Jasens first trapping season(name changed)

[jasnt]

Did some beaver scouting today   
Found some great areas to set and saw a lot of beaver.  Also found some muskrat and mink sign and marked a few good spots for colony traps. This time I remembered to take some pics. 

[jasnt]

The grassy areas around this pond are floating. Kinda scary walking on it. There was holes all over leading in to water and it felt like walking on a water bed. Some holes the stick read about 4' deep other holes way over 6'.   May take a while to figure out the muskrat and mink sets here but should be fun.  Saw at least 4 beaver here and one that's huge!  Saw mink as well nice and black. Looking forward to nov

[Turner89]

One of my favotite spots is like that area. I have fell through a few times while learning my rout in and out. I cant wait til november also.

[jasnt]

In the bottom pic you can kinda see two beavers swiming in a line

[jasnt]

One of my favotite spots is like that area. I have fell through a few times while learning my rout in and out. I cant wait til november also.

i just stuck to the deer trails best I could. I did start to fall threw in a few areas though

[2labs]

That's very cool, remind me of some ponds I hung out at a lot as a kid. Full of cutthroat. Have you fished it?

[Turner89]

How far from the road is it? I've found some great spots, but they are pretty far back. I plan on hitting them on thanksgiving, and xmas week.

[jasnt]

I haven't fished it yet. It's about 100 yard walk from my parking spot. More great spots on the other side but a little farther walk. All public land about 5 min drive from my home

[jasnt]

How do I know when I've taken enough beaver from an area with out over harvesting an area. This area is close to home so I'd like it to stay productive in the future. I've got a dozen other areas picked out as well so I got other areas

[Trapper John]

How do I know when I've taken enough beaver from an area with out over harvesting an area. This area is close to home so I'd like it to stay productive in the future. I've got a dozen other areas picked out as well so I got other areas

Looking at the pond, I would say that there might be a family there. (Family of five to six)  That would be if that beaver hut has been there for say five years.  If that hut is newer say two years old I would say that you have a small family of two to four.  (2 adult two year old's and 2 kits, this years)

So how I would watch what I am taken is the size of the beaver.
Adults should be 50-70 lbs
two year old would be 25-35 pounds
one year old would be 12-18 pounds

Now if you come back and check your traps for the first time and you have say 1 adult and 1 year old than I would pull.  What you want are the surplus beaver and those would be the two year old's.  You want to leave your adults (breeders) year old (seed).  Watch what you get closely.

Set that pond for raccoon, mink and muskrat
JC   

[jasnt]

How do I know when I've taken enough beaver from an area with out over harvesting an area. This area is close to home so I'd like it to stay productive in the future. I've got a dozen other areas picked out as well so I got other areas

Looking at the pond, I would say that there might be a family there. (Family of five to six)  That would be if that beaver hut has been there for say five years.  If that hut is newer say two years old I would say that you have a small family of two to four.  (2 adult two year old's and 2 kits, this years)

So how I would watch what I am taken is the size of the beaver.
Adults should be 50-70 lbs
two year old would be 25-35 pounds
one year old would be 12-18 pounds

Now if you come back and check your traps for the first time and you have say 1 adult and 1 year old than I would pull.  What you want are the surplus beaver and those would be the two year old's.  You want to leave your adults (breeders) year old (seed).  Watch what you get closely.

Set that pond for raccoon, mink and muskrat
JC   

thanks for the info. There is the old hut there that I know has been there at least the last 6 years I been hunting this area. Also they are building a new one as well.  I've found 13 other huts on a near by river and lake. Should I treat them all the same?

[Trapper John]

Yes, treat them all the same.  They will build new ones every few years I see around here.  Also those two year olds will set up a on the same pond or same area sometime.  If you seen that many hugs and if all huts are active, their all related.
JC. 

[jasnt]

Two lakes and 5 miles or river and ponds between them.  Guess if the beaver prices don't come up I may get my new blanket sooner than I thought.  thanks trapper john for the info

[Turner89]

That's my plan for the beaver I trap this year. I want to get a large blanket made. Maybe it will be a couple years of beaver....not sure how many it will take to do it.

[jasnt]

23 more days and a sleep   I wonder too how many it would take for a large blanket, queen size or bigger