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.