Spring Trapping!!!!!
 

Well the day has come...Otter, Beaver, Muskrat and Bear beware.
More to come.

Feel free to fill a tread with pictures for a change, enough words.
I'll post a few, likely commencing tomorrow some time.

Spruce

Well, now that you have everyone worked up into a frenzy, lets have it! :lol:

I got a call from a landowner around suppertime who was looking for some help with a beaver problem so I drove over to have a look. It turns out that he has a nice sized creek running along one whole quarter of his land with multiple lodges on it. The good news......it's infested and in an hour of sitting I shot three but one sank. The bad news......They're already rubbed and the ice only came off a few days ago! What's up with that? :angry3: The rucksack was heavy climbing out of that ravine tonight!

https://i.imgur.com/uF8w4G7.jpg

Now that the creeks are opened up in central sask once water level goes down with be hitting the creeks hard with 330

Dave, the secret is deep water beaver. Stay away from shallow water and you will take a much better quality beaver.

Shallow water beaver fur takes a beating every time they'd leave the hole, they push out and hit the bottom with their bellies, hit the sides of their shallow water runs, etc. A deep water beaver launches out of his hole and his fur simply pushes water.

No sign of rubbing yet. :D

https://i.imgur.com/glz0eNl.jpg

Dave %85 of the time if you go back the next day the ones that have sunk will be floating and just fine to retreive. I usually get them the next day easily

Unless they are in a creek or drainage ditch

This. I find small creeks/rivers the worst, as throughout the winter the water level goes down. At some point they start sticking to the ice everywhere and ripping the guard hairs out.

The colony you are talking about sounds like they may have been starving as well, or lost all water in the winter.

Spruce

That makes sense unless they chewed a hole and spent time above the ice. I had one spot this Spring where that was happening but the fur was fine. This location isn’t much different than other spots that I trap so I’m thinking that there was a log or something else that they had to rub against going in and out of their lodge. Everywhere else is mud or fine gravel. Anyway, traps are going out tomorrow and I’ll see what the others look like.

Nube, I know about them floating back up but thanks. I might get lucky but I think that one’s gone. The water is moving pretty fast and the dams have breaks in them now. I’ll look again tomorrow anyway though.

Beavers were out in full force last night. Got 9 with the 22 in a few hrs. Castors were full and leaking when I was carrying them out so that was a good sign. Got to love hunting Beavs!

Marty, Dave and Spruce make some good points on quality of beaver fur. A messy shallow pond with lots of logs they would be scrapping against things all the time, even bottom of ice if shallow pond loosing good guard hair. Deep open pond would probably produce best fur.

I think that Marty nailed it......shallow water.
I was setting today and I think that I figured out why the beaver were so rubbed. The ice had melted and they were coming out of a bank den about 20 feet in from deep water. The run was pretty shallow and all ice on the bottom of it. It must have been a pretty tight fit between the bottom of the ice and the icy bottom. There’s a big lodge there so hopefully there’s some good fur in it.

Well got first six 330 set out this evening in central sask was a tough go soft fields N lots of back water that over flowed the creek but a good start for first real serious year trapping beaver

There might be an ounce or two from a 50ish lb male I caught. :)

https://i.imgur.com/WJw8pUC.jpg

Here you go Dave. From a 86 pounder.

I feel a little odd saying it...but that's a couple nice sets of knackers!

Wow Mikey! That's going to weigh in at 3/4 pound less a little more shrinkage... that's a lot of bucks! What's castor price $65 USD or is it more these days?

Too bad they weren't all that big!

Mmmmm.... castoreum.... Yummy eh??!!!








(...just kidding, I can't believe they put that filth in the food chain!)

Also sometimes Beaver have been coming out way before you know they are there , If they are having a hard time due to shallow water or depleted feed bed they will come out all winter , NOT good for nice prime hides , generally they also have a real load of fleas and dandruff bugs .

Posting pictures of big honkers like that makes me feel totally inferior and I have to go for counseling then ! Its just not fair , THAT is bullying !

Well in the first weekend of traps running was able to set five traps along the stretch of river I have in central east sask an pulled out seven beavers so far little rubbed but not terrible hoping to set another ten more sets on my quarter in the sloughs an alongthecreeks running the out skirts of property not good at posting pics so if some one would wanna do that for I could shoot em in txt

For jeffreys.

https://i.imgur.com/x8ri17T.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ca4LXXP.jpg

Thanks for posting for me Dave that was my two days of cheaking have another one besides those six but didn’t have a pic of it cheaking again after work tonight An hopefully getting some more sets in

I picked up a beaver yesterday with two big bite markets in it. That was my cue to pull my traps and call it a season. Good luck to the rest of you beaver and muskrat trappers out there. :)