Now an otter on a castor set

The end of the trap facing into the pond is set about an inch or so under so that the beaver has to dive under to enter the trap


Jim
Does this mean you'd prop up the underwater side of the trap to always be an inch or so underwater -- even if the drop off is sharper/deeper than that, so that you'll always be an inch under on that end? Make sense?

It's hard to visualize your set Jim Comstock. But sounds very effective

Caught a 65-pound beaver in a Comstock on Easter. I managed to get it back to the truck but needed about three men to carry me up the bank!

What size Comstock trap is that one your using?

The one pictured just above looks like a 12x18.

Yes, we do go to a few conventions. Have been going to conventions for most of the past 40 years, not set up with a booth until recently, just to see what new stuff was thought up over the winter and always a good time to see old friends. Looking to be in Kalamazoo at the Nationals and Herkimer, N.Y this year, sometimes Vermont. Have not planned on Pa., but noticed it is East this year, closer to us.

We use cage traps as a first tool for beaver in ADC for a pile of reasons, even where its back in. Just helped a trapper set a pond on a hunt club the other day. He went with me the in the morning to check 6 traps I had set the day before which held 4 large beaver and cleaned both colonies in one night. We set 6 traps at his two locations, got 4 the next day, 1 and 3. The first spot had only one beaver, the second had 9, which he caught in a few nights, couple of triples. Ended up with 2 adults, 3 two year olds and 4 yearlings, a double colony.

Got a call from a Massachusetts trapper yesterday who echoed our experience and now choosing to use cages over body grippers. Hearing it more all the time.

Nice "beaver" above. When a client calls and tells you whats in the trap I don't take them literally most of the time. It just means something is in the trap, just never know what till you get there, exciting.

I once drove 2 hours to pick up a skunk that turned out to be an open and set trap. The guy was terrified of skunks

We sometimes hear about "alternate" uses for all kinds of traps. Just saw a pic where one trapper used the beaver trap to catch a coon on a roof. He used the trap set upside down with the triggers coming up from the bottom. Set in this manner it is more difficult, if not impossible, for anything to miss the trigger wires. The doors are solid, so the coon can walk on the door without springing the trap, then hit the trigger and fire it as he tries to get through the wires. In this way they are not ducking or going around the trigger wires, but having to go through them.