I have a duck lease with a dozen lakes - full of beavers. I have trapped beaver years ago with foot holds and connibears but no longer have any suitable traps for beaver. Because there are so many spots for a trap, decided I might buy some snares instead of investing back in a bunch of traps. You can see where beavers are crossing over the levee.



Looks like this on both ends. Many spots like this and also a bunch of scent mounds. Do you just narrow it down at waters edge and hang a snare there. I know most beaver arent real wary - do guide sticks scare them off much. Quite a few otter in here too. How deep of water where you place the snare?

Better get a handle on those rascals or you'll have a beaver lease with a few ducks....

I'd cover that place with snares at every crossover. And snares at the best mounds. Use blocking limbs....

Snares are reasonable. Get them and land mine the place. They are a good tool when used right.

Screams for a snare.

I have better luck hanging them off the bank in water like in the photo. But the same applies with 330s vs parking them directly on the bank.

Catch them where they are moving not transitioning land to water.

I look for natural pinch points like in the picture versus a bunch of blocking or fencing. I will do blocking but prefer to find something they are already using so blocking and foreign objects are minimal.

If looping off to a tree be sure to anchor under water as live snared beaver chew. They've been known to take down the tree the snare is looped to.

This is good advice^^^

Locking yourself into one tool on a beaver nuisance job is not a good idea.

Nobody paying me to do this, so I hate to go spend $1000 on trapping supplies for maybe a week or two of trapping. I am 45 miles away and have other things I need to be doing, too. Fortunately, I do like trapping

If you intend to hold the lease for any amount of time, I’d invest in some traps.

Here's a picture of a beaver snared at a crossover like you have pictured. Was passing between the big tree and a limb laying in the water. You can snare them up on the bank but when it's already naturally blocked down I go with that.

They can also be snared on dryland if legal and you got the option. This one they were crossing over the road and had a beat down path along the top of the concrete retaining wall. So snares got hung from the handrail.

So when your snaring beaver On dry land How high Is the bottom of the snare off the ground? And how large would your loop be? I can't see tying to catch a beaver by the head with a snare.

The other question Is I caught a lot of beaver by placing a 330 half way submerged tight against a large tree trunk with some castor placed on that tree trunk. Would that also work with a snare?

Funny you asked this because I did neck snare one on dry land earlier this season. Bottom of snare about 2 inches off ground with about a five inch loop...


Now all we have down here is cowboy hat beaver so I don't worry about a snare mark. About the same distance of ground but with about an 8 inch loop. Snare them behind front legs like this one I caught a few weeks ago crossing a low levee...

On flat ground I like a 8" max loop 4" off the ground. On slides about 2" off.

Never snare at the water edge or edge of the top of a bank. More misses due to weirdness. If you don't have deer stops, you'll foot snare a lot of beaver at the top edge of banks. If you have deer stops you'll have closed snares and wondering what happened.

One span, thumb tip to pinky tip spread wide, and two fingers off the ground. I try to get one front leg in the loop.

I was with you up to that point. We snare all ours at the edge of the water or a few inches up the bank. They are almost all caught by the neck. The exception being the occasional little guys that get snared behind the front legs. We carve out a notch in the bank to guide them, no sticks typically. It's easy and they come to you. It's not ADC trapping though, we don't care if we leave a smart one for seed.

I just like staying off those edges a bit just because its a bit unpredictable at those spots on how theyre coming through the snare. Caught a lot doing that when I have to do to rules but Id rather not

I hope this thread gets even more input, but I feel like it is already worthy of the archives if there’s not a comparable thread already there.

We are only allowed to snare if the loop is half in the water. It can be problematic with our fluctuating water levels , moving everyday sometimes with dropping water. All that being said I’ve had to make due with lots of fencing and small loops. Digging out a spot like ADC does works well when you’ve the got the right circumstances. A good food lure such as Iroquois is great with snares.

I snare probably 90% of the beaver I trap. Placing your set so that the beaver swims underneath a leaning branch etc. is like fishing with dynamite! A little dab of castor on the leaning item, or slightly higher works really well. I often make my own leaning set that I like to call the triangle of death just by placing an old T post accordingly. Ill try to get some pictures up once the water goes down around here. Lately my go to snare has been 60" of 1x19 5/64" cable, with a Bridger toothed camlock, 8-10 inch loaded loop.