i know there are all kinds of high dollar concoctions availible from lure makers, but what have you found that works well right out of the cubbord? last season i caught a skunk on bbq sauce, might have been a fluke, but im gunna try it again because it worked for me, what works for you?

Not quite out of the box but bacon about half cooked in the microwave works really well for the grey fox.

sardines in oil caught my biggest coon ever off them. there is normally 4 in a tin. and containers of canned catfood (cheep) kind. I use the lid to cut it into quarters

Sardines, honey, mackerel, beacon, eggs. The list could go on and on. If you know what your target animal is you can find something in the store that they will like.

sorry, i didnt specify what species, i thought when you guys answered you would say what its good for, im interested in all animals, land and water, i wanna learn just to know everything, i read about coons swimming out to a muskrat float to get cherries, anybody use fruits or veggies with success?

Sardines will catch coon, fox, skunks, ringtail cats, bobcats, possum and some coyotes.
Fruit I use to trap coons where house cats are around.

i also caught my first and most coon off of sardines, and it takes a whole tin for a set, 1for bait and 3 for me!
when i had a pet coon, he went nuts over green grapes, but i havnt tried them onthe line yet

ive caught gray fox on canned dog food

Several decades ago as a 14 yr.old trapper I was usin sardines for coon bait. I opened a can to make a set and licked my fingers,wound up settin down and eatin em all myself. Did save the juice though as I reasoned it was all about the smell.

Back when we could use bait,cracklins was a great fox bait,Red or grey. We killed hogs every winter so I always had an abundant supply. Ialways ate about half of what I used on my traps,have been tempted to dig outa the hole or out from under a tree root after I made the set.

a standard, always in my bucket, bait is jack mackerel mixed with the cheapest cooking oil i can find. blended together into a "slurry" that can consistantly be used out of the large ketchup bottles. you have to "shake-it-up" before using at each set, but it is without question one of the best coon bait/lures i've ever used.

i've tried several "commercial" lures and haven't noticed that better of a response than my homemade variety.

to add a little pizzazz to the slurry i take very dried, ground-up, beaver castors and add a half teaspoon to each of the bottles when i put the mix in. let it set for a few hours and it really puts a "pop" in the bait that the coon go crazy over. it's quick, cheap, and easy to use.

the grump.

Sardines in oil for everything.

Cinnamon sticks for bobcat.

Onion or garlic for coyote.

Jack Mackerel from Save-A-Lot 99¢ per can. Can't beat it

i also am a jack mackeral guy. But i add shellfish oil into the mix and i really spank the coons with that. now i have this 800 acre golf course this year to trap, but there is alot of cats and a few dogs roaming the property. so i have to figure something out that will get the coons, without getting the dogs. im gonna try that wildlife coon lure that is suppose to smell sweet. maybe some marshmellows with it. any other ideas?

maple syrup?

grape jelly for coon

Mix Jack Mackeral, Canned Salmon, Canned Oysters, 1/2 oz of Liquid smoke, marshmellow fluff, 2 cups salt, and cheap peanut butter. Mix it together in a 5 gallon bucket. I will mix all mine in a 5 gallon bucket and then take it out and put it in one gallon buckets so its easier to haul. remember to keep frozen. Best coon bait imo.

Strawberry jam for pine marten

Carrots and apple slices have taken there fair share of muskrats over the years.

Sounds like an interesting bait. Would you care to share the ratios with me? Thank You

Huh, don't know if I ever used anything from the Grocery store for bait! LMAO

I forgot to mention jelly. Actually I dont know if you have those little individule smuckers jelly packs at your restraunts. I live 10 min from the plant and I can get abunch of those. I take an individule pack take the foil off put the pack in the back of a pocket set. the white packet adds eye apeal and the jelly acts as the bait. if found it doesn't matter which flavor you use

yeah buddy,i never thought of that either, but my grandma retired from smuckers and gets any kind of jelly she wants real cheep, i have like 3 cases of the individual packets, like 2$ a case last time i got it

hostess snowballs for cage trapping skunks.

man alive some of they concontions would bait me into obesity LOL

it all sounds good guys, and im not raising the bs flag or anything, but... cinnamon sticks for cats, and snowballs for skunks? im gonna ask for a second opinion there

my little cousin just got a snowcone machine, came with a bunch of flavored syrup, and you can buy refills pretty cheap, has anybody ever used this stuff?

oh yeah, the farmer that plants our sweetcorn field uses donuts in his cage traps, for possums, coons and skunks

I like sardines too much to use them for bait. But, every time I eat a can or two, I save the oil and freeze it. Then I squirt it around my Griz traps to attract the coon to them.

glazed doughnuts, or powdered? if they have filling i bet they would work better yet

he uses glazed

can you buy the glaze seperate? like the stuff for cinnamon rolls, i bet that would work great by itself

I'm not saying what i use its a secret.

Anise oil back in the baking section. If you are trappin weasels and using weasel boxes, dip a Q-tip in the anise oil and put in the box along with the bloody bait.
Chicken livers or beef hearts for weasels.
Back to the "gourmet" section where they have cooking extractions and there is all kinds of stuff-oil of wintergreen gets rats and beaver both and sometimes coon. Peppermint oil-coon and beaver.
Now some northern Wisc. trappers have caught fisher early in the season on powdered sugar donuts in bucket sets cause they have been feeding on bear baiting stations and have developed a sweet tooth. I have never tried it myself.
Like everyone else I agree with the sardines and jack mackerel. Best bait for the price for coon.

after the weather gets cold, maybe i should use peppermint schnapps to avoid freezing, and what about wintergreen gum, tinfoil for a visual plus the smell

i love anise oil, didnt know weasles liked it thanks for the info todd

marshmallow's, are great for coon.

This season I had planned on using marshmallows, maple syrup, and sardines; but I'll have to try some of these other ideas as well.

As for the peppermint schnapps...are you using a shot glass for extra appeal?haha

no, i was going to use the whole tumbler, my step sister is a bartender, i was just gunna borrow some from her work, also cherry grenadine, and mardigras beads for flagging

wanderd off topic for a minute there, but seriously, i know alot of the fish products will produce, i really wanna hear about weird stuff, like the cinnamon sticks for bobcats? it made me raise an eybrow, but if i could trap cats i would certainly try it

im also interestd in these mixes, to gain weight for football we used to eat pnutbutter and tuna sandwiches, sounds kinda like GT's mix lol, never thought about sharin it with the critters

canned cat food, jack mackerel, and cracklins or porkskins for fox and coon.

Marshmellow's

Irish Rose wine mix with dry catfish food, killer on rats, coons and nutria.

Smear a small blob of peanut butter on the side of a tree about 12" off the ground, then bed a 1 1/2. Coon will be waitin' for you!
Paul

(check regulations prior to doing this, as in some states bait cannot be visible from the air, so use strategic placement)

Cinnamon sticks is all I am going to put on here.

If I told you some of the weird stuff I have tried, and still do at times, you would accuse me of running around with little green men from Roswell. By the way, I carry the sticks and flat washers covered with tin foil in my box at all times.

cedar if you want you can pm me those strange baits... rather than carry tinfoil i was thinking about haveing a few of my trap pans chromed, one of my first sets to produce a coon was with a shiny piece of tin wrapped around the pan in the shallow end of my pond

trapper merritt that set isnt real legal here, but i put it on the underside of shagbark trees with moderate success, accidentally catch a few squirrels though

Equal parts(16oz.) of honey and molasses. If you want to make this into a paste type bait, add an equal part of lard.You can add a small jar of petroleum jelly(vasaline) for extra water proofing. These ingredients should be heated to get a good mixture. I also like to add an equal part of fish oil, an ounce of shellfish oil, and 1 oz of muskrat gland lure to the mixture. Dynamite on coon!!

ttt

not down here ants get them to fast

Fish flavored cat food for coons

Most of this works alone or let your imagination run wild with your concoctions... Have fun!

Vegetable oil
Fish oil
Shellfish oil
Corn, on the cob
Anise
Corn meal
Peanut butter
Grape jelly
Karo Syrup
Jack Mackerel
Marsh mellows
Fish flavored cat food
Molasses fortifier
Banana extract
Any Canned Fish packed in oil
Vanilla
Maple syrup
Honey
Cherry Oil
Lard
Bacon
Pepto-Bismol
Kellogg’s corn fakes
Bacon grease
Cheap wine, i.e., Mogen David 20-20
Hard Boiled Eggs

deer also love peanut butter and will literally gnaw the bark off a tree to get it.

"Cheap wine, i.e., Mogen David 20-20"

i find it very effective at my sets as well

What have you caught on cinnomon sticks?

WD-40 on all my bait..works great

WD-40 is expensive fish oil...

catfish dough balls catch coons

peanutbutter,mallases and anise oil mixed together. great coon bait.

I caught two coon last year with cinnimon raisen bagels. Should have tried the Locs.

If you want a sweet bait for the coons, and will even take beaver. Use the Anise,spearmint, peppermint, and orange extracts that the others have spoken about, and mix it with Molasses. It will make a nice smear when it is cold, and the anise mixture will really put off an odor. I also use mackeral,sardines, and the blue cheese.

kippersnacks
jack mackeral

I've caught early season coyotes using fruit baby foods.

Pepermint and spearmint mixed into a smear....good for a call lure for skunk, marten, fisher, opposum, coon, rats.......

I use KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce and it as done a number on cats.

not round here, the kc masterpiece is strictly skunk bait, although i tried to use it in a cagtrap for ground hoggs this summer, it was an uneffective change up

ill have to tyr bbq sauce

the pepto made me laugh dugout, but i actually was out of anise oil while i was blending up some shad earlier this year, anyway i was at home sick and found an old bottle of nyquil, smells like black licorice, ie anise, so i added the 6 or 8 year old bottle to the mix, if notthing else itll keep the coons asleep till i get there lol

So what i am gathering is an animal will eat anything that's edible? Ok.

For all you guys cathing cats on fish, are you using them say near a creek or pond or are you away from the water like up on a ridge with no water around?

Also, you guys using runny paste type baits, how do you present them at the set?

For sweet baits i use frozen grape juice concentrate mixed with peanut butter or molasses or i just soak marshmallows in it. Grape jelly by itself works great too. Theres also a deer attractant called "Buck Jam" that they seem to like. I never used it trapping but i always see coon tracks around the pile when i use it for bowhunting.

try black hole trap, dog ,cat proof.