as i haven't caught anything but a cat it is right next to a creek in side a old concrete pipe where there is alot of coon poop what is wrong why havent i caught anything please give me suggestians on what to do different
Return to Lifesize Mammal Taxidermy Category Menu
Try a can of sardines for bait... Cats love em' so do coons.
James,
Right you are.
The animal control people around here use nothing else.
I read a post a couple days ago on this and Tuna was suggested.
I'm sure that racoons aren't that fussy.
BTW Ham, you might end up catching a lot more cats!
Whenever anyone uses corn bait to trap pigs here in the Lonestar state.......they catch more raccoons than pigs. Set up a night vision game camera on a feeder at night and you will film a dozen raccoons to every deer that wanders along. Now I am talking about feeder corn, and not the creamed or boiled stuff in cans.
I don't know about apples as bait, but coons eat them. Sounds like your trap is located where coons once passed, and probably still do. Sardines will work, but mash them up real good to make a paste. The reason I like to use tuna is that I eat it too. Mix canned tuna with cooked oatmeal or grits to enlarge the mass. A Teaspoon of that slop is more than enough to bait a trap.
After waging war on suburban raccoons at several places I have lived, I am convinced that they will eat darn near anything. Fish scents, though seem to draw them better than anything else.
Try this: Make a drag by putting some Tuna fish or sardines into a mesh net bag. Tie a string to the bag and drag it out from your trap entrance for twenty feet on each side. Coons will hit the scent trail and be led to your baited trap. Sometimes coons have trails that lead to and from a foraging area. They usually just move along those pathways like commuters going to and from work. Unless there is a reason for them to stop, they don't. Give 'em a reason, and see what happens. If you are using feeder corn, a handful trickled out to each side will work just as well.
You put out visual bait like corn and youll catch nontarget animals, thats any trappers number one no-no. Scent and location is the key. Also, season. Depending on where you live, coons might well be layed up for days at a time with winter weather.
You wanna catch most coons that venture by, but no cats? Use either a gland based fox lure or anise based coon lure, but no bait. Coons like, cats dont. Wanna go cheaper? Dig out a pocket set, no lure or bait, just a trap at the base of the pocket just under the water. Definitely no cats then.
But isn't this the same kid that had a cage trap? I want to see a hole set with a cage in it. Sight baits are fine as described for cage traps. I've been trapping all my life, still do. I wouldn't use a sight bait for a set trap, but I figure that whatever I catch in a cage trap can be sent on it's way. I would never use a cage trap to catch coons......or cats.......in the first place.......well, cats are not set on their way.
Sardines will get them everytime Ham, coons or garbage rippin', small game killin', stray cats. works on my back porch!
I have trapped coon with oreo cookies and canned peaches here in illinois. They love the sweet stuff and cats i don't think would really go for the bait. Just a little something that works for me folks ! Good luck !
Bradlee
I saw nothing mentioned of cage traps. Heck we use 220s and 5 gal pails here anyway, unless we do pocket sets with coils for mink and coons. Id put the scent or bait smeared on the underside of the top of the trap, still no visual, and Id still use the two types I described.
I don't disagree with you about catching coons. When I say that I still trap, I don't mean that I run a trap line. Haven't done that in years. I do trap specifics for the museum exhibits. I do that under scientific collection permits, and usually try to trap the mammals or whatever on the demand list in as short a time period as possible. That means few sets, since incidentals are just an administrative pain in the rump when report time comes. A lot of times I use shiny aluminum foil or those fancy laser reflective on the trap pan to catch raccoons, with no scent whatsoever.
Most of my traps are gap spaced by brazing a washer on one jaw to prevent breaking the animal's leg so that incidentals may be treated with an anti-biotic and released. The only indescriminate trapping I do is for rodents, since the incidental skins are usually bagged and sent to repositories for identification and preparation or research purposes.
Maybe I have trapped too many alligators so that sight baiting is welded into my brain. Or maybe my brain is just welded shut.....LOL.
I was just giving the guy some ideas, and enjoying the talk about trapping. I wasnt correcting you or your methods (or anyone elses). Im not too shabby a trapper myself, as most of mine is done in a setting where non-target animals stray. That means those stinkin possums we spoke of on another post, too, lol.
I have trained coonhounds a very long time and when I wanted a live coon I would take my live trap,heres the secret,go get a tootsie roll put it in your mouth chew on it till its soft place it on your trap pan,in the middle,make sure the back of the trap is next to somthing so the coon has to go through the front of the trap,and if there is a coon in the area you will have it. let me know how it works
swamp
use fish
I Have also caught coons and possums on vannalia and chocolate waffers.