I thought I read somewhere that someone had used catnip in a beaver lure. Anyone ever heard or used catnip in a beaver lure? I have a couple gallon freezer bags full of dried catnip leaves and buds that I thought I might use in a lure if anyone thought it might be worth the effort.

a few books that I have talk about using tinctured cat nip in beaver lures. In some of the old writtings of grimshaw

That may have been me.

I grew some catnip to use as lure, I thought. It's still growing, a few years later. I mixed some dried finely chopped leaves with ground castor. I used WAY too much catnip. It actually over-powered the castor. About 50/50 mix. I still have it. It's still kind-of greenish colored too. Been sitting in the lure cabinet for 3-4 years. I'm hoping it'll develop into something??? Anyways, Asa Lennon told me to go easy on the catnip, a little goes a long ways. Heard the same thing about mixing castor with stuff. Little goes a long ways mixed in stuff. I tested mine with a camera. I had cats, coyotes, a fox, coons, possums, field mice, squirrels, and rabbits all on camera. I got one sniff from a passing housecat. Everything walked within 3' of that stuff smeared on a tree, nothing showed an interest. Guess my point is, both ingredients are good, but it's the proportions of the ingredients that can really be a determining factor. I got that from someone that knows a lot more than me too. Just gotta try stuff sometimes. Good luck!

My plan is to tincture it in vodka or gin and use the tincture in a lure. I do have a lure where I used some dried catnip leaves and mint extract in glycerin. It worked to catch a 45lb. beaver doing ADC work, but it might also have been that it (the beaver) was attracted to the man made crawl out I made as much as the lure. I grew the catnip because there was the hope that we were getting a bobcat season this year, but our DNR caved to the whining anti's.

There is a lure called Bobcastor that's made with castor and catnip that's probably in the first few pages of this forum.

Where is that at?

it was in the acrchives coon duke originally posted it 4-5 yeas back

lol its not in there anymore!

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the recipe? I just want a change up lure.

all sorts of smells attract beaver. We use to use castor with one of the following peppermint, nutmeg, cinnamon, used other oils and musks too ,.. .not too much but enough to change. Ive used and tested apple and cherry,.. coon and rats liked it too much

Just send Todd a PM. He will fix you up with the recipe if he still has it.

Bergamot will change it up a bit. If you're using a good quality oil, you will not need much at all.

Let me start by saying- I'm as green of a trapper as they come, caught 3 beaver so far (this is my first year trying for beaver). I ordered Cavens Timber from Cabelas and when it came, our cat couldn't get enough of it. She would knock the bottle over and try to rub that scent all over - and then got a little squirrely. Sure made me think there must be some cat nip in there.

Castor alone will get cats to act a little crazy. They love it. Backbreaker is an excellent bobcat lure (and well, everything else with fur too!).