I can’t use real feathers for my dirt hole sets in Wisconsin. What are some good ideas for fake feathers, or items to use on my dirt hole or cubby sets for bobcats? A couple years ago when I had a tag, I ripped some cotton balls and through it in the hole.

Use the feathers as flagging for cats if it is legal

Christmas tensil or wad of tape from an old cassette for flagging.

Cattail fluff or polyfill at the set.

Old CD disks, blue christmas garland for flagging. I like to use cattail duff at dirt holes, like Swamp Wolf says

Hern posted this a while ago

I've been using Ag Bag material. White on one side, black on other. I do like the black/white spinning, an eye catcher.
Very durable material, repels rain.
Free at your local dairy farm. Ask farmer first.

Ag Bag-


Cut into strips and make 'em yourself...


I add an eyelet, but also tested without eyelet, no problems...

I think that they are called Wyldwings, great looking false wings. I believe they are made by a member here.

For a set location attractor I use a 4X6 inch piece cardboard, brown on one side and white on the other. When fluttering in a breeze the white stands out against the dark forest cover background and the brown against the snow, like a flashing neon sign.

Thanks Wolfdog for adding the Ag Bag idea.
It's the best material I have tested & use. Heavy duty, waterproof and Black/White contrast is perfect attractor. Light & spins in slight breeze. I've tested many materials and the Ag Bag was tops. (and FREE)

Strips of old cassette tape here. Browns, blacks, more natural colors. Make a wad of it, tie it up with some fishing line to an overhead tree branch. Then pull a few loops down out of the wad so they hang at various levels and snip the end of the loops so you just have strands hanging in. They shimmer and move in the slightest breeze. Not as noticeable to other people but I'd wager a cat could pick up the movement easily.
Not new...its a trick I picked up from Charlie Dobbinsand trapping book many years ago and I still use it today. Bought a whole box of cassettes at a thrift store for a couple bucks sometime back for my supply.
Jim

Inside and around the hole i use cotton balls or pillow stuffing

Summer skunk tails or smaller pelts work well as attractors here we cannot use game bird parts but chicken feathers are fine to use. I will try a foam craft ball with feathers glued to it this year and see how it works. I pick up feathers from the coop about every day it’s easy to fill a 5 gallon pail over the summer.

There’s a kitchen drawer liner at dollar stores that is black and white striped like a zebra.

Agree. That’s a good idea Wolfdog!



I really like swamp wolf’s idea as well. If you took a cattail head and broke it up, it would give the appearance of an animal crime scene, especially looking like rabbit fur in my opinion. I can use animal parts and generally save duck wings and feathers, but I did use VHS tape some in my early days with some catches to go with it, for what that’s worth

Good luck

Get some of those yellow kitchen sponges. Use monofilament line and use a barrel swivel so they spin In the wind. The sponge also makes a great lure holder.

Not feathers, but small pinches of polyfill on the backing and in and around the hole is a pretty good eye-catching substitute for fur.

This is a remake of a walk-thru with an exposed pan. The trap jaws are ringed with sharp rocks and stepping sticks used to make the pan the "comfortable place to step. You can see a few pieces of the polyfill from the original set on the stcks and tree trunk beside the trap. Also, a fake feather in the foreground twirling in the breeze to pull the cat under the tree if the breeze is wrong to smell my scents. I use three or four scents for cats to keep their curiosity and attention going until they step on the "comfortable spot".

We caught another cat here the next check.

I don't use visual attractors at dirtholes, the dirthole is the visual attractor. I see some cat trappers here (real feathers are considered bait and can't be exposed within X feet of the trap) use fake feathers, you can buy bags of them at the dollar store in all sorts of colors. I don't think the color matters too much as long as it contrasts to the background.

Poly fill is what I use when I’m out of feathers

Hobby Lobby has all kinds of dangly, sparkly crap for an attractor. Also, I buy all kinds of stuff there for fly tying too.