Looking for Coon trapping advice

I want to start trapping coons, possums, etc at my farm. I’ve never trapped anything before, so I’m looking for all the advice you guys are willing to give. From my research, it seems like dogproof traps are the way to go. Thoughts? Also, most of what I’ve read or listened to makes it seem like catching coons is as simple as pre-baiting a site for a week or two, followed by placing a bunch of traps in that area and sprinkling a few marshmallows or some cat food in the trap. I’m sure there’s more to it than that though. All of your tips and pointers are much appreciated

Those videos on management advantage and growing deer tv are a great resource. But hopefully some of these coon catchers will chime in.

We started a lil last year thanks to the advice from these guys on here...Didn't prebait or anything, just found a creek and put the dogproof on a trail crossing the creek...coons and opossums have been pretty easy to trap from my limited experience and a lot of fun...I watched a lot of youtube vids as well like AUwrestler suggested...kill em up

Their favorite food at my store is Chinese. Them little bastards will pull out every one of the take out containers China King uses and pile them up at the fence corner.

find a creek, find somewhere they can cross without getting wet, log laying over it, shallow crossing, if you got a bridge going over water put one right on the water line next to it theyll walk the creek then when they run into the bridge theyl go up and over, bridges are always productive. sandy points are good to they go out on then to drink. use sardines or mackerel. it's fairly easy just think if I was a coon where would I cross to stay as dry as I can? or you can bait with corn I always catch less like that though they seem to like the corn better and dont go after what's in the traps. if you want Turkeys you better kill every coon you can.

Very easy to catch coons. dry cat food and a $1 can of mackeral. Traps dont have to be along creeks etc. We catch a ton of them no where near water sources and just on the sides of the roads. We have painted a few DP traps white to make them catch their eye more and set them in the wide open. Also makes them easier for us to see.
If you run feeders set multiple DP traps around them. We have several sites where we put 3 or 4 traps out and its pretty common the first few times in that spot to have one in every trap.

Exactly this! It’s fun too.

Back in the day I used steel traps and hung an aluminum foil ball of sardines on a string above it.

I don’t trap coon anymore but I found when I put this stuff out, in comes the coons, then the big lone boars.

https://www.wildgameinnovations.com/persimmon-crush

Update: I bought a dozen Duke DPs and set them up yesterday. Tried using a few different baits to see what they liked and when I went back today I had caught 3 using peanut butter and marshmallows. I think my plan will be to bait areas using the cat food and then put the peanut butter marshmallow mix in the traps. Looking forward to catching a bunch more. Thanks for all the advice

I use purina surfin and turfin cat food for bait and nothing else. BOFF had a great idea about using sandwich bags to cover the DP's when its going to rain

Caught 8 coons and 3 possums the first week. Hope to take a few more out this week

Congrats man

When I was coonhunting and needed a coon for a pup I used anything fish in the winter and anything sweet in the summer

Anybody having any luck in this heat, or is it an ant fest ?

I pulled my DP's mid May. Too hot and too many ants but did catch 4 in may

Sardines,salmon and honey makes an irresistible bait. Find shallow stream ,dig small hole in bank about 18" above bottom of stream. Make it around 12" deep,put two tablespoons of sardines mixed with honey in back of hole. If there is a coon anywhere around you'll catch them like this.

Caught 17 in the past 2 weeks on straight dry corn. Like marshmallows better but ants are a big problem. Just moved 7 traps today and expecting a decent catch in morning. Hopefully saving a few birds and a lot of my son’s sweet corn.

They have started walking down my dads corn stalks this past week. I caught the first one last night (first night deployed) in a dp on cracked corn. Coons seem to like it good enough and it’s super easy to deal with.

18 now

tell me more about this. I have pretty much quit until it gets cold due to ants. Are you just putting corn kernels in a dog-proof trap? And no ant problems? Thanks

Yes just straight corn and I scatter a little around also. Every now and then ants will get in one but not often. I haven’t tried it, but was told you could put ant poison around your traps and still use marshmallows and other smellier attractants without any problems

Thanks, yelper. I will try this. Appreciate it!

It’s kinda slowed here the past couple of days, so think I’m going to try the ant poison and some good smelly tuna soon

Up to 23. Hoping to go by the store this evening and get some fish oil or tuna to try and entice a few more.

Pretty good catches. Just putting in my 2 cents. I catch them pretty good on food plots chaining DP's around tree bases and using my kids Fruit snacks. They don't melt much and while the ants will get to them seems slower then a lot of things.

Just pulled mine for a while. Ended up with 26 coons, 5 possums, and 1 squirrel. Just plain corn has been the best for me this summer.