Day 3.......1/30

Picked up one female coon last. At least we broke the ice.

Another coon catch last night

Day 4........

I went 0/30 again. Definitely not the start I was hoping for. Like Edison said though....."I have not failed, I've simply discovered a 1,000 ways that won't work."


There may just not be as many coons in this little area like I thought there would be. If you saw it in person you would think it would have to be covered up though. We're gonna move on back into the property when my buddy finishes turkey hunting and set up along a pretty decent sized creek. I'm hoping to see more action when we do.

My buddy gave me the go ahead to trap the whole property today so I went ahead and moved 12 traps to spread things out more. They are still set out in pairs at 6 different locations. Gonna move a few more tomorrow so that everything is spread out and sitting on quality locations. I also put out one yote set with the MB-550.

I think I've just about decided to go with the 550 over the 650. After I waxed the 550 it was firing at somewhere around 2 1/2 lbs....that's not in the ground. The 550 is definitely tried and true and has proven to be a very capable trap. I've figured out an easy way to make my beds so I think I'm good on that front now. I'll take some pics of what I'm doing tomorrow. I'm guessing that the 650 is probably overkill and more trap than your really need. The pan tension becomes WAY too hair triggered after waxing for me to use....especially as hard as they bite. I'll probably go pick up a dozen of the 550's pretty soon to put out on the 200 acres. This property has some great set locations.

I also just picked up another test property really close by that I'm gonna move to after we finish trapping this one.....so we should be busy for several weeks getting in practice. It's roughly about the same size as this one.

Interesting read. Good luck with your project. I hope you wipe them out.

Is there not many coons on that property?

We’ll start getting a much better idea now that I’m able to spread out more across the property. So far I’ve just been trapping in one small area. Some of the traps I moved yesterday were reset along areas where I saw coon tracks so there’s a few at least. I expected to get 15-20+ off of this property but that may not prove to be the case.

Ok. I was just curious. I ran 3 dp traps last February in a 10 yard or so area. I could count on one hand how many times that I didn't have all 3 full with either coons or opossums.

Good luck. Maybe it will get better for you.

Day 5......Another ofer.


I'm beginning to think that maybe there just aren't that many coons on this property for whatever reason. I'm gonna ride it out in the new locations for 4 or 5 days and if the catches don't pick up then I'll just pull the traps and call off the dogs on this one.

I’m not for sure if that makes a huge difference or not because I’ve caught them both ways now at home…..but when I go back tomorrow I’m gonna take a few of the trap pairs and hide one of the two traps and leave the other one just stuck out of the ground in plain sight. I’ve just been playing around with my sets at home and making them more like a natural hole. It’s more time consuming but if it had a big influence on catch rates then it may be worth the time. It’s definitely working but it may make little difference versus just leaving them exposed. I just made a little trench to put the trap in then laid a few sticks over it like a roof to keep stuff off the trigger. I then covered it with a little debris.

I started off sticking mine in the ground with the whole trap above ground. Then I started laying them on their side and found no difference in my catch rate.

CNC,

I don't know what you're using for bait, but I had all my luck with marshmallows.

Yeah, I’m gonna have to try those. The knock on them from what I was reading is that they can get real messy in the traps if they melt or get rained on. That was really the only reason I was avoiding them. I’ve just been using corn with a homemade lure of coconut oil and vanilla extract. It’s working great here at home but not getting any action on the 200 acres.

How bad could it melt in 24 hours? You gonna check them everyday. I never poured anything on mine, either.

You may want to paint your dps white.

I use cheap dry cat food in mine and catch a whole lot of coons. They are above ground but I have modified the trip so it is a cross or replacement trigger that is a circle.

Day 6......No catches again.


I took the can of salmon with me and baited half of the traps for possums this time. I'm gonna see if maybe this property has way more possums for some reason. Something small had worked my yote set and gotten the bait out of the hole but didn't set the trap off even though it looked to be all over it. I think I'm switching to wax paper for a pan cover. I'm just not happy with how the other options are working. Whatever it was that worked my set should have set it off I think. I also don't like the way things are easily getting the bait out of the hole. There needs to be some way to make them dig for it more. I'm thinking about maybe trying to sharpen a stick off on one end and jabbing it down into the center of my bait hole to hold the bait in and make them work around the stick.

I use the cheap cat food and have caught lots of coons. I picked up a bag of name-brand high price cat food (that's all they had) and only caught possums.

I've got to run by Tractor Supply and pick of some dog food today....I'm gonna go ahead and buy some cheap cat food while I'm there to see if we can switch it up on the bait and have better success. I may go ahead and stop by the dollar store as well and get some marshmallows. I thought making a trail mix of corn, cat food, and small marshmallows.