Trapping Bait and Lure

[go_deep]

2 part thread. With trapping season coming to a close, outside of predator management, I thought it would be interesting to hear about bait and lures that have worked well for people over the years, for species specific critters.
What's some of your commercial go to baits and lures? Species specific.
Do you have a homemade bait or lure recipes you'd be willing to share? Species specific.

For bait I primarily use raw beaver meat for everything, with good success.
I tried cans of tuna with small hole punched in the top this year, and caught a couple Marten, enough catches that I'll do that again.
I made a homemade bait for mink this year from rotten raw chicken and fish oil. Everytime we had chicken I'd just take the fat trimmings and random raw scraps and put them in a ziplock sandwich bag in our freezer. Once the bag was mostly full I put the chicken scraps in a clean pickle jar with about a tablespoon of fish oil, left it out in the shed for about 2 months, flipped it every once and awhile. Caught several mink with it, going to make more and maybe try it on baited sets for coyotes and bobcats.

For lures I've just had great luck with skunky lures mostly. Nitro from Trapper Arts is #1, hellfire is a very close second. I've caught everything you can think of, except bobcats with these lures.
Had good luck with Marten magic, for Marten this year.
Tree climber and Violator 7 lures I did catch a few raccoon, weasels, and skunks on, but the other traps with the same lures sat pretty quite. Thinking I might pair those together, they're just not as strong so night not be pulling critters from very far.

 

[Fetty Wapiti]

Grape jelly mixed with hell fire is marten medicine for a lure. Bait a 110 or a snare set with sucker chunks, cat food, or beaver meat. We caught over 50 marten a few years back running a double snare set on a horizontal branch. Bait was a can of cat food with holes drilled in it nailed to the banch between the two snares.

Never trapped anything but marten and bobcats, cuz the other critters around here aren't worth enough for the work.

 

[Nine Banger]

Canines (Coyote, Red Fox): (Bobcat are incidental for me and released; they will hit this stuff but at a very low rate)

Bait:
- Hiawatha Valley Predator Bait
- fresh beaver or whole rats work well, not convenient or consistently available tho

Lure:
- Canine Force
- Gusto
- Hellfire

Next year:
- I'm going to try using ground venison and Dobbin's Bait solution at the start of the season to see how it goes and not buy any Hiawatha Valley Predator bait if its off to a good start. I was introduced to this at a workshop this year and got a little bit to take home and it seems like a cheap way to make a ton of bait if it works. We used beaver meat at the workshop but we have tons of venison.
- I met the guy that makes Raw Dog lures. I'll pick some up when he has some because he traps an hour or so from me and says his stuff is tuned for our AO.

Nest Raiders (Raccoon, Opossum):

Bait:
- cat food with vanilla and liquid smoke...I used to make a big deal out of mixing it in a bowl, now I just dump it in small containers with a funnel and put a little bit of the vanilla and smoke in and shake it up

Lure:
- Hershey's strawberry syrup...a dab on the mouth of the DP and then I squeeze and fling my arm out into the road the trap is on to make a line across the road to make sure they hit the line if they are cruising down the road.
- trying Glowcoon....hard to quantify if it increases catches

I don't trap other furbearers because I have no access to them at this time.

 

[Tick]

Trap a couple months in the spring every year just to reduce numbers. Target primarily coyotes and coons. Occasionally bobcats and lion. I use RK Predator Plus or Mark June Widowmaker bait. Tried my own with deer livers and mice. Didn't take long to figure out that I couldn't make a better one.

I use O Gorman lures. Long Distance Call, Government Call, and Plenty Coyote for coyotes. Powder River Cat Call with the Long Distance Call for cats. Fish oil and cat food in a DP for coons.

 

[devildog.34]

Keg Creek Nelson bait
Homemade bobcat bait: using ground tainted bobcat meat, add fish oil, fox urine and beaver castor.

Cat lure: Wayne Derricks Pecos Valley Cat Call.
Homemade LDC: Skunk essence with vasoline

 

[mi650]

Coons are all I've ever trapped, marshmallows & peanut butter work great!

The problem is bears like them too! More than once I've gone out to find my trap ripped out of the ground and thrown 20 yards.

 

[go_deep]

Coons are all I've ever trapped, marshmallows & peanut butter work great!

The problem is bears like them too! More than once I've gone out to find my trap ripped out of the ground and thrown 20 yards.

Guess you got a clue in on where to bear hunt!

 

[mi650]

Guess you got a clue in on where to bear hunt!

Yep, 150 yards behind my house! Just haven't been drawn for a tag yet.

 

[TREE ‘EM]

I make my own lure with tinctured castor, tonquin, mint, honey, bacon grease, and a wee bit of skunk essence.
It works on almost everything, everywhere.

For baits, It’s hard to beat fresh beaver meat for most of the year, and sun rendered skunk meat when it’s below 10*

 

[Yooper906]

Mainly use beaver for my bobcat, fisher/marten sets. I’ll throw in some muskrat and venison every now and then.

For lure/call:

I use skunk junk, I use to use hellfire but it didn’t last as long as skunk junk.

Treeclimber in my marten/fisher sets

Then cat sets I use a local trappers concoction.

 

[MallardSX2]

Cat food in DP coon traps with a solocup slapped on top.

Gusto ldc for fix/coyote

 

[EdP]

One of my favorite baits was a mix of fish oil and shellfish oil. I would take dried corn cobs from farm fields where only the cobs were left and cut them into about 1" lengths and soak them in the mix. Worked for coyote, otter, coon, fox, bobcat. I even caught a few possum with it!!!

 

[204_ruger]

I started using Apple Road Predator bait and lures. I buy the bait by the gallon. Cheaper that way. And the lure in 2 oz jars. I also use MB and Dunlaps i have for yrs.

 

[Truaxdw]

Red fox in the Virginia area
Leggett's K9 exciter fox #1 and fox #2 it’s a gland based lure, cuts down on bycatch.
I picked up this set from the trapper’s post. A piece of three-quarter inch gray PVC conduit with a cotton ball and a squirt of lure. No dirt hole to fill up with water. Or non-target animals stealing bait.

 

[cq0302]

For coyotes beaver meat, jawbreaker, and gusto.

Beaver a fresh piece of willow

Coon, a marshmallow in the bottom of a dog proof with some fish oil

 

[go_deep]

Grape jelly mixed with hell fire is marten medicine for a lure. Bait a 110 or a snare set with sucker chunks, cat food, or beaver meat. We caught over 50 marten a few years back running a double snare set on a horizontal branch. Bait was a can of cat food with holes drilled in it nailed to the banch between the two snares.

Never trapped anything but marten and bobcats, cuz the other critters around here aren't worth enough for the work.

The grape jelly and hellfire mix, can you elaborate more on that?
What's the mix ratio, like 50/50?
Is it purely for scent lure only placed above the trap?
Or is it scent and bait in one and goes behind a trap?