One of my favorite beaver sets is simply a bait stick of willow, poplar, or birch, half peeled and stuck upright in the mud of the bank . I like to find a spot that a beaver can come into and put his front feet down, and I like to set a #3 double long spring slightly off- center about 15 to 20 inches back from the peeled stick, and under 1 to 3 inches of water. The stick really should be placed after the trap is bedded in the proper depth, since the depth and position of the trap is critical to a front foot catch with beaver . Another critical thing to this set is "guidance," beaver are not too bright, but it is necessary to use some hefty guide sticks to direct them over the trap, rather than around. The set is easy, and it is quick, and you can even peel fresh bait sticks as you travel on the water if your floating. Bait sticks should be about 2 to 3 inches in diameter and they should stick up out of the mud around 2 feet, visibility is the key, and a few strips of fresh bark peeled and hanging on the bait stick is a great visual attractor. No lure is needed at these sets, but I feel that castor is always an added attractor, although I don't always use it. The things to keep in mind for this set are location and location. That's right, locate reasonable sign of beaver, and locate the bait stick in a very visible area, for the beaver that is. Get down close to the water and try to see what the beaver is going to notice as it swims eye level in the water. Make sure the bait can readily be approached from the one direction only, that is over the trap, and be aware that if you get the trap too deep the front feet of the beaver will likely miss on the approach, and this is what I am trying to hit, since I have never had the luxury of having large enough traps to handle the rear foot. Everything is important, but I will stress that little else matters if your drowning rig is not perfect. The water must drop off to a good depth (I prefer more than 3 feet), and there must be plenty of weight on the end. Around my country I can pick up a lot of old cinder blocks on the river so this is convenient, but weight is the real issue. I don't use heavy gauge drowning wires, rather I use two strands of 16 gauge galvanized electric fence wire, since it is cheap and I can't ever recall losing a beaver in a drowning rig because of two strands breaking. The key with my drowning set ups has always been a tight wire going deep, with plenty of weight. If the wire is good and tight, and the depth is right, then the beaver will be down quick, and that is what it takes. I will try to get some pics of this set, rather than diagrams in the near future, as well as some discussion on other sets I use the #3, and #4 long springs on, as well as the 330's and snares. My first beaver was with a snare, so it can be done. You can see in the photo here that I have a small upright willow with a few slashes being used for the bait stick, and two peeled bait sticks from a beaver that was caught here the previous night. The guide sticks cannot be edible for the beaver, use dead limbs only and I usually make the approach a little more guarded than in this pic. This set has a #4 Newhouse guarding it, but the most effective setup is with a 330. I seldom use this set without sign, and I typically like to make it on fresh tracks or an actual slide. 330's should be stabilized very well and I usually leave the top of the trap out of the water about 3 to 4 inches, but this is strictly dependent on how deep the approach is in the first place. If you submerge a 330 here, or use a snare, you should also use a pole horizontally to cause the beaver to duck under and into the trap; once again it should be a dead pole.

This is about a 45 pound beaver that came into a bait pole that I rigged a snare on in December of 2002, after a bigger guy broke the galvanized fence wire that had a 330 anchored with several nights before. Thankfully the water dropped about 6 inches and I found the beaver intact in the 330 about 50 yards downstream about 3 nights after it was taken. I have now resorted to using at least two strands, tied separately for all 330 and snare sets, and if I think the situation warrants it I use 3 strands. At around $13 per 1/4 mile roll, this stuff works well if one doesn't skimp on it, and it is a lot cheaper and easier to work with than heavy gauge wire.

If the situation is not too threatening for a beaver, they will often put up little resistance to a snare, as was the case with this adult. It had wrapped the long length of wire around a few trees and was causing little disturbance when I floated up. A steep slide is another matter, and I caught a 55 pound beaver on this same stretch of river last fall that took one fast lunge downhill and ended the struggle quickly with a good head catch. I must say however that good head catches can be tough, since a beaver has that profile that allows the front legs to make their way through a snare loop quite easily. I have the tendency to shy away from too small of a loop, typically using a 7 to 8 inch diameter, unless I have setup on a steep slide and if this is the case you can reduce the loop size down to around 4 or 5 inches and about 2 inches of the ground. Use a few stout twigs for guide sticks, and the snare should be parallel to the slope, that is if the slope is a 60 degree slope, then the snare should be tilted the same degree. If need be, you can use a couple of fine twigs to keep the bottom of the snare from hanging straight down.

Hopefully you can see what I mean with the snare angle in this pic.

This beaver was snared coming into a bait pole that lay directly to the left of his position.

The beaver above was taken November 9, 2002 in Pocahontas County in a very obvious run. I set this entry to the main run to a dam, then I set another 330 BMI thirty feet closer to the dam, and we had a beaver in each the next morning. The pic below is of the second set, that's closer to the dam.

You can see pretty clearly how I positioned the first trap in this picture below. After the 330 was solid I always place a good old stick across the top to cause the beaver to go under and through the bodygrip or snare.

You can't really tell by the pics, but these early November beaver taken at elevations around 4,000 feet are actually very well furred in comparison to beaver from the coalfield region that I normally trap.

High Country Beaver Village