I have a guy that lives close to me called me yesterday said he had about 4-5 beaver in his personal pond he needs gone , now I have dabbled in beaver trapping some but no where near proficient at it , this is just a small pond any tips or trick to help me get these out of his pond , foot hold or body grip traps the best I have both
First of all, landowners usually over estimate the number unless they’ve seen that many at once and know that what they’re seeing isn’t muskrats for sure. Stay away from the den or house starting out. If they hear you they might hump up and not move for a week. Hit them hard first two nights. The remainders will quit stirring and you might as well pull and go back a couple weeks later. Semi Exposed bodygrips May not work the best in a small pond because the beavers are super aware of any changes in small still water. In creeks they’re used to seeing changes occur. But they might work good if they’ve never been fooled with. I find small ponds are the most difficult beavers to fool with.
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To my knowledge they have never been trapped that’s what I was wondering would it be better to use a drownding setup or body grip. I personally have not laid eyes on it but he said “he’s seen Atleast 4” and there damming his pond up and causing it to wash one side out , I will have more info on it tomorrow I’m gonna go look at it and see what he has
I’m sure there’s beaver there if they’ve dammed it up and have cuttings. I’ve had ponds that had a couple in and the owner was seeing muskrats too and thought that because it had its head above water it was all beavers. Easy to not think if you see certain beaver sign about the possibility of rats too. If you don’t have anything but snares you could probably do the job. Good luck.
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So snares would be a good option? I do have snares , I have duke 650 foothold I bought just for beaver trapping and never persued it hard and I have 330 body grips I know you all beaver trap , I’m mostly coon, cat, and coyote land trapper lol I’m lost when it comes to the water that’s why I knew this would be the best place to come for answers lol
There’s a “ fiddling learning” curve for beaver, or there was for me. Seemed like I learned a lot about what don’t work more than what did. If they have hot feed trails you should be able to snare them and a live beaver in a snare isn’t as alarming as a dead one they can see. If you have plenty of time you may get one early one way and one another later. It is easy to go overboard and spook them so I’d estimate what you think is available and set accordingly. You’ll have you some good cat bait as a bonus. I know your meeting Neal, he’s a good beaver trapper.
Well this is all new to me the water trapping world , I’ve set some body grips on rivers while I was running my “land” line just to see if I could do it , but never been successful so hopefully this will help me steer in that direction cause I’ve always been interested in the beaver and rat trapping side of it
The besst thing is hit them hard the first couple nights with a bunch of traps. even freshen old sign and put in a trap. You will be suprised
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