Keeping fox out of beaver traps

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Dam sets will be foot hold and bank sets will be conibear.

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Bust a hole in the dam and set a conibear instead.

Foxes are not easy to catch. I'd be surprised if you caught one accidently.

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skin it and make a nice hat out of it

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Pretty sure you have to have a trapping license to pelt them.

I'm assuming if dealing with a pest beaver, you don't need a trapping license.

I usually used conibears at dams and foothold at castor mounds. Traps will be in water if you have any clue what you are doing. You won’t catch a fox in the water.

If beaver traps are placed correctly you will have a hell of a time catching a fox. That's coming from someone who's unexpected catches range from bowfin to blue heron.


I'll also second the dam break and a 330

Let him get married.

So update on the beaver situation:
- set a conibear on a dam, broke the dam and waited.
- Checked the trap every morning and evening, nothing all week. They didn't even come back to repair the dam
- Friday evening I get home from work and go back there to check the trap. Didn't bring a gun or club with me. As I get in view of the trap I see brown fur moving around. I got a beaver. I approach cautiously and see that it isn't a beaver tail but a long furry one. Frick me, it's an otter. I'm bummed big time. I didn't even know we had otters behind the house.
- So I call my brother (who has a lot of trapping experience) and he says, I'm going to have to dispatch it. He said he's on his way because he'll skin it.
- Run back to the house to get my .22
- Go back to the otter and notice that she's breathing pretty well and her chest cavity seems to be expanding nicely. As I get right next to her, she really freaks out and start growling. Looks like the trap has come down behind her skull and just below her rib cage, but apparently not on her throat.
- I called my brother immediately and say "hey, she seems to be breathing pretty good and has plenty of energy." So he's already on the way and said it's probably going to be next to impossible to get her out of a 330.
- He gets there and we go back with a couple pipes and some rope. He says "we can get her out"
- we struggle with trying to figure out how to brace the trap and get the springs loose all while avoiding her biting and sharp arse claws. I run back to get a pipe clamp.
- We spend about 10 minutes with the pipe clamp and rope and get one spring secured with the safety hook. She appears to have wiggled a little bit out of the trap.
- On to the next one, at this point, she can get her head around and is biting the shite out of everything. We get the pipe clamp on the other spring and start to compress it and she pops out. She jumps into the creek, stops and looks up at us as if to say "this could have been avoided you assholes but thanks for saving me anyway" she jumped over the dam and disappeared underwater. We watched her bubble trail as long as we could.
- She'll be sore for some time I'm sure but it looks as if she'll be just fine
- I'll deal with the beavers another way. I'd rather have to break up the dams weekly than kill an otter. One of my favorite animals.

As someone who has dealt with live otters let me first say your balls are bigger than mine. Otter is the meanest animal I've been around. I've dispatched a ton of coyotes by hand and several beavers by shovel. Even drown a coon by hand once, never again. I shoot otters from a distance. I love to watch them unless it is a spot I plan to fish.