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.