What in your opinion or experience is enough weight to keep a coon down at the end of a cable extension.
Was thinking of making some weights for next season out of the bag mix concrete but unsure of the weight needed so they couldn’t pull them up. I know all about the drowning rods and use them mostly, probably the largest coon would weigh 20 lbs.

I have never had any luck with weights for coon. They usually pull up even large weights like rr plates unless the plate sinks in the mud or gets covered with drifting sand. That’s been my experience anyway.

Thanks
I guess it would have to be heavier than the coon to prevent that.

If there is no way to pound in a stake, on a disposable stake on your deep end, I have used a feed sack full of rocks or gravel. I just kind of judge it for the water current i am working in. i would say the weight of at least 3 small rail road tie plates at least.
Like Trapset stated, the bottom of the water and current makes a big difference . I have caught otter also in coon sets. Make sure you can hold them too. By the way, you can stash your anchors/ weights in the area you are setting and use the every season. I have anchors stashed in many places.

I like to use a peeled beaver stick and NEW baling wire. A swivel for a lock. If you use a green stick beaver will cut it off at the top of the water. If you set out a bunch of traps its easy to find them by the pole sticking up. You can cut poles now, let em dry all summer then peel them in the fall. Tie the wire at the bottom of the pole. Run the wire up the pole a couple three feet. Hold the pole and wire at that point. Shove the bottom where its tied, down into the mud as far as you can angling the pole toward the center of the creek or river. The wire is shoved down into the mud like a disposable stake. Run the wire to your trap putting it through the swivel at the end of the chain. Run it through the rivet hole from the inside to the outside. Then stake or tie it to a nice stout root or something.

Baling wire comes in a 50 pound roll. Its designed so the wire pulls out from inside the roll. Build you a plywood box with a hole in the middle of the lid for the wire to come through. It wont tangle. You need new wire not rusted up junk. Just pull out what you need and make the set. There is enough wire for hundreds of sets.

I have held and drowned many beaver on a single strand of baling wire caught by a front foot in a duke 1 1/2 at a coon set.

Have seen two otter caught that way also.

Weights suck. Pain in the hind end to haul around and do not work very well.

However, if its to rocky for poles and wire you have not a lot of options. Concrete blocks work but what a hassle to drag around. Bags with dirt work but its time consuming to fill them.

You wont save any money buying bags of quick krete over concrete blocks. Hunt around you can find old ones for free or at a discount.

If you are hauling them metal takes up less room brake rotors can be had at most mechanics for scrap price . I prefer the same method Danny uses with the stake

Thanks cam lock
I was planning on leaving them there to use year after year too.

Thanks Danny,
I should have mentioned they would be on beaver dams and in my area it would drop off to quickly to deep to wade out to get the stake in. Good info on the wire too.

Thanks Bigfoot
Those brake rotors are something I hadn’t thought of

I have had better luck attaching a weight to the end of a drowning rod than to a cable. I’ve used weight on a log set over the water where the weight/rod didn’t even touch bottom.

If the water is deep enough you can put some kind of stop
on the cable or wire to keep animal suspended so they don't
reach the bottom of creek, if they cant reach the bottom they
can't drag weight.

10' drowner rods, 8' is even usually enough

Go with rods. Ever toss a heavy weight into the water and tug on it? Comes in easier than one would imagine.

Coon are also stronger than most give them credit for. I once caught a runt YOY coon and let him go. He was probably about 5 lbs. I grabbed onto his back legs to see how hard he could pull. He pulled me off my knees and drug me right over the beaver dam with just his front feet, no issues at all.

I often use stake ten or fifteen feet long that I can set from the bank . If I'm boat trapping I pick up poles along the way ,just a little shorter than my boat for deep water staking works super on beaver and otter

Just read this so late to the party Ive only lost one coon over the years I push a stake in bottom or/ wire to something then put another state halfway from anchor to trap 99.9% of them are drown Even in as little as 6 in if water Yea some might have passed from exposure but dead nonetheless Packing around drowning rods is ridiculous Most of the time you can wire a rock or like said carry feed sacks
For years I used tobacco sticks about 24 in long with a piece of wire about 2 ft long. If bottom is solid rock then just one section on a 4 in concrete block Have even tied a 4 way knot on a rock size of my shoe is big enough Key is to have the middle stack for them to go around DRT

Always set for that 30 pounder that may be around. Never assume that you will only get smaller critters. Plus, there are beaver around most places.

Get some sand bags. Fill them with rocks at the site if possible. Sand is a distant second in preference. Never use dirt. Dirt will fill up with water and become way too light to hold.

I never liked using weights especially if you have to carry them any distance. Instead, I prefer a 6' length of 3/32 cable. One end anchored on shore. The other end anchored with a steel stake in deeper water.
I prefer cable to wire because it doesn't kink like wire does sometimes. I always went for a front foot catch. You can drown a pretty large coon in thigh-deep water then.

Mark....We seen coon sizes differently up here. Once you hit about mid Missouri the coon size goes way down...and keeps on going as you go south.

Those southern coon look more like skinny house cats than what we view as coon.

I'm probably not the first guy to wonder why all I was catching in the south were dink YOY runt coon until I realized that's just the size of them.

Sometimes on a beaver dam where the water is extra deep you can use a light weight or just a stop a little piece out in deep water at an angle toward a bank (if its a dam there must be a bank somewhere). Have another wire tied on the weight and take it on down to the bank to a tree or stake. In that situation I used light weights and the coon may raise it up and down, but will tire quickly. If there is still beavers there you might want to use a 3/32 cable out to the weight and baling wire the rest of the way which could be quite long. I have caught many beaver in #11's in coon sets. I lost a beaver that kinked the baling wire and a duck hunter found him tangled up a 1/4 mile from there and told me and I got trap and beaver back. He was a good hunter.

I have seen coon in the south just as big as the ones we have here. FL, MS TX, TN and on the roads in between.

I was talking beaver dams exclusively and I’m using dog proof traps so I don’t worry about beaver.