Father and Son trapping morning

[davidlt89]

Yesterday I was on the beaver pond checking our colony traps we put out for muskrat on thursday. After looking at them, I made my way across the beaver dam and through the woods to the house we had caught a couple beaver on earlier!!! I needed to case the scene and see if it might be possible to get some traps back in the water since we had pulled them due to warm weather and the ice melting. My hopes were to get the snare in the water I had made two weeks ago. Looking it over, it seemed possible so I asked my oldest son if he wanted to accompany me this morning in setting some traps and checking the muskrat traps. He was more than willing to do so.
   So we took off around 9:00 this morning and headed to the pond. Since we were not walking over the pond, we had to make our way through the woods, over a beaver dam, and then through the woods again and make our way onto the beaver house. I pulled all the equipment I needed and put it in my pack basket. I took two conibears and one #4 victor in case I it was possible to get a foot hold trap in. I will say, my pack was about 40lbs and I had a 12lb chisel in my hands, my son carried the snare pole. Did not take us to long to get to the house, about 20 min.
    Now, where we came out onto the pond was open water a week and half ago, so I was pretty cautious, my son would of walked anywhere!!!! my intent was to put the snare pole in and maybe a conibear or a foothold and call it good. We started making one hole and my son was just amazed we were making a hole in the ice. It seems though we were not far enough of the house and kept running into sticks. So I decided to "chance it" and move a little farther out. After breaking through the ice I found that there was 2" of ice on top, some water and slush, then about 6" of ice underneath, and that 6" was not the hardest ice, but there was not much chance of falling through. After the hole was done (20 min later), we got out our snare and set it together. He thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!!! He kept asking me what we would do if we caught a beaver putting the snare in!!! I told him fat chance of that.
  once that was done we checked the ice just 30' feet the right and it cracked with just me stepping on it, so we decided to forgo putting a hole there and packed up the gear and went to check the rat traps.
      On the way back he offered to carry my pack, but since it still weighed 40lbs I told him it may be a bit heavy and he could carry the chisel, he was happy to do so. we got back across the dam and check the rat traps but no dice. We went through the woods a little further where there is a small, but tall dam, and noticed a fresh cut alder bush and some beaver tracks to boot, the tail dragging behind them is a dead give away. this beaver had made his way to the dam and got in the water. So we backtracked his tracks and found a little open patch of water that was about 10' x 20' and noticed that some other beaver had also come out. I looked at my son and asked if he wanted to do a trap and we both ran back and got the pack!!!!
     We got back and I took out a conibear and some hanging wires I had made and told him I needed a tree to put the wire around. Did not take long for the axe to start swinging. took him about 5 minutes to cut down an alder bush about 2" in diameter. He was almost through the tree, put down the axe, and told me it was "hard work", I told I knew what he was talking about. I set the conibear and put my safety on it, positioned the springs where I wanted them, and fastened my hanging wire I had made out of aircraft cable to them. I then attached the other end to the tree my son cut down. We put the trap in the water and little bit of the top was out of water. So I took out my handy dandy shovel I had and shoveled out some of the bottom and the trap fit in like a glove and was fully submersed, as the "law" says it has to be. this seemed to be a good spot as the beaver cannot go over it and I "caged" the sides in so the only way through is through the trap!!!!
   The fun thing was that my son and I decided to just take a chance and see what happens. He really likes checking the traps and wanted to check everything before we left. I told him we would come back sunday evening and see what is what!!! Hopefully we will have a beaver, or maybe a rat to bring home.
   He kept saying how much fun it was on the ride home. on the downside, I was an hour later getting back then the time I had told my wife I would be back!!! He was happy, she was not!!! But it was a lot of fun doing it together, and he loved giving input and was glued to every step of the process!!! I definitely see a future trapper (and hunter) in our midst!!!! I would not trade times like these for nothing!!!! Hopefully have some pics of our endeavour soon. God Bless.

[gitano]

Way cool....

I expect to see dead beavers, smiling father, and grinning son tomorrow.

Paulo

[buckshot roberts]

:happy:awesome...............i never got to trap beaver..........Ron

[Fieldmor77]

Sounds interesting Dave, and fun, so what do you do with the Beaver after he's caught?

[davidlt89]

so what do you do with the Beaver after he's caught?

right now I am bringing them to a friend who is skinning, fleshing, and drying them out. I now have time to watch him and try my hand at it, if'n I can get another one to get in a trap!!! Can't say we have tried to hard. Seems the one time we had the big plans to get some sets in, we got hornswaggled by a foot and half of snow, and 6" of water on the ice. after that, a lot of ice melted with big warm spell we had. I am getting ready to make some plans to get some more traps in now, interested to see how nature with thwart these plans!!!! God willing, we will get more traps in!!! God Bless.

[gitano]

I thought you and your eldest were checking traps today? Wha' happened?

Paul

[davidlt89]

We had big plans to!!! then one of his friends asked him over to his house and I gave him a choice, it took him a minute, but he decided to go to his friends house. they were going to go to the mall and do a little archery shooting!!!
    So, I decided to take my 5 year old instead!!!! we made our way over to the snare and there was no activity, so we cut back across the beaver ****, and on he way back, for some reason my son decided to step off the beaver dam instead of going on land and sunk half way up to his knee. he was "ok" and we pressed onto the rat traps and saw nothing. So we then went over to the conibear we set the day before in the little opening of water and there was a huge hill right before the opening that really caught his attention. he had all he could do to climb it twice!!! I checked out the conibear and it was still set!!!
  we are supposed to get at least 10" of snow tomorrow so I went back tonight to tie off my snare with some wire just in case the snow pushes the ice down!!! I also checked the rat traps and still nothing. I was "told" to just get them in rat country and they will swim it. Apparently this is not the case!!!! although I should not get discouraged and give them some time I guess. would be better if we knew where they were held up!!! I checked out the conibear and saw that the springs were sprung from a distance. I thought for sure I had a beaver but turned out to be a mink. awful big trap for that little fella!!!! I had him by one leg!!! will be interesting to see how much snow we get. although next week is calling for high 40's and its looking to be a warm trend. I hope so so I can get  around in my waders and get some drowning sets and some more conibears in!!! I would of thought the beaver would of eaten my nice popal snare pole, but maybe walking on their house has made them shy!!! I won't be back for a couple days so that should let them cool off. God Bless.