Good stuff, Mike.

Fur season…..

I’ll use a lot of bait. Like as much as I can get on a bait knife, and may make a second trip back to the jar with it.

When I started making my own bait, I started using a lot more bait at a set, and I started catching a lot more coyotes. Now I know, my baits that’s awesome . But more was certainly not hurting my numbers.


Summer season, I may stake down an entire p-dog up under a sage bush. Or I may dip a stick in a jar and pull it straight back out (drops) of lure.

And a lot of my summer coyotes (maybe the majority these days) are caught on nothing at all.

If a little bit helps a whole lot has got to do more.

I'm sure other bait makers agree.

^^^^ that’s a great explanation Mike!Thanks!

This, no need to say more!

A wise man once told me… Bud, we aren’t here to feed them. Use just enough to catch them!

A dead horse is a big bait and they dont shy off it. Dead deer is smaller but the same thing. If its warm air molecules are moving more and if cold moving less. (absent wind) Like Mike said some stuff works and some stuff dont. Only a very small number of lure/bait sellers I trust. I have paid good money for worthless junk more times than I care to remember. I use a lot of homemade stuff too. Biggest problem a new trapper has is learning to trap. No substitute for experience. So just starting out its hard to figure out what is going on and to evaluate your scents. just keep trapping. If you get a chance to tag along with somebody thats catching do it. If you do that have some respect for that trapper. #1 rule: Dont encroach on his area. #2 rule: Dont encroach on his area. Even if its public.

Just the other day out with my grandkids in an area I am not familiar with a local guy showed me an otter crossover on public ground. You can bet all your marbles I will never set it again without asking him if he is going to set there.

I know I’ve stated this before but for those that are new on this board.- I started testing lures in the early 70’s and as I started looking for a commercial bait, shortly thereafter. The testing turned into a hobby, a (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) expensive hobby but pre-cameras and the cameras era verified & proved I was making correct assumptions. What Clifton and YesSir said, is exactly what I found for my area. Heck, I’d prebait new properties by mixing junk lures & baits with leftover good stuff for volume and drill a 3” hole as deep as the auger would let me and dump in a 1/2- full cup of the mixture. The friging coyotes would dig to China and would still be checking the bomb crater 1 month later when I would set!

BTW, I really don’t have to write much with YesSir here because he says it far better than I can and he’s still involved! Also, don’t ever take it for granted that one year’s vintage of lure or bait will perform as the previous! I proved it for all to see on my channel with the 2018 yellow label and the 2019 white label lure!

That’s can certainly be true.

But I don’t think one can 100% blame the lure. Sometimes it’s just the animals themselves.

Every year is a different batch of animals (usually) and different conditions.

Somewhere maybe close to two decades ago I went thru years of note books of mine and my dads reaching back into the 70's and started a spreadsheet with the lures that had been used, were currently being used or under consideration for future use. Info logged was primarily trapping results but some summer testing stuff too. If recall correctly that spreadsheet has around 125 lures in it currently. Almost all are names everyone knows; some have been around longer than those of us reading this and some are more recent additions to the trapping community.

My take aways---

I have experienced about 10% of those lures having absolutely zero positive results and some to the point that critters went in high gear in the other directions when encountered. Probably lots of reasons why that I'll never understand.

Most often I find a lure has some appeal. Around 80% of my list will at least get you a drive by response. Some will get a fairly standoffish distance response, others might get a nibble. You'll make some catches to varying degrees.

That leaves about 10% that historically have been tried and true with consistent results yet I seem to think even that is changing in recent years.

If you want to know what is going to work your only real option is to actually use it in some fashion. One of those 10% absolute failure lures comes to my mind----lure that was pretty highly touted here by a good damage control guy. Both myself and another trapper from up here tried it and found that we couldn't even get interest from a possum with it. Obviously works for some folks in their conditions but not universally. And I'd suspect there are plenty of lures in that 80% category that guys on here have great success with in other areas of country with their critter populations.

Seldom you just keep posting. Theres several of you guys on this thread i setup and listen to when you talk coyotes. You guys are always helping me see things I'm missing or not seeing straight.