree if you have bears or wolves, they will roll it away.

oops, didn't see it was old. bear with me I'm new at this on the internet thing.

still, it would work fine.

Allow detailed descriptions of advantages and disadvantages of new products. Show the old as they relate to what is new.

Bruce-"humptulips" has some. I know there is much more, such as designs with high speed guillotine doors. Cage trap design has improved dramatically in the last 10 years and it changes often.

Z-trap has a new beaver model. I saw it at the MN Trappers convention 2 weeks ago. It's very affordable

When buying a trap------------------

How well does it catch? What are its limitations?

I would think a trapper would want a number of traps ( cages or not), that could be used at as many locations that would arise. Maybe one or two of a different design for special situations. If the trap is "affordable" but is not the most effective, is it really "affordable".

Here is Neil's patent application.

This shows door that locks with falling rings on each side.

Is this the "Beaver Trap" you saw?


http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2017/0000105.html