Hello,
I started on one property at the beginning of the season. There was lots of sign, and I put out all my traps, using different sets, and different bait and/or lure at every set, but the animals completely ignored my sets. They didn't seem scared by it, they just walked right past it.
Thanks,
Want To Be.

How many is all your traps? How bid is the property? How many different baits and lures did you use? My guess, to many similar sets crowded together and to far from sign.

Check your PM box.

Wind may be a factor, if the lure is down wind the critter is not likely to ever smell it.

Had the same thing one winter here. Fifteen sets in a deer yard for two weeks. Pee posts, even turds from other packs. Nadda. A month before set one pee post and a "snowhole" set 100 yards away and caught a huge male two hrs later, and a sprung trap.


Beats me!

If the animals are still there they are ...
1 not attracted to ur lures or bait
2 as already stated not smelling lure/bait because of wind direction
3 have worked the set , satisfied there curiosity and didn't get caught
4 are weary of the set which could be for multiple reasons

I have 26 traps, but only 15 are predator traps. I've got Caven's brand, Reuwsaat's brand, Derricks, Dobbin, Fox Hollows, Dunlap, and some from different individuals. The land is about 50 - 70 acres. There was lots of sign at the first property I was at, but after 3 weeks of nothing, nothing, nothing, I moved to a different 80 acre property and still, nothing, nothing, nothing.

Yeah - I can't offer a thing.

Sometimes even swing'n a dead chicken around my head while doing a chant doesn't help.

May have too many sets in those 70 acres. Sometimes I think the predators are just like us humans. Sometimes you are hungry for Burger King and McDonalds just won't due. About the time you think you have them figured out they will throw you a curve. Stay persistent.

That's funny as h#ll!

As you are not stating what animal you are setting for, the assumption is coyote and raccoon. You are operating in a small area. Coyotes are very aware when any human is around, especially a new human, which they would associate trapping with. I think Ray Milligan said he once had a (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) with pups that he could pick up maybe one young one and then she was gone with everything for parts unknown. I have had sheepmen tell stories that as long as they were home the coyotes stayed away, but they knew the moment they went for supplies.
So the short answer is for coyotes they moved, because they associate you with danger, For raccoons, they have a habit of vacating areas for seasonal food supply. In my area, you could find raccoons by the bushel in fields until mid October and then they would vanish for the lakes, woods or streams.
Animals are all glitchy, some mink locations will be loaded with sign before season and then they will be gone. The same reality for some locations will only produce late in the season.
If you would like some advice, use about 1/4 of the traps you listed and use one lure, but mix your sets in doubles, like flat and step down, for doubles. Set on location if you are not, and that means the structure of that land which would be trails, water drains, and then find the vertical which catches your eye, then make one set for the dominant prevailing wind and the other for the secondary wind. That way you should pick up a first catch and then that animal will draw others to the location and in milling around find the second set.
I hope some of that helped, but know we have all gone through times when things do not make sense.

I'm targeting Coyote, Grey Fox, Bobcat, Badger, Coon, Skunk, & possum.

1, need more commercial bait because its 30 or more years of knowledge in those bottles.

2, with the compounded ingredients in those bottles should attract no matter what so I'm told because all of the experience in them bottles

3 Bait & lure have 2 functions, getting them there and working the set. The rest falls on the trapper.

4 Knowledge and experience sweat and tears that are in those bottles should put that theory to bed.



JMO, and take it for what it's worth. Your bait & lure only have two functions, getting them there and getting them to dance at the site. Which would in return give you a better chance to connect with that target. I don't care what mega bait or knowledge that is in a bottle. It means NOTHING if you aren't setting yourself up for success whether its steel or cages. Once the animal is there it's the trappers job to seal the deal with trap placement and location. That is JMO, you could spend hundreds on bait and lure that's supposed to do this and that but, if your traps aren't on, then you will continue to miss and have them walk right by. On the flip side maybe it is the bait & lure. Good luck

How are you placing your sets with regards to the wind?

Clean living? I've had bobcat sets out for two seasons trying to take a cat. In my fifty-nine years of walking the planet I've never seen a bobcat in the wild, until now. What's the odds of that? I had one cross the road in front of me yesterday and I just saw another one on my way home from my 24 hour check today. Sixty miles removed from each other. I snapped some pics but it's hard make out the cat in the pictures. You can barely see its rear end if you move back and forth between pics.

I've got a beaver dam location land mined with five cat sets. The cat/cats are moving through the area almost daily. Fresh tracks going through the location today but the closest it got was about twenty yards from one of my sets. Ever feel cursed?

Are you walking up to your sets every day to look at them? If so stay back away at a distance.

Most of the time I can check my traps from a distance without having to walk up to them. I usually only go near them to re-lure or deal with crusty snow.

I have cats crawling all over the area but they are not as easy to catch as some make them out to be. Snares would make life a lot easier.

What ever works for you; but, I would say just the opposite, I have made trails and had the animals use them. Animals almost always follow a two track through the woods, I believe that if I make a path from which to "check from a distance" then at least some of my target animals will follow me and also "check from a distance".


Try waking right through a couple of those sets for a few checks, if what you are doing isn't working there's not much to lose by trying something different.
I'd also skip the relure part- these commercial lures can work months later if the wind and critter are in the right place. If relureing at all it would be a squirt of urine. Others may disagree, but I have always thought that if a bean size piece of lure is enough then any more is too much.
If I had so little faith in a lure that I thought it needed more lure to work or that it needed refreshing during the same season, I would not use nor recommend that lure.

Here's the kind of luck I'm having. I made this rub set about six weeks ago when the season opened. Last year cats had been using this logging road quite predictably, but this year, nothing. I pulled the set about a week back due to inactivity. Cat tracks on it today.

Ran my traps today. No fisher and my tale of woe with cats continues. I caught a big cat on camera using this logging road last season and earlier this year. The last pic I got of the cat was in September. I wasn't overly concerned because the cat had been frequenting the area like clockwork.

So, the season gets underway and I put out two sets in the area where I had been getting the pics. They sat for more than a month and the only thing that went near them were coon, fox and porcupine. I'm a excellent porcupine trapper. I decided to go in a bit deeper and check out a stream at the start of a beaver flowage. Bingo...cat tracks just a hundred yards further down the road than where I had my sets. I make the adjustment and move my sets further down the road. A rub set and a cubby. He came through last night just about half way between my sets. The sets are less than a hundred yards apart. Adding insult to injury, the cat decided to check out the rub set I pulled due to the lack of activity. I can't win.

I did find where he used the same travel way on at least two different occasions. New snow/old snow tracks. I'll be putting in another rub set there tomorrow. Maybe a walk through cubby. Suggestions?

Fresh track since yesterdays check.


The rub set I yanked.


Logging road location.


Old and new tracks.