In an effort to get some more pictures and video I spent the weekend downstate N.Y. near Elmira trapping some spring beaver with Nate Brock using Comstock Swim Through Cage Traps. We put out 15 sets for a couple of nights. The water was high and then got higher, with overnight rains that swelled the streams out of the channels. With clay banks and raging current there were a few places that weren’t easy to cross. At one point Nate did have to wring out his socks, but put on chest waders the following day.
Of course we had used conibears for years, but this time we would use cages. Again, the stability, ease is setting and versatility of these swim though cages can’t be matched with any other device. First check provided 7 beaver, while the second yielded 6 more and a muskrat. This was the tail end of 4 month season, the final days. We were picking up leavings from the fall, which meant if we had started with a clean slate with virgin colonies, the catch no doubt would have been much higher. But, we made a point, these cages have their place in both ADC and fur trapping. Even tough spring conditions were not a problem for cages and castor.
This brings the total to 530 beaver that we have caught in the cages in 4-1/2 years.
