Some time ago, I was contacted by an ADC trapper, (who shall remain nameless and) who although was a pretty accomplished trapper, had a beaver job lined up where several trappers had been after the same ol' sow beaver for years without any success.
This was an educated beaver no doubt, that had castor mounds and other such tricks thrown at her and with 330's set year round, she knew just where to go and what to avoid!

So, in the spirit of having to be the trapper who has to go in to do cleanup or has to get the last one, regardless...I hope you will share some of your techniques you've used to to the job right!

Buzzard from N.C, had some great pictures awhile back on snaring beaver under water.

Anyone have any great beaver stories or tips from ADC work?
LATrapper?
Vinke?

Foot holds and check with bino's.
bait stick no lure.
channel set w/pole NO trap done after a storm has moved thru.
cut tree( ASH) with Muskrat lure.
bob

No secrets I am sure. I use footholds and snares only in my adc work for beaver. Check from a distance if they are "spooky" and keep the noise while there down to a minimum. Winter and spring castor mostly, or blind sets. Late spring through summer, blind sets and food base lures/baits. Over all for trap shy or heavily pressured beavers I have the best luck with blind sets.

I looked for, but couldn't find Buzz's pics of under water snares. Anyone have a link to them by chance?

LT, I would use a snare first. That would be the one tool that they would be least likely to be afraid of. I'm kind of a novice when compared to some beaver trappers but so far I've always done the job. Even when a beaver knocks a snare over, they aren't scared because it didn't do anything.

Here in Ca. we can't use foot hold traps But as a lic. A.D.C. trapper I can use snares and bodygrips. The worst beaver I ever had to catch absolutly knew what a bodygrip was and wouldn't go near one. This trapwise critter also recognized, belive it or not, what a snare was! I would set up a snare where he was coming out of the stream and he would "chest" it and knock it down and walk on into the orchard and cut some more young prune trees down and basicly make me look inept. I honestly thought I may not be able to catch this thing. After giving it a lot of thought this is what I came up with. I took a snare and found about 5-6 very small(about the diameter of a tooth pick) short forked sticks and using the small sticks to keep the snare round and about an inch off the bottom of the stream. I placed them deep enough so his front feet and chest would pass over it but when he put his back feet down to walk out of the water he would put his foot down in the snare and because beaver kind of "shuffel" when they walk I hoped he would pick up the snare and get caught before he realised what had happened. Basicly a leghold set but using a snare instead. I also went ahead and set a snare in the crawl out as always just to give him something to focus his attention on. Next day, one very unhappy beaver caught by one hind leg!! Thank God they don't come like that very often or I'd have to find another line of work!

Bob

Snares would sure be a heck of a lot lighter then 660's and ts 85's...................

Dave..... Slightly off-topic, but check out the beaver pics on my Twitter site:

twitter.com/thebatguy

FUN!!!!!!

You got beaver pic's on a twitter site?

Apparently, there aren't any real ADC beaver men on here or either they're not posting!
Easy to trap the dumb ones...not so when they've had a few traps snapped off in their faces...

Hate to say it, but I sure miss Buzzard!
Now there's a ADC beaver trapper.

Sorry LT. The only beaver that I ever took a foot off ( she got hung up before the deep water) I caught not twenty feet away, two days later.
DUMB TRAPPERS PREFER DUMB BEAVER!

I love going behind our state trappers ... we get to charge double when this happens because of all the "educated" beaver left behind.

Here are a few from the past ...

!!!!

Interesting set-up with the stop shock !

Ha!.....

Thank you Buzzard.
I'm going to use that one later tonight!

Better pics at this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015149&id=1213268781&l=ada9a5a167

Note: This is only the 2nd beaver I have ever relocated in over 20 years of this work. Usually too costly, and really tough to find a property owner who will give permission to do so!!! Besides.... they usually don't go far when I "release them" from a 330.

Ok traps???? you must be the only one using long stabilizers if you can catch pursued beaver with raw steel sticking out of the water on a regular basis...lol good job!
I do use stabilizers.....But I attach grass and sticks with wire (in follow up trapping situations)to camo them in.

Lt!!!!!! Quit Sukking up to Wuzzard..... Ha!
And call me....the number I have does not work anymore....

Pay attention!!!.......Being able to "Age" sign at and below the water line......
The Beaver will always shows you were to put the trap......
A boat can be an amazing tool////
Often a "Comfort" Food can do the trick.....

Vinke, I'm not suckin' up to Buzzard...but I do give credit, where credit is do!
Buzzard does ADC beaver work...and you don't do that very long, if you aren't good at it.

Now take you for example, you're doing more and more ADC beaver work...I don't see too many "how I caught a sharp ol' beaver that someone else had chased around before" photos on here.

Buzzard showed one version of a snare set...that quite frankly, his way keep raccoons out of the snares that might have caught if it were set on the bank. That image will help me take beaver under conditions that otherwise might cost me time and money to produce a certain animal.
...and that is the whole purpose of this post!

I know how to catch beaver. However there are some that during warmer weather, that do not respond to traditional methods/sets and lures.
Sharing that info, of how you caught beaver in those situations is also what this post is about.
If we're not sharing information of how we trap animals in the ADC field, then why are we even on here?
We should just go over to Trap Talk and talk about the current events of the world!

This is something I have found is a problem for summer beaver work. I had one that broke one of the trigger wires, still managed to catch another snapper in the same trap a day later. The traps in this picture were removed the same time I took the turtle out.