This site is supported by you, the reader. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I may earn a small commission. Learn more here.
Johnny Thorpe, legendary trapper from New York, caught a lot of beaver through the ice in his day. Literally thousands. Thorpe trapped all through the fur boom years, when competition was a huge part of trapping, and there could be half a dozen other trappers vying for a spot to set traps at a single beaver flowage.
During Thorpe’s later years, he and Alan Probst teamed up to film a video on under ice beaver trapping to share some of the knowledge Thorpe has learned from experience. “Beaver Under the Ice with Johnny Thorpe” is a 65 minute DVD that covers Thorpe’s angle on under ice beaver trapping. There aren’t many under ice beaver videos out there, and Johnny is one of the few in the country who has really put up the numbers.
In this video, Thorpe shares his different thoughts on under ice beaver trapping and shows the viewer how to construct three different sets – a baited bodygrip set, a foothold pole set, and a snare set. He also shows how he skins beaver in a way that leaves no leg holes, and talks some on ice safety. No beaver are actually taken during the filming of the video, but Thorpe does go out to a couple of beaver flowages and puts in sets.
This video is simple and straight to the point, just like Thorpe was. He states that he doesn’t cover many sets in the video because he’s tried them all, and these are the ones that are the best in his experience. He particularly leans heavily on the swinging baited 330 set for much of his beaver trapping.
Overall, the video is well produced and the knowledge learned from the late Johnny Thorpe is worth the cost in my view. In fact, just the description of the how and why behind his swinging baited 330 set is probably worth the cost of the DVD. I was really hoping for a lot more on different sets, catches through the ice, set location and scenarios at different beaver lodges and information on a variety of other under ice beaver topics, but “Beaver Under the Ice” is still a great addition to an under ice beaver trapper’s library, and I do believe it will help you become a more effective trapper.
Click here to buy a copy of Johnny Thorpe’s “Beaver Under the Ice”.
Leave a Reply