Seems there is some interest in this bait for muskies and pike, so wanted to put a thread up to discuss them. Here’s my take on Beavers – for what thats worth.
Beavers are my main musky bait these days and have accounted for nesrly all of my +50″ fish since coming on the market. The natural swim, undulating hair, and the random fluid action of the tail can be musky magic at times. I specifically use the ‘lake edition’ Beaver XL as the extra weighting gets the bait down to the desired depth quickly and allows more speed on the retrieve – both keys for success IMO.
I have a dedicated rod for them in which the leader is permanently affixed to the bait – no snap or split ring. This reduces fouling and eliminates one potential source of failure at the connection point.
The hardware on the bait might be adequate for smaller fish, but needs to be changed out if the possibility of big fish exists. No offense to the manufacturer, but I completely dis-assemble the bait upon purchase and replace all the split rings between the sections and those affixed to the hooks, plus I change out the hooks. The stock hooks and rings are soft and can/will fail after encounters with large fish. I use Mustad 3551 trebles in 9/0 and Bucher super split rings to replace the stock hardware. If larger diameter split rings are used to replace the stock rings between the body segments, the bait will foul more often, leading to wasted casts and frustration. Keep the split ring diameter the same or smaller.
In my experience, the stock bait is not a great hooker due to the hard head, hard body segments, and molded rubber tail all acting to reduce the gap on the hooks. The bait can be made to be a better hooker though by up-sizing the trebles and modifying the tail section. I can discuss that mod further if there is interest – this thread is already getting too long.
There are other thoughts and modifications I have about the bait, but will pause here.
Who’s using Beavers and what mods are you making to them?
