Great Finish to ADC Year 2015 for Beaver

In the past 13 days we caught 35 beaver, mostly in a night or two, while trapping a few hours a day.  One job produced 9 in two nights. I was lucky enough to find 3 different locations with super cut offs on stream colonies that so far were responsible for 10 of he catches and cleaning the locations.   In the last location, some 3 weeks plus into the regular fur season after someone had been trapping there presumably for most or all of the season, we picked up three large beaver first night, including a beaver missing a toe with estimated weight of 55 pounds.  The scale said 54.5, close enough.  All of the beaver were taken in cages as is usually the case, placing the season average at 93.7% caged beaver.  The first 43 of 44 were all caged  this year and the last 39 of 40 were caged.

The cages were used in a variety of ways, cut off channels, castor sets, a culvert, dam breaks, bottom edge, front doors etc., set shallow and set deep, with almost limitless ways to set them.

If anyone has questions about how we do they are encouraged to give us a call.  And, for those who want to share experiences, we are all ears.

In the coming weeks we hope to announce the creation of a new website to make it easier for those looking to see what we have and what we are doing.  

Colorado 1982, Article Coming in Trapper's World on Johnny Thorpe

This is a photo taken by Judy in the mountains near Woodland Park above Colorado Springs, October  1982.  I am on the right, Johnny Thorpe at center.  I became involved in trapping nearly 50 years after meeting Johnny in Lake Vanare, N.Y.   Johnny died on October 27, 2015 at his home in Stony Creek.  As a staff writer for Trapper's World, Johnny will be remembered in the next issue.  I have contributed an article for the magazine, highlighting some of John's accomplishments, while providing a few details of times I spent on the beaver line with Johnny in Virginia in the 70's.

No Tail Beaver

A friend who uses the Comstock Beaver Cage Trap to take beaver that flood his hunting property regularly uses but one trap in a dam break set to control the beaver.  Last year he took 9 with one trap, one location, one set.  The beaver kept coming and he kept setting the trap until they were gone.

At times beaver can put mud in a cage without firing it, which isn't a problem since the beaver does not get wised up having not sprung the trap.  This year, for the first time, not only did the beaver plug it, but did it several times.  We spoke about moving the trap upstream in the channel if the dam break did not produce on one last try.  He called yesterday and to say that he had him.

Strange, the 30 pound plus beaver had absolutely no tail at all, which I think is the first time I ever saw that.  A birth defect or damage done when the beaver was young it hard to tell, but it did almost look congenital, very odd.