What are your guys four favorite food lure ingredients for coyotes. This is not your favorite food base ingredient. Professional lure makers are more than welcome to share their thoughts too☺️. If you would rather pm me feel free. I'm just learning and I'm trying to narrow the field of opinions down some. Thought maybe after this thread we would try gland lure ingredients so thinking on this too. Thank you ahead of time for your input. If you have found an ingredient causes a specific reaction such as a biting response, digging, urination or anything else please share that too if you want.

You've asked for many paragraphs of info!



^^^^^This doesn't quite make sense.

Lure is typically gland materials/essential oils

Bait is food ...you have food and lure together.

Can you clarify?

I asked for your 4 favorite food lure secondary ingredients, if it takes you many paragraphs to answer I'm truly sorry for wasting your time reading it and replying. To confirm my thinking I looked at three well know lure makers websites and all three had lures described as food base lures. If I have to clarify what a food based lure is to you neither one of us can probably help each other but thanks for responding. If I misunderstood your confusion I apologise

The base for my Mississippi Special, which is a food lure, is the liquid leavings after bottling Beaver Meat Medley bait. This liquid has leached out of the aged beaver meat over the period of years. It's very attractive by itself, but it is even more so with the addition of other ingredients.

You ought not berate experienced lure makers when they're trying to ascertain exactly what you're looking for.

That's one, and probably the only one I'll give you.

I have several food based coyote lures. Mostly meat bases but not all. Like Paul said I will give you one. Horse meat. There are a hundred different ways to take it from there. When I first experimented with it I wasn't old enough to shave. Now I'm gray and still experimenting. All it takes is time and money.

If I were you I would take a look at a canines diet in the wild. Proteins, fats and carbs are three main ingredients that they NEED at different times of the year give or take. Some might only use ingredients that are food based, think outside of the box.

If you were going to pick one food that coyote eat 365 days a year it would be mice. Even if there feeding on watermelon there still pouncing on mihce if one runs out in front of him. But that dosent mean a mouse bait will shine right then in the watermelon field. A Lot of it depends on if his belly is full or not. More coyote are caught on a food lure out of curiosity more so than hunger. Imo. Unless its below zero and the prey species is non existent they tend to stay well fed.

Coyotes are opportunists. They eat what ever is available at the time. When the berries are ripe than its berries. Berries are also being fed on by rodents and birds. The idea that coyote don't eat meat when the berry's are ripe is ridiculous. More than once I've caught coyote with raspberry seeds and grouse feathers in their scat.

Eggs processed in several ways make an excellent food lure, bait or ingredient. Knowing how you want to approach using them is up to your intended formula result. Soooo many variables, it does require much more thought and a bit of know how then is sometimes realized.

X2 on what Bob said. Many different ways of handling eggs. From loud/rank to mild/tangy odor. From liquid to paste. Food, curiosity, or long range call ingredient. Endless options with different responses.

I’ve been toying with playing with grasshoppers for late summer early fall control work.

From about late July to early September in my country, grasshoppers and fruit are serious food sources.

When the coyotes are on hoppers, my mouse based products really shine. By December, they want red meat and lots of it.


If a coyote will eat it, and they’ll eat ANYTHING, it can be used for bait.

That being said, some things are easier to work with than others. I’ve been experimenting with beef afterbirth for a few years and finally abandoned it. Just to hard to work with and extremely unpredictable.

I agree Boone. After birth is hard to use consistently. Rotted completely to a liquid is about it. X2 on the cow after birth. Mare after birth is a different story. Downside to mare after birth is availability. I played with grass hoppers a couple of times. Nothing developed and lost interest fast. I like good gland lure and snares during that period of time.

“Rotted completely to a liquid is about it”.

Pretty much sums it up Andy! Lol

The only way I could keep it solid was to preserve FRESH. Any amount of taint and it would turn to liquid in a few months no matter how much preservatives were added. And I was using ridiculous amounts.

A real bugger to grind that slimy stuff too!

The part I hate most about after birth is getting it cleaned up. The stuff would make great glue.

imho any spieces of after birth draws yotes even dog placentas. I firmly believe its the high consentration of colostrome that remains in the sac.

I imagine your right Tony. I've only played with beef and horse. Horse trumps beef 10-1. Probably has a Lot to do with numbers of cows in the country being trapped. Here we have upward of 10,000 calves born in the spring and afterbirth gets ate up pretty quick. Its kind of like hot dogs and ribeyes in human terms. Very few horse after birth and kind of a treat for them in both taste and curiosity.

ive had very limited exsposure with it only fresh stuff. but what I have used was astounding I have tried the imitation colostrome mixed with fresh meats. Not so promising I know as a teen ager sheep after birth was deadly on foxs. I've still got unpasteurized butter milk on my try out list

I will say anything from a lamb I like. We don't have many sheep in the valley anymore and haven't gone out of my way to grab any. Let me know how the butter milk works out. I do like dairy products and especially in warmer weather.

you did, and "secondary" was not in your OP, but would have helped, no doubt.

Even Andy put Horsemeat, which would be a primary....so fuss at him a bit too.

O I see now. Not base ingredients. So you want all the little side effect odors? Um, well I'm not sure I want to give that up so easy. No offense. Castor and oil sack I guess would be safe to say. There are dozens of enhancers to play with. Some are compatible with meat bases and some not so much.

dried blood is a good ingredient for various types of lures.

The possibilities are endless, all the time and money it takes to create a real good food lure would amaze most. I've played a bit with this very subject, added this and that but still not as good as what the professionals formulate. So far I have the base right LOL but they still won't dig to China to get at it..

from my limitied experience I keep coming back to sun rendered oils of various animals. They tend to be stead fast in there reactions towards them. I tend to utilze most of there desired food groups. Be it oils or meat mass, or liquids of completely rotted down flesh. As g-bus says skys the limit,Only thing slowing a guy down is their imagination or creativity! But man is it smelly enertainment

In late July and August, coyote droppings are full of persimmon seeds.
The trees will abort half their fruit during extreme dry periods and the coyotes know this, eating the green fruit as it falls.

( Have you ever eaten a green persimmon ? I tried it...once)


Persimmon odor at times, can be as attractive to coyotes, as it is raccoon.
I once had a man buying persimmon scented insect repellent from me to dump down a dirt hole set.
When I heard of this, I said "You don't want the scented repellent, you just want the persimmon odor !"
I sold him the straight persimmon scent and he trapped a lot of coyotes using it.
We later became good friends and trapped together in Oklahoma, which had a good many persimmon groves in that region.

I like using persimmons but the stinking deer wont leave it alone! At one set I had a doe bed down by the set waiting for me to leave! LOL Dont think deer wont paw out a dirt hole! And yes I have bit into a green persimmon. NASTY!!

Boone I got a quart of ground slightly tainted afterbirth that is a year old that is still in a gooey paste so I went ahead and ground 2 1/2 more gallons this year. I would sent you some Boone if you wanted to play with it. I have a quart and a half of ground packrat heads that is about equal parts fur bones brains and meat from the rats I sent to Bob that I thought I'd play with. I also have a quart of aged deer testicles, gallon of cultured eggs, a gallon each of fresh ground and aged liver, a gallon of aged bobcat meat,and about a gallon of ground salt cured fish. I bought two black flash trail cameras to help me test some. Thank all of you guys for your input. For a new guy it's kind of hard to pick a direction to go with the side odors (like a couple of you stated there are many directions to go)but I got started this afternoon and made 3 samples to try.

Never enough of either it seems. The most important is the time. It is flying by.

Do you have any recommendations on how to use mare afterbirth I have some that’s a week old and not certain to preserve it or rot it

Man it seems like light years ago when I started this thread. I'm not Andy but 2 best ways I've found for working it up is either let it rot down to liquid or letting it halfway dry out so you can cut it and grind it them add preservatives right away. If flies get to it while drying just freeze it for a few days to kill all the eggs

I shot a late season doe and she was already carrying
I saved her ambiotic fluid and added a little glycerin so it wouldn't freeze
It caught coyotes and fox.

Cool thread

Yes sir since you have many more years experience now than when you started this thread, how would you now answer your original question? I for one would be curious to know. I am at a spot in my learning curve where your original posts shows you once were, care to share?

I'm pretty hesitant these days to give out particular ingredients, especially on an open forum as too many want all the answers without doing one single bit of testing. But I've had several people help me along the way so I'll throw some ideas out there. First I really don't try to make what I consider a food lure. If I want to go primarily food in the attraction I just go the bait route. With that said a lot of my lures have a food product as a base but so much of the attraction comes from secondary ingredients id consider the formulations more on the curiosity side, which category I really think most good lures fall into. But if there's one ingredient I'd share that I think is top shelf and is vastly under rated for coyotes it's sac oil. The amount you use is critical though.

I don't know why that question struck me today but it did. I been doing a ton of reading, and this old thread came up in my searching. I really didn't intend to put you on the spot, just found it curious after your comment on the time frame of it all so I asked.

I have had great luck with all things beaver for sure. Subtlety seems to always be best in this game, sac oil I find varies so much to my nose anyway, interesting.

No worries about you putting me on the spot. It's a forum, I don't have to answer if I don't want to.

Yes Sir, Thanks for the pro tip!
I have been pondering and researching uses for beaver sac oil, other than beaver castor lures.

Sac oil is not a great stand alone scent but if its going to rain several days in a row it wont wash off and makes for an ok flat set.

It will get better results 6 days a week and on Sunday as a stand alone going up again castor. That's my findings anyway, I've run the test at least 8 times and a good friend of mine has confirmed the same thing.

Kansas with it's coyote numbers gotta be a good place to test. I don't recall ever seeing a video of 13 dogs caught at one location in PA, but I have seen it filmed in Kansas.

Appreciate the sharing of that comparison as well. I feel the same way about my gardening efforts as you do about sharing info with those who don't test and evaluate for themselves, I rarely share extra produce with anyone who has the means to put a garden themselves, I sweat while they let me do the work.

Your correct I'm blessed as a guy who likes to play with coyotes to live in Kansas. You can gain a ton of information reasonably quick compared to some other areas. As far as 13 caught on one location I've seen 13 caught on one location in one night.

For a palatable bait, corn. I can not say anything with any absolute for anywhere else but here in New Jersey, but coyotes eat corn all year long at the deer feeders. In mid-winter, the coyotes will sit there and eat corn at the deer feeders. Canned sweet corn may have been used in a few baits as a secondary side note. For lures, canned claims. I have a process to liquefy them that I learned in making fishing scents for salt water fishing. Maybe some interest to coyotes, foxes, mink, and raccoons. My guess is that it may be in a few products by commercial producers.