I have no natural sources of clams or quantities of crayfish near me. And in order to get raw clams or crayfish (in quantity), I’ll have to use grocery store ingredients. Has anyone been successful with fresh clams (or cooked) crayfish from your local grocery store?

I’m thinking shucked clams or oysters, a slight taint and covered in bottled clam juice. Or grocery store
crayfish (they’re already cooked) mashed, slightly tainted, and mixed with a little glycerine.

Your thoughts are welcome.

around here you can get frozen bait shrimp. its a good coon bait. never tried cooked crawdads for bait but I bet they work. be kinda pricey. go to springfield for the nta convention in july. bring a seine and fill a cooler with crawdads and ice

You can find lots of potential ingredients at the store for water animals and predators. Shop for the sales once you find what you want if you cannot find it in our industry. With generic products you can save on some items but may be costly when purchasing meats and some seafood items.. Some times you can get lucky and make some rounds to local shops or larger stores and make friends with the butcher or an employee in the meat dept. Work a deal out to have them contact you with out dated or soured items etc.

https://www.southeasternoutdoor.com/p-645-blue-ridge-crawfish-oil.aspx is where I get crayfish oil that WORKS.

..and I get crab and lobster "left overs" from local seafood restaurants

Oscar Cronk also sells Lobster Oil

Lots of things work and work well on their own without all the extra stuff added. My thoughts on what you're trying to use, sounds good. Why not make a qt and try it out?

Was it Dave Phluger ? that did a video was posted on here a while back . If I remember right he uses fish fryer oil from a buddy, I think we can learn a little something from a guy that catches up to 75 coon a day using a by product ! All you need is a way to go from a big jug to a squeeze bottle . You can’t beat this sight for free information, all you gotta do is read and ask questions .

Thanks again Mr. Paul !

It was daves videio fish fryer oil mixed with pellet fish food plus he liked bobcat urine with his coon sets.
My store bought dp bait is 1 can chub or jack macerrel , 2 tins sardines in oil and 1 tin smoked oysters. Mix it all up .I do add some glycerin to freeze proof it some
J

Not sure on how crazy you plan on getting with bait recipes but I can assure you that population and location will out weigh your ingredient list, especially if it pertains to raccoon. I know my catch rate has little to do with my ingredient lists, no question it certainly helps, but it's just a small fraction of the process. I catch critters on everything I use, but I believe it's due to good scouting and identifying my target animals activity area. Good ingredients may be the magic for some but a fresh or tainted chunk of fish will draw just as many coon if they're in the area. You don't always win'em. I know coon guys who pull big numbers for cage trapping on nothing more than tainted fish. Interesting thread in trapping only "wrong bait". I believe the bait being used is "loud and proven" bait too.

I use dollar store canned cat food in a couple of backyard dirt hole sets for trail cam pics for the wardenette.

grocery store coon baits...I buy bait stuff all the time when I see goodies on clearance rack.

canned mackeral is a good option but get it cheap as you can. dollar store is a good source. Most meat counters have scraps they may be willing to part with for not much or even free. tallow, meat trimmings, fat, bone, you name it. all good stuff and so those could be fish, fowl, beef, pork, you name it.

a bag of cheap marshmellows from the store also works well on coon early in season. So does a box of off brand fruit loops or fruity pebbles, seriously, but mice love both of those and the marshmellows too.

cheese is another grocery store option, strong odor types like sharp cheddar, smoked cheeses, swiss, etc. limburgher if you can find it is also good.

A dozen eggs gives you a cheap bait source, maybe a buck a dozen on sale...and crack them open and dump them in a quarter jar...usually its enough to fill the whole mason jar. Then go over to the baking/spices and find a bottle of liquid smoke. put a few drops of that in your eggs and give it a good shake. that bottle of liquid smoke can add drops to just about anything you get at the store for bait to enhance the attractiveness. one jjar is just a few bucks and will go a long ways on various baits, seriously.

hot dogs are another option from the store, any smoked meats from the smokehouse that are aged and being tossed or marked down. clearance racks should be a place to look for bargain bait stuffs. I found a stack of sardine cans once, all packed in heavy oil, and for $0.25 each which was WAY cheaper than regular price. I had almost a case of those for very little money. I carried several cans in my bucket, just popped the top and put it in back of cage or down a dirthole. oily sardines are an awesome coon bait (and heck of a possum taker, too).

so are a couple bunches of overripe bananas, peel 'em and use them in cages or DPs they work great if really ripe and putting off some zing.

best though is to just save fish scraps from summer fishing adventures, freeze the parts, great bait fresh or preserved and slightly tainted.

hamburger colored up with beaver castor will put a lot of coons in your traps.

Used jack mackeral for a few years when I started using dps. Decided to try and cut down on the bait bill by putting a box of quick cook oatmeal in a large bowl and adding mackeral till it reached the right consistency for my liking. Saw no difference between straight mackeral or the mix.

I have a friend that goes to the ocean to fish for blues and stocks his freezer up. When he gets sick of eating it in late summer he’ll clean his freezer out and gives me what’s left over. I use that cut up in chunks for catching gray fox

Same here

I’m trying to find a cheap source of dried baby shrimp or dried cray/crawfish. Apparently they’re used in both African and Mexican foods. My thought is to mix them with cream cheese as a DP or cage trap bait. I suppose they could also be used as a bridge abutment smear bait, in a pipe or pocket. The ground dried shellfish should hold their odor being lightly hydrated by the cream cheese and the odor should remain for quite a while too. Guess I’ll have to tinker and test this summer. Cream cheese may not hold up well in the heat so fall testing will be in order, too

Anchovy paste! Should mix well with other fishy products or could be used all by itself.

Try the pet store for dried tiny shrimp? Check turtle food section.
Jim