Property is very unusual. Where I could see tracks there were NO possum tracks. That place has NEVER been trapped b4 either....at least not since the 1960s or maybe earlier. The predator population there is surprising. It's like they reached a peak years ago and have solidly stabilized. There is an incredible deer population (I saw more than 50 deer one morning amd wasnt even looking for deer....about half of them bucks....4 or 5 were BIG buck) and a good turkey population (saw turkeys every day in the roads and plots.) I did see a few coyote kick scratches and some bobcat sign but it wasn't a lot. Maybe this is what happens to large properties when the predators stabilze solidly....but it likely takes decades.

I have trapped properties as close as a half mile from there in year's past....normal critter populations. This property is highly secured and has been for more than half a century. It is NOT high-fenced. The owner is an eccentric old guy. Loves all wildlife and spends a LOT of money to enhance everything wildlife related.

I know the long history of this property and the owner and thought I'd make a phenomenal coon catch when he contacted me to trap....I was wrong.

Sure is GREEN down there!
As you are well aware, DPs work best when you can place them where coon have to trip over them. Even then they will often walk right on by!

T7
These southeastern piney woods are covered in saw palmetto and gallberry that make fruit. And the cypress bays/swamps have black gum and bay trees that make berries. Wildlife eats them all, but that means no bunching up of the berry eaters....lol

Yes...I'm aware of that, believe me, but had to use them as landowner didn't want any coyotes, bcats, or foxes captured. Yep...I could have released those but that's a pain in the butt. And, now that this is over, I don't think I would have caught any more coon in regular foot traps. Bodygrips in boxes and/or cages may have picked up a few more....but didnt have enough of that type gear.

That's a fact! Now, I can float along at my own pace, instead of rushing home, suiting up, amd going on patrol after checking traps.

What bait worked the best for you?

Been waiting on this question^^^^^

I started out with about 1/4 sardines in oil, 1/4 big marshmellow pushed onto trigger, 1/4 whole kernel corn with almond oil and anise extract.

I used peanuts and peanut butter in the other 1/4 traps.

Several day in I began rebaiting (traps that made catches and those that field mice and squirrels were cleaning out) with sweet feed/horse feed (grains with the molasses) and floating fish food pellets. The sweet feed and fish food was mixed together. I also added vanilla extract to some of this and wintergreen oil to some.

The worse results were the sardine traps. Caught only 3 coons on sardines. The sardines were rank after a few days. I dumped and cleaned them out of all traps after about 4 or 5 days. The 2nd worse results were the peanuts and peanut butter. Ants were a MAJOR problem on the peanuts/ peanut butter. I dumped all of them after about a week.

The marshmellows worked pretty good as always, but ants ate em and rain dissolved em, as always.

The almond/anise flavored corn performed OK.

But, the vanilla flavored sweet feed/fish food mix performed the best...about 50% of all catches. At most traps I just added a small amount of one of these flavored mixes on top of the marshmellow.

The wintergreen flavored mix caught a few, but it did not perform as good as the other flavors.

I've been using DPs for about 10 years. I've tried about everything. My go-to bait on the next line will be a big marshmellow stuck on trigger with a sprinkling of flavored sweet feed/fish food on top of the marshmellow. I feel a bait that is stuck on the trigger will increase DP catches. And the small grains and pellets variety keep em reaching in the DP. I use only Ztraps...push and pull trigger.

Thank you

Awesome thread
My best coon attractant in cages and DPs
Z traps also- has been a Strong Loganberry Paste bait I make for Coon jobs
This has worked well around corn field edges.

Good Job Swamp Wolf

That’s interesting on the baits.
My go to is regular dry cat food with grape Koolaide mixed with it.
Second is peanuts or peanuts with grape Koolaide.
I know they’re expensive as heck right now but all my son uses in cage traps are eggs. Just your everyday store bought eggs. With heavy traffic he’ll use 2 with not so heavy he’ll only use one. Just running cages for a month or so and has 5 fox and 3 bobcats with I don’t know how many coons and possums caught already.

Like you experienced, I haven’t had much luck with sardines. I’ve tried Marshmallows with good luck as long as the highs don’t get above 60. Any temp higher and the ants have a feast. Spring and Summer I just use plain peanuts, they seem to outperform corn.