this may sound silly but here goes, couldn't I put a conibear upright on the ground, stick a marshmallow on the trigger and scatter a few on the ground?

laugh if you want, but those big marshmallows would take some tugging to get off

To catch what? Coon will reach in and get whacked, not caught.

Maybe squirrels

Maybe a bigger conibear?

I once caught a small coon with a shrimp on an upright trigger. One.

90 percent of them will reach in instead of putting their head in the trap. You will have tons of sprung traps...it's a good possum set though.

Not a good idea if there are pets around.

X2

Past few months, I've had game camera set on bucket and box sets, watching coons work the set. Given any chance at all, a coon will set upright on back legs and feet and reach with both front paws to get what they came for. Had one big coon do that on a 220 in a bucket set......marshmallow was within reach, so he did. Straight trigger pattern, set to center thinking he would push it to one side and get caught that way. Instead, he put his nose straight up in the air, then reached on both sides of the trigger and was blindly feeling around for it. Got far enough in he set the trap off with his chest. Trap jaws were wired so would not fire all the way or would have caught him over both front arms, above the elbow. Not good.

Put anything on the trigger and a coon will try to pull it off with one or both front paws. Did catch one half grown coon a while back.....he reached and trap caught him on top of head in front of his ears. It held him, but that was not what I was looking for.

You dont want any animal stopping at the trap.
You want the animal moving through the trap.
Its a common mistake made by greenhorns.

Very bad idea with cats or dogs.

or larger birds!!