Getting Started Questions

Which of the MB550's are y'all using? There are a few different options......You have 4 coil or 2 coil...and either closed jaw or offset.


http://www.minntrapprod.com/Traps/departments/416/

MB 550 4 coil offset jaws with a shock springs. They say the 2 coil are plenty for anything in bama, so just call it overkill on my part

I know it's short notice, but the state has an Adult Trapping Workshop this weekend at Southern Sportsman. I'm not sure, but I think they still have openings. Might be worth your time.

I was looking and there's really not that much difference in cost. I may just go ahead with the 4 coil. Is the difference in the holding strength or trap speed?


I'm gonna go ahead and order a dozen of them to practice with. I've got a yote right now making a routine pass by my camera every night. I've made a list of things I need to order. Do you guys see anything I've missed. The first list is what I need to order online and the second is stuff I need to pick up at the hardware store,

Order online

Traps
chain and stakes
stake driver
wax

Buy from hardware store

auger bit for cordless drill
digging hammer
screen to cover trap trigger
sifter
rubber gloves


The only other thing I thought of was some bait. What are you guys using for yote sets? I'd like to be able to use something I could make in large quantities without having to buy. If I start trapping large properties and making lots of sets, it would be nice to have a cheap bait I could make on my own if possible.

Thanks. I appreciate that.

Oh yeah, one other question......

When you put out a bunch of sets....like two or three dozen... how are you keeping up with where you put them? Do you use a GPS and mark each one that way. Would orange flagging around the set be a big no no?

http://www.minntrapprod.com/MB-Predator-Starter-Kit-MB-550s/productinfo/550START/

check this out.

Also you'll need trap tags and a choke pole.

i keep log book with each set lined out. When it got set, what bait/lure, etc. Good way to see what was working or not, plus at the end of a set you wont forget one.

Logwood dye, some kind of bait, gland lure and urine. Get them 4 coiled, they really speed up the trap and you can always take the 2 small springs off if you don't like them. Crunchproof swivels to attach the stakes with, and trap tags. That should get you started.

Thanks for the replies fellas. I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions.

You may want to ride over to Ramer and pick up everything but traps. Fleming is the only trapping supply store I know of in central Alabama.

http://www.flemingtraps.com/
800-624-4493

I appreciate that. I hate ordering stuff on the internet and would just assume buy it from somewhere I can put my hands on it. I'll definitely check that place out. I may ride over there in the next day or two.

Call before you go, they are on country time.

F and T trading post is where I buy my stuff at . I would get a trapping hammer as it will dig and drive stakes , not very exspensive

Go ahead and get the MB-650 inside and outside laminated. It has a better pan system and a much larger kill area. The inside lamination makes it legal in Alabama.

I was looking at those. What exactly does that mean that they're inside or outside laminated. I see traps that are inside...some that are outside....and some that are both.

A piece of round bar is welded to inside or outside of jaws. You can use a bigger trap and still be within jaw limitations of states. It gives more surface area and reduces paw damage. It also adds weight and can slow the trap down some, definitely go 4 coil if you are going to laminate.

Why not just buy K9 extremes. I'll never understand buying a MB 550 when I can buy the K9 extremes for the same price.

Yeah, I like the looks of those. I found some pics of one of those sitting next to a MB-650. Looks like they're little beefier trap and have a much bigger trigger for the yote to step on.

The MB-650 is a much faster and better built trap than the K9 extreme. The wire levers on the MB add speed vs the extreme's flat metal levers. This makes a huge difference in frozen or wet ground.

Uh oh....sounds like we have a debate here over which is the best.

I'm not gonna debate! I own both traps and you're free to come put your hands on them at any time and see for yourself which is built better.

The K9 extremes are made of heavier metal, they're dogless, have a bigger pan, less welds and screws, better pan tension adjustment, they come coated and they cost less than a mb650!

Those aren't opinions, those are facts!

Buy whatever traps you're happy with. Doesn't matter to me either way.

I was just sitting here drinking coffee and reading some reviews of the K9-Extreme. Everything I’m reading agrees with you. I don’t really see anything negative. Most people seem very impressed with them. A few people did comment about not having “wire levers”. I’m new to this so I don’t really know what that means or the pros and cons of it.

Alright this is a mb650 with wire levers. The levers are the pieses at the very top and bottom of the trap in this picture. They're what snaps the jaws closed and hold them closed.



This is a K9 extreme with flat levers.

Thanks North….I appreciate the pics. Yeah, I see what y’all are saying now. I’m really leaning toward the K-9 Extreme’s. I’m gonna make a trip down here first to the trapping store in Ramer before ordering them and see what supplies they have. That way I can order whatever else I need with my traps.

Your welcome! Like I said before if you want to actually put your hands on some before you order them just get up with me. I bought 2 of every trap in production a couple years ago just so I could put my hands on them and see for myself what was what and what felt right to me.

Thanks for the pics North40. Factual, respectful debate is what makes us learn and solve problems, so I'm all for it. North40, when you get a chance, set both traps and lay them side by side and take a pic. The MB does not have a loose jaw when set, the K9 does. The elongated pan on the K9 allows the trap to be triggered with the coyotes paw still partially out of the trap, this results in a certain percentage of misses. The MB's pan is smaller and centered in the trap. If a coyote steps on the pan his whole pad is within the jaws. High volume trapping is a game of percentages and everything you can do to tweek your eqpt. ups those percentages.

I get off work at 2pm today and I'll take those pics for you.

Pan tension is what keeps a trap from firing if only a partial foot is inside the trap. If I remember correctly the 650 will not go below 4 or 4.5 lbs. The wire levers are harder on your hands setting them as well as the pan system with no loose jaw is pretty tough to set. Not taking anything away from the trap but they are pretty tough to set and maintain for the price. They catch and hold coyotes and that's what matters!





Another advantage of the K9 extreme is the man building them. You can call Kendall and tell him exactly how you want your traps set up and that's how you'll get them. I'm going to order a couple dozen more from him this summer and this time I'm going to get the coated traps.

This is a very interesting debate. Looking forward to the pics. North40…..Are you having any issues with yotes triggering the K-9’s without getting caught?

I have not set any of them for coyotes yet. Lonster has about a dozen coyotes and bobcats posted in the catch thread at the top of this page all caught in K9 extremes. I've only got to set mine once this year but it got the job done.



You know they're good when you catch and hold ol' Bucky! Lol!

I've sold quite a few to others that are having great success with them on coyotes and no issues that I'm aware of. Like I said earlier pan tension is what keeps your trap from firing until the animal puts it's wieght down on the trigger. If an animal has it's foot partially on a jaw then the jaw is going to hold weight off the pan.

I couldn't agree more with that statement! Which leads me to this. If you can't adjust pan tension down below 4 or more pounds on the 650 but the extreme can be lowered to 2lbs if desired, the 650 is notorious for dead spots on the pan but the extreme is dogless and can be set with zero pan creep, not to mention the dogless design makes setting so much faster what is your reason for believing the 650 is a better built, faster trap?

I'm not aware of anyone reporting misses or miss fired traps with the extremes and honestly can't see it being an issue. The big pan to me is an advantage not only for a bigger sweet spot but also are less app to allow dirt to settle under them preventing them from firing in wet conditions.

The MB is not easy to set by hand but is no problem with the setters. The reason it's faster is simple, the wire levers don't have to move as much dirt. It doesn't seem like a big deal until it rains on your set and the ground freezes or it rains on your set and it's 100 degrees the next few days and the ground bakes and crusts over. The pan on the MB is sized in proportion to the trap and can be adjusted down to about 3lb, although I like it at 4 for coyotes. A 4 lb pan will keep alot of non-targets from springing it. I don't like remaking a set for a possum or grey fox. The smaller pan allows me to pack between the pan and jaw. I use something under the pan to prevent dirt build up, so that's no issue. The K9 has the same size spring as the MB moving larger jaws and more dirt on the levers so it's slower. I have used big pans, small pans and even no pan over the years and I can promise you that a pan close to the jaw edge will result in some misses over time. I still have the first few dozen MBs I purchased over 20 years ago and they work flawlessly. When I set a trap I want it to perform in any condition and for days or weeks on end. The K9 will catch coyotes, no doubt, but I see some shortfalls, that I know from experience, will cause you some misses. JMO

Thanks North40......


You guys make good cases both ways. Now I don’t know which one to go with. I’m gonna have to give it some thought for a few days as I get my other supplies rounded up. The MB’s definitely seem to be tried and true from what you read so it doesn’t sound like you could go wrong with them. In the meantime, if this yote keeps coming by my camera….I think I’m gonna do some bait experiments with him and see what happens. Just for the heck of I it I stuck a stick in the ground today in front of the camera and took a leak on it.

Hope you have better luck with a camera than I did. The ones I got on video noticed the camera and ran off

This is a camera I have set up right here behind my house that’s been there since deer season started. I started bush hogging and cleaning up brush and I think I have the field mice stirred up. I’ve got a yote that’s been making regular visits here lately. I think in some ways yotes get used to human scent like deer do. I’m out here walking around and working the dogs constantly right where this yote is coming through. At certain times of the year and in under certain situations….it’s like they just don’t seem to care.

One example is when my Chickasaw plums are dropping. I can go out here and prune in under the trees on my hands and knees getting scent everywhere and the yotes will still make their rounds through later that night to feed on the plums. I guess when they run across our scent at random though in the wild….it’s much more alarming to them. It’ something that’s out of the ordinary. Those plums and persimmons is what I really want to try and experiment with on bait. They’re like coyote magnets. These big Asian persimmons I’m growing are really sweet too. I’m thinking you might be able to make a really nice sweet smelling bait with it that would be good on yotes and coons. Might have to cook them down almost like jelly or preserves.

C3 and North40,

Great points. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Good technical info and pics. Bottom line is that some folks like Fords and some folks like Chevys. Buy what you like and spend a little more time making a quality set because you have confidence in your equipment.

Love these post! Thanks for sharing and wished there were more post like these! Im new to this and these post clear up questions and also the pics help!

Anytime! C3 loves his mb650's and I think the K9 extremes are the best thing since sliced bread! Wouldn't it be a shame if we all thought alike and there was only one manufacturer of every product!

Thanks North40! Good pictures.

Just got back from Flemmings and I believe I’ve got everything I need to get started now. They had MB-650 traps on hand so I just went ahead and picked up a couple of them to try out. The only thing I did forget to pick up while I was there is some setters for them. I realized that real quick when I got home and started playing with them. I’m a pretty stout guy but I can’t set these by hand. I tried using my feet but it’s really awkward and just asking to get my hand caught when I slip. I may it try it again using my knees and see if I have better control. I'm gonna have to get the setters. I sure wished I'd remembered that while I was there. I wasn't planning on getting traps and just didn't have it on my list.

I also picked up 5 Dukes DP Coon traps while I was there and I’m gonna go ahead and get them set up on the coons. There’s no telling how many are using this beaver swamp back here. Just double checking….but they changed it to no closed season on racoons, correct?

On coon sets…..are ya’ll just running one set here and one set there kinda thing? I was pondering over it and it seems like it might be good to set them out in clusters around hot areas. Say like 3-4 traps within a 25-50 yard circle at the end of a beaver pond or something of that nature. I’m just thinking that I know right now I have a minimum of 5-6 coons on this beaver pond behind me through running trail cams. If this were a larger property that I was trapping, then it wouldn’t do me a whole lot of good to only put out one trap in this location and move on down the road.

Gang set, especially around deer feeders.

I had to use the trap setters last year when I started but now I can set any of my traps without them. That is one thing I like about the dogless traps like the K9 or Bridger is they are easy to set.

I found these while doing some google searches. It sure looks like it simplifies the process and might save a sore finger.

I went ahead and bought some bait and lure for the yotes but I’m gonna experiment a little with the coons because I’ve never had much trouble in the past catching them in cage traps on just about whatever. First round of trials we’re going with corn and coconut oil. The coconut oil has a strong, sweet aroma to it that should catch the attention of any nearby noses and I thought the white might offer a visual appeal as well. We’ll see…….

CNC, where you live? I have some "coil spring trap setters" I bought from f&t for $10.95 a couple months ago(December). If you're nearby, I'll give you a good deal on them and save you shipping. I prefer using my feet on my mb550s

I appreciate that man. I’m in Macon Co though so we’re pretty far apart. I think I may contact the guy who makes the one handed setters in the video and see how much those would be. They look like they would be pretty handy.

With just a little practice and the right method you can set them by hand! I set all of mine by hand from mb650's, K9 extremes, ts-85 and CDR beaver traps. I even set my 330 conibears by hand. It's all about the method!

Well apparently right now my technique must suck.

Beginner's luck on day one.............

That's the way to get started. The turkey will love you.

I have turkey come in here every spring to nest but I’ve yet to see one raise any little ones. I’ve got a ton of coons though so its no surprise. Gonna see if I can have any impact on that.

You about to become an addicted! I am setting a dozen MB 550's out tomorrow along with a few coon traps and I probably will not sleep tonight! Lol

Yep, I like the challenge it poses…..fun stuff.

Has anyone tried to paint your DP coon traps hunter orange or white or metallic silver, etc and see if it makes any difference to coons??? It sure would make the traps easier to spot and keep up with if we're talking about setting a bunch of 'em. That's still one thing I'm pondering over. I need a very orderly way of keeping up with where I place 30, 40, 50+ traps.

i painted some of mine white. dont really know if it made a huge difference but i do know that a coon can take a coat of paint off a dp in a heartbeat.

I have been using the VSIB app on my phone to mark them using GPS and I can pull it up on a map to look at. There are a lot of free apps for marking stands that you can use. I saw someone post the other day that they use a journal and write location and what bait or lure they use. I know at my age I have to use something because I have lost game cameras for over a year until I walked up on them again.

I may just be able to use the GPS unit with Otis's tracking collar. I have the ability to mark waypoints on there but I'm just not sure how many it'll let me store. For coons I may just drop one flag on the GPS for each gang set and mark it with the number of traps I have out....something like "GS1-4"......that's gang set 1 with 4 traps.

As far as the color of the coon traps.....I'm reading that coons are color blind so it shouldn't matter if we paint them to make them easier to see. It seems just as simple as tying off flagging as long as the smell doesn't deter the coons. Even though it says the coons are color blind, I'm still gonna try an experiment with a visual attractant and I'm gonna paint one of the traps with glow in the dark paint.

I got skunked last night with no catches. I’m gonna switch it up on one or two traps tonight and use a different lure. For right now anyways, I feel like corn ought to be a sufficient bait in the trap since we’re really just needing to entice the coons hands into the hole….but I’m thinking the lure may really make a difference in grabbing the attention of the coons nose from a distance. Tonight’s new experimental lure will be bacon grease.

Marshmallows and a squirt of fish oil is money in the bank. But bacon grease and a little corn might be just as effective especially if they are getting in a deer feeder and you aren't trying to draw them in.

When I was a kid we had a cattle farm and as I was always by my grandfather or father's side and I watched them do this. And when I was strong enough to set the traps I was doing it. We had a chicken coup and it was foxes at times and all sorts of other critters. And now there is a 4 lane highway through it and houses on it.

And then I didn't trap other than once here or there for years up until a maybe a year or so ago. I decided predator hunting was just for fun but a waste of my time in terms of real predator control.

I read all the time. What I have learned the most from every trapping book I have read over the years is that every single one tells you to do something different yet they are all the same. To try and clarify...If you read 5 books they tell you 5 ways to do the same thing. Mark June is a bit different than Russ Carman than O'Gorman. I've read them all.

The main thing you get from the books is different ideas on how to make sets. All the rest of it is lost in opinion or preference for me. Basically you can read a little on the internet and easily understand trap preparation and those aspects of doing this. Including offsetting traps and spacing from the dirt hole, etc. Trapperman.com is a treasure trove of information.

That being said there is no right or wrong way to set your traps. Try and remain as scent free as possible, wear gloves and take care of scent control between your bait and traps. Then let the animals tell you what you are doing wrong. Study the tracks around your sets, study the misses.

Charles Dobbins books on Flat Sets and Dirtholes are good ones and have a lot of pictures and different ideas about sets in them. They are probably worth having.

Sometimes it helps to talk through what you are doing. I have a place down close to you and if I can get down there during turkey season maybe you swing by and I can just take an hour and show you what I do.

Good info Goatkiller. I’d like to do that if you’re gonna be down this way in the next couple of months. That’d be awesome. There’s nothing better than someone showing you first hand.

I’ve decided to go ahead and do a few different experiments tonight other than just the bacon grease. I’ve also taken some of my coconut oil and I’ve melted it down, added some vanilla extract and honey….and then re-hardened it. It’s a lot louder smelling now. Something else I’m gonna try in one of the traps instead of corn is some granola crumbles my wife bought from Costco. I don’t know who she thought was gonna eat 5 lbs of granola crumbles but it may end up being the local coons. Its got a nice odor to it if it doesn’t attract ants too bad. It’s mixed with raisins, oats, and honey. It may be worth mixing with some corn to make a racoon trail mix.

Alright so we’re baited up and ready for night #3 of coon bait trials. This is what I’ve decided to go with.

Trap 1 – coconut oil/honey/vanilla lure with corn bait
Trap 2 - coconut oil/honey/vanilla lure with granola bait
Trap 3- bacon grease lure with corn bait
Trap 4 – Only granola
Trap 5 – corn in the trap with an eggshell on top

All of these traps are within about 50-60 yards of each other circling the back of my field where the coons come in off the beaver swamp. I also raked out the leaves and stuff in front of the eggshell trap to make it look like something had been digging there.

Fish based cat food (Meow Mix) mixed with a few mini-marshmellows. A few drops of salmon oil (not fish oil) inside the trap helps the coon locate the trap.

I worked with a guy one time who had coon dogs. He said he trapped coon to train his dogs in a live traps. He never used bait he would put tinfoil in the back of the trap and he the coons would all ways go to the something shiny.

I'm reading a lot of folks say use fish oil or some kind of fish bait. I'm definitely gonna try it too. In the past using a cage trap....I seemed to catch more possums using fishy bait.

Maybe we need to chrome plate the traps.

Skunked again last night with no catches. I'm not gonna do anything to the sets for a couple of days and see if it they become more productive as my scent settles down. I'm wondering if I should put a bottle of scent killer spray in my bucket and hit each set with a few squirts after I'm done.

Your scent won't matter to coons

Yeah, it’s never seemed to make much difference with cage traps either. They may just not be finding my sets. I sprinkled a little more corn around each set with my bag spreader and gave it a little coating for 4-5 ft around each set. We’ll see if that draws ‘em in a little better.

BTW….speaking of scent. I bought some coyote lure called “Gusto” the other day. Holy cow man, that stuff smells like a 55 gallon drum full of skunk anuses. I’ve not even opened the bottle and it’ll just about run you out of my little storage unit on the side of my garage. I’ve stuck it some tupperware to see if I can tone it down. I may have to seal it off in a mason jar or something. That stuff is crazy strong smelling.

Yep, the ups man will love you after a few of those orders. Visual attractions are good for coons but you really have the best luck setting right on trails. They use the same trails for generations.

I bought this straight from the warehouse. The room where they keep all of the baits and lures smells like you’ve stuck your head up the ass of a musk oxen.

If I don’t get any hits on my field sets here in a few days I’m gonna pull them up and move down in the bottom and run a line of sets along the creek branch that runs to the beaver swamp. I was putting out a little corn in front of my trail camera to get deer pics and was picking up several coons on there but I haven’t put any out in the last week or two so they may have dispersed on me a little.

I'd keep the bait spreading to a minimum. You want them to have to stick there hand in your trap. If they're filling up on scattered food, they don't need the food in the trap. Put it all in the DPs. They'll find it.

Bout to change up my set locations and run this creek bottom. My current set locations are in my field which is just on top of the hill in the background of this pic..... so I’m not really moving them that far. I’m thinking about setting the traps into the bank of the creek. I did see some fresh sign in the creek bed but not nearly as much as I expected. We’ll see if we have any better luck along the creek branch.

I would cable one up to that stump in the creek and to a couple of those trees just off the creek too.

I’ve only got 5 traps right now to experiment with. I pulled 3 of them up and moved them to the creek bottom. One is set up just behind where I’m standing in the pic at a little pinch point in the creek where the coons would walk around a deep hole of water. I set the second one on a little island about 50 yards on up the creek where the creek made a little fork in one spot…….and I set the third trap about another 50 yards up the creek in a set placed into the bank where I saw some fresh tracks. I’m thinking that when I trap a big property that I’m probably gonna have two basic lines I run for coons. One will be gang sets around feeders and the other will be a line of sets down the creek drainages. To make it not so time consuming to check…..I’m figuring the best spots will be where the roads cross the drainages. Maybe 75-100 yard lines off the road

If you find a good spot don't be afraid to set a couple side by side, just far enough away not to tangle each other. I get a lot of doubles that way. Especially with younger coons.

I'll definitely give that try.

It looks like this trapping game is a lot like real estate…..location, location, location. Got another catch last night along with another set that had been worked but not triggered. I saw a video of one guy that embedded a piece of weenie onto the trigger to insure the coon set it off. May have to try that or some other solution if this keeps happening. I want them to be caught if I get one to stick their hands in the trap.



Traps reset and ready to go again…….

CNC you can spear a marshmellow onto your trigger or if you want a more permanent solution Kendall has some rubber stopper type pieces that you can put on your triggers on his website. No BS Lures

I may have to check those out. I like the idea of a permanent solution. The simpler I can keep things the better. Right now on my set I’m just using corn and tossing in a little crumble of my sweet coconut oil lure. I put 2-3 eggshells at the base of each trap just so the coon would be enticed to investigate it. That seemed to work great last night except for the worked trap and no catch. I actually had a third set where the egg shells had been moved but they didn’t ever work the trap. It may have been the same coon that got my bait on the other one. He’ll be back…..

What is that magnificent looking shiny thing in the hole????


Gonna try a homemade remedy tonight on the same set he robbed last night and see what happens. I left it free floating for now. It's too big to come off of the trigger without the trap being set off.

Caught my bait robber last night…..and his buddy. Apparently the magnificent looking shiny thing on the trigger worked.

Woohoo! I kept playing around my yote traps until I have them figured out now. Y’all are right, it’s about technique. I was trying to use the toe end of my foot and I needed to be using my heels. Getting the pan to make that last little click is still a little tricky. Call me a puss if you want but I’m not brave enough yet to use my finger. That thing looks like it has some bite to it when it goes off.

Bout to go try and make my first yote set.

You aren't a puss, you just don't know any better! Lol! Flip the loose jaw over so there's no way to get your hand caught.

You need to go ahead and stick your hand in one so that you know what it feels like and how to get yourself out one handed. If you're too scared to do that then yea you might be a puss! Lol! YOU ARE GOING TO GET CAUGHT IN YOUR OWN TRAP IF YOU SET THEM ENOUGH!....... There's no way you're any more careful than the thousands of other trappers who have caught their hands.

Good job on the catches!

I got caught yesterday while resetting a trap! It wasn't as bad as i thought....face full of dirt and hand in trap! A little humility is good every now and then!

Just don't get both arms caught in a 330 conibear.

The face full of dirt was worse than the trap wasn't it?

Your pan tension is too light if you set it off without putting a good bit of pressure down on your pan.

Ouch!... I've been slapped by a 330 but never caught.

I wouldn't want to get caught in any of my beaver traps. I'll bet a CDR would bruise your hand up pretty good.

I've never been caught in one, but I have a friend who got both hands caught in a 330. If I remember correctly, he was adjusting the trigger wire. Snares alleviate that problem.

Zero catches this morning.....

I got my hand caught in a 110 conibear one time. Hurt like a @#$%^&*!!. Pinched the heck out of the fat part of my palm. Worse that the few times I got my hand in a coil spring for sure. Bad part is I had to get my wife to help me out of it and she was laughing so hard she couldn't do anything.

One more coon last night. Caught this one is one of my yote sets.

I tried Googling “racoon population density” and “racoon home range” but I really didn’t find a whole lot of useful information. From the best I can tell though, coons are about like deer. The females aren’t gonna roam too far unless they have to and the males are really only gonna roam during breeding season. It says that a female coon will likely not roam more than a ¼ to ½ mile. There’s several different guesses as to number of coons per acre depending on habitat. I’m thinking that I may have to trap the whole lenghtl of a creek bottom though to really get all the coons. I was thinking I may be able to set up a lot of traps for a couple hundred yard stretch close to the road and catch all the coons using the bottom but I’m not sure if they’re gonna roam far enough to do that. Any thoughts?

Interesting! I have wondered how far coons will roam? I know it seems impossible to get them all! I thought i had them wiped out here and then more shows up on cameras! They everywhere here and i don't even have a creek!

I have a friend that traps coons to check for rabies and he said he could trap every coon from any city until he can't find a track anywhere. Then he could wait 3-4 months and go back and catch as many as the time before. If you have a good food source you will have coons.

Well, I got one more last night for 6 total so far. That's off of a 200 yard stretch of one little creek branch. I think just about everyone of them have been small female coons. There was one that I didn't check. It'll be interesting to see how many I catch before it goes cold. It's no wonder I never see any of these nesting turkeys with any poults.

Here’s what I was really wondering though……Could I effectively trap a larger area by only setting up a line along a short stretch of the bigger creek bottom? If I trap for two weeks along the line on the map….would I pick up all the coons using the beaver swamp or would I have to move along the bottom to efficiently get them all. This is a really similar setup to what I’m doing right now. I’m wondering how big of an area I’m clearing out with this trap line.

I would do it the way you have drawn out if I was trying to get a quick check in every day and was able to leave traps out for a while. After a few days with no action move them around and rotate 2 or 3 spots that are easy quick drive by checks. It may not be the best way if you were trapping for fur numbers and had a short time to catch them but for predator control and long term it sounds good.

I think what I’m gonna do is leave my traps out like they are now until it runs cold and I don’t get any more catches for several days in a row. Then I’m gonna move them a few hundred yards and see if I pick up any additional catches around the beaver swamp. If I don’t then I’ll know that I likely got them on all with the original line.

Do you see how addictive trapping can be yet?

Oh yeah!.....I wish there was something more we could do with them though after we catch them. I’ve looked around at the possibility of selling the fur but it seems like southern fur is pretty worthless. Maybe I just don’t know the right people or something. I may have to open up a coon meat market here in Macon Co.

Make sure you leave one foot on a coon to sell it for meat.

10-4.....I guess folks want to make sure you're not selling them a possum, is that why?


Speaking of......No coons or yotes last night but I did catch my first grinner. I was beginning to think that I was gonna have to use a few live traps with sardines to these guys. I need to set my camera up and see if I have any yotes passing through. I think the one I had visiting got run over. They’ll for sure be some in here later in the summer when plums start ripening.

Nope its to make sure you arent selling them a house cat

Dang, I didn’t think about that. Ewwww, I bet cat meat would have a little whang to it. I hear they make good yote bait though.

Beginner question. Is a license required to trap coons and yotes just to get rid of them? As in not selling skins or meat. If yes, what about resident landowners on their land?

Its my understanding that you don’t need one for just trapping around your own property but you do need one if you plan to commercially trap for others or sell hides and meat.

Definitely gonna have to look for a permanent solution for the trigger. I didn’t put any shiny locknuts back on the triggers and 4 of 5 traps were cleaned out with no catch last night. One trap was even knocked over. I may see if I can hot glue a nut or one of those pieces of cork on them when I bring them back in. For now I think I’ll hunt up a few more locknuts like before and catch another bait thief. You wouldn’t want this to happen on a real trapping run. It’s basically a wasted run that should have been fruitful.

The land owner where I hunt and I are halving the cost of some Duke DP's. He needs help protecting his 12 chickens. Since there's no commercial purpose I think we aren't required to have a license just a catch pole.

CNC,

Here is my thoughts.

All the above, particularly the corn is a small item. The coon has delicate hands and reaches in and between the trigger and uses the side of the trap to wedge the corn, mush, what ever, up and out, never touching the trigger.

I use sardines and break the sardine in long pieces to where they are long chunks, and place them perpendicular under the trigger. I also find a larger semi-dry leaf, and fold it flat, to where it is the size of the tube, and place them on top of the sardines and under the trigger.

The coon has to pull the leaf out of the way to get to the bait, which catches the trigger.

ALSO, I do not latch the dog in the trigger all the way to its notch in the bottom. I pull the trigger up and place the dog on the upper edge of the notch. The trigger this way doesn't have to be pulled up much at all to set the trap. This is on the DP traps.

I wish I had some traps, I'd post pics for you to make it easier to understand.

I know sardines aren't cheap, but neither is your time in going to check an empty trap. Wear rubber gloves as Sardines are stinky and stay with whatever the juice gets on. I buy mine at Sam's club.

God Bless.
David B.

I have some of the ZTraps and the trigger releases pulling up or pushing down. I have never had the bait stolen from one them.

I have never had trouble with traps being robbed but I never use corn either. Some dps need the trigger notch filed a little to make it trip easier. Marshmallows are my go to bait, easy to carry, spread a few around for eye appeal ,and hard to get out without tripping the trigger. A little fish oil around the trap and maybe some lure on the lip of the trap and I am set.

I appreciate the advice fellas. I may have to switch baits or traps. Corn is just simple, clean, wouldn’t attract ants was my thoughts….as well as being cheap. I can probably bait up 10-12 traps with no more than a Solo cup full of corn. I did what BOFF is recommending on this round and set them to be a lot more hair triggered this time. I put some lock nuts on the triggers again for now. They worked fine last time but they just came off after being triggered.

I think I’ve found my solution to my triggers and still be able to use corn.....an artificial grub (fishing lure…the little crappie jigs)….it’ll slide onto the trigger and stay when fired. I don’t think the coon will be able to resist grabbing it due to the texture. We’ll see. I read a lot of people saying the marshmallow can get sticky and nasty in the traps if it gets rained on. Have y'all had issue with that?

I've heard the grub works well.

I've just had a bunch of stolen bait using corn.

God Bless,
David B.

Just put a white styrofoam cup over the top of the dog proof trap. I always did that and I caught coons out the wazoo. I also caught some possums and I caught one kitty cat. Both the later when I used mackerel. 3 big fat marshmallows are hard to beat for coons, but they do get funky when they get wet. That's what the cup is for and also to attract the attention of the coon.

I’m gonna be stubborn for a minute and give the grub fix a try. If they keep getting my bait I’ll switch it up. I really like the clean simplicity of the corn though. The only issue is insuring the coon pulls that little lever. There’s no way he’ll be able to resist that big ol’ rubbery white grub.

Are you sure its coons that have been stealing bait? I had bait missing several times from my traps and pulled a camera that I had watching them! No coons were on camera. I think birds, chipmunks, or rats could have done it without getting caught on camera.....maybe even a squirrel?

It's funny you say that. That’s what you call a hair trigger there boys…….



He wasn’t the only bait robber either. Caught a big ol’ boar coon too. This one had a little weight on him. He was trying his best to dig a hole and get away. That’s 7 coons and 1 grinner off this branch so far. A buddy of mine gave me several more DP’s to use so I’ve got 9 out in a line now right along the branch in a pattern really similar to running a trotline for fish. I’ve got one trap about every 25-35 yards. I’ve also got some on each side of the creek branch. I had some traps set with the grubs on the trigger and some with locknuts….this one was caught on a locknut but none of the other sets had been worked so still not sure on the grubs.

Use that mouse for your dirt hole sets.

So here’s my next question I’m asking myself…….I’ve went from 5 traps to 9 traps within this same couple hundred yards stretch of creek branch. Are 9 traps better than 5? There’s a point where adding more traps is just overkill and not needed….it adds time and takes away from traps that could be set in another location. What is that sweet spot for that trap density?

Here’s my initial thoughts for running a coon line. Part of this orderly fashion of laying the traps out is to help me keep up with them easily and to make laying out sets a simple process. I’ve got the go ahead to trap a couple hundred acres close by that I’m gonna move to in the next few weeks so were about to transition our test runs here over to a larger property. I’m thinking about 12 traps spread over a 300 yard line in a pattern like below. Could cut it down to 10 or 8.....How many is too many? How many is just right? Hmmmmm……

More traps, more coons.

Coons will run in pairs, triples, and singles, etc.

Can't catch a pair or a triple if you only have one trap there.

God Bless,
David B.

I agree….but only to an extent. It’s the law of diminishing returns or something of that nature. I’m thinking I’m gonna cut it down to simply 2 sets (a double) put out every 75 yards of creek branch. That puts 10 traps in a 300 yards stretch. If I access a creek bottom from a road and run the bottom in both directions then I’d have 20 traps on about a 1/3 mile line. I think this is how I’m gonna run my first set on the new property.

BTW.....no catches for last night other than another mouse. I'm gonna wait a couple more nights before pulling the traps up but I bet I've about got most of the coons that I'm gonna catch along this stretch. This is a little bit of an example of what I mean by diminishing returns. I've trapped this creek branch for two weeks with 5 traps the majority of the time and have probably cleaned out this bottom pretty well. There was really no reason to run 10 if 5 does the job. It would be better to run more linear ft of trap line with the extra 5 IMO. "Time" would have to be a factor in the equation too I'm guessing. I actually still think I'm overkilling it with the above drawing. Two traps every 100 yards may be fine. That would cut it down to 8 on each line.

No catches again last night. That's two nights in a row with nothing. I believe we have them cleaned out of this bottom now. I'm gonna move some traps a few hundred yards to another stretch of the bottom closer to the beaver pond and see if I pick up any additional coons before we move to the new property.

Our 6 Duke DP traps came in Saturday and we plan on setting 4 with some sardines and building catch poles Friday. Then check and reset on Saturday and check and deset on Sunday this week.
The regulation indicates a metal tag with name and address be affixed to each trap even non commercial. Is that a correct read on that? I still think the license is optional for non commercial pest removal just have to bring the catch pole and a .22 to dispatch them. Feel free to correct any misconceptions I may have.

Yes, that's my understanding of it.


Just an update.......I moved my coon traps about 250 yards and set up several of them on a main trail coming across the backside of the beaver dam and didn't pick up any additional catches after 3 night. I'm pulling everything up now and getting ready to move to the other property soon.

We've yet to find what we think is a coon trail. So We'll probably set a PVC tube feeder out about Wednesday with corn and set DP's nearby. See if that does any good. Every time we put corn out in front of a camera we get LOTS of coon pictures.

I've still be running 2 yote sets but still nothing. I don't think I have any in here right now. I rarely ever get one on camera. I do have some wild house cats in here though and they've stolen my bait a couple times now. I tried easing off on my pan tension and the sum beech bit me!! Got a finger pinched in the very corner and that chit hurt in these 650's let me tell you. Y'all stick your hand in one if you want to. It makes me want to back off to the 550's and I think I may.

I went to check on the traps this morning and as I approached one of the sets I noticed movement in the hardwoods behind the it. Finally I figured out what it was.....A gobbler in full strut. How he didn't see me I don't know. I slipped out so that maybe I can get set up on them in the next few days. It was just after daybreak so he wasn't roosted far off I don't think.

CNC now you're talking right! This is the only time of year I won't run traps.

I've never really been a big turkey hunter.....deer was always more my thing. I'll go turkey hunting but it's never been one of those things where I counted down the days until the opener or anything. It's fun if you got some gobbling though.

We put 6 Duke DP's between the woods and the chicken coop baited with cat food and crawfish smell fishing attractant sprayed on them. pulled camera from other side of post that now has a trap attached to it. it had pictures of a fox, possum, tabby cat, coyote, and coons.

You should get some hits on those Dukes the first night or two then.

1 possum last night. I was absolutely convinced one trap was set perfect to catch a coon. The trap was set in a funneled spot that we had pictures of them coming through. but not yet. much anticipation.

Try running some different bait and lure in a few of the traps. Coons like sweet things. I melted down some coconut oil....mixed in a bottle of vanilla extract....and then let the oil cool and harden again. It seems to be working good. I just take a small crumble of it and drop it on top of my bait inside the trap. Try that along with some corn and see if the coons like it better. Every time I've ever used fish in live traps I've caught possums.

Tomorrow we'll refresh cat food in half and put out a corn tube feeder with a couple pounds in it with 3 corn baited traps nearby. they seem to show up quick at the feeders.

I like the coconut oil idea. I've used a mixture of honey,vanilla and anise in cold weather that does good as a paste. You could add some grape kool-aid powder to that too,

It worked good on my first trial runs with it. I caught the coons using this bottom behind the house just bam, bam, bam over the course of a week or so. That vanilla extract puts out a pretty loud sweet smell and the hardened coconut oil makes for a good base to mix the scent into. If you'll keep it cool it'll stay hardened up and chip off in crumbles.

When we blood track for folks it’s pretty common to have yotes find the deer first if we have to give the deer overnight. How is that the yote finds that deer so fast? Are they just randomly stumbling up on them? Nah……I’m pretty sure they’re finding them the same way my tracking dog is doing it. I think when a deer runs wounded for 500, 600, 1000+ yards through the woods then he is putting down a line the whole way that the yote only needs to cross at any given point along the line to find the deer. Some may scent them on the wind too but I feel pretty sure that yotes would be more than adequate at the game of blood tracking too.

So……I’m just thinking here. Why couldn’t we use that same tendency against the yotes to catch more. What if we dragged a chum bag or carcass, etc behind us along the whole road system that we were trapping. That way any yote that randomly passes over the road will hit the scent line and begin to run the road system where our traps are set up. Anyone ever tried it?

I think I may try it when I go trap the new property. I’m just waiting on my buddy to get done turkey hunting first and then we’re about to move somewhere that should have some yotes passing through.

Here’s another experiment I'm trying........



This is a deer leg bone after my dogs have picked it clean. I drilled a small hole in the end, cut the straight side off of a good stiff clothes hanger, pushed it as far as I could into the bone, and then hot glued around the hole to help hold it. What dog could resist checking out a bone.



I’m just thinking that if you’re gonna put out say 20, 30, 40+ sets across a property……then you likely wouldn’t want to make them all the same trap set... baited with the “lure”. Dogs are individuals and I have to figure that coyotes would be too. One may like this a little better than that, etc. I figure that if you put out several different setups then you’re likely to find one that they like. This is all just ponderings of a newbie keep in mind now. I’m just thinking about those percentages we were talking about earlier…..increasing our odds.




Not quite sure what kind of scent I want to use yet. I drilled some holes in the back of the bone thinking that it might let some marrow smell out of the bone or that maybe I could put some drops of deer blood down in the holes.

Marshmallow got two young male coons last night.

The marshmallow is apparently a pretty effective bait. I may have to try some. The only knock on them was that they can be messy inside the trap. I guess it likely won't matter unless it rains.

I've got a few DP's still set out but no additional coon catches. I'm pretty sure I've got them cleaned out of this bottom. I'm kinda of interested to see how long it will take for new ones to show up. I think I may keep running 2 or 3 easy to check traps for the next couple months or so to see when I start picking up any new catches. It would give us a little bit of an idea of how far ahead of our prime target trapping period we take predators out and still be effective. If I trap coons in Feb.....will they still be gone in late April or May? Will the local population completely recover by the next season, etc...???

Sitting here watching it rain and I had a few thoughts. Now this is coming from someone new to trapping so take it with a grain of salt…..but…..someone asked the other day if you should dye and wax your trap when moving from one property to the next. Feel free to contradict me if you disagree but I’m gonna say yes and here’s why.

I’ve been practicing making sets with my traps over the last few weeks and what I’ve noticed is that once you start getting the trap really dirty…..it loses it’s precision. The pan tension set to a “just right” level after waxing becomes really heavy after its been in the ground and lost all that clean lubrication. My pan stops operating nearly as smoothly as it did immediately after waxing. If I’m going to set up a new property, then I’d want each and every trap starting out day one with the precision of having just the right amount of pan tension and operating in a well-oiled fashion.

The dying part of the process seems to be done for the purpose of long term care. I think that is what is keeping the trap from corroding over time….5,10,15 years. Basically a weather coating. My traps seem to have taken the dye much better the second time around. Dying may be one of those things that you eventually just need to do as necessary in order to keep the trap well dyed but not necessarily every single time you move. Waxing though I would think would want to be done every time if that’s what it takes to have precision pan tension. I think when I go back to the trapping store I’m gonna buy pan tester so that I know I have each trap firing just right when I put ‘em in the ground.

Any thoughts?

First additional catch “post-trapping”……….Roughly 15 days after initially cleaning the bottom out. This could be one that I was just missing but if so it sure has taken her a long time to finally take the bait. I’m guessing it’s a new one moving in though. It’s a small female. It could be one that just wandered off a little farther than normal last night I suppose.

I picked up another additional catch this morning on the same set. This time I picked up another grinner. That’s 2 additional catches now post trapping. The original total was 7 coons and 1 grinner during our initial two week trapping period. That's heavily weighted towards coons which means that either there are way more coons than possums or the DP traps aren’t as effective on possums. I’ve been thinking about putting out my live trap with some salmon to see how many grinners I’m missing and I probably need to go ahead and do just that.

Do you think coon populations and possum populations would be equal?



This one was actually a female possum carrying 7 little ones in her pouch. I went ahead and bopped ‘em in the head so they didn’t just suffer to death. Technically that’s 8 possums in one catch.

After a week with no catches or signs of activity I feel like Forrest Gump the first time he emptied his nets.

I think we've probably all just learned a valuable lesson on timing of trapping. It looks like the full moon period is just about a useless time to trap coons. I was even reading on another trapping forum where they reported the same thing with yotes. I think we may need to plan our trapping efforts around the new moon.

It's not totally useless, just not as productive. Caught a coon and a mouse in the DP's this morning. Had a miss on a dirt hole set from a coyote.

On the dirt hole I played with the trap placement. I used a two trap set with the rear trap offset to the left and the close trap offset to the right. The trap that was sprung was an older Victor #3 that probably needs to have the springs replaced. With a standard 9/2 my luck would have likely been better. Learning from my mistakes.

I've had coon catches Thursday, Saturday and today, all boars. 3 different tracts but real just a mile or so apart. Each set was made on fresh sign.

I've wondered about offsetting two traps like that. The other idea I was wondering about is setting two on a post set with one to either side.

I set the front trap closer than 9" but offset too far. I may still run two traps but the primary will be 9" and 2" offset.

I was planning on pulling the set that was worked this morning anyway. I am not going to be able to check this weekend and it was the hardest set to get to. By Wednesday I will have everything pulled and then start over the following week on a different tract.

I did save the mouse from the door proof trap to use in a dirt hole later. Ive got a bunch of chipmunks here at the house, wonder if they will trigger a dog proof ?

Chipmunks may be just a little too big to fit in the hole like the mice do....and a little too small to be able to reach the trigger. You can catch them with one of the big rat traps though.

Two more additional catches post trapping on my home property as well as my first true double. These were both males. That puts us up to 12 catches with 4 of those catches coming after our initial two week trapping period. This is the same spot that I'm just resetting after each catch. The one on the left would have probably got your arse with a quickness. He was pissed.

Good deal.

I've been putting the catch pole on them and removing from the trap before dispatch to keep blood off the set. The one I had yesterday slipped the loop after I shot it. He ran about 10 yards before I shot him again. I'd hate to think what a really pissed off boar would do if he slipped the loop before getting a bullet. I bought a couple of spring loaded locks to make a catch pole with, guess I should dig them out and rework mine.

I've just been shooting them in the trap and it doesn't seem to really effect it I don't think. Like I was saying in my last post, this is just the same location reset each time. I think the blood may have actually helped draw that last mama possum into the bait.

I’m gonna add a little salmon to my corn bait and see if I can snag more possums in the DP’s before I break out the live trap. It’s pretty dang loud smelling. I poured out the juice all around my three traps as well as putting a little pinch in each trap with the corn. It looks like one can of salmon would bait a good many traps. My biggest concern with using it is ants. We’ll see what happens………

Shacka-lacka Bam!!!!!

Fish Bait = Possum………Total 13 catches…….5 post trapping

Here’s the troubling trend that’s beginning to emerge. Now keep in mind that this is only one small scale experiment but within a month of the initial trapping efforts, I’ve dang near had as many extra catches as I did in the initial two week trapping. That’s not good really. Ideally you would like to not pick up any additional catches for at least 2-3 months I would think. What I’m interested to see now is if there’s EVER a point where the catches stop for any length of time or will they just be a steady stream with new ones every few days. We went 15 days after the initial trapping without any extra catches but it's been pretty steady since then.

Another possum this morning on the fish bait. This one was another female with 6 little ones this time. Total catches coons and possums are now up to 14 with 6 coming post trapping.

Another possum here on the 3 home traps. That's 15 total catches with 7 coming post trapping. The catches are still coming in steady every 2-3 days.

Another coon here on the 3 home traps.....16 total catches so far with 8 post trapping. The catches just keep coming every few days.

Another coon here on the home traps. Continuing the trend of another additional catch every 2-3 days.

That makes 17 catches now.

Man I wish I had a neighbor that was as hard on varmits as u CNC. I wanna trap some myself but location to land so far from my home and opposite direction from work so just not practical. Hope to do a little suburban trapping at some point just for fun and get taste of the work that goes into it

Yep, I understand. This is here on my home property so it's no more than walking out the back door. It'd be hard to trap a property that wasn't close by.

I’m out here putting some new cable on my DP’s now. The roll of cable and the little hammer on thingies are the ticket.

Yotes better start running and hiding now!

Another possum this morning.....18 catches now here at home.

It was another female full of little un's. I only had about a dozen pieces of cat food in the bottom of the trap and they were still all there after I got her hand out. I think I got her on the first reach in....which is what I want. I picked up some floating catfish food yesterday so we're gonna switch to that now and see if that gives us better rain proofing. The UPS man should be coming today with my salmon/shellfish oil also.

how long did you make the cables?

About 5 ft total…..I gave myself a little bit of extra cable so I would have some flexibility about where I placed the trap or anchoring to large trees. I figure the coon or possum will likely wrap itself around the anchor tree or other bushes after getting caught. That's a 500 ft roll of cable for about $30.

Another tip, get some J-Hooks to attach the cable to the swivel. Coons will twist and wrap up on everything. Adds another swivel point.

Yep, that’s a good idea. I should have just gone ahead and done that on these. Most of my DP’s are Z-traps. One of the things I liked about them is that they come with an additional swivel in the middle of the chain…..where as the Dukes only have the one on the end.

Dammit k bush…..My OCD is bothering me now.

I’m gonna go back and fix them the right way with the j-hooks like you're talking about. That’s my fault. I should have seen how simple that was to put those in there and have it swivel right. They’ll probably be ok having that extra swivel already in the middle of the chain but it would be even better to have both of the swivels working. Now I know. Thanks.

Another catch.......19 total

I continue to become more and more surprised at how the varmints just keep on coming. There’s not an infinite number of animals out there even though we may portray it that way when we discuss it sometimes. I think if we could put this into a math equation then you're gonna have space and time as variables in there….or acreage and time. By increasing time….you're also increasing space. In other words, even though I’m only using 3 traps located in one spot…..as the animals move around and spread out, I’m reaching farther and farther out from that spot…..slowly increasing the “trapped out” circle around me. It would probably be more accurate to say lowering the density.

One other note on this catch……I bought some coon urine at the trap store while I was there. It may have just been coincidence but I only sprayed it around 1 of 3 traps in the gang set and that was the one I caught the young male possum in. I’m gonna continue to just spray it around the one trap and see what becomes of it. Again, I only put about a dozen pieces of catfish food in the bottom of the trap and it was all still there. Reach in....get caught.

My salmon and shellfish oil came today. My initial reaction is that the salmon oil smells good but not quite as strong as I expected…..but it’s still got a nice odor though. It’s what I’d call semi-loud I guess. The shellfish oil on the other hand is pretty dang stout. It’s more like an “extract”. I took a little bit of it and spiked some salmon oil and it made for a nice smelling lure. I put some out this evening on a couple additional traps here at home to see what happens. It’s about 50-60 yards off the creek branch. Gonna see if it draws anything off trail.

The salmon oil smells nice but you may be just as well to spike some vegetable oil with the shellfish. I don’t know. What I think doesn’t smell real loud may smell awesome to the coons. I know they sure like the canned salmon. There’s several different oils like clam oil, shrimp oil, lobster oil, crayfish oil, anchovy oil, and gator oil. I’d like to order a little bottle of each one and see which are the most potent.....or if one of them was more attractive to the coons/possums than the others.

Sorry ! LOL.

I didn't know the Ztraps had a midchain swivel. But, seeing how most of the coons Ive caught have chewed, wrapped and torn up everything within reach it needs to be well swiveled. That should give you 4 swivel points. I had a couple wrapup in broom sage and jam the swivels full of grass.

I really want to get some traps back out, but may wait until this weather passes through thia weekend. But will only have 3 days before I have to pull for a few days. I may make a dummy compass set and put a camera on it.

Let us know how it goes. I like the idea of the compass set. I’m gonna have to give it a try too. It seems very simple and possibly effective. It must be a pretty new idea because there’s very little that comes up on a Google of search of the term.

It was in a recent Fur Fish Game article. I tried one last week and it got stepped in by a hog. No other activity, but tracks in road also were not active.

I’m guessing that the floating catfish food is working against me at that this point. …….When I checked the traps this morning, there was barely any water left in the little creek ditch. A couple heavy storms later and my DP’s are underwater.

Wilsooooooon!!!!!!!......I'm so sorry Wilson!

My catfish food is all mush in the bottom of the traps now of course…..even in the traps that stayed above water. Since I’m having to rebait them all anyways…..I thought I would do a little experiment to see just how simple we could get with our setup and still be effective.

I'm thinking that the “lure’ is far more important than the “bait”…..or in other words……the smell that’s coming out of the DP trap is far more important than the tastiness of whatever is inside. I think if I have my trap set right then they’re never actually gonna taste anything. Therefore, instead of even having to worry about catfish food turning to mush or what have you…..I’m just gonna drop one of these muscle shells down in the bottom of the traps coated in scent oil mix. I stuffed just a little bit of cotton in it to hold the scent. I mixed the salmon oil with a little bit of shellfish oil….along with a little juice from my Caven’s Haiwatha Valley. It appeared as though the possum that was working my last dirt hole set over and over really liked that stuff. Let’s see if we can catch them on scent and a decoy.

If the seashell idea doesn’t pan out and we have to go back to putting some bait in the trap…..I’ve finally found us one that’s waterproof. These are bacon flavored training treats I use with my dogs. I had some left in this bag that have gone a little stale so I thought I would test them to see how they would handle rain. I’ve had them submerged in a cup of water now for over an hour and their still firm. I think we have a winner.



They’re about $8 I believe for a bag of 500. That’s more expensive than cheap catfood or something like that but I don’t think you’re gonna need to put more than about 4 or 5 pieces in the bottom of the trap. At that rate one bag would bait 100 traps which is reasonable. If you’re trapping and rain is in the forecast then I think it may be worth it to have a bag of these stashed in your trapping arsenal. One heavy shower and the catfood or catfish food both become mush in the bottom of the trap. These training treats should handle the rain just fine…..they have a pretty strong odor too.

Over 5 hrs submerged in water and the training treats are still holding together really well. I added couple more traps to my gang sets baited with the training treats. I put 3 treats in each trap along with a little bacon grease and put them out beside my traps baited with fish oil.

Forgot to mention, a 3/4" PVC pipe cap with a 1" pipe extension makes a good cap for the DP traps. Not 100% waterproof but will help.

That’s a good idea…..basically corking the hole.

Something else I tweaked a little about my setup this time was that I rubbed just a little bit of grease on the dog and latch of the DP.…..the contact points of the trigger system. Not like cooking grease but grease you would get at the auto parts store and put in a grease gun. It made the trigger of that Z-trap work nice and smooooooooth…….. I had been using a little silicone spray but I think I like the grease better.

Well dang…..something managed to get one of my seashells around the trigger without setting it off. It did go for the decoy though. I was afraid of that with its flat shape. You really need something sphere shaped that won’t pass by the trigger without setting it off. A tiny ball made out of fishing lure rubber would be ideal……made just a little bigger than the gap between the trigger and the side of the trap…..like a small rubber muscadine. For now I guess I’ll go back to using bait pieces instead.

I’ve read where several folks said not to put your oil directly on the bait because some of it, like the shellfish oil, is bitter tasting to the animals. It said if they got a bite of it without triggering the trap then it would turn them off to it. It looks like there would be a more efficient way of dispensing it though than to just squirt it on the ground. That may be good enough though if you apply a little bit every day when you check them. That may what I finally settle on…..scent oil in a spray bottle with a few training treats in the trap. I may just spray down the entire area around my gang set….bushes, trees, etc……and then freshen it up each day when checking.

Learned something today, if you set crawfIsh traps and have a bucket of crawfish, you need to put a top on it before driving down the highway. Unless you like rounding up about 3 dozen crawfish in the bed of your truck.

I grabbed some sardines at Wally World today and plan to slip in behind this storm and rebait with the DPs. There was some clam oil there too. Would this be a useful lure sent?

Those crawfish would make for a heck of a lure. Cathead, I think anything “fishy”” smelling will be a good attractor. It’s just a matter of how you go about casting out the smell. Anise extract is another thing that is supposed to be good…..it’s a strong licorice smell. Pick the right spot and start putting out lots of smell.

THE RIGHT SPOT is right. We've put out 6 DP traps and only 2 have caught anything. We have moved the other 4 twice in the last 6 weeks with no hits. But the 2 that are producing haven't been moved except to reset and rebait after a catch. 7 coons and a possum. Trying to find a bait locally that gets better noticed.

Lately I've been setting my DP's just like sets for coyote- on good sign. In the past Ive just picked out spots that "looked" good. Now I'm looking for tracks, scat etc.

Hope to get back at it after this week depending on weather forecast.

Our setup is designed to stop predators on their way to my buddy's chicken coop and pen. 3 are between the coop and the closest woods and 2 of those are catching. The 3rd one of those is closest to the woods and along a fence but not producing. I apparently am unable to read signs and can't find any trails.

But my buddy is happy cause the chickens seem to be protected. He let's me deer hunt his property so I am happy. We are going to try an electronic coyote caller in the next few weeks since we got a trail cam pic of one. Need to work up a plan to get a fox too.

Bingo!.....We had pot roast a few days ago and had some leftover juice and scraps that I purposely let sit for a day. The next day we had a rotissary chicken from Cotco’s. I took the carcass that was left from the chicken and dumped it in front of my camera that had already been set up for days with no action. It was set up over a buried baby possum, topped with some of the Gusto lure and some yote pee. This animal showed up the first night after dumping the scraps and went for the chicken. The other scraps were still there this morning. Is this a red fox?....maybe a real young yote?? Sure has a thick tail.

Young skinny red fox.

Yep fox.

I think so too. We'll just keep the traps put up for now and watch him on camera. He sure went for the chicken with a quickness.

Back to the discussion on lure and the right spot…..I think the right spot probably matters the very most of any variable. If you’re on the right spot then you could probably just put corn in your trap like I was doing in the beginning and catch coons. However, the farther off location you get then I believe the more scent is gonna come into play. I’m with you Cathead, I can set up in good locations but I don’t know if I can for sure set up every gang set on a known coon trails. Therefore, for the sake of hedging my bets…..I think I want to be casting out a loud scent stream from my set location that hopefully makes up for any lack of location accuracy on my part.

I was reading a study about coons that was looking at where they like to den. It mainly broke down into 3 different places….. hollow cavities in hardwood trees, holes in the ground, and old structures like barns. Of the coons they were tracking….the vast majority were denning in hardwood tree cavities. I think it was around 70%. To me that says that mature hardwoods are likely gonna play a big factor in trapping location…..that’s yourmost likely bedding area. Other than that….creeks, SMZ’s, ponds, etc….should be the areas to find coons I would think.

Total catches: 20


That was one of the longest stretches without a catch since we started.....8 days. We picked up another possum this morning though. I had 3 traps sitting in a triangle shape within feet of each other. Two were orange and one was black…..One orange trap and the black trap both had seashells with lure and the other orange trap had training treats and bacon grease.

The possum went for the seashell in the orange trap first but appeared to have gotten frustrated with it and moved on. The trap was partially out of the ground and the seashell had been moved around but no catch. He then went to the other orange trap with the training treats/bacon grease and got caught reaching for a training treat.

Total: 21

We went 9 days between catches this time. Picked up another male coon last night here on the home property. Interestingly, I had placed tin foil over my DP's to keep them dry. He pulled the lid off of one and then abandoned it before getting caught in a Hav-a-hart trap I had sitting nearby. I don't like the idea of putting any barrier between the coon and the bait in the bottom of the DP and that's why. It's just an extra place for something to go wrong like it just did. Rain just sucks from a trappers perspective.

Total: 22

Went 3 days between catches this time. Caught a young male possum this morning.