beaver

[old timer with attitude]

need help trapping beavers. never before traped them. traped everything elese though. there eatine me out of house and home.

[multibeard]

What type of traps do you have to start with. That makes a big difference in what we can suggests as far as sets.

If you don't have any traps, the 330 size connibears are probably the easiest for a novice to start with. They can be blind set in channels that the beaver travel thru. Crossovers on dams are great spots to catch them as well. You need to check the laws in you state as to how and where connibears can be set.

Connibears need to be set with care so they do not catch non target species.

[rubicon]

When I trapped beaver my favorite set was a bait set with a drowner. For the drowner I would tie a large weight (usually a rock) on a piece of stranded clothes line wire and toss it in the water. Wire a couple of traps to a small L shaped bracket (these are about 1 1/2 or 2inches long) and slide the bracket on the wire with the trap chain end pointing to the weight. Drive a stake on land and tie off the wire making sure it is taunt. Set your traps in the water next to the bank and place some brush in the water making a vee to the traps. Dont use green wood for the v or the stake. Cut a green pole (I always used aspen) and place it at the waters edge behind the trap. strip some of the bark off and change it if you use the site more than a couple days. When bucky beaver patrols his water he will see and smell the bait stick and the brush will guide him right in to your traps, when he gets in a trap he will go to water for safety and will run the traps down to the end of the wire and will dround. As a kid i used to get anxious and run my trapline my traps in the middle of the night and again the next morning and have taken two beaver out of the same set in one night. Seems like I always caught the smaller ones before I could get the grandaddys. This set is hard for me to explain but:
Good Luck

[Trapper_Stephen88]

Here's a set I've seen used with good results. You could use either beaver castor (sold by most trapper suppliers) or aspen sticks. Make sure there is enough water to drown the beaver. You could also use a conibear instead of a foothold trap.
Put plenty of sticks to guide the beavers feet.

[old timer with attitude]

i cant belive my eyes all this very good info and all i had to do was learn how to use a computer. in my day when i first started trapping to many years ago. a feller had to know you real good before he would tell you anything. that drowning set took me a year to learn . after that i had no trouble out of an otter. i never herd of beaver where i live till about 8 years ago. then i thought someone was seeing things. boy howdy are they for real . i am going to try some snares first because they are light and dont weigh so much. with artificial hips and rods in my back i have to be careful. well boys thanks so much for the info. if you think of anything elese let me know.