Either I go with a marshmallow and cavens moonshine or bbq peanuts and fish oil

Marshmallow under the trigger and a small spoonful of Nutella on top inside the trap, I don't think that they can resist it.

Peanut butter

Corn mixed with dog food for me. I rarely add any scent cause I plop the traps right on the trails.

I put a glazed donut on outside of trap then fill trap with candy corns.

I need to follow behind you on the trapline. Not to steal your fur, but to steal your bait. It should be a crime to use perfectly good donuts for bait. You are contributing to Climate Change, man!

Maybe so but a dp fits inside the donut and can be moved up or down. Coons love sweets. I might add something to the candy corn,maybe butterscotch oil.

Anyone who's raised coon knows their taste buds differ as much as humans do. If you're using one bait, some are walking right past your DP.

That said, if you're using DPs alone, coon are walking right past your trap.

I've caught many coon with a 1.5 coil BETWEEN other guys DPs. It does make you giggle a little.

I scrape the bacon grease out of the frying pan once its cool and mix it with Quaker oats you use for making oatmeal. I also add a gob of peanut butter and a smidge of syrup. I like to make the mix ratio so that it is heavy on the oats and does not stick so it can be easily cleaned out of the dps. I don't make it in large batches, but as I need it.

A little will go a long way and I think it helps to put a drop of Dobbins' Shellfish oil on the lip or somewhere nearby. Works really well for me.

I don't go into detail making too many baits as there are some great baits out there to be used made by smarter dudes than me. But at my last property i owned in Ohio a section of the creek on my property had an obscene amount of crawfish. Me and the kids would spend a good amount of time back there messing around with them and I took a gallon bucket and ground them up with a blender and used that in my dp's. Anywhere near the creek it worked very well. I tried it in an area far away from there on the edge of a cornfield and they all got walked by. My traps baited with sweet feed or Mark Junes Coon bait (don't know name) all got hit hard but the crawfish bypassed. In my infinite wisdom i am assuming that it worked well because that was where that food source was likely to be found so it made sense to find it there and want it. the bait also started to fail as soon as temps were freezing. It had a shelf life for dp's but was great for creek side pocket sets for the whole season. Just something different i tried about 5 years ago and it worked very well in certain locations.

[quote=thedude055]I don't go into detail making too many baits as there are some great baits out there to be used made by smarter dudes than me. But at my last property i owned in Ohio a section of the creek on my property had an obscene amount of crawfish. Me and the kids would spend a good amount of time back there messing around with them and I took a gallon bucket and ground them up with a blender and used that in my dp's. Anywhere near the creek it worked very well. I tried it in an area far away from there on the edge of a cornfield and they all got walked by. My traps baited with sweet feed or Mark Junes Coon bait (don't know name) all got hit hard but the crawfish bypassed. In my infinite wisdom i am assuming that it worked well because that was where that food source was likely to be found so it made sense to find it there and want it. the bait also started to fail as soon as temps were freezing. It had a shelf life for dp's but was great for creek side pocket sets for the whole season. Just something different i tried about 5 years ago and it worked very well in certain locations. [/quot

We had a few crawfish bolls. I saved the heads and other parts . The ones that was dead before the boil. Could a person do the same thing ? Plus get a bottle of crawfish oil mix with something to make a Paste bail? Mix everything together.

lol
LOL

I use ADC's Cherry Bend Over by Jayme. All fall and Winter long. By far the Best Bait I have EVER used. Works in Pocket Sets and Dp's

I have weird coons. All I’ve ever had decent success and decent is a relative term, is just plain ole corn. I’ve tried every homemade concoction you could think of. Never really tried any commercial baits though. With our warm winters whatever I use has to be ant proof unless I can set it right on the waters edge. Anyone have anything any proof them do tell and I’ll place an order.

Glad you like it Randy!

This past fur season and on my ADC Jobs now, half of the time, I am using sheep's wool and a taste lure under the trigger. A taste lure on the lip and a k9 gland or a fish call or skunky call lure above the trap. Persimmon, sweet corn, Dhat's It, smoked fish, or sweet meat-type lures. Really excels in the warmer fall weather and in the summer when ants are everywhere. I still use taste paste baits on sheep's wool or simular bait scent holder under the trigger, I use a lot of banana supreme, No Moes or a fish/ meat paste, a taste lure on the lip and a k9 gland/ urine or fish call or even a good skunky call above. On my ADC jobs around people, I prefer sweet baits or lures so I do not worry about the cats, winter or summer. Although I am partial to my baits and lures, and the only ones I use, I do not believe the bait or lure is as important (as long as a critter will like it) as to how the set and bait/lure is presented. The presentation will increase the catch with DP traps and cage traps.

I started using sheep wool last year as a lure/bait holder and it seems to me my catch rate went up. I even used sheep's wool on it's own and caught coon in my DPs.

I’ve tried a number of things over the years. All worked to a certain degree. Mark Steck suggested I try wool under the triggers but I’ve done better with Jonesie’s recommendation of stiff fiberfill under the trigger. Much better, in fact. They still pull it out but I think the stiffer fiberfill snags the trigger more often.

I’ve also found using multiple small baits in the DPs makes quite a difference. We’re talking about a fingernail amount of a couple different wet baits. In my DPs I put a couple pieces of cat food on the fiberfill and smear in 2 different wet baits with a little bit of those baits or some sort of scent— just a drop or two out about 18 inches. With cages I do the same. Giving them a buffet of smells I know has improved my catch.

But it’s funny, in January I had cages 6 ft apart, in a barn. One trap took the coon. The other didn’t. Coon seem to know where they’re going and if you’re on that route, you’ll get them. I’m convinced air flow has a lot to do with it. When I set it up I could see tracks entering the barn but I wasn’t sure which side got the traffic. The catches showed me which side was preferred.

At some point, somebody is going to say this works if you’re a bait dealer. But I’ve got a couple baits that I keep handy so it’s not like I’m going to break the bank buying a lot of stuff. Banana Supreme works well below 32 degrees. I was getting catches on it below 12 degrees on bare ground, in the barn I mentioned above. To be honest, I don’t know which one of those odors got their attention. It could have been one or it could have been all. But I think giving animals (and people ) choices, creates more interest and a better chance they’ll like some smell enough to reach in.

if you get Inside that trap with a file and rough up that trigger sheep wool will be your best friend.
Poly fill has no odor but sheep;s wool all by It's self will catch you some coon In a DP. Wool right off the sheep has a very strong smell.

To take this one step further, I worked with the restaurant industry most of my career. Business owners used to tell me the very best way to create business was to have more than one business in the area. An Applebee’s at the end of the road will pull customers. But put an Arby’s or a Chipotle near it and now you’ve created a destination more people will be attracted to. Coon are the same way. They’ll be attracted to a one odor location, but I think you’ll see more interest if there are multiple odors.