First year trapper here. I just want to start out by saying that this forum has a plethora of knowledge and I thank all of you for your wisdom, advice, and assistance that you provide to those of us who are just starting our journey in trapping. It's much appreciated. With that said, I'm having some issues with my bobcat sets. Every day when I go to check my sets, they are absolutely wrecked. The bait is usually gone, the sticks knocked over, and the trap not triggered. I did catch an opossum in one set but my trail cams are showing raccoons as the perps to my problems. Last week I missed a potential cat because the bait was snatched and the sticks in disarray. Yesterday I set some dog proofs and am really going to work on reducing the coon population in hopes that my cat sets will get left alone. I've included a pic of my set and the trail cam pic of the cat I missed. If you notice in the trail cam pic, the sticks are pushed over. I need some advice and have a few questions for you all.

1. Will the cat in the trail cam pic be educated enough to avoid this set in the future?

2. Do you think dog proofs will help keep the coons off of my cat sets?

I truly appreciate the help, knowledge, and advice. Thank you all.

Are you not catching the raccoon when it wrecks your site? The dog proofs are great, but only in areas where there are people in my experience. Where I trap there are raccoon that wont touch a dog proof trap, but if I make a pocket set, he will be there waiting for me in the morning. What size trap are you using? It's my experience making cubbies that the only thing that messes up the sets are bobcats and the other animals just get caught. Depending on where you are doing that cubby, to me I would just make a blind set leading to the cubby. Welcome and I hope you enjoy trapping, this is my 2nd year and I love it more than anything else.

Where is your bait? It looks to me like a coon could work that set from any side and get the bait.
I'd build a tighter cubby or use a dirt hole set.

The coons have been working the sets from the sides and will take PAskinner’s advice and build the cubby tighter. I started with putting the bait at the base of the tree with the idea that the animal would commit from the front of the cubby which would lead them across the trap. I’m using Duke #3’s. Honestly might adjust a few sets to a dirt hole and see how that works.