If you’re not from Wis, Mn, Neb or the Dakotas you may not know our coon can be very large. Our average is about 17 pounds. But 25-28 pounds and bigger are quite common. That being said, those big animals can be really tough on staking.

I’ve used big branch drags with a lot of success. I’ve also used standard and heavy duty Berkshire disposables. Lots of success here as long as you go down a foot or more. Our soil here is underlaid with clay so you can sometimes get away with a foot or so of cable on the berk.

For softer soils, I use a cable stake with more cable. Push them in with a pointed rebar driver, pull up to ‘set’ the anchor and put dogproof or foot hold in place. Bait and go.

Cross-staking is reserved for coyotes. Almost everything else gets disposable stakes.

The stakes were up stream. I'm using R-Trap DP. The chain is 12" with 2 swivels. I was using small marshmallows but something was stealing them without firing the trap so I'm going to switch to Caven's Moonshine on a cotton ball.

3/8 inch rerod is ok for trapping mice,but I myself prefer 1/2 by 24 inch .That double or cross staked will hold well in most but not all soil types.
And yes our coon are huge I have caught many that weighed in the mid to upper 30s. As you have learned--its better to over stake than under stake.
Tom

Coon are a tough strong critter. The cardinal rule of coon trapping is to set trap where he cannot reach anything solid, as they can exert a tremendous amount of force if caught in that situation. Sandy bottoms add to the problem. A large drag works best in that situation. But in real soil, coons are still one of the easiest critters to hold, because they only pull straight out from the stake, unlike coyotes who get right over a stake and jack it out with their jumping. If you are gonna stake in sandy areas, use a number of different length 1/2 inch rebar stakes. I used th trap a sandy river for years, and had 1/2 inch stakes from 2 ft up to four ft long. Coons, beaver etc were always right where I staked them, no hunting for them! Don't underestimate a coons power!

We got a big one yesterday. 30 pounds, on the dot. 24-inch 3/8ths rebar—didn’t budge the stake. But this is in clay loam soil. A 12-inch cable on a wolf fang would have been there too. Tight soils make a huge difference! Get out of the creek sand and set the higher bank trails. Your stakes will hold better there.