I am working the largest Beaver Colony i have ever seen in this area of the world. The farmer that owns the land has been trapping beaver for ten plus years every spring out of the creek running through his property. He said he takes 5 or 6 out every year. Last he became ill and hasn't been doing to well health wise and wasn't able to trap last spring or this spring. In that time the Colony multiplied a lot it seems. Anyways long Story Short he has almost solely been using Conibears for ten years on these beaver and never cleaning them all out.
After the first check i knew i was in for some work as i noticed all my sets were getting avoided minus two random blind sets on drowners i Had out with Victor 4's on drowners. Of course after putting pit pans on my victors i didn't set the pan tension right an they were both misses. One with a Toe only in it. But every Conibear was worked around. And Now i toes caught what seems like a good sized beaver. I had to pull a few tricks out of the bag. One from when i was 8 years old. An old guy was helping my brother with a trap shy beaver and explained in detail how to set up a castor mound with a Conibear setup somewhat poorly and a blind set leading around it. It worked like clock work. First check snagged a 45-50 pound male and a kit on one of the blind sets that missed the first check. But still every Conibear was detoured around. I pulled all conibears and set them up on channels feeding two separate dams for feeding piles. Then i made dam break sets and ran blind sets where the beavers would be going around my conibears. The idea in my head was if they don't avoid the conis they are done and if they do avoid them they are done. Locked up three more on the next check. Two were on diversion sets around Conis like i stated and the third was in the same blind set that i had the miss in and then snagged the kit. 5 beavers on three checks on trap shy beavers is good for me. Making me think more makes me a better trapper in my book. Next check will be the last as I had to break 3-4 inch ice to get to sets last check and its only getting colder.
Before everyone starts in on me about snares lol. I have set a few snares on the line a well. I am not an accomplished snaremen and elementary level when it comes to how to set them up when there is such a strong current in most areas of this job. It is something that i need to get better at and when i come back in the spring to finish this job off I am going to plan to hit the snares hard. I assume i will get 2-4 more out on my next check making it 7-9 out of the area and i don't think i scratched the surface.
My best achievement on the job was that i got the beaver that i toe caught. I truly thought that one might be the last one i got out of there. The Diversion blind set though is something i am definitely going to remember for years.
