Square shy beaver

Question for you ADC guys cause y’all are just smarter and wiser than us fur trappers. Lol
Beaver that shy away from body grips that are above water or half submerged; do they still shy away from them if fully submerged with a dive stick????

possibly, so I hang snares and blind set footholds at slides I've made if I missed 1 in a 330.
Did you camo your 330's?
Did you blend them?
These things can help prevent a miss, and wising them up.
keep in mind that the water had gone down bout 3" in the 1 pic.

Yes I did all of the above yet they are avoiding them. I haven’t trapped this spot before but someone obviously has. I’m going to set some snares but I submerged my 330’s today so I was just wondering what my chances of catching them were. Thanks for the reply.

Submerging is the first step if I suspect square shy.

One that has been slapped in/near the face will avoid them....even totally submerged.

A conibear under water won't work any better than one half in water if a beaver can see any part of it. Typical run sets with support sticks or fencing are a dead giveaway. I've even had beaver avoid snares under water. What it often comes down to is tight places. If you narrow a run or even set a tight spot they will frequently skirt the whole works. The only time I pick up a smart beaver in a conibear is with oversized 24 or 30 inch wide self supporting trap. I like to find a natural log they are diving under that is the height of the conibear to basically make the trap "go away." The lower jaws of the trap are buried slightly in the mud, invisible, while the top of the trap touches the log, making the top jaws pretty much invisible too. With the wide trap I can put weeds and grass in the springs to likewise make them disappear. At this point the trap is pretty much invisible with the only visibility residing in the trigger wire itself, which isn't much and often isn't a deterrent. Since a 24 or 30 inch wide trap is not in anyway tight or confining, they have no fear. With a wide run and virtually nothing to see you now have a shot at a smart one.

Thanks ya’ll. Jim thanks for going into detail.
It helps me a lot.

If a trapshy beaver doesnt know the trap is there you can catch it.
Sloppy sets,and over use of lure are what creates trapshy beaver.
The easiest way is to not wise them up in the firstplace.

I agree Boco and like I said I’ve never trapped this place before so I didn’t wise them up with sloppy sets. I just don’t know about you sometimes
What you said here didn’t even need to be said.
But you just can’t help yourself can you. Lolll
Do you troll every one of the forums just to see who you can antagonize? Lollllll. Just Messin.
All is good.

You asked how to catch a trap shy beaver and I told you how.
If you dont like the advice,tough bananas,dont use it-maybe someone else can use the advice to their advantage.
LOL.

IMO, submerging the trap won’t make a difference if he’s already educated. Here in Ohio, our 330s must be fully submerged at all times. I still run into shy ones that refuse to enter a 330, no matter how deep they are. I had a real smart one a few years back that wouldn’t enter a 330 for nothing. Channels, bank dens, deep runs, nothing worked. It took me a couple weeks but I finally got him. Hope this helps!

That’s solid advice right there, and I can tell you Boco knows what he’s talking about. When I first started beaver trapping, I quickly learned that setting the place up right the first time is crucial. Otherwise a job that might take 1 night is going to make you 1 month.

How did you finally get him? Foothold, body grip, or snare??

In some areas of the country ADC trappers don't have the luxury of avoiding educated beaver created by other trappers. Boco left out the most important factor that I run into all the time, educated beaver from fur trappers. We don't have registered lines, but freelance trappers running all over the place. I rarely create educated beaver myself, but run into smart beaver day one from the doings of other trappers and have no control over it. When I get to a new location I am crossing my fingers that a fur trapper has not wised them up, but I know in just a few hours what I am dealing with. Had one job last fall that the beaver had been wised up within hours before my arrival. I was hot. Neighbor said he had a trapper on his side of the road, same beaver. I said, "your guy caught one beaver, your guy was using conibears, and your guy had sprung traps right?" He said yes. Bingo.

I caught him in a 330, but it was totally a fluke. Nowadays I just use legholds if one is shy. He had a dam below the spillway of the pond, and to get to it, he had to use one of two channels. While checking my always empty sets, I noticed part of a willow tree had landed across his channel, making a perfect dive log. My 330 fit perfectly, and I was on my way. That night we had a bad storm with lots of flooding. The water was way up the next day, and the pond was muddy from all the water coming in from a nearby creek. I suppose the beaver went to check his dam as the water rose, and that was his last mistake. Had it not rained and made the water murky, I doubt I would have ever got him. I also didn’t use lots of guiding, because he always seemed to be able to pick out a new disturbance where I made a set

Thanks Ave. And Jim you hit the nail on the head.

Ave made a great point about muddy water. Love it. Clay streams after a rain muddy up big time and offer great opportunity with both swim through cages and conibears to catch even educated beaver. Like Ave mentioned, I've had beaver that from day one went around my cages and conibears, an inherited problem caused by another trapper, but with the rain, high water and muddy stream I have caught them. It's kind of a dance between some muddy water and way too much muddy water. Have to watch the weather to see how much rain is expected. Nice when the water comes up a little and muddies when you have a smart one, but of course debris can fire a trap when you get really heavy rain.

Another way to get them is to use a 330 as a diverter to get the beaver to go into a concealed foothold,snare or another bodygrip.

This was a beaver(educated by another trapper) that avoided 330's at a dambreak(and everywhere else).
He was going around the 330's at a corner of the fencing in order to repair the dambreak. I reset the unfired 330's in a very obvious fashon and dropped in a well concealed foothold right beside the 330's he was going around-using them as a diversion to get him.

I have caught many square shy beaver like this.
I also use diversionary principles to catch other animals also.
As a trapper you need to observe the animals behaviour and use it to your advantage.
The animal itself will tell you how to catch it if you are a skilled observer.

Thanks Boco. This is very helpful.

Very good advice with diversions indeed. By leaving the obvious trap or traps in place animals will focus on the ones they have been avoiding, providing an opportunity to conceal another trap close by to take them and as mentioned can work for any animal. What first comes to mind is coyotes. When the dog knows there is a trap in front of the dirt hole, the really well blended set on the backside will often take him.

Was just on the phone with an Ohio friend, Tim, who set his first beaver job of the new year. Trap shy, one beaver. He set 660's, brushed them in and the beaver removed the brush. "Great" way to start the year. Lots this going around in the states. It once was a challenge, now merely an aggravation. Far more rewarding to set two traps at dark and have the pair at sunup.

In my opinion most guys do to much guiding which Is not at all natural Less Is more In my way of thinking. In most case the beaver Isn't trap shy it's SET SHY.

Know what you mean about over fencing etc. Sometimes a bare trap is better or just a little brush to break up the outline. The brush is now gone and the traps are standing alone. My guess is they still won't go through them, but maybe? Bare cages work just fine. Brush is often for thieves or nosey neighbors.