Gerry seen what he thought was cat tracks a week ago, he wired a beaver carcass to a tree and today we find the whole beaver covered up, I uncovered the tail for the pic, neither one of us has ever caught a cat , was looking for suggestions on how to set it up, Thank You for any help that you can give.

Cat trapping tip patients . And lot of it sometimes lol . One day they trap as easy as a muskrat next time they a cat can be Houdini lol.
Personally I do not use bait at the set. A lot times a big bait a ways from your sets like 40 feet or so and a couple lured walk thru sets is about all I use anymore . Oh you off to a good start if set where you seen the track ime.

Uncover it and look at the eaten portion. Cats will leave the eaten area looking like someone eating corn on the cob. Coyotes, fox bite and tear off chunks. If it's a cat let eat one more time remove the carcass and put in a dirt hole with a small chunk in the hole.,

First set is a walk through dirt hole set with apple road bait in the hole and fox urine, the second set is a natural cubby in a brush pile with a whole beaver carcass staked down inside. Sets are 20 yards apart and caught consecutive days and the 2nd set had a track on the frozen pan the 3rd day. Can't win them all. It rained a lot during the day and was supposed to stay warm. Got down to 20 ,snowed a little and froze the water on top of the trap.should have been a cat there today. Both cats caught were female.

The cat will return,make some natural blocked down path and blind set,walk thru's,flashy dirt hole will all work good luck some time they gorged themselves and dont come back for two days ,but they will return.Look forward to your catch picture's.

Thank you for the tips, we’ll give em a try.

I like baited cubbies here they just love to check them out, culverts and grease barrels work well stay away from the larger drums.

Can we cover and block down the carcass that the cat covered, or will it make the cat avoid the area.?

If a person were consistent at catching feral cats, would that make one more likely to catch a bobcat, than not? Asking for a friend.

I’ve caught bobcat, mountain lions and feral cats at my bobcat sets.

Skunks, fox, marten and weasels too.

Do you set the same places every year?
Are they that predictable?
just

Law dog, your pipe set is one I’m trying this year. Think it’ll work fine here.

Someone taught me long ago...a successful cat set should look like it was put together by a 5 year old when completed. Its been a fairly good rule of thumb for me.

This is a example of a set I use a lot of big tree for protection then create a walk thru tree and material for blocking lured and urine down the middle coyote urine as it has equal amount of interest for Bobcats until breeding season.
Merry Christmas to all

Gerry made it back to the woods today, said the cat returned and ate about 1/2 the carcass, he made a cubby set and a trail set.

Has the square thing been proven yet? Was a thread awhile back about it, forgot all about till I saw the sticks in NF1s post!

The taller 30 gallon drums work well also open both ends and put a trap at both ends my go to set here, this barrel blew over a bit in 60MPH winds the cat sprayed and went on his way.

Hey law dog, I use cheap 30 gallon black trash cans here. Lay them on their side, dump a five gallon bucket of sifted dry dirt in them and smooth it out back to front to make nice place to walk in on, and wire a rat carcass in back. Traps bed easily in the dry dirt at opening. I stake mine down so they don't blow around. You can put them right up under low branches of a cedar tree to make a great cubby set thats fairly weather proof. Some skunky lure in back too and shot of bobcat pee back there too.

Vertical sticks imo tend guide better ,,, I tend to consider sticks people call step sticks as stop sticks lol.

The smaller longer 30s bring them right to the trap vs a 55 gallon that they can work from the side easier. I wedge mine in most places that one with the cat spraying was on deep sheltered creek on both sides but the high winds came up the creek and moved both of them around.