Bait meat - geography specific??

I was discussing with a bait maker last night on some bait solutions and concoctions. He commented that he had NEVER(yes, used all caps. ha) had success with beaver meat for coyotes. He indicated anything is better than beaver meat for coyotes. I guess it got me thinking....are coyotes that "edgy" that if they don't come across a food source often that they will shy from it vs deciding to eat it?? I know we don't have tons of beavers swimming around here in cattle country(SC Iowa), but I was still a little shocked by his experiences and now I'm second guessing if I am wasting my time trying to use my beaver meat in a predator bait. Is it a better option where there are more beavers and coyotes come across them more often??

Would I be better off trying to catch some muskrats once season opens vs using the beaver meat? I guess I don't want to go through the effort if I'm starting off sub par. I just assumed the way that some folks like to keep and eat the meat themselves that it would be a good option. I also note that there are not a lot of commercial baits that use beaver as a base.

Any thoughts?

There's some regionality certainly, and by regionality I mean like a 50-100 mile area at times. I wouldn't give it it up without testing. If you don't test you'll never know. Just don't limit yourself.

I have used all the Major brands over the years now and they all have work on coyotes for me. The only base meat that I have not used was coyote it self. The BEST thing for taking coyote is "LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION"

Ive tested and compared a lot of bases and ingredients over the last couple of years. I will say I've never tested beaver. With this testing it makes me start wondering how much real testing is going on out there even amongst some lure makers. I wonder if they just mix some know ingredients together and if it catches coyotes its good. Ill give a couple of examples. Take beaver tail oil or even castor, so many times I hear how good it is for coyotes. My testing has shown me beaver tail oil has marginal attractiveness, castor is slightly better but still doesn't compare to sac oil or some other top shelf ingredients. Another is bobcat meat, by itself it is very marginal from what I've seen but with good ingredients it can catch coyotes. I will say I only test in my area.

It could be. I could see a bait or lure being too "exotic". Vanilla extract is a great deer attractant, but older deer and bucks are know to be spooked by it since it's not something natural to them. Domestic animal meat like beef doesn't always get good results fast, but for me cheap chicken still works good for fur bearers. Why? Perhaps the predators have attacked people's chickens before and are familiar with the meat. It makes sense to me, I mean when does an animal kill a cow? A fox or coyote or any predator coon, fisher whatever is probably more likely to come across a chicken so maybe that's the reason for that preference. I could see why the coyotes in your area wouldn't like beaver as a meat if it wasn't common. They want to stick with whats normal for them, I suppose. Deer, porcupine, groundhog, bobcat, and canned mackerel are all meats that people in my area have caught coyotes on, deer and groundhog seems to be the most popular though, I see it working well because of how often a coyote comes across those 2 animals, so they probably like them and wouldn't' want to pass up the chance to eat one.

I have had best results with horse meat baits and so far I have not seen a single horse in the wild. I am not trapping farms or dead pits either. Bobcat meat is my least successful. If I were to rate in my area from testing and trapping condition it would go:
Horse
Deer
Muskrat
Beaver
Nice
That is for coyote.
Bobcat seem to go for the Beaver more often.

Everything likes beaver in my experience. Even if its not common in your area its smell forms a pleasant curiosity lure IMO.

Bait meat avoidance geographically. I would say yes, but once you add some other ingredients to a meat base it may get attention. I remember Major Boddicker saying in some areas dead pigs get gobbled up but take that same dead pig and drop it off in the middle of the sand hills and it will go untouched.

I would think the cold the region you are in and the hungrier the coyotes are the less particular they are

Population density is also a consideration. The higher the density population of the animal, the more competition there is for food.

I'm with you on that Paul, the the other side of the coin is large populations also usually means abundant food supply to support predator populations. We have good coyote population here and judging by the fat on our coyotes most dont miss too many meals. Because we have lots of coyotes a less attractive formulation can look better that it is so i try to do a lot of side by side testing to determine a preference among our population. Also you can get a feel after enough testing about how intense and the #s of responses what is maybe ok and what might be a winner.

I don’t have the numbers most on here have, but I don’t see why beaver wouldn’t work. I’ve caught them on commercial horse and bobcat baits. I’ve caught them on quail, dove, and duck remains. I’ve caught them on fresh and slightly tainted bobcat meat. I guess the real test would be to have multiple sets at each location with different baits and see what produces. Right now it’s just set on sign and alter baits. Seems whatever I use will catch coyotes, just don’t have a lot of coyotes to catch, but the next road kill beaver I see will be picked up and used.

and in my nationwide customers experience.

and ESPECIALLY, if you chose to use a commercial, tried and true, bait solution. I think the solution is more important than the base.

solutions like Jamesons or Blackies or Weisers or Dobbins or Locklears or Northlands or Marsyadas, etc, etc.

Thanks for the conversation. Lots of stuff to ponder....

I agree that a good bait solution could catch coyotes on a cotton ball. But why wouldn't you want to use the most attractive base that you can. If your base doesn't provide an attraction or very little why not just use the bait solution like a lure(which it is) by its self.Did you test and compare bases to determine what was most attractive to use in your commercial baits? Or was it based on an availability thing? I do wonder if coyotes preferences are that regional? I like horse a lot and even here in ranch country I doubt very many coyotes eat much if any horse.

I agree lots of stuff "works" to catch some coyotes but there's some stuff that works a lot better than others. After all a corn cob works but we all use toilet paper for a reason. Lol

Your base should always be an attractant itself. If it's not attractive, it's then just a bulk filler for what would otherwise be a low power lure.

Just remember, bait/lure making is a bit/miss thing that can take years and a lot of money,depending on ingredients, to come up with something good.

I've never had success with beaver for coyotes. Beaver carcass's that I throw out are usually never fed on either until after long periods of deep snow and cold...other wise they are ignored. Another bait I seen refusals on is store bought chicken.
What works as my primary baits are deer liver, deer lungs and deer meat scraps. All natural foods for local coyotes, especially after gun season when they have been actively feeding on gut piles and unrecovered deer.

Snaring hunting property's (lower edge of the Canadian shield) using beaver as bait I put it in the thickest stuff I can find, coyotes/fisher/fox come in for it. Using the same bait in agricultural areas they will not touch it in heavy cover, needs to be in the open. Only about 50 miles between areas but a big change in geography. Obviously the animals have different comfort factors between the two and the same bait needs to be deployed in different ways.

I’ve never had much success with beaver or ‘rats.

If I had to rank my top three....

Deer
Horse
Bobcat

I got a freezer full of burro. Some of the old timers say it’s real good.

Boone
I ask because I trust your experience and knowledge with coyotes, when you rank bobcat as #3, are basing that off of it in a finished formulation or off its attractiveness by itself, or both?
Thanks

Every time I throw a beaver out in the field, its gone by morning. The coyotes here love em.

I'm a lure guy, reason? a well formulated lure contains all the triggers and exploits their natural instincts.

Based off just the meat in its pure form.

I figure if it’s meat they’re used to eating or want to eat, than I can’t hardly screw it up in a prepared bait or lure.

Which has always perplexed me on how effective horse has always been. I can’t imagine many coyotes out there have actually had the opportunity to eat horse, so it has to have a very alluring smell to make it so effective.

Same goes for bobcats. Especially for coyotes that have never seen or smelled a bobcat.

Deer on the other hand, is a mainstay for many coyotes. They’re used to it, raised on it, etc. I can drag a deer and a cow into the same spot and as long as I can keep em in deer at that spot, the cow will melt away.

Thanks for your response. Ive used your bait and lure and I bet you dont screw too many formulations up.

How many predators road hunt and how many deer are consumed along the highway?

Scott

A lot of them.
I've always said that 'deer' is the best 'natural' bait for trapping canines in winter conditions.
It is for snaring anyway !
Especially when it is used in bulk.
Here groundhog works very well, as does skunk rendered down.
I personally haven't had great success using beaver, ground or otherwise, on coyotes or foxes. although it does seem to have an attraction to bobcats.

I'm going to try some deer meat with nothing else this year. It sure is a staple around here. They definitely tear down the deer here and quickly. While not exactly natural the one meat I haven't seen mentioned is pork. At least here in Nebraska the hog lots are a draw for coyotes for miles. I've seen where they've dug down 2-3 feet in compost piles and drug whole hogs out to eat every night before here. I used straight pork liver as a base and man it can really get the coyotes going. Prepared baits are just simpler/cheaper than me messing around with things anymore. I really do want to try straight deer specifically right after our deer season when it becomes a staple for our predators.

Out of the 33 coyotes we caught and collared 8 of them were road killed when they were working road killed deer.

In my opinion muskrat Is what's on every ones menu when It comes to wild critters. Even muskrats.

Agree with ScottPhillips & LT GREY
I use Deer meat in my area.

I get 'Deer Dust' from local processor (for Free). Deer Dust is the meat dust from band saw. It's garbage to the processor. It's gold to me.
Ready to use, Free, no skinning, chopping or grinding.
Used fresh or mixed with non-freezing agent or mixed with enticing ingredient(s).

Deer Dust, fresh, nothing added-


Canines have to work set longer to get every morsel or crumb.

Hern that is a fantastic idea.
Jim

Wade, ive been using pork trimmings for a long time. Instead of buying pork chops we buy whole loins and cut/process our own chops. I trim all the fat and save the trimmings. Either fresh frozen, or a little canning salt and cube the fat trimmings to about 2" pieces. Its been a great bait for dirtholes around here.
Neighbor guy processes his own deer and saves a bucket of trimmings for me too. Nothing beats deer around here as you are well aware.
Jim

I think that horse is the best meat option for canines. Horses are everywhere in this country, either wild or domestic, so it’s familiar to most critters. Economically you can’t find cheaper meat, unless you’re getting free scraps like some have said. You can go to any auction house and get an 800-1000 pound horse for almost nothing. I’ve seen em go for as little as ten bucks. I’ve had great luck with horse meat on coyotes and fox in Montana and in Nevada.

I’m going to test that. Around here there are areas where there isn’t a muskrat within 200 miles, if muskrat and beaver works there it would really debunk the geographical relevance theory.

I believe every area is different and it never hurts to try something different. I grew up in PA and trapped on a farm that had hogs and sheep. The fox and yote wouldn't touch a hog but would devour the sheep. Up here in AK it is the total opposite, for me anyhow.
The same holds true with skunk. Down in the lower 48 there are many lures that have skunk in it for the fox and yote and many people connect with those lures, up here I have had just the opposite experience, they smell skunk do a 180 and haul butt.
Nothing ventured nothing gained. Hope you connect!

This comment should be etched in the trapping gospel/bible. Horse meat hands down catches coyotes. Bobcat is the same, but it is perplexing how effective horse meat is. I do have 5 gallons of (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) meat that I can't wait to get out this year. Will be interesting to see how the coyotes react to it.

Thats interesting. We have way too many wild hogs here and you’d think they’d be a staple of coyotes diet, but based on hogs we’ve killed and dumped with a camera on them, all we get are buzzards and an occasional hawk. A deer however will be picked clean by coyotes in less than 24hrs in some places. Of course I don’t get to trap those places, lol.

Quick test for you to run on a bait base: Take that meat base and throw it out to your dog. If he eats it immediately, it's probably a great bait that would work for other canines.