This is getting embarrassing

I have been after a "magic" beaver I think

This beaver on the job I posted about before, keeps amazing me.

So here is the latest: I had put small breaks in dams two days ago, no repairs yesterday (the cool thing was I got a coyote on the camera crossing on the dam). Anyway I made the breaks much larger. One dam has two foot holds on drowning rods. The other has 330s up stream in the channel. So this mornings check revealed:

Both dams repaired and built about 6 inches higher

Both foot holds set off with no beaver (1 right where set the other down the. 12 foot rod about 5 feet)

This is the dam where the camera is. NO VIDEO OF BEAVERS, just a deer

The other dam one 330 moved from channel to edge of stream laying on its side not set off

The other 330 moved a little, still in stand but completely, I emphasize completely covered with mud, seaweed, and grass, like they built a dam on it and in it, and it was not fired

This is embarrassing, and I also don't get how they fixed the dam and never set off camera, prior to setting traps I had this beaver on the dam every other night on film

I'd change my camera angle or adjust sensitivity settings. Maybe it is staying lower in the water. Might get lots of junk pics but at least you'll see anything there.

Sounds like our technician might have forgot to turn the camera on again. Here's what I did to catch a trap shy beaver that kept

springing footholds; I left two footholds set very obvious in the break and set two more that were well hidden on the approach side.

I did the same thing to a coyote that kept digging up the traps at a dirthole.

Paul

I thought about blaming the tech but it filmed a deer at 4:00am and me when I came to check traps so that won't work. Plus I am the tech

As far as hiding the foot holds Well I thought they were as this was the first time I set foot hold here and this drainage has never been trapped until I came along to educate these beavers

What kind of footholds? NO matter the make/model be sure you have enough pan tension so they don't spring too easily. I'd rather have them walk over it once with no effect than have it fire prematurely due to a hair trigger. If you start finding the dam fixed and the traps still set, back it off a bit. I always prefer too much to too little pan tension for beaver.

I have been using cameras to monitor beaver nuisance setups for a while, and one thing is certain, beaver do not put off near as much heat signature as you might expect - or something - because they routinely manage to do things right in front of the camera without setting it off, and these are 2013 bushnell trophy cams running lithium batteries, noted for being good cameras. A swimming beaver is especially tough since there is not much exposed - I actually sent a message to the Bushnell company and the tech assured me that I was correct - the sensor only senses the surface of the water, and just wetness on fur makes triggering much less likely. So i then sent a message to Trailcampro asking what the most sensitive detection system out there is, and they say the most sensitive they have ever tested is the new Bushnell Trophy Cam Aggressor. But beware, video trip-time is like two and half seconds or more, while picture-only trip times are lighting fast. I only use video on my setups, and I often have a beaver trip the camera after obviously spending some time repairing the dam before the trap makes it rear up and trip the sensor. So the video typically shows about 2 seconds of unhappy beaver before it disappears down the chain. Frustrating, because what I want is everything leading up to that point. I get better results sometimes though, so it is well worth the expense and effort. Taught me more than about any other tool.

I find that the most important factor to getting beaver to trip the camera in the water is angle - you want the camera ideally pointing straight down, like as in from a bridge looking down into the water - this gives the greatest surface area exposed for a swimming animal. All you really have is the head, possibly a portion of the neck and back, and the lower the angle the less signature. From the bank, down near water level detecting across the surface, there is no way a swimming animal will trip it. Raise it up about ten feet, better. Pointing down from straight above - best. Still no guarantees though. I have better luck with mink than beaver - mink swim higher so maybe that is the reason, but they definitely trip the camera better than beaver. They swim over my CDRs through the dam break regularly. Like a little surfer...

Ha Ha Dont feel bad . This happens to all of us sooner or later. Most guys give up, collect the money and run.

Can you legally shoot the beaver or not ?

12ga. #4 buckshot would be my next set ...

Have you found any fresh cuttings by any chance?

MT...Why don't you just pull out for a week or so, let things calm down and get back to the norm...then slip back in like a thief in the night and use your skills...dosesn't help matters tring this and that all at once... Good Luck which ever way you choose...

I did pull out for over a week, had the camera set up and was getting video every other night of this beaver working on the dam

A little redemption. This is at a site I trapped out in the spring for the drain commission. A week ago they called me back and said the dam had just got rebuilt and to "go do your thing". So I set up a wall of 330's in front if the concrete channel that the dam was in, but nothing for a week. And then this morning this 40ish lbs beaver was there with a fresh cut stick hanging out of its mouth

At the other site this morning the small dam is rebuilt and the bigger one is untouched

Since the same stuff isn't working, it's time to try something different.

Try using a floating beaver trap, leave the dams alone and make several different types of sets up and down from the dam sites, do some blind sets (no added forcing, no construction just set and go), try several monitoring sets without any type of trap but with castor or food so you can see if those areas are getting hit or not.

About the only way to deal with an educated animal is to give it something it hasn't been educated with or make everything look the same.

WCT, by 'make everything look the same,' are you referring to leaving off the set construction and other disturbances?

Jason,

I'm referring to making the area look the same as the set locations. So if there are dam breaks, either don't do any dam breaks or make lots of them instead of only a couple. If there are no pullouts, it may not be the best thing to put one whereas if there are several pullouts, then add more to the equation.

The key is to make so many changes to the area that all of the changes look like they belong instead of having only a couple that stand out from the rest.

I cannot remember if you said if you had located the den? If not I would make that priority # 1 and if you find it set some snares in blind spots between the den and dam. If you know his travel route set the snares in pinch points.

It's a shallow swamp, I have tried to find travel routes, each time I think I'm on one it just stops I thick cattail and Lilly's
I have tried one new thing today that is almost unnoticeable If it does it work I will gang set duke #4s all over I front of the dam to capture every dang one of its legs. The water is really shallow. Deepest parts I have found are three feet. At dam 6 inches and in channel that is between dam and swamp it is about 18-20" deep and it's only about 15-20 feet and it's to edge of swamp. The beaver has stopped repairing the dam furtherest down the chain of pot holes. It only works on the first dam now I would consider shooting it but it is only on camera between 2-4 in the morning and I like to be asleep then


No I have not located den. But may take a few hours one day this week and try if I don't get it soon