Trapping beaver

What do i need to get started trapping beaver

A nice car and a fat wallet.

and liquor!

Yep, that about covers it. Liquor, nice cars and money. That combination of "lures" will put pretty much any beaver you find walking around, right where you want it.

More info needed. Where are the beavers? Stream, neighborhood pond, hunting club culverts,etc. A 330 conibear is the best beaver trap. But, you have to set them in water to be legal. You can do leg holds but you will need to make sure the beaver drowns.

Or, going with the previous posters, some grass down at Auburn along with lots of cheap beer.

Edges of sloughs. Beaver dams beaver ponds. I hunt in a sure enough swamp and the beaver are starting to cause problems.

I can see that I have failed miserably at teaching you anything Wade!... Blame it on my job and lack of time off to trap.

Conibear traps are great beaver traps but they are a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Beavers get smart to conibear traps fast. Fast enough that you'll rarely catch the colony before they become educated.

Footholds set on drowners can catch the entire colony if done right.

Hey Hank, how would you handle a fishpond with a lot of bank crawl outs ? Have a 330 set in one that's well blended in grass but no takers yet. This slide was pretty well slicked up.

Agree with the education of a beaver, but I was assuming he only had a few to catch and could do it relatively easy with a conibear. Personally, I prefer kennepac and lodges for eradication, but that ain't going to happen again in my lifetime due to Mr. Fed. Maybe lots of tannerite would do it too.

He is going to have a hard time in a big swamp anyway.

Best thing I have ever had work is get a piece of concrete reinforcing wire and make a cylinder about 8 feet long and about 2 feet in diameter. Break a dam and lay it in the break perpendicular to the dam.

Footholds on drowners and snares. I preach the footholds a good bit but don't underestimate a good snare set. They are easy and one of my go to traps in the summer time.

Thanks. Have you tried cables instead of rods ? This spot is easy to access but thinking of some others where it wou or be a PITA to transport the rods. Already have two Bridgers set up on rods I can try.

All of mine are on cables. I want to get some set up on rods eventually but cables are just so convenient that I haven't taken the time to do it.

Do you use any lure for the foothold traps or just place them on the slide with no lure?

Use lure at the top of a slide with your trap in the water below it. Backbreaker is my go to beaver lure.

Backbreaker will also catch a cat and a coyote or three.

I'll be honest I don't do it for a living but I have yet to find one I can't catch in a 330. Or at least I don't believe that I would not have eventually got the critter in the event I actually caught him in a foothold. Might take a while but I'll get him just the same with the 330. I stick them in runs, under logs, slides, etc. There are a lot more ways to set than break the dam and guard it. FWIW I caught about 20 last year so I'm not fighting 100's. If I had that many opportunities I'd probably find some that I couldn't pinch.

330 is just too easy and effective not to start there IMO. Never had bad issues with them getting trap shy... you know I'm convinced I'm smarter than they are!

Keep messing with them Goatkiller and you'll find ones that absolutely will not swim through a square. I had one trapped inside a bank den a couple years ago with only 3 entrance holes. Blocked all 3 of them with 330's and damned if he didn't dig around one to get out.

When you're on the clock you don't have the luxury of waiting them out. Footholds, body grips and snares are all tools of the trade that a trapper needs to know how to effectively use if he/she wants to be successful. I take all 3 on every job and use whatever trap the situation calls for.