how to find the hole

[Raider4ever]

Pound for pound, beavers are amazingly powerful. I hope to never have to fight one that big..

They are often referred to as "The Smallmouth Bass of the Rodent World"

[chad austin]

...wow, it has come to this. A bunch of guys in rubber pants and shoulder deep rubber gloves poking around in the cold looking for a hole.

I carry a homade hammer/sod buster combo to drive in stakes. I tap on the ice until I hear a more hollow sound, once you do it you will notice the difference when you strike thinner ice with air bubbles vesres thicker ice with no bubbles. Once I hear that majic sound I flip my hammer around to the sod buster side and see if it goes through. Just hang on to the hammer as they sink pretty fast and no matter how much you beg the beaver will not bring it back for you.

Then take a longer stick as you should be able to feel and find the deeper run to get your sets centered.

June Cleaver: "Johnny P, don't you think you were a little hard on the beave last night?"

[jigginjim]

Which comes back to, How do you for the runs without have to get into the water? Rats or beaver, do they both have that very thin ice area above the runs? How find and set it without going for a swim?

[Kyle]

I've been talking to a friend that is not on this site but has a lot of experience in trapping. He said that tapping the ice with a chisel will produce a sound. When you tap the ice over the run(when the ice is thicker)it will sound hollow vs tapping the ice that is not over the run. If the ice is really thin over the run the chisel probably will go right through. Then you know your on the run. If it doesnt break through, just listen for the hollow sound. I hope this makes sense...

[jigginjim]

Sounds good, I hope to be back out in 3weeks, how it's wait for the ice to thicken up.

[genegodawa]

Advanced apology to the serious side of this thread, but my mentor always said:

"it's easier to find the hole if there's some hair around it".