Any of you guys ever think of something that you never read before and tried?

One I came up with was an on the spot idea many years ago.

I dug a trench on a sandbar Threw a chunk of fish in the bottom..then I built a roof over it laying down sticks and leaves and then putting sand on top..
I kept the ends open big enough for a 120… and to my surprise,,, I actually caught mink with it,,, even a double once,,, first and only time I’ve ever done it.

I eventually made a few using 160s and I did catch a few raccoon,, but for the most part they wouldn’t poke their head down inside..it seems to work better for mink.

Yes, in 1971 I was 25 years old and I developed a dirt hole set I later named the Disco Dirt Hole Set which can be viewed on my Utube channel. You can find a reasonable facsimile of my set in James Lucero’s book the “Master Wolfer” on page 33. He calls his set the JL Dirt Hole set.

Yes a double dirt hole for coyotes. Never have really gave it a name. Got the idea from trying to come up with a dirt hole set that takes advantage of coyotes wanting to work the set from a slight angle instead of straight on and use only on trap instead of two covering both angled approaches.

back in the eighties,tin foil on the trap pan in a shallow running crick for coon.maybe someone else did it to, but pretty sure i came up with that on my own,as i was pretty young and trapped by myself

Every time I have come up with something I think is original, I’ll find out someone else has been doing the same thing. So no, I cannot say that I’ve come up with any new sets. New to me maybe but not new to the trapping world. Sometimes a new to you set is just intuitive based on the location and animal behavior. I think that’s where most new sets or variants of existing sets originate. It’s a good bet someone else has had the same idea.

Yes my fisher and marten set in straight up and down tree using just Conibear,bait,lure,evergreen bows,and wire,cable

Trapping in Mississippi some years ago my sets were gettinget covered up rain and the bait- lure would wash away or the bait hole filled with water. I'd seen where coyotes would mark trash soda cans bottles ext.
I would rake up a small dirt pile and bury a baited can or bottle with bait in the top of the mound with th trap placed in front of the opening. Not sure when the pipe dream set came around put the set was the same idea.

Every time i think i do, i get on the stupid internet and find out it's old news, lol. I've been using ole seldoms disco set and didn't even know it.

By golly it’s a killer set ain’t it? Some years ago a friend of mine who lives down by Lagrange IN liked it so much that he asked if he could demo it at that year’s Minkoberfest which he did!

Along the river bank where there are beaver and I'm trapping coon, I will lure a DP on the high bank with castor. Then create a slide and guard it with a snare/trap for beaver. Catch one of each species at the same set site.

After watching this thread awhile I feel compelled to explain how I developed my Disco Dirt Hole Set. Yes, it was 1971 and fox $$ had jumped from $8/avg in 1970 to a $16/avg in 1971 and to put it realistic terms, Dow welders were making less than $5/hr at that time so fox were worth some $$ and lots of people were trying to trap them! I had been missing some fox at my typical dirt hole set, a set EVERYBODY was using at that time here and still are from what I see on videos btw. I felt I needed to change lures(which I did going to Arnold’s #2) but I needed to make a different type set as well.

I knew the standard dirt hole set did NOT resemble a fox diggings so I dug a hole and piled the dirt in front of it as I’d seen fox do. I’d been seeing where fox had been coming into my old set from the side so with a pile of dirt in front of the hole, where else would a fox step to work the hole and feel comfortable approaching? Off to the downwind side so thats where I bedded my trap. When I used it the first time I could see immediately I was on the right track, a hole and a pile of dirt in front!!!! Where was the fox going to step to work the set?? After that 1st season Of using my new set I could tell you which foot I was going to catch depending on if my trap was perpendicular to the hole or back between the hole & the pile of dirt!! The very same principle held true with coyotes when they moved into my territory, made no difference!
Now you know the rest of the story!!!

Intresting Seldom. The principles you used to develop your set are very similar to mine. My set is designed for them to come in from either side. My winds here aren't too consistent and swirl in a lot of places so i cant be sure which will be the downwind side. And i dont have to block off one side thus leaving the set more open which i think can help with coyotes.

I found that I never had to block off the upwind side of the set, left it wide open and never saw a refusal that was forced to the upwind side EXCEPT once when I had an ice puck over my trap forcing the coyote to circle the set and work it from the upwind side. It wanted what was in the hole bad enough with 1st sniff downwind to cone around and dig the hole. A beautiful example of “I need it-I want it-I gotta have it!”

I need it, i want it, i gotta have it makes a difference doesn't it

Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!

Read an article in I believe Outdoor Life or maybe the Scout magazine Boy’s Life about a similar set. This would have been mid to late 70s. The trapper used silver tensile wrapped around a stick with a trap on both sides of the tide. It apparently was to mimic minnows swimming against the tide.

It sure does work Seldom, and like you, the real fox and coyote diggings look nothing like the standard dirt hole. But there's no denying they work. I try things on my dogs, lol. I have one now that i dig a half moon trowel in the dirt and put a small hole on each side with bait and lure. I know dogs aren't coyotes but they worked it in a way that i never would have caught one.

Yes, I did twice.
First was a variation on a run pole set I used for bobcat. Demonstrated it at the OTA Rendezvous at Waldo Lake.
2nd was the way I make a KORO Rodent trap work for trapping spotted skunks.

"The Possum Puke Set"
I am certain that this set has never been published.
Me and my trapping partner, each 13 years old, set off to run our long line after supper.
My partner was habitual food inhaler. Never chewed it, just heaved it in and swallowed like a coon dog.
We had spaghetti that evening.
We got to our first trapping site and set a #1 victor longpring under a crabapple tree. We had read about how persimmon trees draw raccoons from miles away, but we never seen a persimmon tree before. Close enough we thought.
After the trap was set, my partner bent over and wretched up his dinner that he had wolfed down. It landed in the snow and looked just like it did an hour earlier on his dinner plate.
With our longline completed (we only had the one trap) we headed back on an arduous journey back to the house, across the street.
After a sleepless night in anticipation, we headed back out at first light.
There was possum tracks everywhere, but no possum. There was however, no sign of the spaghetti either, not even a pink spot.
We were clearly onto something big, something fame worthy. We were going to be the next Jerimiah Johnson.
My partner went on to join the Army and was a cook for twenty years. I went on to college and became a professional trapper. That excursion sticks in my mind as the beginning of the rewarding journey I have been on over the last 55 years and counting.