river vs pond beaver

[RhodeDog]

Is it just me or does it seem like river beaver act a lot different than pond beaver? I seem to do a lot better when setting ponds. In my very limited experience pond beaver seem to react more aggressively to castor sets and I make more multiple catches on slides. I very seldom catch more than 1 or 2 off a slide on the river and it might take a castor set a couple nights before connecting. Anyone have similar experiences? All tips, tricks, and ideas appreciated. There are a lot of beaver in the local rivers but it gets a little aggravating trying to catch them sometimes. And Bogmaster is right, they are addictive.

[briankroberts]

I set a lot of log jams on the creeks and rivers I trap around here, always easy to find a good spot for a conibear and than smear some castor where he can't find it, he'll swim around till he gets caught, I have real good luck like this on rivers.....B.....

[MRussell]

I have a lot of "flowages" that have beaver in them and these places are void of a lot of features that beg for a trap. However what I have done is made sets near or at pullouts and places where I have seen signs of some sort of recent activity. Like Brian said place your trap in a narrow spot (or make a narrow spot) and put a little castor where he cant find it and you will probably catch him.

[Bogmaster]

Are they different??nope--they all skin the same.
Remember,a river beaver has a bit more territory to cover than pond beavers.It may take a bit longer to catch them.
River,creek,pond or lake--gang set castor mounds of your own making,and you will have your hands full.
Tom Olson

[piedpiper]

I tell ya what- I had a river beaver this past December that brought me $44.00. Anyone notice any difference in fur quality in river vs. pond beaver? Kind of new to the beaver trapping.

[ColdSteel]

The quality fur on my river beaver is no ways as good as pond or creek beaver.Maybe its because they all live in den holes I don't know but the bite marks on my river beaver are twice as bad as the rest

[Bogmaster]

Up here,pond and lake beaver are much better fur wise ,than river beaver.
The river beaver are exposed to way more sunlight because of open water.Our other beaver,are still locked under the ice.
Tom Olson

[rk660]

What Brian said is very true, setting obstructions along bank works very well on river beaver when dens are lacking to set or impossible to set. Lots of guys have good luck with castor mounds and 330's, but I think thats a northern thing that works better when they come out in a frenzy after ice out. It doesnt work so well down here for some reason. Castor mound with leghold works well at times, as do slides with legholds, but water depth needs to be in my favor to really get good catch averages. Real shallow aproaches seem to result in a lot of sprung traps, if water drops right off and they come up to a little shelf, I have pretty good luck, sometimes I just dont have the water to work with that I need, and makes legholding harder. A blindset conibear, set on edge bank so beaver go thru them as they are traveling the edge of bank, will work real well when fenced between bank and obstruction. It will work much better with trap under water and divestick, than 1/2 in 1/2 out of the water. Fence your gap kinda hapahazard, using poles at an angle from edge of trapframe, angling out to the obstruction, creating a funnel effect. try not to make too much like a picket fence. you want the beaver to see a pile of trash so to speak easch side of the trap, and an opening with only a dive stick in the center. If you try setting 1/2 out of water it is less effective Ive found. Hide the trap. Like Brian said you lure the brushpile and get beaver to swin around it. You can fence down a single log coming out of water 3-8' ft wide but 3-4' is the best. you can even add your own obstruction with a big log pegged out away from bank and fenced to log. This works best if bank is fairly steep so they are really hugging the vertical bank. I'll build my own obstruction when no natural ones can be found, and prefer a bank that has a lot of activity. smear lure a foot each side of trap, and if they go around outside edge they usually swin back and forth enough that they will hit trap. I use a regular 330 on gaps that are under 3 ft wide, bigger gaps than that you get more refusals because your gap get a little small compared to the obstruction. Wider than 3-4' I'll use my 660, they dont hesistate toswin thru a 2' wide hole even if fenced down from 4-8 ft. It really dont matter how wide you fence as that 2' wide hole they dont spook from it. Since you are setting sometimes a little ways away from dens or activity, you need some movent to hit sets. For about month after river opens up they are moving around plenty and you will get some 50% catch rates if setting good spots, 1 out of 3 seems to be the ave catch rate. If its been very warm for quite some time, I find the beaver many nights dont travel far at night. They head out, hit their favorite slide, get a hunk of wood and back to hole for the night. When beaver arent traveling and and roaming around much, you need to stay pretty close to sign. When this happens, its time to use more legholds on slides. Ill catch some beaver fencing down slides, but much prefer a "swin through" type set as opposed to trying to ask him to change directions and head towards bank. A weather front or especially a rainy or misty night will get them moving again. If river is on a steady rise that you can keep up with, the beaver will be moving like crazy. a good time to hit it as long as its manageable. Beings your not set right on beavers front door on many of these sets, it lends itself well to extended checks where legal. The catch rate stays steady till youve got them beat back in numbers, If set up good enought you should have 4-5 good 2 day runs. Beaver under cold water last a long time, so if your law allows a 2 day or whatever check dont hurt you. you will find after doing this that some spots just keep hitting over and over. My buddy caught 17 beaver from one set, it was just a very attractive spot them that about everyone that swam by had to check out. We ave about 5-8 beaver a mile. One good set if out over a long duration, can get a high % of beaver a mile each way of set, if youve got time to stick it out.

[Bogmaster]

Castor mounds and 330s a northern thing???horse pockey---I have used the exact same sets in Missouri and Missisippi as I do in Minnesota--with the same results---It catches beaver.
Tom Olson

[RhodeDog]

Thanks a lot for the ideas really appreciated. I hope to be able to get some sets out this weekend and give the last week a shot. When you guys talk of setting brush piles, do you look for sign on the pile itself or look for a pile near sign? This sounds like it would work well around here as the river is loaded with brush piles. Plus I'm always a little worried with theft and this sounds like it's a little harder to see than setting at slide bases. Castor sets work but like Bogmaster said it just seems like they take longer to connect. Setting on slides seems to be hit and miss, I thought maybe it was a more room to roam thing.

[rk660]

Horsepucky huh, seems I heard about a MN trapper down on Lake of the Ozarks and didnt catch squat in castor mounds and 330 in that warm climate. Bog, if you want to claim a castor mound and 330 works anywhere, any season, at any time of year, I really dont care. But dont try to tell me I'm full of it, because I do know a little better.

[Bogmaster]

You know a little better than what?
The castor mounds and 330s worked fine on Lake of the Ozarks,were there a lot of beaver available-nope.
As far as that set working well,it is right in your own state.
When 13 year old kids who have never trapped beaver before,can go out and take 20 in their first try---there must be something that works with the set.And it isn't just one young man from Nebraska,I get calls all the time from all over the country from people who have tried it and it works well for them.
You go right on doing things the way you are comfortable with,and I will do the same.
It was a bit warmer in Mississippi than Mo, but those mixed up delta beaver ,were more than happy to take a ride back to Minnesota with me(there thermostats must have been stuck).
There are several other trappers on this forum that take a fair number of beaver using the same methods I do.
Trappers can go on believing that this is only a springtime north only way of trapping,or they can go against the grain and try things others say doesn't work.
I guess I will just keep doing it the way---it doesn't work.
Tom Olson

[rk660]

First of all Tom, I never said it didnt work, what I said was I didnt work so well around here. Not so well in my book is trying 15-20 sets, just like you show in magazine articles, and getting one, maybe 2 beaver a check. Now that was 2 separate springs in a row. 1 or 2 beaver is "not so good" or "not too hot" in my book. Now maybe you can imply I dont know what I'm doing, maybe you can imply I wasnt using the right lure (lets see, Backbreaker, an industry standard, Dam-a-Dam, Fox Hollow's beaver lure that is second to none. Flatwater Sweettail, another great one, plain castor or castor with various ingreadiants. I will see beaver readily approach all of these at a 330 castor set, but fail to commit and come through trap. Now maybe its all in the lure? Ok, maybe you have some "secret ingredaint" unknown to all thes other great lures that makes the set click? possible but I doubt it. The chances that you posses something unknown to all these great lure makers, "horse pockey" I would have to say. Now, back to the set. Just a few very good beaver trappers I talk with on a regular basis, and I mean VERY GOOD beaver trappers, seem to have about the same results as I do when trying to get a beaver thru 330 1/2 in 1/2 out of water, approaching a castor mound on bank. One of which would be Jim Comstock, from NY, who is as good of beaver trapper as you will find. He traps beaver year round on an ADC basis, and Jim will say he has pretty much limited sucess with a 330 1/2 in 1/2 out of water. Now Jim knows how to leghold beaver very effently, can use a modified conibear as a leghold trap very well, can snare beaver under ice, and can snare beaver under water in open water when dealing with trap shy beaver. I ask, why now would a guy that is so well versed in all aspects of beaver trapping, not seem to have a lot of sucess with a 330 in front of a pile of mud 1/2 in and 1/2 out of water. A lot of techquices Jim uses are a little more difficult to master than fencing a 330, digging a trench if needed and and putting a mudpatty behing the trap. Another beaver trapper I know, who between himself and his dad, will do 500 beaver a year, sometimes more, tells me "for the 330 castor mound to really tick, you better have 10 beaver a night going past the set." Another example, a fella who is a beaver control agent down south tells me, "its hard enough to get southern beaver to approach castor with any consistancy, let alone get them to swin thru a 330 1/2 in 1/2 out of the water, butted up to bank wiht castor mound behind it". Other trappers as qualified as guys I talked about above, seem to have the same results. Some guys will have very good sucess in a high population area, on certain years, but other times it dont quite work so well. But any 13 year old kid can just go out and slaughter them time after time. . I didnt intend this to be a pissing match, all I did was state what has worked for me and what hasn't.

[thebeav2]

Some locations lend themselves to foot holds and some locations lend themselves to body grips.The trapper that uses both foot holds and body grips will out trap the trapper that Is one dimensional.
In the south I find pond beaver are some of the most spooky beaver there are, can they be caught sure but It may take you some time.

Gary

[Bogmaster]

Rich,I had a big long reply written up for you,as some of your responce was a bit off the mark.Nothing means less to more people,than an exchange such as ours.
I am sure you will be at the FTA convention, you can look me up and we will discuss my shortcomings.
Tom Olson

[Steve Gappa]

if it works for you- use it.

Since castor mounds obviously isn't "just a northern thing" (looking at all your examples) I'd have to think that the technique isn't there.

Don't matter total numbers- it matters if you are willing to use and learn the tool.

I tried flat sets for several years- to the point I honestly thought it was a joke, that other trappers were trying to "trick" me, that flat sets if they worked, worked only in the high country or the desert country. But I was wrong. When I learned how to make the sets correctly, I had immediate and continued success with flat sets.

A few traps a couple of years- really isn't learning how to use the tool. Don't get me wrong- I'm not a conibear fan at all- and use very few even for beaver- but its not success orientated- its personal preferences.

If it seems I'm picking on you two, I'm not. ALL the pissing matches are going to be modified or deleted. As the case here- individual trappers often use different methods. And opinions are.

Good example is 220s on coon. IMO, you could toss every 220 in the country and I wouldn't even notice. I totally HATE 220s on coon. Lack of commitment, walk arounds, etc- just not for me and not my style.

Yet, 1000s of people use the 220 as their #1 trap- and shake their heads at a guy like me that never uses them.

Different strokes for different folks- an so on and so forth.

[ColdSteel]

Well,said Tman everyone has a diffferent style.For example if I had to give up using 330's to catch beaver and otter my catch would be way way off.As far as the castor mound set goes for 330's in my experience I have used it where it was pure poison and I have also used it where they went right by it.I can't explain it I had a wide ditch this year about 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep that the beavers had dammed up.There was no crossover on this dam and they mostly were feeding on vegetation.I couldn't catch a beaver at a castor mound with the 330.I ended up having to pull out the big legholds and set dam breaks.I caught 4 beavers at this site.From what Isee the castor mound sets work better where there are a large population of beaver but thats just my opinion and like you said everyone has one

[BK]

I've never trapped beaver in the south,....... so perhaps my post doesn't count?
I've never caught more than more than 286 beaver in a season( with a partner part of the season)...........
But I have trapped for bounty on our trout waters when we had it, and I often clean up after other trappers leave, (some of them trap for the state).
These are the beaver that have "been to school", and I do it with 330's and 280's.
I truly believe this is a matter of that you learn, or teach yourself to work with.
I'm well aware there are beaver that won't crawl out to answer castor.
But confess I can't grasp the idea of 10 beaver swimming past any of my sets unless it already had a beaver in it.