I am in the deep swamp now...and....?

I hit the deep swamp now and there are so many trails that I can't possibly set them all. I have been looking for the highest probability locations, I got 14 traps out today and I came across an area that was an island, still is sort of lol, trails crisscrossing all over the place, beaver are using them and so are otter (I believe) and I have seen muskrat toilets on the logs etc but the water is only 2 or 3 inches in most of these trails. What are they doing in a place like this? There is next to nothing left to cut down and no fresh cuttings, yet there is chewed sticks all over the place. Is this just a summer/early fall eating spot? is it worth setting? I can't use footholds on drowners because there is not enough water to drown one in, 330s will work and so will snares but after 2 beaver are seen dead I am sure they will stop using it?

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Guy on the Shed has 6 #4 Jumps for sale, not a great pic, but they all look to have removable teeth on them.

Run footholds on drags like Mr Dobbins does, at times, and dispatch them.

Pre-hook the drag too, of course.

Sounds like they're going there to eat in peace.


When you say there's no water deep enough for drowning, does that mean there isn't any within 25 feet, or are you only talking about the immediate area? Adjustable drowners can reach a deep hole if within reason.

Don't lose many to being tangled up underwater where you can't find them? I've liked the idea ever since reading about it, probably from you, but I haven't tried it yet.

Footholds on drags is a good idea, I never thought about that for beaver.

@aix, the deepest water within 25 feet is only about 2 feet deep. To get to the drowning depths I need a 45-foot drowning rig lol.

Side note, I have to fish an MB750 out of the main pond, it was/is on a 10 foot 1/2 inch rebar drowner on a castor mound set. Beaver came in and went to the bottom and pulled the rebar out of the sandy bottom and wrenched it from the stake it was tied to on the surface. I am hoping to recover trap and beaver together but I am guessing it was a pretty large beaver to do this, the stake on the surface is 30 inches long and 10 feet of rebar and an MB750 weigh a good bit, possible he is dead or could have swum to a place to chew off? I set for a back foot but anything can happen if the beaver is big enough.

2 feet of water on trails, I'd drive a beaver kill pole with the cross piece about a foot (give or take a few inches) from the bottom. Snare that is a foot or so longer than the distance to that crosspiece, and set a small loop snare half submerged. Let the naysayers say it doesn't work. I've caught them this way several times. If they weren't wrapped up DOA when I arrived, they were just swimming, and they weren't around long after I got there. Very useful set for situations like yours. Neck catch and it's all over, seatbelt catch usually is too. A mid body catch may be alive, and that's why I use a smaller loop (8-10") that's loaded.


Edit: Forgot to say that you can use it blind on trails, but you can also lure it. A stick pushed into the mud in such a way that the supported snare is just underneath it. Smear some castor on the underside of stick. Castor is protected from rain, and the idea is that they circle trying to find the source, hit the snare, bingo. That stick often times ends up as part of the tangled snare, so it actually plays a part dispatching the beaver.

So I have taken a number of beaver from this swamp, at first I estimated 20 beaver then thought maybe there is a higher count but after this week's catches I am back to my original 20 beaver estimate. After I took another adult pair yesterday I broke out two large areas on the dams and gang set them, I checked this morning and nothing even visited the dams and the water level has dropped 3 or 4 inches. I am leaving the dam breaks in place until Sunday morning and if nothing has come back to repair them I am pulling my traps and moving to the third and final area which I expect has the younger beavers. In the east colony, I took 3 adults, 1 kit and 4 two-year-olds but in the main swamp I took 3 pairs of adults but no two-year-olds or kits. I set the bank den of the one pair and had 0 catches and the feed pile they were working on hasn't seen any new activity, the 2nd pair of adults I have no idea where they came from as there is just the one lodge and a bank den in the area I have been working this week. I do not know where the younger beaver are from these colonies. Sunday the new area will cover 3 small ponds I haven't touched yet in between the east colony and the main swamp plus it will butt up to the south side of the big lodge's border. I am going to set the big lodge openings just in case but I can't imagine where the young have gone off to. Is it possible these 3 adult pairs didn't have offspring the last couple of years? maybe the otter and other predators got to them as kits?