I watched a video of a man making bait -lure from broke up castor and melted Vaseline- can it really be that easy?

It can be but personally Id avise against vasaline.. Not all vaseline is pure petroleum jelly. many vaseline products have things like water, benzyl alcohol, paraffin and so on..Those things make it thinner and smear easier... These things also can lead to it crusting over and messing with scent...
I'd suggest buying glycerin, you can get it in the same isle at Walmart....Grinding is much better but if you don't have a grinder cut the castor up very small and run through an old food processor. It needs to be broken up very small or it does not mix well and is a pain to use...
To answer the question though yes, when I first started making lure my very first beaver lure was just castor and glycerin oil.. I caught a bunch of beaver off it...when you refine the process it gets better though

Yup, that’ll work just fine. Lure makers will usually add other ingredients to freeze proof and carrier ingredients for scent dispersal.

When we have had freezing weather and I didn't have anything else I've used castor and vaseline. Worked just fine.

There are much better bases for castor lure than vaseline.
Its junk to me.

Share your knowledge....

Question was if it was that easy and the answer is yes. The natives ground castor and added a shot of whiskey and nearly decimated the beaver in North America during the fur trade from 1750 to 1850. In the 1890’s a survey concluded that there were less than 6 active beaver lodges in the state of Wisconsin. So long as you have beaver castor as the main ingredient, it will work.

Glycerine is a better choice.

The lower your standards of what is good, the easier it is.
That's talking coyotes don't know much about other species

Bottle ever clear and a peanut butter jar and you dont even need to chop em up. You'll get better results if you do chop it grind em first. Use the liquid as your lure.

I never saw any reason to dry and grind castor. Open the sacks and with a dull knife scrape out the contents. Add Glycerine or mineral oil to make a paste.

Hey! I agree with Beav, how 'bout that!

50/50 green castor and sack oil is my mix. Know some good beaver trappers that only use sack oil because of castors value. Sack oil is a natural preservative and waterproofer for the lure mix. Sack oil also is highly attractive to those females, IME. I don't think lure for beaver needs to be complicated, except for those trappers that are faced with pressured beaver that are experienced. Castor though being a territorial marking scent isn't necessarily best at every type beaver set or every time of year.

Drakej hit on some great points let me add to what he and others have suggested. However you go about making your beaver lure once you have castor and your glycerine or vaseline mix now you can create several other beaver(cat) lures. For instance, castor, glycerine and cinnamon, castor, glycerine and oil from oil sacs like Drakej suggested, castor, glycerine and mace (this is from an old mountain man recipe, Mace is very similar to Allspice), etc....The beaver lure can be heavy on the castor or heavy on the oil sac....it all works so experiment. AND ....several years back Wisconsin trapper Duane Fronek used castor with skunk added to it and hammered the beaver..think he caught over 90 that season. Another trapper I know adds fragrant flowery smells to his castor based lure and does well. A well disguised foothold trap and a q-tip full of any of these combos will catch beaver(and muskrat)...try it for yourself.

I used to add cottonwood buds with that honey sweet propolis smell and it worked well. Truth is it doesn't need to be complicated.

The best results I've had are with liquid castor and splashing it out on the mudpie. Reeks of castor!

I just feel that castor and sac oil should be used separately. I don't think a beaver when marking It's territory secrets both sac oil and castor. Sac oil used by It's self Is one of my go to lures when used In certain situations. And those empty sac oil sacs make a great coyote and fox lure/bait. Tainted a bit and your good to go.

Beav consider just how much oil sac a beaver has on its fur when it travels up on the bank to deposit castor...micro amounts.
I agree on empty oil sacs being great attractors fro predators...stuff just cannot be washed off your fingers/hands...lingers.

the man in the video used it on bobcat and done very well

Be an excellent base for a rub lure. Castor is one of several ingredients that could be used the same way !

I agree that there are many other possible scents that can be added to a beaver lure but the question was can it really be that uncomplicated and I think it can for most beaver trappers. I add the sack oil for its preverving and waterproofing and don't find it odor a negative to any degree. My jar of lure is many years old and I just add new castor and sack oil when needed. I don't catch truck fulls of beaver but I have wondered how much local castor works over non local castor to any degree. Might it have regional appeal or superiority?