Washington Fly Fishing Forum banner

Beavers

2K views 28 replies 19 participants last post by  VMP 
#1 ·
I went fishing for the first time this season on a little stream not far from where I live.
The reason was the weather got hot and the stream runs through private timber land and they post "Keep out" signs when the fire danger get high.
Anyway I had a nice day, sunny and no fire danger.
Wader up and head for the creek.
I found the beavers had been hard at work and had built a nice dam of about three ft high across the whole ck.
I'm thinking this is cool.
Fishing the slack water was tough.
Fish were rising in places that were pretty easy to cast to, but with the clear water I was putting the fish down just by putting a fly on the water.
I worked my way up stream and caught a few with some well placed casts. Both rainbows and coastal cutts.
What I found interesting was channels that had been dug by the beaver from one pool to another to keep the two pools from being isolated during low water.
What I wonder is why the beaver had done this?
I have seen other small streams with isolated pools during low water and the poor fish die.
The other thing I was impressed with was the large numbers of baby trout. I think the beaver ponds have made nursery habit.
Tight lines my friends
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I went fishing for the first time this season on a little stream not far from where I live.
The reason was the weather got hot and the stream runs through private timber land and they post "Keep out" signs when the fire danger get high.
Anyway I had a nice day, sunny and no fire danger.
Wader up and head for the creek.
I found the beavers had been hard at work and had built a nice dam of about three ft high across the whole ck.
I'm thinking this is cool.
Fishing the slack water was tough.
Fish were rising in places that were pretty easy to cast to, but with the clear water I was putting the fish down just by putting a fly on the water.
I worked my way up stream and caught a few with some well placed casts. Both rainbows and coastal cutts.
What I found interesting was channels that had been dug by the beaver from one pool to another to keep the two pools from being isolated during low water.
What I wonder is why the beaver had done this?
I have seen other small streams with isolated pools during low water and the poor fish die.
The other thing I was impressed with was the large numbers of baby trout. I think the beaver ponds have made nursery habit.
Tight lines my friends
Hi GT,
Those channels allow the beavers to haul food / construction materials from the upstream reaches of the pools that their dams create to their lodge / dam through the water rather than over land. This is safer and less work.
Steve
 
#5 ·
Beavers are one of the few animals on the planet that can physical alter the landscape over the long term. I've had to pull apart many beaver dams in the fall to aid in salmon migration and it's an engineering marvel, really, the way they construct these barriers. Aside though from being a barrier to migration in fall, their value to overwintering coho is well documented and they're a key element in a healthy environment.
 
#8 ·
Beavers and salmon evolved together and fish can migrate upstream and downstream past beaver dams, which are porous. If they are a blockage it is usually temporary and fish will often stage until flows allow them to pass. I hope you don't think I am scolding or whatever, I'm not. My point is just that you may or may not be helping or hurting fish and fish habitat by tearing down beaver dams. In a natural setting I'd recommend leaving them be but I totally get the urge to try to help.
 
#12 ·
I'm for them too as they do a lot of good. I recall after we had wrecked one fellows work seeing him swim by and I'm pretty sure he gave me a very dirty look. It's probably a good thing that the effort vs. reward in trapping them now makes them of little value. He played a very big role in the early history of the north. Thankfully he hasn't disappeared.
 
#13 ·
Yup, beavers are engineering marvels. Problematic at times but their construction skills are second to none. We've taken out two beaver dams in the same location in the last couple of weeks. First dam was constructed in 3 - 4 days with short wooden debris, underwater grasses, mud, river rock and logs floated to the dam site. Second dam was constructed in another 3 days with freshly cut willows, underwater grasses, river rock and pieces of 6" logs floated to the site. Both dams were structurally sound with interwoven members keyed into the creek bank. Different construction technique and materials, with both dams being difficult to remove by hand.
 

Attachments

#29 · (Edited)
A good friend of mine has done research on the role of beavers in wetland/estuarine habitats around Puget Sound, such as engineering pools for fish, including juvenile salmon, and the beaver's role in reclaiming habitat lost due to human activities. Some of his work, along with some cool photos, videos and podcast were featured recently in the always excellent Hakai magazine:
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-gnawing-question-of-saltwater-beavers/

Problematic at times...
Yes, you could say that, or problematic all of the time as in the case of beavers in Southern Argentina and Chile. Less than two dozen beavers from Canada were introduced during the mid-1940s to Tierra del Fuego hoping to foster a fur trade industry. With no natural predators and a decrease in demand for natural furs the population of beavers exploded, they swam to the mainland in Argentina and Chile and are still breaking havoc to fragile sub-Antarctic native forests not adapted to flooding. Both national governments have declared "war" on the invasive beavers, with plans to remove 100,000 just in Tierra del Fuego some years ago, but the results and feasibility of control/eradication are still unclear. More info below:
https://www.environmentandsociety.o...tion-and-settler-colonialism-tierra-del-fuego

The flip-side of invasive beavers from the northern tip of the Americas to the southern tip of the Americas are invasive nutrias from South America to North Americas. Not closely related to beavers (although their scientific name is Myocastor coypus; meaning "Mouse-beaver"). Also introduced for the fur trade around the 1930s, apparently some escaped farms during hurricanes, others were released when the fur trade tanked and the nutria populations exploded also creating havoc to natural habitat, millions of dollars of losses to crops, etc. Control and erradication down in the southern US has proven very costly and results unclear.

Check out Beaver Believers, a short film that was featured in the Banff film festival, and produced by Walla Walla's own Sarah Koenigsberg.

There is also a great film (aptly named: "Rodents of unusual size") about the many impacts of invasive nutria in southern USA and the complex relationship with the people of Lousiana, it shows in PBS every so often or can be streamed on the many streaming services, trailer below:
 
#16 ·
"The Standard of Trade evolved as a means of exchange to ensure consistent pricing throughout Rupert's Land. Before this practice took hold, each post set its own rate of exchange for trade goods. It was not uncommon for First Nations traders to shop around for the best deal, resulting in some posts being understocked while others were overstocked.

Hudson's Bay Company used the Made Beaver as a unit of currency that could be traded at their posts for various European trade goods. Made Beaver referred to a prime beaver pelt that had already been worn for at least one season and from which most of the long outer hair had worn off. The greasy beaver wool was easily shaved from the skin by felters and turned into the finest felt for making hats.

The prices of all trade goods were set in values of Made Beaver (MB) with other animal pelts, such as squirrel, otter, and moose, quoted in their MB (made beaver) equivalents. For example, two otter pelts might equal one MB."


The history of the Hudson's Bay Company, founded on the beaver trade, and the role it play in the exploration and colonization of Canada and the northern US, is fascinating, yet troubled.

cheers
 
#17 ·
I've encounter beavers (the furry ones) quite often on coastal streams.

Many times I would be in the middle of a stream, usually fishing for steelhead, when a beaver would swim directly for me. Problem is, they have very poor eyesight.

I remember I once, very carefully, slowly made my way to a run in a river making every attempt to be as stealthy as possible to keep from scaring any steelhead in the run. It took me quite some time to get in place to make a cast. Just about the time I waded to the spot to start casting I noticed a beaver swimming downstream toward my location. Because I knew beavers flip out when they suddenly see a human, I waved my rod in an attempt to gain the attention of the beaver before he was close and do his tail slapping thing.

It didn't work. He was about six feet from me when sure as hell, he flipped out slapping his tail and making a hell of a commotion. So much so, I figured he scared any fish for a quarter mile of the encounter so I waded back out of the river and never made a cast.

Another time, I was fishing with a couple guys in a local slough for bass. For some odd reason, one of our group was constantly harassed by a beaver. It's like he kept following him around the slough and do the flip out routine a few feet from my buddy over and over again. Really funny but obviously making any fishing attempts quite difficult.
 
#19 ·
When I lived on Chiliwist ck in Okanogan, Co.
Late one winter/early spring it started raining, and the snow started melting and it kept raining. On the third evening of rain I heard what sounded like a freight train running behind the cabin.
I went out with a flash light to check the creek.
It was running about four ft. over the neighbors culvert, washing it down stream.
The next morning I drove up the road to where there were some big beaver dams, like 5 acre lakes.
The beavers had been trying to add mud to the top of their dam when they had undermined the dam and it had washed out.
It only took the beavers three or four days to build the dam back up to the same level as before.
The fishing was great in any pools left over after the flood.
 
#21 ·
As the Hudson Bay Company opened up northern and central Canada it was the
American Aster that opened up western Canada with the fur trade.

Astoria Oregon was named after him and was the western terminus of his operations.

If I remember correctly The Hudson Bay Company trappers were for the most part French Canadians and Asters were primarily Scots, Hence names like Mc Kensie and Fraser rivers.

The Hudson Bay Co. did not venture very far west of Hudson's Bay.

Dave
 
#22 ·
Fort Langley on the lower Fraser just east of Vancouver and Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island were both HBC operations. Actually there was over 30 HBC posts in BC. Alexander McKenzie, explored by canoe to the Arctic Ocean, along the river later would bear his name. He also was the first explorer to travel from east to west across the continent north of Mexico. He did this 12 years before Lewis and Clark. He and Simon Fraser were both in the employ of the North West Company, an HBC rival, when they made their explorations. The two companies merged in 1821. Simon Fraser's Letters and Journal compiled by William Kaye Lamb and McKenzie's journals of both his voyage to the Arctic and across Canada by land are good reads.

Peter Newman's trilogy on the HBC is a very complete, though rather arduous read: The Company of Adventures; Caesars of the Wilderness; and Merchant Princes.
 
#24 ·
Always been curious how beavers evolved to build dams, it's so incredibly unique. Did one beaver just wake up one morning, see water moving, and say "oh hell no you don't!"?

Last year I was hiking into a nice run that is an interesting trek to say the least. Beavers have been hard at work in part of the walk in for a few years now. Side channel/beaver pond was pretty high so the easiest route seemed to be walking right behind the dam to cross it. I followed my buddy through and naturally he was kicking up mud so I couldn't see my feet. Next thing I knew, the dam/ground below my right leg gave out and I was buried up to my hip. The water in the beaver pond started getting sucked through the hole I made and it was super hard to get my leg free. Thankfully my buddy was there to pull me up and save my ass, otherwise I'm not sure how I would have pulled myself up with my leg stuck, no hand holds, and all that water pressure. Probably would have had to wait until the pond level lowered, and at some point I'd probably have to fend off the angry beavers with my spey rod.

Later in the season I noticed there was fencing/marking around the dams, and then a few weeks after it appeared someone had destroyed them all together. Still not sure why, but will be interesting to see the spot again this winter.
 
#25 ·
On Sweetwater Creek in Montana, in the head waters there were quite a few beaver ponds. The only way to get to them was on a ATV. I used to go up and watch the fish swim around. The last time I was up in there somebody had destroyed most of the dams and the ponds were dried up. It was a bummer. The fish didn't get very big up in there due to the short season.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top