When you are doing work in a neighborhood pond, where do you start?
I think you should first find the beaver. But they usually dont have dens in sight, and no large feed beds?

Do you even know beaver sign?

Yes, it's usually a yellow background with a black arrow pointing to where the animals are and the giveaway is the capitol letters spelling BEAVER.

dannyvp,

You start with the phone call to determine what the problem is and what expectations the person calling you are. Once you've been hired, a site inspection is then conducted to locate and confirm or reject the caller's statement of the situation. There are a lot of times that someone will call about beaver when in fact it is muskrats or I'm sure in areas that have a population, nutria.

Can you give us some more background to this issue to help with giving you some direction?

Warrior, I've caught several beaver and know beaver sign.

Paul it's always so nice to see humor.

Eric I've been asked to catch "beaver" in local ponds. I have no ADC business I just do this for fun. They got my name from others who had deer camps where I caught their beaver.
I do not have access to a the whole lake just a couple sections of shore.
I was just courious to how you approach the problem.
I have seen a couple chewed sticks, some fresh cuttings, but not much at all.

Well, if you really knew beaver you really would know why not to take the job this time of year.

Because you sweat alot ? LMAO

Joe, down here it's not just fat rednecks that lay up in the heat. I've seen seen beaver that all but went comatose on me in the heat.

LOL ... !!!

Just goofin Dave

I know I'm a fat redneck.

dannyvp,

If you aren't seeing much sign or especially fresh sign the best tactic may be to tell them they need to monitor the lake (or you could do it once a week) until the beaver become more active. Once the activity level increases, then you will have a better chance of completing the job.

While you're waiting, figure out if you'll be using a cage, snare, body grip, foot hold, or combination of these traps and the best site locations for them where you have permission to be. I've listed the equipment in my preference order based on pets, kids, and other adults around the site locations.

Lots of good cage trapping beaver over on The Animal Damage Network by Jim Comstock...

Had a call for muskrats a few years back. Went to lake - first sign I see is several 2-3" diameter trees chewed down. "UHHH, you might not have muskrats..."
Heeeere's your sign!

I've been wanting to look into some cages. Thanks guys.

I appreciate it. All of my beaver experience is with 330's in the fall. That's why I'm asking.
I do have some video of the beaver I'm chasing in the trapping section.

Timber companies around here don't care if your a fat redneck or not, they want the beaver removed now. They don't want you in the woods when the leasee or hunters are in the woods. Deer season starts the middle of August and they want you done with the beaver by then. Makes you learn different methods for catching flattails this time of year. it is not fun walking around the swamp with chestwaders on and surrounded by snakes and gators. I would prefer waiting till winter,bbut it pays the bills.

EXACTLY why Paul made his Summertime Beaver Control dvd.

Chest waders in summer is rough on this old fat man, but it pays ok.

I prefer moving clean water and wearing just pants, but the stagnant, stinking, swamp water is just too nasty at times.

Yep, if you had an old pair of jeans and old tennis shoes, in some places you could get by in summer...but not everywhere.
Some muck will pull them right off your feet !
That'll suck !
Canoe..flat John boat...good but it can't get in everywhere...

It's no fun sweating your tail off wearing rubber chest wadders, even hip wadders get really hot...
Still black muck in shoes and wearing wet clothes all day, isn't fun either.
Did I mention SNAKES ?

It seems that the swamp is even hotter than the surrounding areas. As far as the snakes go they are everywhere. I ever pick up anything with my hands, try using my potatoe rake for that. Walked at a swamps edge yesterday for a half mile and saw 5 cottonmouths and 1 green water snake. The mosquitos were the size of small helicopters. But was a good day. LOL