My Office Today

Well it would for sure be healthier than a Big Mac!
And the Victoria Secret isn’t too far from the truth either. Lots of top end perfumes use beaver castor in musks’ as fragrance enhansers, and also to flavor vanilla ice cream.

Didn’t go to house #1 today to save time to allow more setting on main contract area today. Above is a beaver caught at house #2 today, one of last years pups, so this house should have 6 beaver in it, an adult pair, and the usual four pups. This little guy managed to get caught in two snares, which I was able to reuse.

i didn’t catch anything at house 3, but the pole had been chewed by some Muskrats and they managed to knock the snares down on one pole. Didn’t catch anything at house #4 either, but a beaver managed to chew the pole completely in two without getting caught. Pictured above is a big male beaver caught at house #5. Noted the big notch missing from his tail, from previous fighting, most likely territorial Dispute.

pictured above is a close-up view of what a large beaver does to two snares he was caught in, won’t be reusing those.

The remainder of the pictures are houses I set up today. Above is house #6, which really didn’t look too hot, but may be an old bachelor. The tracks on the house are Timberwolf and Otter.

My snowmobile pictured on the pond where house #6 is. Note the bait poles I drag around for bait pieces at sets.

House #7

House #8. Wasn’t much water here.

House #9

House #10. Note all that brush sticking up above the snow. That is the beavers feed pile or cache, and what they eat all winter. Ran out of bait here so will continue on this ditch when I go back Wednesday.

House #11. Picture doesn’t do this pond justice. Really nice area, with another abandoned house there also, about the same size as the one pictured. Going back on Wednesday.

Enjoying this.

Me too....from my La-Z-Boy in my 70⁰ living room.

Ran the line today and conditions weren't great. A lot of the holes had barely frozen, due to the warm weather, which leaves the poles unsupported at the top, or in short the beaver just grab onto them and pull them under the ice, several of them without being caught! Water on the ice from melting snow, and sagging ice.
Pictured above^^ is how I check these snare poles when they freeze, which they normally do in proper cold weather. I don't have to chop out a hole large enough to pull the whole pole up, I just chop a hole large enough to get my hand through, then reach under the ice and feel for my top snares. If the top snares are still set, I just go to the next pole. The neoprene gloves go up to my shoulder, and in cold weather I wear a pair of wool liners under them for warmth. Usually when a beaver has been caught they knock all the snare down, so if the top snares are out of place, I chop the entire hole open and pull the pole out. If I've caught a beaver, I go to one end of my slot I've cut in the ice, chop out a hole just on that end large enough to pull a beaver out head first by reaching under the ice and getting hold of the beavers front foot to guide it out the small hole.

Started at house one, which showed no activity at all. Loaded back up and went to the main contract area. Pictured above ^^ is house #2, and had another small one here today.

This ^^ is the beaver at house #2 caught by the tail, with a stick also in the snare loop. The beaver was probably headed back into the house carrying the stick when it went through the snare loop

Nothing at house #3 except a few new chew marks from muskrats on one pole. Above ^^ is house #4 and a beaver had again pulled the same pole under the ice and just about chewed the pole in half, without getting caught. I'm sure the pole hadn't frozen in at all, and look at the water in my boot prints. We need a couple days below zero to solidify this ice again.

This ^^ is what I saw when pulling up to house #5. Two of three poles pulled under the ice!!

And this ^^ is the results of the two poles pulled under at house #5, a nice big pair! Things are looking up!

This is the beaver caught closest to the house at #5. Shrews do this, and often chew the heels, nose or ears, while the beaver is completely submerged under ice. They like the fatty areas and on rare occasions even chew through the tail leather. Usually doesn't hurt the value of the hide, because like this facial area, is cut off when we flesh them anyway.

This ^^ is a dried up old beaver pond between house #5 and #6. This area of the creek ice either fell in when I drove over it last time and I didn't feel it or fell in some time during the last two warm days. It's a pretty rough ride with all the hummocks in the area, but I didn't notice it anyway until I saw it today, had to re-route a short ways to pick a different path around it. No big deal except I had the sled on and had to unhook three bait poles to go in reverse! It's the little things in life! LOL

This ^^ is what house #6 looked like when I pulled up to it, three of four poles pulled under. I didn't have a lot of faith in this house, just didn't look very hot.

But,,, there was a nice big dark beaver ^^ caught on the pole closest to the camera. It had gotten to the pole closest to the house and also pulled it under, and a beaver had pulled the other two poles under on the right but hadn't even chewed on them. Probably just trying to get them out of the runs, which tells me they were in the right spot, but hadn't frozen in yet. I put them right back the same place!

This ^^ is another dried up pond between house #6 and #7. You can see where I drove through there last time from my old track. I noticed the small cave in in the old track and steered left of it, then the bottom fell out!!! All I could do was throttle up, the nose came up and she just kept climbing while the bottom fell out. Remember now, I'm dragging three bait poles, and a sled with four beaver in it at the time. One of the reasons I like the throttle response of a 2 stroke. Wasn't much water under there, but the hole is bigger than it looks in the picture. LOL Might need to find a different route here next time also!

No activity at house #7 at all. House #8 had a pole pulled under but caught nothing. House #9 no activity, but house #10^^ had a real nice beaver in one pole and I added another pole there today. Note the beaver is black in color also. I have high hopes for this house. I want another black beaver hat made and that may be it laying on the ice, we'll see what it looks like put up. Also note I'm not dragging the sled at this point, I'd dropped it just past house #9 in hopes of locating another pond up an adjoining ditch. I dropped the three bait poles I was dragging at house #10 while I broke trail to house #11 and #12.

This ^^ is house #11 and #12 on the same pond. Look over the closest house in the distance to locate the second house. Look just to the left of the closest house, and there is a dip in the tree line. That is a small CCC ditch that feeds this pond and connected to my contract area. I really don't have to trap this pond, it's not in my contract, but figured as long as I'm in the neighborhood. The ditch that feeds this has a small bank house I drove by that may be hot, but I didn't have time to set it up on the way in and had no bait poles at that point, so will set it up next trip. I just set the house closest to the camera, with four poles. There was also a house in the ditch coming out of my contract area that had almost no water in it, but the house was hot. I found a spot where the beaver had chewed out of the ice and were cutting and dragging small willow and tag alders under the ice, so i set a single snare just back from the exit hole under the ice in that trail. Where I took the picture from, I'd backed the snomo right up to a stand of popple right up the beavers drag trail. Pretty convenient spot to get bait poles near a smoking hot pond.

Ended up with five for the day, got more set, and located a few more to set. Back there again Friday.

Some of the house locations look like their wouldn't be enough water for beaver. House # 11 and 12

There was about 4 ' of water at house 11, didn't set 12 but probably similar. This flowage connects to the contract I did two springs ago. Took 87 beaver off that flowage, but couldn't get to this exact pond by canoe, so want to thin it down at least, to help with the migration/ repopulation this spring. I connected the line with setting up house #10 and made a big loop trail. The contract area is shaped kind of like the state of Virginia. The CCC ditches on the north and west are stair shaped, or were until the beaver flooded the whole area, and the ponds are in the low laying areas between the islands of high ground. I still have at least seven ponds on the interior areas to set up, by running spur lines off my main trail. The hard part is done, just takes time to thin the beaver numbers down now, then back in the spring to open dams and drop water levels in the area. The warm spells and weak ice just make it more "interesting" getting around to create a route in and out with weight. Going back down there in the morning.

Some pics from yesterdays run. This is house #2 and note the beaver is missing the right front foot. This house is the closest to the road and probably moved away from a roadside pond or was caught during it's spring dispersal at two years of age. It is a new house and the leg is completely healed so must have been caught and twisted out of poorly constructed foothold trap type set elsewhere.

This ^^ is house #3 where the muskrats were giving me fits chewing on the poles. Nice big male beaver, that is house #4 in background.

This ^^ is the beaver from house #3 caught by just right front foot. Kind of surprised me as this is an experimental snare I'm trying out with a different lock/cable combo, which is a stiffer cable (5/64" 1x19) and a 3/32" size lock. In short a surprise it cinched down that tight without backing off enough to release the beavers foot, note how loose the cable appears in the locking hole of the snare.

A double at house #6, which I wasn't sure was very active. Pays to play hunches sometimes.

I think this is house #8, but not sure. I've been setting houses in between the houses I originally numbered so who knows for sure, I'm a pretty poor bookkeeper.

A double at house #9 ^^. This is the house with the huge feed pile/ cache. Both small beaver.

Kevin, This is house #11 and #12. Not a bunch of water but still enough to catch a double there. I set two poles at house #12 yesterday also.

This ^^ is house #10. A real dark colored 2 year old beaver to go with the last one.

Full house and two on the snomo.

Ended up with ten for this run, about all I want to bring out with current snow conditions. We are forecast for a warm spell and that isn't good for a line like this and making trail conditions poor with any big meltdown. The line is just short of fifteen miles long now, and I still have several ponds in the interior I need to get set up, so hoping it freezes hard and stays that way for awhile. I'm skinning all day today.

Took a picture^^ of one of the beaver I’d caught last trip. They are about as good quality wise as they’ll get, which is 450,000 hairs per square inch, absolutely gorgeous. Pictures inside really don’t do them justice. For scale, that table top is 35.5” wide.


Not sure which house this is, because I keep adding and moving stuff. We’re having an unseasonal warm spell and the snow is really settling/ melting, with standing water at all the low spots on the ponds. In short, not good, because I need the snow to get to much of this line on the snowmobile, which is 15.4 miles long now.

This was a live beaver up on the ice at house #10. Had to shoot it when I got there, and it had gathered up all the poppies sticks it could reach and was eating them! The remnant of a hole in the foreground is where it was caught at, and the pole standing next to it is another set, which it managed to get tangled on. Lucky for me, because usually when this happens, which is rare, the wolves find them and have lunch on me.

This^^ is a big new house I set yesterday, that I could access by for wheeler if I lose all my snow.


Ended up with six yesterday. Was actually hoping for twice that many, but these weather changes have the beaver as confused as I am. Doesn’t seem to be much movement around the houses I know still have beaver in them. Have both warm spell and snow in the forecast, so hoping for more snow , I less melting.

Rally said:

They are about as good quality wise as they’ll get, which is 450,000 hairs per square inch, absolutely gorgeous.

Click to expand...

That's fascinating but I can't help but wonder . . . Who counts them?

dang - wish those pelts were available! Fly tyer's dream!

Rick said:

That's fascinating but I can't help but wonder . . . Who counts them?

Click to expand...

I'd also like to know that Rick, but a Sea Otter is reported to have 1.2 million per square inch, so somebody has a pretty good gig going!! LOL

oscarflytyer said:

dang - wish those pelts were available! Fly tyer's dream!

Click to expand...

No problem, how many you need? I've got @ 150 tanned now.

Rally said:

I'd also like to know that Rick, but a Sea Otter is reported to have 1.2 million per square inch, so somebody has a pretty good gig going!! LOL

Click to expand...

Or you could take a section of known area, clip a know number of hairs and weigh them. Them clip the remaining hair and weigh it. Calculate hairs count based on weight per hair.

That would probably work for Sea Otter, River Otter, and Mink, because their fur is uniform throughout their body, but most animals backs to their sides have varying lengths of fur which taper in length, and also have long hairs, called "Guard Hairs". Most animals also "prime" from belly to back, and have short windows of time, when the entire hide is "Prime". That is why Mink ranches "pelt" all their animals in such short windows of time, but those of us harvesting wild animals don't have that option. There are lots of politics in season dates to trap in an attempt to eliminate conflicts between the public, hunting dogs, and trapping. Most hunters/ public don't want to be out bird hunting with a couple foot of snow to walk in and the ducks are way south by then.

If you keep catching the #'s of beaver you are. You will have that new hat in no time. How many beaver does it take to make a hat?

A XXXX Stetson takes 4 beaver .

I learnt stuff here .
In the case of Stetson each X is one beaver pelt .

RBHarter said:

A XXXX Stetson takes 4 beaver .

I learnt stuff here .
In the case of Stetson each X is one beaver pelt .

Click to expand...

You must be talking old school Stetsons! I have 2 old 4x Stetsons. Today's 10x isn't as nice (imo).

I thought the x's were to denote beaver versus wool percentage where a 10X was 100% beaver and 4X was 40%. I've also heard that the X number had to do with the fineness of the hair used, like goose down compared to duck feathers. I've also seen STRAW hats with X grading, which makes me wonder how many straw plants were killed in their making. Oh, the horror to vegans!