ya.i haven't been walking for a lil while where im going to trap.

Well go check it out. Have some fun looking for sign while your at it.

well i guess ill prolly go look sometime soon then.thanks for your information deer.

DH - well, I guess there lies the difference - you will be out wandering around looking for the food source when I would already be setting an active water/food source, quick hitting an area and moving on.....dont have time to walk into a section, find a few trees with ripe fruit and maybe catch a few extra coons when I can shove my old stinky fish bait in a grizz or smack down a pocket set (next to water) of course, catch a family group of coons and move on in 3 days. I will spend more time making my lines more efficient by cutting out the stops that dont = fur every year.....year after year. Not hoping to catch a coon or 2 one area one year and not the next due to a late freeze of lack of rain etc. which all will affect fruit production. I do not have time to scout for 2 weeks every year the 2 weeks prior to season. I do know that creeks with water, rivers which dont go dry and bottoms with corn near WILL hold coon if disease has not hit. Therefore - I set on target and succeed.
Again - if you find corn in there stomachs - DH why not use dry field corn? The coons in your county will be eating corn from October - its tilled under......I wont use corn as bait even though coons every night hang near the fields....
I do not disagree that one might pick up a few extra coon (if he isnt already on the move) by staying in a section and taking the time to locate the immediate food source those coons in that area are feeding on and setting them. Personally - I will not put my time there - its a coon.....not a cat, not a mountain goat, hit'em and move on.....

coons going to dry corn at the deer feeder all the time. I hate them eating my corn.

biggen - I say you have an excellent test plot - put out a dozen traps with corn as bait, dozen traps with fish as bait - alternating the traps in a line around the corn feeder so as you dont introduce any bias - and tell us what your coons would rather go for - whats in there stomachs or fish

TreeDog, I am not so sure that your suggested scientific method would be a valid one around biggen's deer feeder to yield any reliable, conclusive results.

There are too many operative variables in this immediate "study area," plus there is an already built-in bias to skew the results: the raccoons coming to the feeder may be so habituated and conditioned to the corn as a dependent, reliable major food source, because of its consistent availability, the presentation of alternative food/bait in that mix (no matter what it was - fish, clams, crayfish, balls of bacon grease, etc.,) complicates and confuses the issue at several levels.

As you well know, the raccoon is an opportunistic, scavenging omnivore that will eat just about anything.

The biggest margin of error that I visualize with this approach is, no matter what kind of trapping method (trap, set type or bait used,)is, maybe with the exception of a baited cage trap where the animal is not constrained, only confined: if the raccoon is caught while working a given bait set, what guarantee is there that it will eat the bait - after it is caught to find that presentation in its stomach after the fact? Granted, either way, it would have been attracted to the set. But.....,then again, it all depends.

Are you confused? I know I am, because I am not sure how to set that up yet to arrive at a definitive, measurable conclusive results.

The best thing is to forget the science, stick to the art and craft of the trapping experience, set the traps on location for whatever the target animal's name goes by, use a lure/bait that works for you to catch stuff, move to a different location and repeat the process. That ain't science, just applied trapping savvy at its best, totally void of complicated statistical analysis. The math is simple - just count the number of critters now living on your stretchers.

End of the hunt.

Jonathan

A coon don't go foraging like we do at a grocery store with a list, or choices of what we like more than others. First edible thing a coon comes to, that goes in his mouth. Next edible thing, that goes in his mouth. If he's in a garbage can with all kinds of goodies, then he might get particular. But he's not going to pass up fish in a pocket set because he knows there's a good place to catch crawdads a little further down the creek.

My experience has always been that if you want momma and the babies, stick to the water. The larger coon will travel miles for corn, grapes or what ever is in season and they are feeding on. That said, they won't pass up some nice Jack Mackeral on the way. So I guess food sources are more of a location thing then a bait type thing.