I just checked my DPs and after a heavy rain I had wet soggy pile of mush. I have a lot of floating catfish pellets and I read that a lot of commercial coon baits use this as their base because it stands up good to wet weather. anyone have any ideas?

thanks as always!

I made my own caps for my DPs and it stopped the rain and mice from getting into my DPs again. Coat your fish food with molasses.

check your mail box.

Several bait solution's out there that you can apply to the pellets.

I tend to use them alot as way to thicken up jack mackeral

Bacon grease on top of your bait will catch you some coon. And protect your bait from wet weather conditions.

Coon Collector is what I have had recommended to me to spruce up the catfish food. It has directions on it. I’m going to try it next fall instead of my normal mix of dog and cat food.

The plastic caps are great. I have only lost a handful of them after many Coon over the last few years. Most of the losses were from animals chewing them up. Probably going after the lure I put in the top of them. Very durable for the most part.

I’ve used fish pellets with Kaatz Bros’ Smokin Aces either dribbled on once in the trap or as a bait I made a week before. It works. But it seemed to work a lot better as a pre-bait. Molasses pre-mixed as well as molasses and liquid smoke. Pour a couple cups of fish pellets in a gallon ziplock bag, pour on molasses and liquid smoke. ‘Manipulate’ the bag a couple times a day for 2 days and it will soak in.

For DP caps, I use the metal ones from Ztrap. The there is a small hole in the top to allow scent odor to get out and coon just pull them off.

I tried golf balls for covers and to make it easier checking. Only issue is coons seemed to like to play with them and ignore the food inside, lol. Finally found the den tree with about 6 golf balls at the opening and set 2 DP’s with no golf ball and caught 2 coons!! I’ve had them dig mush cat food out and get caught since then.

Anyone try fish eggs for bait in DPs?

i put liquid smoke in a spray bottle and put the pellets on a cookie sheet. spray them down and put in a empty 16oz water bottle. easy to carry, comes with a cap, and has a built in funnel.

I've used the coon collector , smoking aces, bit my favorite is Kaatz Bros Ultimag cherry.

I use floating fish food mixed with molasses and a little liquid smoke. I mix that 50/50 with whole kernel dry corn. Plastic cup on top of DP. Remember to not litter and take cup when you pull out

Buy a bulk bag of 3/4" pvc end caps. Cut a short length (about 1.5") of 3/4" pvc pipe and put the cap on it...no need to glue as its a tight fit.


Makes a great DP cap and is cheaper than the Zcaps.

Not all fish pellets are created equal!

do you heat up the molasses before mixing?

Yes

I bought some coon collector when Clint first started selling it. I used it like he said. The coon didn’t seem very interested. The spring, summer and just before season tests of fish food and cat chow and molasses, Kaatz’ Smokin Aces and the other fish food offerings along with Coon Collector all showed promise but when the season rolled around, one was not better than the other. Nothing was outstanding.

Eventually I migrated to Clint’s Federales canine bait even though it wasn’t particularly cold, and it worked. So did Jonesie’s Banana Supreme. The Banana bait worked down below 15 degrees and didn’t seem to freeze either. It’s pretty amazing that MN coon would go for banana, but they do.

That smokin aces is my favorite to squirt on each side of the dp in a trail. Then a dab of cavens moonshine on the lip and inside the trap on a marshmallow. Both smell awesome