I used dog proof traps last year for the first time. The best deal I found for a dozen traps was online. The website offered a free bag of Ausable Coon Chow with the purchase of a dozen traps. Our area biologist suggested baiting them with a cottonball soaked in fish oil. I only ran them during turkey season. I can tell you that I caught 8 or 9 on the food and only 1 on a cottonball with fish oil.

I used chains and stakes when I first started. I quickly learned that I could drive an 18" stake about as fast as I could locate a good tree and chain the trap down. The stake doesn't have to be long. It works because the coon is not tall enough and doesn't know to pull straight up. The coon gets caught and tries to pull away from the trap, not up.

Lastly, one little known law about trapping is the requirement to carry a catch pole. I can only assume it's for the purpose of releasing by-catch. I did catch 2 possums and a feral cat last year. The feral cat was to toughest to dispatch. I didn't use a gun. Since a catch pole is required, I just used it along with a ball peen hammer. There's no need to waste ammo.