I'm not a pro for sure but here is what I always thought

A lure to "lure" the animal to your set and bring it in.

And a bait to keep it there working the set for a while, giving you a better chance of a catch.

If we are calling urin a lure which it is I use only 2 on 90% of my sets. Only time I use more is if it looks like a good cat area or I’ve had a set sit for 6 weeks or better with no action. At that point I’m going to just get loud with it what do I have to lose. I’ll add a call lure ( skunky) or add a really loud bait and a shot of urine.

I agree with Mr Turtledale that a good bait will hold attraction and give the animal happy feet(diggn and scratchn)

That’s a great question. I have always used two three set. Sometimes even three if I go with a call lure.

Favorite lure for me is sight. Something for them to see and work.

No need for them to get nervous over your "lure" and pace. And if you miss them the first time they usually pee and leave. Only makes it better..

My thoughts
No lure/bait is going to get every coyote that smells it to commit to the set, even if its the best formulation on the market. But by giving them multiple smells i can increase the likelihood of them working the set. I dont see much difference between using multiple lures/baits at a set than using a formulation with 8 or 10 different ingredients in it as it has multiple smells going on. Can I have a good catch rate with one top shelf formulation at a set??? Yes. Can I increase my catch rate by using more than one lure/bait at a set? Yes. If you keep track of your sets and catches one should be able to tell what works best.

Now there are situations when trapping coyotes that one lure/bait works better.

As far as knowing how good my formulations are, I find that out before I start trapping with them.
If a lure won't do the same thing I'll find a different lure.

Honestly believe people should ask these kind of questions to the animals and keep track of what produces the best catch rates and go from that. Just try different ideas and log the information and you will get the answers right from the horses mouth instead of some guy in the net that you dont know whether they are a great trapper or a mediocre trapper. You learn from the animals then you start learning who knows what they are talking about. Though I do enjoy the conversations.

no holds barred works great. i only made one yote set on my sons small coon and skunk line and after 3 checks had nice coyote. just a walk through set on a 2 track and hole punched on each side of the trap and little no holds barred down the holes. he blew it up digging in both sides.

Thanks

quote/Stutter step trapping may not apply as I do use it, but that's only an occasional set/quote


I am a black and white thinker and don’t like assuming I know a persons thoughts. What do you mean by this statement?

I guess I look at it from a human perspective, we don’t use just one seasoning on our food so why not temp a critter with a hint of a couple different odors.
Don’t think it has to do with whether a lure works or not, it’s just whether that critter is wanting what it smells. Heck I drive through town and pass up a burger joint, chicken joint, and Messican joint to get to BBQ. Sometimes I stop at the burger joint. If all I had was one option there’d be plenty of times I just drive on by.
And since this was started, I may use one lure down a hole and another on backing. Next set may be complete opposite. So what does that tell me when both catch?
If someone has the magic lure or bait that will cause every critter that comes across it to investigate, please post it cause I haven’t found it yet.

Who cares about coyotes? Does anyone have a can't miss skunk lure?

Fried chicken!

Lure is highly over rated IMO.

And No holds Barred is sold where ?

Ive been testing lures and baits for several years now and have seen over a thousand coyotes responses to them. A good lure will get just as much attention as a bait as a whole from what ive seen. Only exception is if your talking a very large quantity of bait.

Through me

I made my own lure it seamed to work best for me never got males with the lure nothing but females but i don,t consider my lure that good but it was good enough for my area i trapped in, all the commercial lures i tried never worked out in my area the only lure that worked out for the males was a urine posts with a Gland lure on it, for the most part i really think it's what works for your area that your trapping every area works different even when it's right accross the street from where your trapping.

Okay what does it cost to get a bottle down here.

If you're using bait or lure AND urine, you're using two lures.

Commercial baits and lures are already many smells mixed into one.



I guess I dont see why its any debate at all other than someone just needing something to argue about.


Someone mentioned "happy feet"? Throw as many different smells at them as needed to get their feet excited and moving. It will catch you more critters!

If you use three different lures at a set and a coyote has a bad experience such as a wobbly trap or a trap sprung in his face, doesn't that mean that he's now educated to three different lures in your arsenal instead of one?

Can you tell me what was in all three?


What percentage of lures and baits have castor, rat glands, mink glands, skunk, etc etc?

Fact is, a LOT of commercial smells have a lot of the same smells in them just to different degrees.


So if you ding up a coyote with something that has castor, rat, mink, or skunk smells in it, he’s liable to be leery of anything with those smells in them in the future.

If that theory worked I’d bait with nothing but turkeys and would bed them cocksided and where they’d only close 3/4 of the way so they’d get out if they got caught. Unfortunately they’d keep on killing turkeys.
I think y’all are giving way too much credit to these critters. They aren’t mythical creatures.

Two odors close to one another, where the animal walks up to sniff one odor , then another.
One left, one right. Trap or traps in the middle.
Often used with two mouse sized holes or slightly bigger

What?

Am I using to much ?
About the size of a lima bean in a dirt hole than cover it in with dirt.

Thank you

I was at a luremakers stand at an event. He was trying to convince us that for raccoon trapping with cages, he uses 3 different baits and 3 different trailing scents. I thought the same thing, that it was an obsessive amount and results in more usage and sales. I like using more than one but not that many.

I use 3 basic elements when cage trapping coon or skunk. A bait, a visual and a trailing scent. If you have selected a good set up location that method will work on most animals. I dont use much bait, I do like an obvious amount of reinforcement visual (s).

I guess all things being equal I have come full circle to one call lure. I don't use 2 or 3 lures at a set anymore. It doesn't seam to get me any more coyotes than one good lure.

"I saw a werewolf drinkin' a Pina Colada at Trader Vic's and his hair was perfect"

I have 2 lures from a lure maker on this site that I would literally bet my life or years salary on to catch cats. I even have very good success catching coyotes with them and have no clue why. Even went with my son at his place and let him put in the sets and I set the lure on every other set he made and caught there as well. Needless to say, he now uses them. I always use them in conjunction with each other too. Is it just one that works? Have no clue and don’t care. I’ve had too good of success with the combo to just try one or the other. I use them on flat sets, scat sets, and even a dirt hole with just a lure down the hole.

So, wanna be, tell us what they are!

Sierra Mist and Magnum Cat LDC from Mr Jameson.

How’s that for tracking it up and holding them at the set?




To bad it’s gross out. But, that’s what almost a half inch of rain, some snow, and single digits will do.

Boone, that's just a coincidence...lol
Talk about your GUIDING....foot placement.

Not much guiding with 4” of snow and ice over it lol!

It’s icky out up here.

Just a stake punch hole where that black spot is with some lure in it. Backing eliminates real estate and the smell is 100% out of their reach and has to be “earned”.

Thats as important as guiding IMO.

Never ever put the smell where they can (easily) get to it.

I use two for my cat sets, but that's because for an exposed walkthrough, you are trying to draw a cat over the trap. Ill have one lure on one side of the trap, and a different one on the other. Normally a gland lure and curiosity lure. The thinking behind that is the cat will check out the lure on one side, then want to check out the other sent as well which it will have to step on the trap to do so. Cats gets curious and bored quick, two scents keep then interested. The call lure is just to get them in the area of the set, because cats love skunk.

Ive used the same lure on both sides before and have caught cats but stopped after I got a trail cam video of a cat smelling one side for awhile, getting bored, then turning around and leaving.

But for grey fox or coyotes, I've never seen the purpose of more than one lure for flat style sets, and lure and bait for dirthole style sets.

Great info : CAT TRAPPER NV

It can go both ways. But most commercial lures have a number of ingredients, so they already have quite a number of different smells. In theory a top lure should have all the smells it needs without adding more. Theory isn't always reality, sometimes another smell can make the difference. . But on the other hand, the more smells the more chances one of them will trigger avoidance in a wary individual.

Personally I very seldom use more than one lure per set (Oftentimes one lure and scat and/or urine). I will make multiple sets with different individual lures rather than individual sets with multiple lures. Because I am sometimes dealing with wary/educated individuals. But the other way isn't wrong and may produce higher catch percentages per trap if you have a good population of unwary critters.

Bearcat2 you have stated some valid points that I certainly agree with.

Confidence in your whole trapping process is so underrated. I've often wondered if over luring with too much or too many lures at a location is due to lack of confidence in the location the set up or any other combination of things. I always advise customers/trappers to pick a lure, trust your decision and use a bean sized amount and be confident with your set up. Lure is a valuable aide on any trapline but it isn't supposed to be depended on to cover up every other short coming.