A few more beaver dams...

[kebo]

at my hunt club. You might recall I had a thread a few weeks ago about taking my tractor down to the club and busting the dam on the spillway of the 3A pond at my hunt club. Well, yes they rebuilt it of course. A couple of the guys in the club have gone down there and busted it twice more since then and, of course, they keep rebuilding it. Yesterday we tore a 3 foot gap in it again, and for all I know they have plugged that back up by now. (The club is about 60 miles from me so can't check it daily). We're just setting them up.


While I was down there yesterday, I walked upstream on the creek that feeds into the pond and found four more beaver dams. I knew there were was at least two more in that little creek last year but they have doubled production since then. You might say they've been busy as..... beavers!

This pic is the first one you get to, it's very close to the where the creek dumps into the pond.

This one is a little bit upstream of the last one. They took advantage of a large tall pine that fell across the creek. That mound of dirt is not a lodge, it's just a rootball where a tree fell over, probably from too much water and a windy storm.

This one is the next one you come to upstream.

And this one is upstream of the previous dam. Now this one is IMPRESSIVE! Lots of work to make this one. The differential in water height must be at least 3ft.

We're planning a beaver party sometime in the next couple months and we're going to bust the dam on a Friday evening with a full moon and then take turns "guarding" the dam all night. That should produce some results. The next day we're getting a small trackhoe in there and my tractor to clean out the spillway and get it all flowing again like it should. This is what the spillway looked like yesterday after we tore out a 3ft section:

Usually you can walk across the spillway without getting your shoes wet. They have another dam just a few feet downstream so when you bust the dam at the edge of the pond, the spillway fills up very quickly. This is where we drive our atv's and tractors across the dam to get to the backside of the 400 acre property so we need that access. Plus, the lady who owns the pond wants them gone. They are cutting down a lot of her tree's and just making a mess of the place.

 

[dave1949]

I remember your post Kebo, yes they have been busy! Sure you don't want a bass or catfish pond?
Dave.

 

[Mousefield]

Nice problem to have. Sorry I had to say that. We have a creek on our property, it is fairly wide and marshy thru most of it. We used to have beavers for many years and they have gone missing. We liked to have them as they would build dams and things like ducks would come and enjoy the ponds. I know for a lot of folks they are a real pain. Hopefully they can relocate, either willingly or live trapping and relocate.

 

[HCJ]

Hi Kebo,

Your place looks alot like mine. We had a similar issue. They made about 12 dams in a 200 yard stretch of creek. We tore them down like you did and they kept re-building. I trapped about a dozen and now I see little activity. I still think you need to set some traps. It's kinda fun during the off-season. I caught one last week and have five traps set. I check them every weekend. Let us know how the night time "stake out" goes. I even thought about setting some game cameras to see when they come.

 

[kebo]

HCJ, where exactly is your property at?? The reason I ask is that this property we are having the beaver trouble with is actually in the upstate, in southern Union county to be exact. That's where I grew up at, and where I hunt at. Our club is mostly made up of a number of guys that grew up together up, we've had the same hunt club going on 27 years now.

 

[HCJtractor]

Hi Keith, my property is just south of Greenville near the little community of Fork Shoals. It is a 288 acre tract, owned by me an several of my hunting buddies. We bought it primarily for hunting and just playing around on. We have about a mile of frontage on the Reedy River. The little creek that the beavers have claimed empties into the Reedy, and most of the activity is pretty close to the river. We mainly deer and turkey hunt there, and try to trophy manage it. We have killed three deer that made the S.C. book, but as hunting pressure has increased around us, we seem to be seeing fewer nice deer. I also am member of a larger lease at Princeton, about halfway between Greenville and Greenwood. How's the hunting on your place? I have never hunted Union County, but know there is lot's of hunting there.

 

[kebo]

You know, I remember asking you the same question sometime ago. I just couldn't put your username with the reply you gave last time. Apologies for asking you the same thing twice!! My stupid!

Sounds like you have a nice property though, and I'm sure it was a lot if work getting rid of all the beaver dams you had on it too.

Our club had a pretty poor season last year, we just didn't see the usual numbers of deer that we had been seeing in the past. Total number of deer taken was less than half the usual. Part of that was because some of our main lease had been cutover, but a bigger reason (I believe anyway) is because coyotes have moved in large numbers and have become quite adept at killing both young and mature deer.

One club member actually witnessed several coyotes chase a doe into the pond (that I was discussing in my OP) and they caught up to as she came out of the water on the opposite side. They corraled her and had dinner on the spot. Pretty vicious and brutal but just the way nature intended it to be.

I'll be turkey hunting there in 4 more weeks, we'll see how that goes. Most likely the thunder chickens will make me look stupid again!!!

 

[HCJ]

We are seeing more coyotes also. Someday I would like to try hunting them, but have not taken the time. I did catch one in my beaver trap last year by accident. I think he smelled my beaver lure and stuck his head in the trap. I was pretty surprised to find him there. I have even started carrying a rodent squeaker call with me deer hunting so that when I see one, I can get his attention. Called in two one day, after seeing them at 100 yards, they came right in underneath my tree. Problem was, I was bow hunting. They never stand still. Missed! Wish I had my rifle or shotgun. I've read several books on trapping coyotes but they seem harder to trap than beavers. Oh, we also have problems with dogs. I saw two dogs run a doe into the river this year and had her pinned against a steep bank. She looked worn out. In my opinion, dog season never closes. I hate to work so hard on food plots only to have free roaming dogs run deer all day.

 

[Aquaman]

Regardless of what you do, we love the pics! Keep them coming.

 

[SpeedBump2]

If you bust a hole in a beaver dam, the beaver goes to the sound of running water and patches it. So that method will not work. If you trap or hunt them that will work for 1-3 years but if it is good beaver territory than more will eventually move in.

Only real issue I have with them on my property is the skeeters that come from the ponds. Other than that they bring in more wild life such as the aforementioned ducks and heaven knows the deer love the ponds on my property.