So you are trapping beaver, and have decided to try your hand at making your own beaver lure... Well, here is an excellent beaver lure that is easy to make and works great...

First you need one or more beavers... Remove the castors. These will be two large, dark glands clearly visible on the lower stomach after the beaver is skinned. Try to remove them so that they stay connected together. Gently pull them back from the beaver, then cut them off where they attach to the vent. Then remove the pink membrane covering them. Be careful when removing them as they can be torn if too much force is used... They can be used fresh, but I prefer to hang them over a wire and allow them to dry... When they are dry, cut, grind, or crumble them up and put them into a clean glass jar. Now cover them with glycerin, a clear, thick liquid which can be found at most larger drug stores and trapper supply houses. Mix this into a thick paste... Many commercial beaver lures are just a blend of glycerin and castor anyway, sometimes with a few other ingredients mixed in... The longer it is allowed to set and age, the stronger and better it gets.(Propylene glycol can be used instead of glycerin, but is thinner and I don't care of it as well.)...... This makes a very good beaver lure. For a bit of a change up lure you can add a drop or two (but no more) of poplar-bud oil to a jar of this mixture of glycerin/castor..... A good many people also remove the beaver's oil glands. They are located below the castors, and can be removed by cutting the membrane around them. The oil glands can be "pricked", and the fluid inside squeezed into a jar of castor/glycerin mix. This is also attractive to the beaver... However, I have found that when adding this oil to the castor/glycerin mix I seem to catch more smaller, younger beaver than otherwise.