My dad has quite a garden and lots of grapes this year. He called asking if I would like to try using the grapes to catch coons. He's making juice out of the grapes and is going to freeze the grapes after juicing for me. Has anyone used grapes before? What are your thought?

I have caught raccoons on freshly sliced grapes. Squeeze grape jam is much easier to use in a DP. I use either Meow Mix or dices Granny Smith apples in the bottom of the DP, then squirt the grape jam on top for added attraction and to glue the loose bait into place.

Here's the funny thing about coon bait that a lot of people don't understand. It comes from when I was a kid and had a few pet (kinda) coons out back. 5 total and their likes and dislikes were as wide ranging as any human I know. I do remember one liking grapes...but also remember at least one other that didn't.

So about anything is worth a try....but I laugh when someone says a certain bait works on all coon. Variety is the key to coon bait...and what works this week may not nearly as well next week. Just is.

Should work well!
The problem I see is that it would be wet.
This clogs up the works rapidly.
I prefer dry DP baits personally.

However, for in a creek side dirt hole, your juice waste will be perfect and will get fox and yotes too.

Use a dry bait, some form of fortified pet food, keep it simple, grapes will not work very well

I've been using dry cat food with a large marshmellow on the trigger for years and has worked well. I might play with the grape a little and see what happens.

A gob or two just outside your DP would probably help yet not gum up the works. Could also make a good trailing sent.

Get a pint of the juice from him and add an ounce of shellfish oil and 3 drops of spearmint to make a great shot and go bait.

Dry bait works best in DPs, I've been using dry dog food or dry cat food coated with molasses for years now and even in the cold, you can still smell the molasses.

How do you incorporate a liquid into a dry cat food without making mush of some of it and some not getting any liquid?

I’m just wondering here (I’ve never tried this so it’s a shot in the dark), if you took a can of frozen Welches grape juice concentrate, thaw it out, and mix in 1/4 to 1 oz of fox urine or 1/4-1/2 oz of fox gland lure. Put either a chunk of stiff polyfill or a piece of sponge under the trigger of a DP and squirt some in. Or, add the dry food and just a couple of drops of the mix onto the dry mix.

The molasses soaked into the dry food and it is still hard, it just coats the dry food with the molasses. One 12oz. jar of molasses will do about a 5 gal pail of dry dog food.

I think Truckload coon bait is a molasses over pellet bait. When I first bought it the product was hard and to my nose, and that of our coon, it had little odor. The advertisements, however, showed a wet product in the DPs. So, I wrote to Trent and he sent me something he was trying (Truckload with a sugary substance on the outside) and it worked well. I don’t use it any longer

Put regular size marshmallows in a small zip bag along with a small amt of cinnamon & flour. Shake well enough to coat. The flour helps keep them from sticking together, esp in warm weather. Put I under the trigger & set. Have caught many coon in D-P's at deer feeders using only this. For a booster, I sometimes add 1/2 tsp. of floating catfish food pellets on top. Other variation is to fill a small jar with deer corn &'add 1 a few drops of 1 of the following: anise, butterscotch, vanilla, almond, cherry or other type of sweet flavoring. Put lid on, shake it well &'let sit well overnight, then drop a few kernels on top of marshmallow. The kernels of corn will hold their scent longer than you mite think, and down here in the south the fire ants have a hard time carrying the shelled corn off. IMO, I laff every time I read where some guy says you MUST fill the barrel of the DP full of bait in order to catch coons. Of course, some of them are making &'selling DP bait. The above are inexpensive and work very well in my country. Since I run a multi-species line, I don't want to cross contaminate my canine traps & equip't with anything sticky, stinky, runny or gooey, so I only use dry bait in the DP's, but like them best anyway. Just my opinion, but based on a lot of experience. For the record, I prefer the Duke DP's over all the rest.

I ground up and preserved some of my home grown grapes, and stored in the fridge but it has started to turn to vinegar.