I’ve been slacking on this thread. Having my truck down for a week sucked.
This is three beaver I caught adjacent to a county road. Note what they are laying on, a culvert they got tired of cleaning out, so they pulled it out, then the beaver built a dam there! Lol County foreman told me to call him when the beaver were gone! Took five out of there then removed the dam.
I’ve got three state rice contracts this year. This picture is looking West out over the lake. It should have more rice growing than it does now, but they had some contractor troubles last year that didn’t maintain the water level low enough, so it may be a couple years to get it back.
This is the water control structure/ outlet of the same lake. I have to keep it this way until October 15. If beaver move in or dam it, I trap them out and clean the control structure.
It’s about a mile ride to the control structure via 4 wheeler, through some tall grass. Note the grass seed all over the wheeler. Gotta keep cleaning the radiator out to avoid overheating the wheeler. I’ve never had a problem overheating here, but did in S.D. Once, and the grass seed plugging the air flow was the cause, well that and 90 degree temps!
This is the water control structure on my second rice lake. Note the small pool below it. You wouldn’t believe how many Northerns I’ve caught there. Nothing over 4 lbs but good eating size. Just upstream from this structure is a spot the beaver like to dam up. Well I took two beaver out of there, removed the dam, and drained it to the correct level, it stayed that way for over two weeks, was there to inspect it four days ago, and look what was there today when I went to take pictures for my end-of-month report!
So,I had to set a couple traps, and hope to remove them quick, before they build it higher, then I get to tear the dam out again! Pretty fair rice production now on this lake, so would not be good to flood it out.
This is my third rice lake, and what a good rice crop looks like. All that green out in the water is natural wild rice (duck food), and what is suppose to be growing in our shallow lakes up here. The problem is the beaver dam the outlets, raise the water levels, then the sun can’t penetrate the water to germinate the rice. The rice then only grows in shallow waters close to shore instead of a whole lake of rice, it looks like a “donut” of rice around the lake.
This is the outlet to the above lake and the dam I have to keep clean. That long white PVC pipe in both pictures, is the remnants of a Clemson leveler. Note where the beaver built the dam, right on top of the outlet! Lol The sound of running water is sure to get their attention!