Section 9-11-266 CHECKING OF TRAPS; HANGING OR SUSPENDING OF BAIT OVER OR WITHIN 25
FEET OF STEEL TRAP
It shall be unlawful for anyone to hang or suspend bait over or within 25 feet of a steel trap.


I got a question. The law says no suspended bait. Is it legal to hang ribbon or feathers in Alabama to attract bobcats? I tried google to get more clarification but cant find anything.
Also I saw a Totem Pole set where they drill holes in a tree and put lures and bait in the holes. Would that be legal?

Feathers are fine as a lure or attractant and aren't considered bait, I would make sure they don't have a chunk of meat attached to them if you are going to hang them. I don't know aboutdrilling holes in trees, never considered it, but it would most likely not violate the suspended bait regulation. I would check with the dcnr about that the more I think about it.

Thanks. I plan on useing some ribbon this first time anyway. I figure law is mainly so you don't have a half a chicken hanging above the trap but so vague I wasn't sure.

What Charlie said!

Drilling a hole in a tree for bait/lure just seems like a lot of work. Besides you want his nose on the ground working a hole not up high, the higher his head is the farther away his feet will be.

Breeze I've made up stringers of ribbon before with fishing line and swivels to keep them mobile and still have never seen a difference in my catch. A flashy dirt hole with some eye appeal and a good quality bait/lure down the hole will catch them as soon as anything else will.

I watched this video a few weeks ago. I would like to try this setup just to see if it's that easy.
https://youtu.be/RlmWzZvQRIc

Thanks North. Wish you wasnt so far away. I'd like to ride along a line one day. Gonna try to get some traps out this weekend.

Man it ain't far! Y'all load up one weekend and ride down.

I've tried making cat specific sets but never with this particular setup. Sounds like a really good way to target cats around field edges where you know they're hunting. I will definitely give it a try. I know I've got cats hunting around my chufa patches so I'll use this method and see how it works. I've got several dozen traps set up just like what he had in the video so now it's just putting them to use.

I'm always willing to try anything that might help the turkeys!

That's a interesting video. Gonna have to try some like that. We got a ton of cats.