Many of the guys I know use leg holds (No. 4 Victor) with a slide wire when trapping off a beaver dam. Probably for this very reason. The Conibear really comes into its own when trapping around the house or under the ice but of course, kittens become an unwanted catch. I did a lot of nuisance live trapping when I was working and beaver filling the trap with all sorts of crap drove me nuts. If you get a chance to watch a beaver repair his dam, you'll see they approach it very cautiously and will almost never use the slide. They'll just plug the hole with mud and branches and of course, this plugs up your set. The only advantage of your set is that you can pick the odd otter as a bonus.