Trapping with jinx just posted this:

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/lwceg0h-3OU?si=FNnKEvXV7rHMF99n[/video]


Whats yall thoughts?!?!!?

Use the cheapest dollar store dry cat or dog food you can buy
and that's really all you need to stack coon up like cord wood !!!

w

Ik that what I always do but I think adding that little extra scent can be what gives you the extra 5 raccoons maybe even 20!

Plain ole corn works wonders as well. Put just enough in to cover the trigger. A $10 bag will last all year or at least 6 months of trapping.

When we bought the place we are at now, sellers asked if they could leave their barn cats 4 of them. I said sure. They had a small self feeder in the barn, they came and went. Quickly became evident I was feeding more coons than cats. Skunks and possums too. They were feeding them some kind of fancy seafood Friskies.......that quickly got switched to "barn kitty" in 40 pound bags. Coons and cats did not care. Dry cat food has everything in it they need. They somehow know it. Give them a steady source and they will beat a path to it all year long.

At one point I set up some game cameras to see what was going on. During one night, documented about 15 different coon. One big old boar......a few loners and 4 sows with kits. Then got the bright idea to run a test on different baits to see if the coon had a preference. Cat food with anise, vanilla, bbq sauce, liquid smoke, bacon grease, and a couple more. Then set up game cameras to see what they went for first. What they went for first was always the first one they came to. Plain jane dry cat food worked just as well as anything.

Some might tell you to use full sized marshmallows.........that they can't get out of the bottom of the trap without setting off the pull only trigger. Know an Amish lad that swears by those orange candy slices......for same reason. But I cant recall many traps picked clean of plain dry cat food. More likely to get double foot catches as they try to get last bite.

Anything cheap. Coon trapping, especially with DPs, is all about location, not any special bait.

I will add my catches picked up considerably when I ran two different baits and more than on set per good location. Bait #1 I use is cheap dry cat food from dollar general with a few squirts of liquid smoke. I dump the whole bag in a large plastic container with lid and then add the liquid smoke and put the lid on and shake it up. Make that up a couple months ahead of season to get the liquid smoke really set into the cat food odors.
Bait #2 is fish. Ground or mashed up fish. Freeze it, salt it, whatever, but a spoonful per DP works. Catch carp on summer and grind those up.
Location, location, location. Find the best spots where multiple trails meet or where the travels are funneled all into ont tight spot. Those get two sets and each a different bait, if I add a third trap it’s a 160 or 220 with no bait. Then I move on to next stop and set that. Cover as many good locations as you can and hit them hard.
Jim

Strawberry jello dry mix and marshmallows in a gallon zip lock bag. Put 3 tablespoons of vanilla extract . Shake and let it set over night. Best part it is good little snack while setting

Can't hurt.

I'd use fish fry deep fryer grease free from the local diner in a cheap garden sprayer jug
with a spray wand to lay a scent trail to my DP line up and clean up.

Maybe set out a feed station a week ahead to draw them all in & get them
all conditioned & habituated to a steady free lunch, and then set the traps,
and sharpen your knives.

There's no wrong idea/answer to what might work to up your coon catch
but hard work, long hours, lots of traps, & lots of miles
are the true secret to a large numbers coon catch.

Good Luck.

w

I will share what i used for bait to catch over 2 thousand coon in DP traps. Cheap dog food and brown suger. 2 pounds of brown suger mixed in a 5 gallon bucket of dog food. I would add some butter pecan or carmel essence to the bucket when mixed up. about 2 0z. They go nuts for the brown suger. The marshmellow was put on trigger for something to grab after bait was gone. I also had 2 sweet loud and edible lures that I made that were used on lip of trap.

Ok I will.mix in my bait this season. I'm buying some coon grabbers for under trigger

Fish,corn grease,cat food, and so on

Cheap dry cat food and either fish oil, shellfish oil or a homemade sweet smelling oil that I make by the gallon with stuff available at the dollar store

During colder weather, my best bait was fish chunks with glycerin to keep from freezing. Summer/early Fall ADC work, cheap dry cat food with dry, grape jello mix stirred in.

When my sweet corn is getting close to being ripe, I put out some DP's with a little bit of peanut butter smeared around the inside of the trap. The coons seem to like it better than sweet corn. I leave them out until the last of the corn is harvested.

Miniature marshmallows are cheap and always worked well for me. Sprinkle a few around the trap for eye appeal.

Thanks●°●°●

All those work unless you have ants. I can only use cat food a month or maybe two out of the year. They say ants don’t bother them, but when the ants build a mound half way up the DP or cover it, I just don’t think a coon is gonna dip his paws into an ant bed.

Problem with fish based is you will catch house cats and grinners. Don't think he will deal with ants where he's at when season is in...

Anything you have on hand no a science.