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.