My Office Today

Rally

NC Minnesota
Looks worse than it was. Mostly rotten bottom and loose clay front. Raked out pretty fast once I got the top flowing. Several shot makers all said and done. :) Twenty one beaver and five dams, no broken or stolen equipment, happy forester, life is good!
 

JonB

Halcyon member
Northern and Y-bones.
I always leave the Y-bones in, just faster filleting and less waste.
They don't both me if I have a pan fried fillet from a big fish. If I some smaller fillets, and more than enough for a meal, after they are fried, I cut away the portion with Y-bones and save as leftovers...much easier to remove small y-bones from cold cooked fish...I usually make sandwiches with the cold leftover fish, doesn't matter if it's been "shredded" to get Y-bones out, no big deal for a sandwich with lots of mayo to hold it all together :p
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
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Remember the job I did a while back, like July, where they were flooding a county road, with a cell tower in the background? Well foreman called and said the water was getting high again at the road, so I went back in and this ^^ old male beaver decided he needed a new place to live and this spot was empty1 LOL Caught him a couple days ago and knocked a decent size hole in the dam. Went back there today and nothing had been repaired and no more beaver caught.
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It snowed last night and all the way down to this spot ^^, but was barely snowing when I got there, didn't want to drive the 70 miles again in a couple days to tear the dam out, so tore it out today.
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Got it roaring pretty good, and thought I'd get that piece of floating bog being sucked through the notch but missed it, never claimed to be a photographer! LOL
I'm also trapping another spot, actually straight North of this one, which is East of the ditch where the little girl and her mother are holding the beaver in the above posted picture. This ditch actually T's into their ditch, and the hoe had gone in there also and removed all the dams, which sent all the water down to where I was trapping and kinda flooded me out. Anyway I took 9 beaver out of that part of the ditch and the foreman wanted me to go see if I could catch anymore upstream in the e-w ditch. So four days ago, I went there and was setting a few traps, when here comes a side by side wheeler, with an older guy, a middle aged guy, and a teenage boy, all dressed in waders. The older guy was on the township board, and the other two guys were a father son team that trapped this area before the hoe tore out the dams. When I got there, there was a stick with a trail cam at the newly built dam and a 3 tine fork on the bank close-by. I figured it was the landowner trying to keep his land dry and probably trying to shoot the beaver. Well after a conversation with these three guys, turns out the trapper had already caught three beaver, the township board guy had placed the camera there, and claims he shot at least two beaver, but thought there was at least one left. The township guy had called the trapper and his son to re-trap the ditch, but when he found out the county was sending me he said that's great, took his camera and hoe with him. I told the trapper he could trap these beaver and I'd be glad to pull the two traps I'd already set, but he said go ahead. Turns out the guy was one of my customers but we didn't recognized each other until further in the conversation.
So I come back there two days ago and had caught a two year old beaver and a pup, and the dam was rebuilt. So I tore a notch out of the dam before I left. Today I go back there and caught another two year old, and the dam was rebuilt. So that makes an even dozen beaver I've caught out of this ditch, the other trapper said he caught three, and the township board guy said he shot two. So that's seventeen beaver, out of one ditch, with two beaver houses on it, and the dam was rebuilt! Hmmmmm
 
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fiver

Well-Known Member
hey Rally.
anyone ever tell you, you might be losing this Rat race?....LOL

my money is there is somewhere else they are coming from too, there can't just be 3 or 4 successful family's sending their Pups on down to one spot a couple at a time.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
Nope your right, it doesn't work like that. I caught the family group at the first place on this ditch, an adult pair, five pups and two 2 year olds. I'm thinking the 2 YO could have come from the part of the ditch I'm in now, to see where their water was going. Pups don't do that, and are rarely very far from the lodge, IE 1/2 mile. I've already taken a pup and 2 two year olds at the new spot, and the dam was repaired, so, if they shot two and trapped three, it's looking like a real big family group at the new spot, or somebody is missing or miss reporting! LOL We'll see again tomorrow. It's just hard to get a good count when somebody else has been there. The township guy wasn't sure how big the two he shot were, and didn't try to retrieve them. I've been all over that ditch and not seen any floaters, so all I can do is keep trapping as long as the dam is being repaired.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
As much as I love blue gills and yellow perch, northern pike has the best fresh water fish flavor in my opinion. I can cut out the Y-bones when filleting. On a larger pike I save that strip with the Y-bones in it and pickle them. The pickling dissolves the Y-bones. I think this Winter I may actually put out tip-ups for northerns, despite the buck a piece price for big shiners and the fact that tip-ups make me feel "tied" to a spot. I'm basically a run&gun back water panfisherman. I typically punch 20 to 30 holes and long rod hole hop until I discern a pattern or move on. Tip-ups and Tip-downs sort of tie you to a spot. Plus you have to buy, transport, and keep minnows alive.
I caught a nice 28" northern the other day fishing for gills and perch with a 1/16 oz. jig and a piece of crawler, and happily reduced it to chunks when I got home.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
I went back to the ditch where the guys had been shooting and trapping this morning. I had not caught any beaver and had a sprung trap the beaver sprung while rebuilding the dam. The guy who had been shooting at them, and was on the township board, followed me in on his side by side. We talked while I checked my traps and tore a 3' hole in the dam. He liked that! LOL I set three more snares and a trap, I'm beginning to take this personal! During our conversation, I pinned him down on the size of the beaver the other trapper had caught, which he said were all three pups. Then said he shot one big one and a pup. So I'm guessing that dam is being rebuilt by one adult beaver now, but honestly, all bets are off as to what remains. The worst part about this deal for me is I have finished all the other contracts except that one, and it's 51.5 miles one way. Back there in a couple days.
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This ^^ is the second dam on the ditch going under the state highway, I tore the lower dam out here about a week ago. Not a trap touched here and the dam wasn't repaired so I decided to open this dam and get out of here. This was a tough dam and took 2.5 hours to get it roaring. Top and back were well woven sticks with plenty of big ones mixed in. About four feet of solid clay N-S and about four feet deep. The face was a sand clay mixture but came out in chunks and the water moved most of that weight for me. If you look close at the water in the spillway, you will see a log that runs from about where my fork is leaning to three feet out in the water above the dam. I just kept digging out clay on both sides of the log and the water washed the chunks away. Didn't take too much digging and prying and it just washed right out of the spillway!
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This ^^ is looking downstream as the log washed out. If you look center right, where the sand bar covered in snow protrudes into the ditch, That is the log laying in the water after hitting the sandbar, it just wrapped around behind it and stopped in the dead water behind it. Took me a while to get my gloves off and camera out.
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This ^^ is the spillway just before I left, she's roaring for sure, and should drop about another three plus feet. Note the stump I dug out of the dam on top right by my chainsaw. Hard telling how old that one is. If you look downstream just below the point on that stump I dug out and above my chainsaw, you can see that log I dug out starting to float downstream. The water was really filling up downstream and I'm sure overflowing the dam downstream also, because this notch is larger than the one I dug downstream.
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This is about a mile North of the dam I just tore out, looking North while standing on the shoulder of the state Highway. All this was frozen when I started, note the drop in water level already. This ditch runs 2 miles North, then 1.25 miles West, then 1.5 miles North again, then three miles West again. Then to the left (West) there is also a ditch running for 2 miles adjacent to the highway, and a short ditch about 1/4 mile to the right (East) also. Should be interesting to see what it looks like in a couple days.
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This ^^ pic was taken from the same spot, just looking a little NE, to show the flooded area East of the main ditch going North. All that real white looking area is suspended ice that was flooded.
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I left there and went to check out the ditch and lake where I fished at. This ^^ is where I parked at next to the 7' culvert and where I left about twelve beaver carcasses. It just snowed two days ago, and that is all wolf tracks. Five piles of wolf crap in the road on the way in. I pissed there at least three times I can remember! Yea, there real afraid of human activity. Only in Disney's world.
 
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Ian

Notorious member
Yeah, I want to know too. If the ground were to look like that here it would be because of nuclear fallout!

That dam looks quite old. Those ditches look near impossible to keep open for long, too easy to dam up quickly. Truly job security for a trapper!
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
we need some of that white stuff.

I stripped all the vines out of the garden this morning and watered the stuff in the boxes that's hanging on.
there's about a half dozen beets that need picked, and I could bring in some of the Onion's that's out there but I'm gonna wait on both and just keep the lid's closed.
I do need to bring in the fig bush or start running the heater out in the green house, it was showing some signs of frost bite.
I don't think Fig's do frost.

moseyed over to Littlegirl's place to pick up her hubby to go deer hunting and cut through the long way around.
shouldn't have done that, we got caught behind a couple of trucks offloading some tree cutting equipment.
[so it looks like they are gonna log up that canyon next and screw it over too]
I got tired of waiting and made my own road up around the little catchment pond taking out a couple of little pine and aspen trees in the process.
finally got over to where we were going and took the wrong gun for a walk again today.
I seen some deer [finally] but no antlers, I did see a half dozen grouse I could have got a real good shot on though.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
Yeah, I want to know too. If the ground were to look like that here it would be because of nuclear fallout!

That dam looks quite old. Those ditches look near impossible to keep open for long, too easy to dam up quickly. Truly job security for a trapper!
Lots of politics in these ditches and there maintenance Ian. Some are maintained by county, some state, and some even township in unincorporated areas. Lots of tit for tat going on, even within state agencies over who has to divvy up for their cleaning. Not too hard to find a paying agency when their projects (roads, timber, wildlife management areas) are being negatively affected, but often like pulling teeth when it leaves that area, and makes sense long term. The fur flies when there are multiple agencies/ organizations/ non-profits/universities, responsible within the same project area. Some are receptive to input, some already know it all. I try to get a buffer person between my self and some agencies. I write a contract and highlight maps corresponding to the areas requiring my services for single projects/ areas. Some agencies are annual bid, and they call when there is a problem area. I most often work and prefer the latter, they are a good agency and understand long term solutions, way less politics.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
went back to the ditch where the beaver have been shot and trapped before, not a trap touched and areal loose repair had been done on the dam. Moved some traps around and tore the dam out again.79E5520E-252E-4744-9595-E3400087CE86.jpeg
Then I went to the ditch going under the state Hwy. pics were taken ^^ standing on the shoulder of the hwy, same place as the above pics. This is looking North or upstream.
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This ^^ is the same area to the East of the ditch that was flooded two days ago.
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This is looking South or downstream where I took the two dams out. I’m done here now.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
Hey Paul,
Yep, I like seeing the after shots too, that means payday time! LOL
That highway is the North/South line, which divides the north trapping zone from the south trapping zone. So, the pictures looking North open this Saturday, and the one looking South, a week from Saturday.
 

trapper9260

Active Member
Thanks for shear the photos. Like seeing them. I have all my traps ready when Iowa opens if all gose well and everything else .
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
It's going to be a tough fur season all the way around. Castor is the only bright spot I've seen. Just sold some last Monday for $95, and had four beaver in the truck, 1-65", 2-55", and a pup. He gave me $12 each to get the castor in the big three. Just heard from Winnipeg about an hour ago that some of the coyote buyers are backing out of orders now. Will be real tough for Fur Harvesters to have a sale until Canada opens again. The virtual sale was a flop.
 

trapper9260

Active Member
Thank you for letting me know . I know it will be a bad season , will do it anyways. The one I sell to he will buy all my furs since I put them all up . He told me the last time I talk with him. I make a little over what I spend I will be happy . If I was only in it for the money I would not trap . But you know how that gose . To be out there and do it . also the landowners and farmers count on me to show up to mange the wildlife for them and I like to trap .
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
A couple ponds I set up for the Forestry today. The first pic is the beaver house out in the pond. The dam on this one is over 350' long, and the beaver are using the road as a base for their dam. I worked this one 4 years ago and this house wasn't here, but there is a second house about 40 yards farther out in the pond.
Notice the piece of floating bog in the center of the pic. This pond/road has a 36" culvert that is suppose to be draining this flowage. Guess where that piece of bog is sitting? Yep, right on top of the culvert. This one will be fun to drain. Last time I just waded out in the pond and found the end of the culvert, then just raked it out until it started flowing. I'm probably going to have to cut that up in pieces to get the culvert open. Should know in about a week or so, once I catch the beaver.
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This pic below, is the second/larger pond, and the dam is over 550' long. Look down the trail, and the tree line in the distance is the end of the dam! There is also a nice big house out in the center of this one.
The Forestry is getting tired of the beaver messing up their road here, and we are in negotiations for a winter contract to thin the local population and move some water out of this area. That will entail about 150 plus beaver, and probably about half that many dams or more. There have been several timber tracts scheduled to be harvested here this winter, and the pine plantation straight south of this biggest pond is under water and stumpage has been sold. Right now, I'm just working these two ponds to get that pine dry, and the road dry before solid freeze. We are negotiating price, and they are looking for additional funding. :) In May and half of June 2018, I worked a contract 7 miles North of here, and removed 87 beaver and 46 dams. The beaver in this area run about 30% pure black in color. If I get the contract, I intend to take the vast majority of the beaver out in the winter, via snowmobile, then do the dam removal via canoe, and probably camp in there while doing it. Maybe take Cash (my Springer) along for giggles
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This ^^ is what was left of the road after I drained the beaver pond last time in here. The Forestry was going to put in a new culvert here but funding was diverted elsewhere I guess. Note the nice ramps somebody built to get their 4wheelers across the gap in the road. Called the forester today to ask if they belonged to the DNR, but he said negative. Tough to tell in the picture but they are pretty well made, with handles to move them also, so I'll pull them up out of the way before I turn this water loose. The original culvert here is about where the right end of those ramps are sitting, but is collapsed and full of mud. There is actually a real good road base here with lots of rip rap on the shoulders, which the beaver are putting to good use. LOL
 
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