Beavers easily trapped when emerging for fresh food supply

Last week’s heavy rains took the snow down to nearly nothing, however it did leave a hard crust on top that you could walk on. The critters—Coyotes, Foxes, Bobcats, Fisher, Pine Marten, and even some Raccoons—have been out running around on it.

At first I was surprised to see Coon tracks as you usually don’t see them for another month.

But then I saw evidence of them in several places, playing around in muddy inlets and outlets of some lakes and along streams.

For most of the other critters it‘s breeding time so the males cover lots of ground looking for receptive females.I’ve been catching a few Beavers and Otters on my five mile trap line. The weather conditions have been spring-like with cold nights and warm days.

I believe the food piles they stored under the ice have soured from all this warm weather so most of them have been looking for some fresh new food.

This, of course, makes them easier to catch.

Also, there is not as much chopping involved as there is when you have to put baited sets under the ice.

In lots of places I’m still wearing snowshoes as there isn’t much ice in channels.

Some of these channels are four and five feet deep with water which wouldn’t be fun to fall into.

I caught a Beaver the other day on a dam set. It was nearly half out of the water and its whole back was frozen solid. I had to pull it all the way to the road on my mini-bogen. As I pulled it over a log I popped a hole in the bottom of the slippery craft and the rest of the way it felt as if I was dragging an anchor behind me. When I got home one arm was longer than the other.

I patched the sled with Gorilla Tape and since then I have made two more trips with it. That Gorilla Tape is tough stuff and I hear they make Gorilla Glue, too. It isn’t anything you would want to get your fingers into.

Many of the Beaver have been flooding highways, snowmobile trails, and back yards, but they won’t be doing that any more.

I caught nine Beavers from one house on the snowmobile trail and I think another one remains.

These Beavers were community living as four were 50 to 60 inches in length and all the others were blankets 65 inches or bigger.

Normally you only catch a family from one house, but here they are living on pond lily roots and seem to be fat and happy. Well, maybe not so happy anymore.

Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog supposedly saw his shadow on February 2, even though it was raining in that area.  Maybe because they haven’t had any winter yet they feel they need six more weeks of it.

Ellie George got some shots of her Groundhog Charlton Charlie eating tulips in the Charlton area.

While fishing on Lake Champlain she also got a picture of an Otter eating a sunfish at the edge of the ice which came out very nice.

Alan Birchenough and I went out on Limekiln Lake this morning (2/6) in a howling 35 mph wind. He caught a nice Splake on my tip-up before we were all set up.

I put up a tarp for wind break and that blew down several times before we had something to hide behind.

The wind never did stop and we only had two more flags before we packed it in at 12:30 p.m. Al caught a nice 18-inch fish about 10 a.m., and I had a flag as I was picking up.

The reel was zipping when I got there and I hooked the fish. I told Al I had a big one. I played it for a few minutes but it just didn’t want to put its head up the hole.

Finally I got him started and grabbed him as he came out of the hole. It was a nice four pound fish—the biggest I’ve caught there in a few years.

The Coyotes killed a big doe on Limekiln Lake Friday.

They ran it off the beach onto the ice and it was unable to stand up on it. They killed it before it

got two hundred feet out. The Deer bled to death after the Coyotes bit into an artery. I may have come on the scene just after it happened as none of the Deer had been consumed. I’ve been watching several Deer eating the Mountain Holly berries.

They are probably just like little apples but aren’t very high off the ground so the Deer can eat them right off the bushes.

The ones they knock on the snow they eat later.

Birds that have moved south for the winter, but that’s another story. See ya.