Pocket gophers! Drill or dig an 18- to 24-inch hole and put a pocket gopher in it. Then put something enticing, like fox gland lure about 4 ft above it as a general call. Coyotes and fox will find them as they really put out an odor as they taint. The deep hole will keep them working the “set”. Of course it will attract skunks and possums too. But it is the activity in the area that will further attract canines, that counts.

If you’re catching them anyway, why not use them? It’s easier to use than fryer grease!

I have found pocket gopher to be an excellent canine bait.

Road kill deer

cheapest dog food and bacon grease.

I save a lot of beaver carcasses and use them. Look into getting bulk 40lb boxes of chicken or turkey necks from grocery stores.

Op, why a call lure? If you're on location the meat should give off enough smell. I think it's been pretty well shown most lures lose a lot of their attractiveness after a critter has encountered them a time or two. I'd rather wait and give them something new to smell come trapping season.

I’m learning that call lures of some kind tend to draw critters in a little faster if you’re not exactly on a travelway. Even if the “lure” is a feather on a thread 3-4 ft above the bait location or a “flag” of black plastic on a thread—-something to grab attention from several yards away, brings them close enough for the first whiff. After that you don’t have to worry.

Makes sense, allow some room for error or a situation where the ideal set place might not be where the critters are directly traveling through.

bacon grease or used cooking oil

My deer butcher is more than happy to have me pick up carcasses. I dont usually start snaring canines till after deer seasons in Dec with some snow. Also save all our grease and fry oil all year it helps also the fryoil makes great coon trailing scent

As trapperne stated "road kill deer".

I use spent cooking oil from a restaurant that serves a lot of fish.
Here’s a great article on the subject by John Graham. It helped me tremendously when I was contemplating pre-baiting coyotes. For me it amounts to creating a route location out of sight on mostly public land- which is what I need.

http://furcountrylures.com/article_view.php?aid=36

I don't understand prebaiting, if it is real food stuff the critter will eat it and move on to better pastures with out being caught? Why not just bait at the trap?

I can see an ongoing dead pile, what Boco calls a "jackpot" that will keep them coming year in year out, year 'round, but that calls for a couple or more large animals.
Especially starting it months before season. This time of year beetles will eat a five pound chicken in a day or two with no help. Actually had this happen a couple times with hens that got killed and were left in the bed of the farm truck for delivery to the woods. Got no idea where the beetles stay til something dies?
Add in the possums and eagle birds; I could feed out a couple tons of horse meat per week between now and first fur.

If I were to attempt this, I would dig a post hole and fill it with Badgerman's fish cooking oil then cover it with a large flat rock; let them dig and lick dirt for the next 2-3 months.
I'm lazy (and too cheap to feed wild critters) though so I'll just go where they are already when season comes and work on them there.

I do dig a post hole but I don’t cover it. My oil is free. I’ve never seen evidence that beetles eat it like they would a rabbit etc...I add a gallon a week for a month or so before season. By the time I set traps I could bury a pony in those holes. If I ran my traps on the coyotes regular route I wouldn’t have many traps left. I’m in the area anyway all the time so it isn’t exactly an inconvenience. Major Boddicker has some good literature on putting coyotes where you want them as well. I’m talking micro locations not macro. I sometimes need them a few hundred feet away from their normal trail. If I just set where I wanted them to begin with I wouldn’t catch much. I’m just doing what people long before me figured out and were kind enough to write about. Works for me.

"I don't understand prebaiting, if it is real food stuff the critter will eat it and move on to better pastures with out being caught? Why not just bait at the trap?"

Pre-baiting is not absolutely necessary to making a decent fur harvest. It just is not.
BUT! (LOL) It can certainly help.
When does it help? Almost always, but not always. Sounds like a political answer, Yes?

For a guy that that is running several long lines across say several counties, it probably is not feasible, nor practical.
The trapper that is only running 25 to a 100 sets over a given terrain for a relatively short time, it is worthwhile.
"the critter will eat it and move on to better pastures"
Critters that enjoy a good feed or even finding where their brother or cousin got one, will typically check out that area each time they go by. Pre-baiting is a rather old school thing that works great and has fallen out of fashion. I think as time moves on in any given activity new writers etc. attempt to come up with different methods and ideas and often
poo hoo old ways. Some just to be different, and some or probably the majority, just because they do not know any better.

Pre-baiting works, plain and simple.
You will have to be creative if you are trapping in high competition, which is less of a problem in most areas than it was in the last real fur boom.


If you are spending hundreds of hours and dollars pre-baiting today it will probably be a financial burden.
If you are pre-baiting (and there are many good method to pre-bait) a relatively smaller line, the gas pump will not send shivers down your spine.
Pre-baiting, if done with common sense will all one to take critters quicker and move on to another area.
If you are "pre-baiting" and "pre-luring" and don't know what you are doing, it will work against you.
Pre-baiting is as I mentioned, old school. Sometimes the old school ways do shine. Not always of course, but usually.
I suppose if someone lives in an area that is simply loaded with predators I suspect pre-baiting might not be as useful. I have not had that problem to face.

I hope this helps someone. It has been less enjoyable sharing hard learned knowledge on here that it used to be, but I do hope this helps someone.

Mac

Badgerman50
Thanks for pointing out that article. Great article full of valuable information.

Thanks, Mac, for your explanation, I still don't see it working for me, but everyone has different situations.
For example I know pretty much where to find local coyotes now and I know that when the leaves fall they won't be in those places, they will move the travel trails some as the seasons change; that may not hold true every where. There are also spots that they will cross at all seasons. Those are the places I look for.
In Badgerman's case he needs to move the animals a few hundred feet to avoid notice, in a thickly settled area there is no way to avoid notice if you are in the area more than a time or two. One of the drawbacks I see to prebaiting is the notice it would attract. I might try it once though on some nearby state land.

Yep. Thanks Mac. You got my situation exactly correct. Unfortunately trapping season also happens to be my busy season at work. My line never exceeds 25 locations. Some are fine with no prebaiting because they’re already in an hidden place. If I told you how hammered my area gets from road hunting and general shooting you wouldn’t think anyone could catch anything in there.

get them there by sight or call and the buried bait will keep working. sour dog food will keep making them dig, I don't care how hard they dig, just that they come for a scratch and wizz. the set will do the rest when the time comes

Interesting thread. I'm looking forward to trying some of Badgermans oil sets this year on wolf. I run a lot of bait but like pointed out above, most goes to other critters long before the target animal arrives. I've put out thousands of pounds of bait (cow guts) only to have the ravens eat it all surprisingly quick. The area still functions as a draw station and I set it back a ways. Sometimes I pre bait by burying butcher scraps, but prefer just to set it.

I see no reason to pre bait. Then of course you have to check your laws as to If you can even pre bait or If you can even use wild game at a trap site.

Road killed deer, can you legally move them to a different location?

I would rather spend my time fishing.