I have been on vacation and stumbled upon a beaver dam. I have more pics and video. I will get them uploaded this weekend. Check it out

This is not the castor mound video, it is farther down but this is still a good one.

Very nice

Now you know right where to set the trap! LOL Cool Vid! Can't wait to see the others!
Troy

I am going to try a castor mound set and see if I can get it on video. Any tips? Where to make it? On the dam?

He comes out of the big dam every night around 7:30 pm

Nice video...thanks for sharing.

Not on the dam. You know he go's there already. Make 1 along his route. See if you can get him to go where YOU want him to go!
Troy

Wow that close up is a very nice picture!

There is a perfect hiding spot right beside the dam, there are actually 2 dams, the video is the first dam, pics are second dam... very cool to have this bugger a few feet away leading a care free life.

Very nive Pictures!!

Thanks, I will try getting him to go somewhere else. I have Caven's "Timber" and I think it's called "Sweetwater Flattail" lure to try

Back to the cabin... More pics and hopefully a beaver castor mound video.

Good luck Denny!

very nice vid. and pics.

a video of him working a castor mound would be to nice, thanks for shareing.

I got it!! Uploading video now...

cool video....I will be interested to see your castor mound and his reaction and how he works it......

Here are a couple other small video's

Ah..looks like you got busted....lol

thought it was gonna walk tween ya legs ... lol ..... i see a snare or two in its near future, or a 330 if legal

The cool video is over 100 megs and photobucket will not allow an upload, I have to figure out how to trim it a bit. Any other upload options?

I got it cut

Here is the beaver castor mound video I got while on vacation. I made a mound set using Caven's Timber beaver lure. I had made up a set on the path of travel like Blackdog suggested to see what would happen. I added a small tree shined up on the bottom for a little bit of eye appeal. Watch as he is swimming around, you can see him testing the air with his nose. He knew something was there and zeroed right in on the set. Watch for the set in the video, the beaver goes past it a couple times. This is a little bit smaller beaver than the other one but he liked the set for sure... Watch and learn how this beaver worked the set.
A couple pics of the set before





The video of the beaver working the set

Denny that is AWESOME!! That beaver had your name all over it! Thats one of the coolest vids i've seen so far! CONGRATS!!
Troy

Thanks, He just kept circling and I thought "There he goes", another circle and well you saw the results. I think he was on a kami-kaze (sp?) mission that night. I have a couple more video's to upload. They are feeding one's.

It makes me wonder how effective "eye appeal" is.

Clearly, his nose was doing 99% of the work.

Very cool Denny!!! Pay attention where he puts his feet too. Know right where to put the trap. I wish you'd put up a stick to represent a duck stick with a 330 underneath to see him duck it... or climb over, lol. next time.

~ADC~

But it sure can't hurt!
Troy

Denny that was some great video and very education. Thanks for sharing it, that is something you don't see everyday.

I would obviously adjust my trap position because he kept missing the pan. Maybe a couple more inches to the right!!





























HAHA Just kidding!
Nice video for sure

Nope, it can't hurt.

But, there are plenty of times where a less visible set is a good idea. I even question how valuable the mud mound is.

Could have whacked his castor probably. LOL. Youch.

Kre, As for the eye appeal, Theres nothing more upsetting then finding a beaver at the end of a drowner and the bait stick GONE!LOL
Troy

Feeding Video

Really nice videos and pictures. I like the birds singing in the background too. Sure makes me want to get out of this office even more than ever now!

that was very cool, and informative, the only thing better than that video, would have been if i was setting there w/ ya watching him.

a well placed cdr, would make short work of that bad boy.

You would have been more than welcome to sit with me. LOL. Something I noticed was he seemed to swim faster and faster before he actually went to the set. He was either more nervous or excited it seemed.

Last one I think except for pictures. Different thread for those I think. This is the last feeding one

Very cool

Thanks for the post

In that last one he's so close you can hear him chewing! Denny were you wearing a beaver costume? LOL
Troy

Why is it all the photobucket videos won't work on my home computer, they just flash, but they will work on a laptop? Can anyone tell what I need to do to get the video to play on my home computer?

That sounds more like a plug-in problem. I run Mozilla firefox as my web browser, not internet explorer. Most browsers will tell you if the required plug-in is on your computer or not.

very cool footage Denny, thank you for sharing it with us .... thats great .... as far as sight attractors, what if you have strong winds blowing the scent away from the beavers travel route ?? what if you dont have permission on the RIGHT side of a stream to pull the beaver in with scent?? i KNOW sight attractors work .... why would beaver build scent mounds ?? why not just climb out of the water and drop some castor, and plop back into the water ?? since that beaver didnt lock onto that castor mound like a pointer, doesnt mean it didnt see it

Denny: This is the best beaver video Ive seen. Put all the pieces together and you could sell it! Ill buy one !

Great job....were you in a pop up blind?

Swamprat, nope just camo.

Gary, I have to agree with you on the sight attractors and the way you put it makes total sense.

Jimby, that would be the shortest video ever but is an idea for a future project. Thanks for the idea!

I wish I could see the video, just can't get it to work. As far as eye appeal goes, it can be VERY important when the wind isn't blowing from the set to the beaver. This spring was a classic example here. The wind blew almost every night and if the set wasn't upwind or very visible it was empty. I always like to make sets where they can be easily seen and use lots of black mud on my castor mounds and enough visible bait at my bait sets. I can't think of any time where visual attractants could hurt.

Very neat...I guy can sure learn a lot from watching that beaver working your castor set!! Thanks for posting such good videos!

Here is the castor mound the next morning. Notice the shined up part? It is not shined up any more but covered in mud. When the beaver in the video left it it was still shined up. I suspect either he came back or one of the other beavers made a night time appearance. Does that make sense?

Here is one more picture

Awesome video!!

TTT one more time before it goes to thread heaven in the sky

yup, beaver covered your castormound, and dropped its own scent, thats what they do, again, great pics and vid

Thanks for all the compliments and bits of advice.

Im with blackdog, I have not seen any that I liked better. You should see about using that with some type of education that would be great in trappers college or used allong with demos. Very educational.
did you put any lure in the water, his nose was doing a lot of work
Great job

Typical , They very seldom run right into the lure, I would say he knew exactly where the mound was from the get go, I,ve seen this so many times and that is the way they react to a placed bait or lure most of the time . They are very suspicious of anything new , And circle many times before getting the nerve to approach , and if you noticed he left his first inspection rather quickly, But is not sure everything is ok, Then he comes in for the real inspection, Generally that is when a catch will be made. They will sometimes fool around for up to a half hour before geting the nerve to approach.
A trap wise Beaver will sometimes approach the set from a dozen feet away and down wind , crawl over debris and sticks coming in from the top side. Neat video!

parlecoup, Beavers have Different personalities! So the reaction will vary greatly! Some might not give it a 2nd look while others will CHARGE right in!

During the spring dispersment ALL BETS ARE OFF!!
Troy

After I made the set I splashed some water on the set to make it wet and that ran back into the water. So I guess a small amount of diluted lure did get back into the water. I had made the set early in the morning and the beaver came in about 6:30 pm.

TTT, how can I archive this? If it's worth it that is.

I wish my computer would let me see it, sounds like a good one. I have learned a TON by watching beaver work my sets. The best one I ever saw was when a beaver threw a wall of water onto my castor mound, snapping my half submerged Conibear. It solved the mystery of why I was having some snapped, empty Conibears at castor mounds. I had two lures that seemed to trigger that response. Needles to say I don't use those lures anymore.

Excellent post.. be nice to have them all back to back in a thread with no comments for the archives. You can learn a lot just by watching them do their thing.

Last video and pictures
Video - no sound sorry




Coming for lunch...

Lunch...



Heading home...