LT
Beaver I was after ain't been back. heard today some trees were peeled 1/4 mile or more down river on someone elses property. me and the boy might have buggered him up messing around.
when could I call you?

JOHN

Always set the "escape routes" as pressured beaver will return to earlier inhabited area.......

Beavers often have a winter and a summer home here.....

John, sorry I have missed your calls. Been a whirlwind around here lately...just try back, sometime during the day, I guess.

Thanks VINKE
I know very little about beaver even less about summer beaver

LT

no problem on the calls things been busy here to. may try you one afternoon from work.
THANKS JOHN

Keep trying, you'll eventually get me.

Ok guys,
Just landed a "bev job". I told the guy I'd do it for the trapping rights this year. I never did summer beaver before.He told me the beaver on his property keep plugging up his culverts. The property is swamp land with a road going through. I'm bringing ALL my beaver stuff, don't know what I'll run into. Any quick advice? I'm going up next weekend. I'll post pics when I get home!
Tom

An anti-aircraft gun for the mosquitos is the first thing that came to mind.

thermacell works great to repel the mosquitos

I have to say that I fully agree with the line of reasoning in the first post. I am certain that beavers have learnd to avoid my trap becuase they were they either when thier mate got gagged or because they accidentally tripped the trap while trying to repair the break I made in the dam. I know this becuase I have made sets where I caught a beaver on the first night and my guide sticks were knocked down where another beaver made a route around the trap. The follwing night, they would be knocked down in the exact same spot and manner. I've even had them move the dive stick up and over the trap where I had it hanging with wire. Either way, they are intelligent enough to figure out that the trap represented some sort of danger when it went off.

A couple of things I did to prevent these things from happening:

1.) Now, instead of wiring the divestick to the tops of the last 2 guide sticks and letting it hang, I make sure those last 2 guide sticks have a knot or small broken-off limb. I push them down to the point where I want my dive stick in the water and then wire the dive stick at each end around the 2 guide sticks, right at those 2 knots so it can't slip down or be lifted up and flung over.

2.) Instead of 1 trap at an opening, I use 2. I used to make a small break in the dam to get the water moving, then do my set parallel to the dam-not anymore, and especiall if I've already had one burn me. Now, I make the break and place 2 traps at 90deg. to the dam. In other words, I make out a 3-sided box, the dam being the 4th side, and place 1 trap on each side of the "box" perpendicular (90 deg.) to the dam. When I get a beaver that does not want to go through the trap and just tries to repair the break by letting debris go into it with the flow of water, the debris cannot collect in the trap. Eventually, he bites the bullet and has to go through on one side or the other to see why his crud just ain't stopping the water from moving. That's when he gets gagged. Also, this leaves the other side open to catch a follow-up beaver should one of his buddies come over to help. Also, because the first beaver is trapped on the other side of the "box", the second beaver doesn't feel like there is any danger in the route he's taking. This set up works very well. It's more work, but I've come to use it in places where there are large colonies and/or the other beavers figures out after the first night or two of seeing thier relatives getting snagged that there was something dangerous going on. This also prevents the occaisional burried beaver becuase thier buddies cannot stop the flow of water by just letting the debris go.

3.) Move the trap to the other side. If I'm in a place where I don't have room to set 2 traps at the same break and I get a beaver and can't seem to get his buddies, I just move the trap to the other side of the set-up. Sometimes after catching 1 or 2 the rest know what's going on. In this situation, I jsut move the trap to the other side of the setup and "kawham" I'm back in business.

I think I got a pick of the perpendicular set-up somewhere on my computer....

O.K., here it is. I don't know if this is new to anyone or not, but I hope someone will benefit from it. The green line is where the trap is. In this situation, I only had a trap on one side because the water was too shallow at the bank. I could have moved the setup further down the dam, but then it would have been too deep as this pond was about 5 feet deep. The red arrow is pointing at the dive stick. This is the first beaver I ever trapped. I had this set up parallel to the dam the night before and the beaver clogged my trap by just letting go debris in front of the break and letting the flow of the water carry it into the trap. The next day, I turned it 90 deg. to the dam as shown in the pic. This way it won't clog and he can't clog it without going through it to try to figure out why. Later, when I started catching one and missing one is when I started using this set-up and added the second trap. Again, if it were in this picture, it would be set up 90deg. to the dam just like the one in the picture, but on the other side of the "box".



Here is the result-63lbs. of beaver meat. That's my size 10.5 shoe beside him. Who's hungry????

Very nice...love the 'art work !'

il cooner, you might some info on here worth reading!

great set up never thought of the 90 degree idea learn something new every day... thanx everyone

When you got one cloggin traps, this will get them nearly every time.

Not sure I understood what he meant by that!

what beavernator meant was, if there is a beaver clogging a set by a d a m, place another set at 90 degrees alongside the d a m youll catch MR. Beaver... thats how i interpreted it... just another tool for the tool box.

A red head.........watch out for that one!....

Ah, but don't ya love em!



Caught these beaver (and more) on lure made by Dave Vinke, by the way!

That was some good lure........I made some more..but it not the same without a years worth of "aging".....

One thing I carry on my beaver trailer is a 2x to use a a bridge...This allows me to get out and over the ditch and place the double 660'sw in the channel of our deep peat bottom drainage's....

Finding strategics areas to place your assault will increase your productivity.
I will bring in drive material if needed...eye appeal.....aswell
When working yearly contract jobs....I find I usually take the new beaver in the same spot as last time....
The "set area" is constructed in a location that requires minimal effect( once established) to set up and check

These are are left "stocked" meaning the dive poles or Blocks needed to construct are left from year to year...