Last night was an odd night.. I set a new stretch of creek along a big bottom with a decent amount of beaver sign. Though you know how open creeks are, they never hold as many beaver as colony's do..Anyway, only one beaver this morning, but two castor mounds had been dug at by coyotes(clear tracks) and the lure was licked away.. Then at least three of four baited sets, where I used small bundles of fresh scraped /peeled sticks, on mock slides, lured with a food based lure(no castor) had the lure stick either stolen or licked clean by I can only guess was rats or coons coming from behind the sets on the bank. I know one was a coon from the tracks and Im pretty sure another was a rat...Last one I dont know as it was out in the water..
Anyway I just thought that was a really odd night for all that to happen... You ever run into areas where non targets cause problems with beaver sets?

I would switch up to pure beaver sac oil and see what happens. Might be some of the additives to castor lure appealing to other critters besides the castor.

Coons will get into everything here once it warms above freezing. They're hungry from their winter holing up and ravenous. Any scent, bait or lure will get them messing around. You might have to go to just bait sticks.

Yea the place is just eat up with coons too.... if it was not so close to the end of the season Id catch a few.. The food lure base is heavy poplar bud oil but with notes of birch too. Id guess that wintergreen smell from the birch is really drawing them in too

Yes, non-targets can really be a problem in spring.

It's why I use heavy pan tension, along with setting deep and and an elbow length back from my castor mounds.

Turtledale and your (KYBOY's) statements hit home here.......... So much so, I won't set a foot trap after ice-out due to coons exploring every scent they can. 330-280 or a snare is all I will use this time of year. ..............the mike

I’ve had 100 percent catch rates in beaver body grips more than once- to bad they were muskrats.

Have had some of the same problems, so I don't use any lures. My baited sets are peeled popple and that's it. But I don't use baited sets unless its necessary.

Castor is a universal attractant.

Around here castor will make muskrats plaster the mound with droppings