I have spoken about using our cages to take beaver in bog colonies in the past, but it is definitely worth repeating. Each time I return to the bog to trap problem beaver I’m reminded just how good we have it these days using swim through beaver cage traps. Anywhere across the north country from, Maine to New York, Michigan to Minnesota, you are likely to run into bog beaver. The goopy muck in the bog surely isn’t fun to deal with. A floating mat of vegetation in a bog, punctuated with deep runs and channels has always been difficult to trap, to say the least. Trying to make do with body gripping traps can be frustrating and time consuming. Worse yet, in the end, when those traps are put into place in a deep run, the confidence level in what you have done is anything but reassuring. Adding to the pain are tell tale poles, frames or wires that are but impossible to hide, a give away to your trap locations, leaving room for the next guy to simply grab your gear and go if he chooses.
Comstock Beaver Cage Traps are a game changer. Once you locate a run with a potato hook or the like, it’s just a matter of setting the trap, upside down, squaring it up with the channel and dropping it into the bottom of the run, done. With the large footprint of the trap itself, combined with extended doors, the trap sits in the muck on the bottom ready to make a catch. I’m sure the traps settle into the muck a bit, but not enough to cause a problem. There are no poles sticking up, no wires, nothing to show what you have. You leave the site with confidence.
I set 3 of the Comstock Beaver Cage Traps at a recent complaint location, a 12x18x36 and two 12x15x33 traps. Luck of the draw, it was the 2 smaller traps that made the catches, both adult beaver in the first check.
On the same day I checked two side by side 12×18’s placed in the bottom of a stream channel. The highway department had pulled the dam, so the water levels were low, about 15 inches in this case. First check, again, both beaver. That day netted 4 beaver from 5 traps, taking all four beaver at both locations in one check, leaving time to build more cages.
