I have to live trap the beaver out of the Madison city parks. I've caught 2 In snares.
The city has 2 beaver sized live traps that some one tried to use on the beaver. From what I heard they failed. So I thought why not try It.
Are there any trappers on this forum that have used live traps and have been successful? Any help would be appreciated.

At last year's Kansas trapping convention a guy did a demo I can't remember his name. He put the open end about 2 in the water and shoved a mud pie down through the top end and lured it with some Caster type lure. Claims that he has caught a pile of them that way.

I sent you a PM Beav. I know a guy.

I've used two styles both by Kirk Dekalb. Single wide door and double guillotine door.

The single wide shines for mud pie sets. Wire up a handful of grass or sedge to the back wall to hold your mud pie. Lure as you would any other mud pie. Set cage half in water at the waters edge as if it were a 330 or foothold in front of a pullout. Can also be used to block culverts or inside box culverts.

The double door shines when used like a 330 in a channel set but can also be used on a pullout set or even lured with a mud pie on top if blocked to keep them from climbing on top.

Cages work just fine have even taken a few otter in the cages set for beaver. Like the others have said,I set in shallow water and built up a castor mound in the rear of the trap.
Check early,when caging beaver in an area with a lot of people--cage trapped beaver will draw quite a crowd. The beaver and the crowd,provide an exellent time for educating the people on not only beaver,but why they needed to be controlled.
Tom

Make sure the traps are strong enough. Beavers will blow the doors off those havahart single door traps. If you have to use them beef the doors up with some extra hog rings.

I have caught lots of beaver in different types of cage and clam shell type traps. Kirk DeKalb has a nice live beaver cage trap, works great. Like any trap, you need to learn its proper use, function and placement. We get jobs that want live removal only. Better carry along a couple strong poles to carry out the cage and beaver inside. Bring along a friend.

Being passive aggressive here they want them live trapped so trap them using above techniques, but unless the town specified they had to be transported live, carry out the carcass.

Bob touches on an important part of caging beaver. It makes being close to the truck doubly important.

If it weren't for bulk and weight I would prefer to use cages for almost all beaver work. For some strange reason they just don't get "square shy" of those big wire boxes. Maybe it's the not seen before or cages don't pinch belly or tail or slap noses like footholds or 330s can do.

The one downside. Expect nontarget catch. I've caught quite a few bass in the three to five pound range. Countless turtles, coons and otters. But being cages it's a simple release if not set underwater.

I never have built a mound.
Maybe a shined up stick or two
Always a slicked path

Usually set at the waters edge with guiding and lightly brush in the trap
Lure is going to be what works in your are this time of year.

I use dobbins wood chip and beav + this time of year.
About a month or so I would start using castor in the side pools for the kits

I often see the kits doing there own thing, almost like building a fort in their own domain

Yup, kits doing kit things.

That was a great designed trap.
That trap can be set dry or wet

Yup, and I've pressed it into service dryland for armadillo, coon and fox.

Yep, that is a very well-designed trap and is quite versatile. Thanks for posting that photo.

There was some info you might want to check out in the adc forum.Comstock was sharing some good information.

Caught several in cage traps. Most times set across a small drainage ditch from a bank den and used castor based lure. Lot of first morning catches. A larger trap would work better in my estimation. Weight of cage traps as well as packing catch out is why I don't use them more.

I can drive the truck to every spot on the property.

Beav - give Jim Comstock a call. He makes a cage trap and has done a lot of it. Good Luck.

Scot

X2

I've used Kirk De's cages for Beaver many times?