I like where this thread has gone. The private and “strictly trapping” opinions have affirmed my suspicions all along. Location is king; if you’ve found a bait that works for you, use it; and the best testing to be done is by the individual who wants to try it.

If trapping was like race car driving, we’d see actual comparative data and it would be complete with winners, almost winners and crash and burn examples. In trapping, winners change. Almost winners get better. Crash and burns either get out of the market or get reformulated. In the end, it’s the customer base which decides who stays in the race and who gets out.

Thanks everyone.

Ttt

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So you use the same bait year after year on the same property and catch critters? If so, please tell me what bait that is, I’ll buy it and try it.
For me what worked one year didn’t work the next. I’m using more natural baits this year and catching more critters than any year prior. A good quality urine seems to help the most. [/quote]

I've tried numerous commercial baits with so, so success. Now I just use deer liver or deer meat. Sometimes mixed with deer hair or the deer hair around the tarsel gland. It just plain works for me. Deer gut piles around here are hit immediately so there is nothing more natural to coyotes than deer and deer liver. The one local bait that just seems to be ignored is beaver meat. Even carcasses are left untouched until hunger drives the coyotes to eat them.

If a person is really doing research on this subject, they would have several game cams set over several different baits at different times of the year and compare it with the set ups from similar baits set from people in Canada (the north) and Georgia (the south) and Nevada (the west) and Pennsylvania (the east). A little too simplistic but you can catch my drift here. I don't start on coyotes here in Nebraska until i am done with coon and rats, which is usually the 1st or second week in Dec. By then all the plums/wild fruits and grasshoppers are gone so that summer bait is not as attractive in my observations (everything eats grasshoppers here). I check and have checked a lot of dung in my day (probably above my skill level LOL). Likewise fish is not present in the stomach/dung analysis I have done. Mice hair is present in their gut about any time of year here and pheasant bones show up after heavy winter snow cover but not during the summer/good weather months. Deer hair is there (in the coyote dung) heavy during gun season and seems to be slightly present all year which leads me to believe that a coyote likes the taste whenever he can get it (fresh or not so fresh). A little history here,,,,,, one of the farms I trap on is a notorious highway deer crossing and I can continue to catch coyotes out in the open corn/bean fields adjacent to that farm all season ----- my reasoning is, once hit, the deer struggle to the field where they expire and a constant (somewhat) source is there for the yote. You see the scavengers every month and now and again a coyote dead there on the highway. Its not a travel way like some of you may think, its just crop fields with no cover, next to the highway. In the absence of good data use your own game cam at different times of the year with different local baits and draw your own conclusion. The cams have made LIARS out of all of us and can't believe we (at least I was/am) were so off track in our opinions on bait/attractants............................................ my take....... the mike

Coyotes eat what is available and just because they are eating something that is readily available doesn't mean it's the most attractive food source to the coyote. If you dont believe me find a fruit tree that is producing and the coyotes are eating or a corn field when coyotes are eating a lot of corn, make two dirt holes couple of feet apart, put the fruit or corn they are eating down one hole and lightly tainted red meat laced with good fish oil down the other and read sign after that.

I’ve been using Locklear’s Federales for 3 years. Same gallon broken into pint black plastic jars. I’ve also been using Graham’s M44 lure as a bait—-smeared onto pipe dream pipes. This and a couple of Graham’s Bonanza lures have been consistent producers. Over the years though, I’ve tried a bunch of things and haven’t been pleased. The two listed above are what I’ll use till they stop producing.

Many of the outdoor pursuits require experience gathered over a period of time, as part of the equation, prior to someone being really productive at it. Duck hunters need to scout, need to find the sweet blind, use the wind, figure incoming tracts, etc. Deer hunters spend time finding runs, figuring patterns of deer, time of day that's best in their area, etc. Trappers can forget we are no different. The fact that you pour, spoon, drip, plop bait or lure somewhere and expect the animal to do most of the work leads to catches, but not production. I know. I've run instructional venues since 1992. MNCedar, makes a good point about set construction, and then mentions time to do it. Good point. Same everything but one trapper does a set in 2 minute and another trapper does it in 10 and I know where to place my bet. We work diligently with attendees at our trainings to increase speed, increase simplicity of a system, and get an eye (quickly) for location. These are not easily gathered.

And then, some areas of the country have nuances, and since I've trapped in 18 states over the past 45 years, I have lived that dream. Again, most can catch some, but how do you maximize? Asking a trapper in the expense of area in WY what works isn't the same as suburban NY and so on. Farms are farms, yes. But is this farm 3,000 acres and this one 80 acres? It matters.

As far as "hype," I'd say that anyone who's made products for decades, and there are some of us, and has stood the test of "much" time probably has a feel for the market. How much they produce and how much others produce. I know I do. That said, I wish we had more new blood coming in, as we could sure use new lure makers with sand and grit and love of sport!

MJ

Laz bring up that t-mad article and guys really do some studying. Onthe natural scents in it that are so effective ! It will open eyes and greatly reduce the sheer amount of scents you carry! The #1 attractant in it has proven its self continuously any time of year.

In almost 3 decades of government research in various regions, beaver castor was the top attractant most often.
I use a llllooooottttttt of it for that reason.

I've had no luck here in Oklahoma with any lures at all is there any suggestions?

I'm in Eastern Oklahoma. I have purchased your Fox frenzy lure and I've had no luck with it or any other lures. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Any attractant is only as good as the location and how natural its offered! I've tested many lures from lure manufactures in my 55 years of trappin. Trust me there is some that are better than others. The best way to test is on the working trapline with a trap buried in front of it on free ranging wild animals. I also believe as Charlie Dobbins pointed out years ago our chemical make up has a lot to do with why one works for me and not for you. I trap coyotes in the same region every season, what was hot last year sometimes is dead the next. But some attractants are killers every season, those are the ones I cherish. No such thing as attracting every passing coyote but there are some that get way more attention than others! A well formulated lure has all the triggers built into the formula. Weather it be bait lure or urine its all curiosity that attracts the coyote!

I have read test sites on bait lure studies , test site without trap I guess you can see if it will attract, I agree with Trapperbgus trap in mix changes things because what were looking for is will it catch for (You) because attract Kentucky fried chicken bucket will attract.

Just by the one that spends the most on advertising, help the guy out huh.
And always buy way more than you need , having to worry about how to save it over the summer is a good thing right.
Always remember it's very limited stock right

Carry on