Snaring beaver

This year when we started trapping, it got cold and things started freezing (including people's water pipes) but we didn't really get a lot of snow. We trapped with four wheelers through mid to late December. It was cold, miserable and slow. But at least we were trapping. This is a series of pictures of our beaver snare sets. I think we did just over a half dozen of them.

Find a nice tasty branch that a beaver will like.

Attach snares where they're be just under the ice.

Chop a hole (I mostly chopped holes)

Two snares better the odds of catching a beaver.  Makes sense, right?

Stick the bait pole down into the bottom of the pond. Wire a pole so the beaver can't escape.

It's important to take a break and lay down on the ice when you're starting to sweat from chopping holes.

This is the beaver house.

This is their feed pile.

That's my trapping partner and Penny, the trapping dog.

We didn't do as good as we would have liked. :/ The lack of snow meant that the ice was not insulated so while the temperatures stayed low it meant that the ice got thick fast. Too thick to chop through the dang ice without breaking your arms off. And thus beaver trapping is over until spring because those darn things ain't worth the back breaking work, even if they're awesome for sewing.