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16. Me and young son, Kevin, with eight beavers on the ice. "Beaver used to be protected in Saskatchewan, but when the price of their fur dropped, their numbers exploded, and Sask. as much as declared open season on them. Prior to that, they'd have hung you by your thumbs for shooting them. That was great news for me because I'd always wanted to hunt seals and this is the closest thing on the prairies. We'd put a boat in the river and either drive upstream a certain distance before shutting off the motor and drifting back down, or we'd float from one landing to another. You had to be careful to time the trip so that you were on the water during evening (best time for shooting) and yet able to get to your pull-out spot by dark. 'Cause, man, it got dark! Even with your eyes closed, you couldn't see the inside of you lids! <G> Although I've gotten more beavers on a trip, eight was a good evening's shooting for one person (averaging about one beaver every fifteen minutes-and I once got eight in 45 minutes). The best season is spring (the ice is off the river here, but there is still some along the shoreline in some places). Higher water levels at that time allow you to travel creeks that you could jump across later in the summer. I've always felt that from three to five days of float hunting for spring beaver would make for a unique guided hunting trip. Anybody interested?