Hey fellas, I decided to work up some frozen ground up muskrat into usable bait. I smoked it because everything tastes better smoked right?? Well it dried it out ALOT! I've added SB to preserve it. I was thinking of adding a bait solution or fish oil. Or do I just add some glycerine and finely ground castor? My uses will be k9 dirt holes and perhaps water pocket sets. Thanks

I think most folks would lean towards glycerin but personally ,I would put in a natural rendered oil of some sort. Skunk flesh oil, trout oil, beaver fleshings oil, beaver tail oil and so on. A very good one that you may have access to quickly is bacon grease since you like the smoked odor.

Bacon grease is great , along with some honey and vanilla. These are three of the ingredients I add to every batch of ground muskrat. It finishes out about like a batch of fresh hamburger, but with bone.

I normally add a measurable amount of glycerin to help with consistency but have also added in small amounts of water as well...

Depends on if you want to add additional odors. If you don't want any added odors glycerin will moisten it and antifreeze it. I've found glycerin to work well at preventing some stuff from drying out after application also. So it will make the odor stronger at below freezing temperatures because it prevents it from freezing and will also make it stronger longer in dry conditions by preventing your bait/lure from drying out. But it will actually dilute the odor some fresh because it has no real odor of its own.

If you do want to add additional odors for more complexity/appeal various oils like mentioned above will work well depending on the odors you want to add. And many of them will also work to a greater or lesser degree as an antifreeze and to prevent drying out.