TGW1,
I've watched this forum for a while as not only did my folks build a pond in the late 70s when they built their house, but I bought a place 2 years ago with a small pond. That being said, I've had a little experience with beavers. My parents had one 25 years ago when they were unheard of in northern IL. My little brother and I spent countless hours 1 summer and hundreds of rounds in various guns trying to murder said beaver or beavers. we ultimately succeeded as well as the neighbor got 1 too. 1 appeared at my place last winter. My wife didn't want any type of trap used other than a live trap. Spent 2 weeks trying to catch that sob. Tried all sorts of bait. Sliced apples, grape jelly and peanut butter ultimately worked. Here is the bad news, that beaver destroyed a 2 week old TSC live trap. It looked like I had a gorilla on meth in it. The guy at the desk at TSC couldn't believe that a beaver did that kind of damage. And the length of time it was in there was minimal, overnight. I ordered a pair of 330 body traps from Amazon along with the setting tool. 5 days later I had a 47 inch long, 40+ pound beaver. Just my 2 cents.
