5 coon and 2 grinners today. Pulled one property and set up another property.
Got some pics but I'll post them later on.
I'm going to weigh some of these coon. I'm betting some of them are in the 30 LB range. And we have not caught any dinks yet.

3 of them went 24 26 28. They seemed a bit heaver when I was hauling them out. LOl

Those are huge Beav. Have you noticed that the coon are incredibly fat this season? My line was pretty poor today so I'm hoping it was the weather. I went from 12 coon to 9 coon to 3 coon in the last three checks. I did finally connect on two skunks. I've had some very tiny coon this year as well a extra small possums. Must have had late litters or do they have more than one litter a year?

How are the coon as per being prime?

They still need some time. The larger coon have some white leather but the smaller ones are still slatey. The sows are pretty weak yet.

I caught 5 grinners this morning I was tempted to toss them but .50 cents is still .50 cents. LOL

Set on all kinds of coon scat locations and nothing.

Beav,
I've had the same thing happen in the last two days. Only caught 3 yesterday and 5 today and I have a lot of sets out. All 5 coon today were in 160's, nothing in the DP's. Maybe the strong winds are making them travel less, just not sure.

Just 2 tiny possums today. And 1 coon in an alfalfa field, obviously sick. Head tucked in, just rocking in place, its in trash panda heaven now. First coon I've seen in a few days. But not set for them much either.

DPs seem to be working as to catching coon but the jury is still out on catching skunks in them. In the past when I was trapping coyotes I caught quite a few skunks in those sets. Maybe I should be using some type of tainted meat bait in my DPs. And I haven't even caught a grinner in any of those DPs

Beav, I'm surprised that you are unsure of the dps for skunks. We have great luck using them up here. But maybe there is a difference between your skunks and ours, kinda like muskrats on floats in the fall from one region to the next.

same here on coon not many I believe distemper went through again, not many on the roads, had a lady call and had a dead one on her porch

What are you using for bait?

General a homemade smokey fish bait or a homemade bacon bait.

I'm using cat kibble mixed with either peppermint or anis oil or molasses. I don't think skunks are drawn to that type of bait. But It sure works on coon.
Will be making some changes this week.

Thanks

Today's catch was 4 grinners 1 coon and one skunk.

Today I had 6 coon and 4 possum so it picked up a bit. Was fairly calm last night.

Another 4 rats tonight brings me up to 16 on the season. Had about 15 traps out over 10 days, 5 checks. Pretty good size, only 1 I would consider a kit.

That might be the end of my season. Ill be out of town 4 days this weekend and again opening weekend of gun season. Hard to justify resetting for such a short run.

A colony trap covering an underwater entrance to a big hut was my bread and butter. I believe I caught 10 of my 16 in that one set, including a triple tonight.

Low water was the bane of my existence the last couple checks, tonight especially. West wind yesterday blew all the water out of the bay and tonight I did as much dragging of the canoe as I did paddling. Wouldn't have been so bad except the bottom was pretty mucky. Didn't know if the hip wader was gonna come with my foot a few times.

5 gallons of cheap cat food gets 1 pint of fryer oil, 1 bottle of sweet baby rays BBQ sauce, a hand full of fish meal, and a coffee can of lucky charm marshmallows. To compliment that I use a 28oz gatorade bottle that gets 1oz of cavens mooshine, 1 healthy squirt of liquid smoke, 1 squirt of fish oil, 1 squirt of beaver sac oil, the rest is filled with more fryer grease. I keep a 4oz squirt bottle filled from the gatorade bottle and use a healthy dose on and at each set. Always 2 traps or more per location filled completely with bait.
Pretty much any general location will work when it is warm but as temps cool, being as close to denning areas produce better for skunks. 66 DPs and 88 pounds of bait has equated to triple digit numbers of all 3 targets, racoon, skunk, and possums.
If skunks are the target then you kinda gotta forget what you know about coon spots and spend a little time looking for skunky spots. Junk yards, old abandoned bldgs, round bale stacks, dry culverts, rock piles, piles of debris, old log piles, the closer to people with gardens and mowed yards the better.
How you orient the trap for a short animal to comfortably access the bait is also something that will help.

thanks, maurob, good imfo. for everyone

got this yesterday, back of the house, 5-6 one in the last few years,
all white possum, sold for 50 dollars to taxidermy