2014 Summer Catch Thread

This may not be nearly as fun as the winter trapping but we're off and running anyway! I put my first sets out today on an ADC job and will be putting out more tomorrow.

Nothing this morning! We pulled up and had a beaver just casually swimming around the pond but they hadn't repaired the dam break yet so he may have just found it.

As hot as it is getting, scent is going to be a major factor.


God Bless,
David B.

Yea Boff, I know land trapping is gonna be tough for sure but my water line shouldn't be too bad. I've still got 2 weeks before I even set a land line and it's only getting hotter. My plans are to start setting as soon as it's light enough to see and only make sets until 8 or 9 so it may take 2 or 3 mornings to set a property but at least my sets will be clean.

I have started many times setting coyote traps, with the head lights on! When it gets hot, i use a lot of Modified step downs. I find they work best for cattle country. I start when i can see and do good to get 11-12 sets in before it too hot for ME to set traps.

I'm convinced this pond I'm trapping now has bad juju! Lol! 1 1/2" of rain yesterday and last night washed all 3 of my sets out. I managed to get one of them reset this morning before another storm hit.

I remember those days. I use to do lots of bounty work on beavers. Now i mainly do coyotes and hogs. Rain can really mess a man up!

These damn beavers have pissed me off! The water is so shallow where my traps are that when they pushed mud in to repair the dam break last night they pushed my traps in with it.

I'm going to dig out a trench and fence it in with limbs. I'll have a conibear guarding the ditch and steel traps guarding both ends of my fencing.

I remeber the same thing happen to me on a small pond dam once. Just like you described. I dug out 2 trenchs set traps like you are describing AND stake a conniber between the 2 trenches. I could the beaver the next day. He had pluged the first dam/ trench i made, and was heading to the second one 6 ft away and that conniber caught him. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Shooter I made a half moon fence around the dam break and left 2 openings in the fence guarded with 330's. The water is only about 8"s deep so I dug just enough of a channel at both sets to completely submerge the traps and put dive sticks over both of them. I've also got 2 snares about 10 yards from the dam in a funnel point and I lured both of them with backbreaker.

This should've been a 1 or 2 night job and even with it just 2 miles from home it's already cost me too much time for there to be any profit made. It's all about catching this last one strictly for pride now! I start days on Monday so only 2 nights left and it is flooding here now.

Just dont give up, you will catch him! Sometimes beavers do strange things.

Oh there isn't any give up in me! Lol!

I did pick up another job today that looks like it has great potential. It's within a mile of my house and is a railroad ditch that they've damned up for probably a mile or more on both sides. I counted 17 dams there this morning and at least that many crossover trails going from one side to the other. I should be able to set the trails with snares and conis and knock a dent in them pretty quick. I'll be setting it up the Sunday after Yekrut's bash and can run it for 2 weeks. Gonna have to get a shotgun guard to watch my back while I set it though, I saw signs of some big lizards there today also!

I worked for Norfolk Southern when i was younger. Beaver would dam up places and cause the water to rise and was out the balist line= what we called rock edge of the tracks. I was a highrail man. I rode with the track superviser all day. Theirs nothing better than getting Payed time and a half to trap and shoot beavers! Sometimes i miss beaver trapping. I have not set abeaver trap in years, i think about how i would like to set some traps and catch some beaver. Then reality strike me! I then start thinking about all the hard work, the times i have been ALMOST bitten by a cottonmouth, and how bad my bak would be hurting me after a long day on the beaver line! I miss the fun of catching them, but dont miss all the hard work. To be honest, i enjoy beaver trapping /or did almost as much as i now enjoy just trapping coyotes. To me its the thrill of the catch. Its putting your brain against the aniamls nature. I love trapping. Its a dying art. North40R i wish you lots of luck and hope you are teaching this sport to someone. I try all the time to teach people what i can about coyote trapping. Well good luck and keep us posted on your trapping line.

Thanks Shooter!

Too much water today. My dive sticks were several inches underwater this morning. Guess I'll pull them tomorrow and wait for a drought to finish that job. I'm about ready to go break the dam and just sit on it with my shotgun.

Finally got some sets out yesterday and snared a 48# sow beaver last night.

Nice Hank! I was wondering if you were still after them

Thanks Cole! I've been working OT on the real job and just got to set yesterday. Working 2 separate lakes down in Mobile Co. this week so hopefully a couple more days will see these whipped out.

Caught 3 yesterday and Ms. Amanda and Dev caught another one this morning. That's 5 beaver in the past 4 nights. Hopefully these 2 ponds will be cleaned out pretty soon.

I like that boat! Is it a 10 ft boat? Who makes it?

Shooters it is made by Dalton's Boat Works in Poplarville Ms.

It's the Swamprat 1036. 10' long, 36" bottom and 41" beam.

Mr. Dalton has a website with all his boats listed. He makes the boats at his house and guarantees them.

I was skeptical about mine at first but it is super nice. It will float in only a few inches of water with 2 people and a pile of traps in it.

Hank, how often do you end up trapping little ones like the one pictured on your tailgate. I don't recall seeing too many of those getting caught.
Good job, clearing them out.

Thanks 40! That's the smallest one I've ever caught. Conibear trap doesn't cull them though. Lol!

Looking good Hank, you need to leave 1or 2 for woodie holes though lol.

Ain't it cute! Lol! Destructive little sucker anyway.

Nice Hank! You're doing some work on them now

Way to go hank

Thanks! I'm learning to use snares for beaver and they are super convenient and deadly in the right situation.

No beaver today but we did catch 3 coons.


You can see the reason this guy wants them caught in the back of the picture. They are destroying his cornfield.

That's 3 less egg eaters. You running DP's for them?

All 3 were caught in dp traps. That's all I'm running on this job. Too many neighbors.

Checked 33 empty traps this morning! Lol! Some days it just bees like that!

Pulled the coon traps this morning so the landowner could let his cat out for the day. Lmao! I told him next time we needed to plan for at least a week that I could run them or we were wasting time.

Another beaver this morning.

Congrats Hank!

Man you are wearing them out! Congrats Hank.

Empty traps again! TOO DANG HOT!!! I think I'm gonna pull these up tomorrow afternoon and wait for cool weather. It's some kinda tough right now.

I can't even imagine trying to run traps in this weather. I am already ready for summer to be over and it just started

Its a young mans game! Thats why I stick to trapping coyotes!

What's your kills total so far this summer?

7 beaver and 3 coons! I only had the coon traps out 2 nights and beaver trapping this time of year is tough! The beaver just aren't moving due to the water being hot and they're feeding on vegetation in the water. I'm planning to break some dams in the morning to see if I can force them to move.

If all goes well I should have a couple coyote traps out sometime this weekend and can run them for 2 weeks.

Well I broke a couple beaver dams this afternoon. If they're still in these shallow ponds they'll have to do some work tonight. I left them a couple traps to stumble into while they work.


There are 17 of these short dams scattered over a mile so I've got plenty of work to do myself.

Empty traps again. No dam repairs last night and the water level was down 8 inches in the ditches. I cleaned the breaks out again this morning and cut them deeper. I'm going to do the same this afternoon and if nothing has been done overnight I'll be pulling traps out and sending the backhoe in to finish tearing these dams out.

My theory is there's no running water in these shallow ditches and the water temp has gotten so hot that the beavers have moved back into the creek.

You have sure enough got a mess on your hands with removing those dams.
What's your typical first step in removal when you decide to attack one of those things? Chainsaw? Hand to hand combat?
We have three surrounding a beaver pond at our place and it would be impossible to get any machinery in there such as a backhoe for removal. Just trying to get some ideas.

Tannite is what I would use!

What is tannite?

Either by hand or blow them up if you can't get equipment to them.

None of the dams had been repaired this morning so I pulled all my traps out of the area and hopefully the landowner can get a piece of equipment in there this week and save her timber.

Dad used to use dynamite. Tannerite could work I'd wait till the middle of the day while they are in the hut and blow them to pieces

One coon and one possum this morning. Doing some nuisance coon trapping for myself this week and should have a few coyote traps out next week.

It's tannerite, and its a store bought form of very stable explosive. They have it at Academy Sports last time I checked. It can only be set off by shooting it with a rifle.

The girls had one possum this morning in a live trap and said it has a pouch full of mouse size babies. Guess I'll have to deal with that this afternoon.

Nothing in the traps today but ants. I'm going to rebait everything tomorrow morning with shelled corn and see if maybe the ants will leave it alone long enough to catch.

I'm going to try a few coyote sets but the ants have me worried about working them too.

Another chufa eating nest robber gone!

Looks like better weather for ducks than coyotes the next 10 days. Bout to head out and see if I can punch in a few sets anyway.

Pretty sure it's illegal to trap coons in the summer. I wouldn't be posting these pics.

Thanks polywaug! I trap under a nuisance control permit from the state.

Rain every day in the 10 day forecast and high humidity made me put all my traps under the shed today. I am going to set up a small nuisance beaver job tomorrow so hopefully I'll still be posting a few catches.

Finally got a couple traps in the water this morning. 3 snares and 1 conibear on a nuisance job so hopefully a couple beaver pics this weekend.

Caught 1 beaver and stomped a poor old cottonmouth to death this morning.

nice Hank

Another big beaver!

How many snakes have you killed running all these water sets this summer Hank?

Not nearly as many as I expected. Maybe 5 or 6. I did kill a big copperhead this morning coming home from checking hair snares with our bear biologist.

My cousin's husband is doing studies on bears in south Alabama right now. Is your biologist's name Brian?

Yup! Brian Kincade. Big ugly sucker!

Bald as can be with a beard that would make Grizzly Adams jealous. He's an awesome guy, tell him his wife's cousin David says hi.

I will! He's missing that new baby at home. I'm gonna teach him how to trap some critters before he leaves.

Pulled traps this morning! On to the next one.

I reset the bad mojo pond 4 nights ago and man what a difference. I had trapped this pond 2 weeks this past spring and only caught 2 beaver. I reset it Monday and Tuesday morning had these 2.


Wednesday morning I had another one.


Thursday morning I had another one.

Nothing had been around my drowner sets that I had put on slides going into the pond so I baited them with castor Thursday and had this one this morning. See his tail sticking up?