One thing I learned when trapping was it is easier to have animals stay on their normal paths than it is to entice them away from their normal paths. Sounds strange, what does it mean? I had better luck with unbaited sets on their normal paths than using baited sets. One slight deviation from this is trapping beavers under the ice, which if snares are allowed a very easy way to eliminate a lot of beavers fast.
If you want to trap beaver and you get enough ice to walk on, assuming snares are legal, you can put snares on a freshly cut tree about 3-4 inches in diameter such that when the beavers leave their house on the way to the feed pile they see fresh food they swim around the pole and get caught up in the snare and drown. I would cut holes in the ice using a chainsaw set the poles and come back two weeks later and pull the poles, it was rare that a pole did not have at least one beaver. A good set of rain gear is a good idea as it gets a little wet with the chainsaw.
Processing beaver is a lot of work so if the market is down money will be hard earned. I have traded trapping services for hunting privileges on the owners land which I thought was a great trade. I will work for hunting access idea. One farmer gave me sole access to a full section of productive forest for deer hunting by trapping the beavers out that were flooding the forestry managed property. In densely forested areas a section is a good sized hunting area.
