Have watched more YouTube videos than I care to count, searched here using the search feature and the archives lots of hints on using certain parts and glands for particular species, but unable to find a general reference book or video for general lure making. I know there are some here that have been at it since Mobydick was a minnow so wondering if there is a consensus as to what book or video would be most beneficial to someone that wants to just make their own lures
Thanks in Advance for your replies
Jingles

I've got at least 4 lure making books and one video. Each will have maybe a few tidbits that will actually help you formulate your own formulations. Russ Carmen's is probably the best for getting you started. I truly believe to become a lure maker that actually can create formulations that are actually top shelf you have to do lots and lots of testing of individual ingredients and built formulations step by step testing EACH step. After maybe a thousand tests sets you start getting a decent handle on what works and what doesn't. It's very time consuming and expensive but is very beneficial. Throw on top of that there's places selling low quality ingredients then you have to learn who has good stuff and who doesn't. More time and money. After lots of testing (which will only lead to more questions ands ideas in the beginning)you start learning who to listen to for suggestions and who not to. If you just go off what people tells you is good and don't test you will have to get lucky to come up with a top shelf formulation, same thing with the spray and pray method of formulating (just throwing a bunch of ingredients without testing each step). The spray and pray method is like taking a multiple choice test without knowing any of the answers and hoping you get lucky and choice enough of the right answers and get an A. At least this is my opinion when it comes to formulating coyote lures. If you read and listen to enough stuff and learn who knows what they are talking about you can pick little hidden nuggets that will help you along the way. Probably more of an answer than your looking for but food for thought before you head down the rabbit hole of lure making. If the bug bites you it can get very expensive and very time consuming but I sure enjoy it.

Only video i know is the clint Locklear video which is pretty good. Nick Wyshinki has some good books on it and kaatz has a good book. Several books have lots of formulas if thats what you want.

Yes sir
thank you for the info and reminding me it isn't as simple as I had hoped and probably much more expensive than experimenting with the numerous and various commercial lures available finding the ones that work best for bobcats, martens and weasels. Now if we could use something other than live traps here in WA, could be a different story.

Sniper BBB thank you for the info on the Clint Locklear video and the Nick Wyshinki book , I see both the video and book are available thru F & T, so guess be making an order here in the near future

Pick up the Russ Carman book to go along with the Nick Wyshinski books. Then you can scratch your head and wonder who is right when they give you contradictory information. Seriously, both are useful, but they don't always agree. You'll have to figure out and decide for yourself which is more accurate. In my opinion, Russ Carman was the better lure maker and his book is more enjoyable to read, but Nick has more accurate historical information and probably more helpful information about a larger number of ingredients.

I've not read the Kaatz brothers book.

Bearcat2 pretty well nailed. Cling, JT, and Nick have decent videos. Read Mike Marsazyada (spelling) articles to learn. Mike is a great trapper and lure maker. He writes a lure making bait making column in The Trappers Post that is alway full of great info. Took instructions from him when he taught at an Olson seminar a long time ago. Good common sense approach.

Lure making seems to be part science and part voodoo. A man can lucky and run into some great lure makers along the way that will share a lot of information.
As Mr. Yes Sir stated, there can be a lot of time wasted and money wasted, with tons of field time. But you can also come up with some very good lures by keeping it simple.

Good luck

Mac

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UYeYr17OW1o

The spray I developed attracts almost every coyote that walks by. It has 4 simple ingredients but took hundreds in gas batteries and ingredients to figure it out.

Fun but an expensive hobby.

You must catch thousands a year then.

Nope! No leghold traps in Washington. I started out looking for a way to attract cats to cage traps. The only things that worked was beaver and fish. The more the better.

I have had no cats show up for the camera/traps with commercial lures/ urine or anything of mine when used alone.

Beaver is King here.

^ This is a great response. I've been bitten, and it is truly addicting!!! As badly as I wanted to put some ingredients together and see if I could catch something, I took this advice last year when I started making things and I firmly believe that I'm further ahead now because of it. If making a bait/lure just to catch a critter, just throw castor and beaver meat in a hole and wait- but if producing something that is better for you or your area than a lot of the stuff you can get commercially is your goal- it will probably take years depending on how fast you work and how long you age things... That being said, there are some formulators out there that I would order from and know I'm getting a top of the line product- as much as I'd love to mention names, I think it would be disrespectful to only name a couple, and I don't want to take anything away from other great formulators.

Additionally, I also have the books listed above, and every time I see a book that contains anything about lure making, bait making, or ingredients for either of the previously mentioned- I buy it... you can pick up bits and pieces from each one, the certainly aren't all the same

best advice I was given by one of my mentors was to start with a simple fresh gland formula. 1/3rd 1/3rd 1/3rd. One third being muskrat gland. the other 2 your choice. I was honored to test Yes sirs lures this past season. His NHB catches coyotes. And it catches coyotes in coyote remakes. For here that's pretty special.