Trapping
Baits and Lures
Article from Jan
- Feb 2007 Buckeye Trapper
by Jack
Hatfield
Most of my life I used bait for everything I trapped. As I became
older and wiser, I realized that you didn’t really need
it. There are alternative ways to catch critters besides baiting
them. I use those alternatives. I’ve grown to dislike baits
because they are not as necessary as most trappers believe. I’ve
never been a big believer in lure, even though I’ve used
gallons of it. It’s a form of bait because it’s an
attractor. Most trappers use both – often in conjunction
with each other. I did for many, many years.
Baits and lures work. They put tons of fur on stretchers. They
keep a lot of dealers in business. I sold cases and cases of it
when I was a dealer and a fur buyer. I even made my own, which
I used and sold. It caught critters too. With all that said, how
necessary is it? Can you trap successfully without it? I did and
still do. Trail or blind sets eliminate the need for lure or bait.
That is primarily how I now trap. I don’t need to trap any
other way to catch all of the fur I can handle.
That wouldn’t be true if I trapped canines. You starve to
death if you exclusively set trails for canines. In my younger
days, I took plenty of red and gray foxes in trail sets. I know
several who snare all the coyotes on trails that they can handle.
I’ve snared canines, but hate to use them. They stress the
animal and the fur too much for me. If I can’t foothold
them, I don’t trap them. You need lure for foothold sets.
My lure is natural. I use coyote urine and their droppings. I’ve
caught several hundred using it so I know it is effective. Baits
used at coyote sets produce too many skunks and opossums to suit
me. I seldom catch either using natural coyote “ingredients.”
The trappers in Arkansas often asked me how I was able to stay
away from the thousands of opossums that they had there. I told
them that I was just lucky, as I rarely caught any. Throw a piece
of bait in a dirthole like they do and a “smiley”
will be waiting. When he gets there ahead of the coyote, predictably
your coyote catch will suffer. In my best year I caught 78 coyotes,
17 bobcats, and only three opossums, so I know with that ratio,
natural coyote ingredients tend to scare away opossum instead
of attracting them like chunk bait does (and Arkansas has more
opossums than people by far).
Whenever I look back at my early days of trapping, I have to laugh
at how little I knew. All I knew was bait and lure. It was as
necessary as the traps I used. I used every bait I could get my
hands on. When I fox trapped, chunks of half-rotten groundhog
were my favorite dirt hole bait. I buried it in the ground during
the summer and let it age. I’d put it in glycerine after
digging it up and use a set of tongs or forks to shove it into
the dirt hole. Did I catch fox? You bet! Did I catch skunks, cats,
and opossums? You bet! I caught whatever got there first. I had
no idea that all of that wasn’t necessary. I was taught
to fox trap by one of Pennsylvania’s best at that time.
He was a friend of Russ Carmen. You did what you’re taught
and believe in it as long as it produces fur – which it
did.
I guess you could call me a slow learner because it took several
decades for me to learn all that hard work making bait and using
someone’s “magic” lure weren’t really
necessary. We are products of our educators. Nobody can educate
you as well as you can educate yourself. I learned about natural
coyote ingredients by accident. I went to Arkansas one year to
trap beavers, leaving my coyote gear behind in Ohio. I decided
to trap some coyotes because there were so many and the farmers
demanded that I do it. I had no lure or bait. Necessity is the
mother of invention, so I decided to use coyote feces and urine
as attractors. The results are now history. I only ran a short
line of a dozen traps because I only had two dozen. In two weeks
I took 23 coyotes on my scat and urine. My bait and lure using
days were finished. We do, indeed, become too late smart and too
soon dumb. There is no better teacher than good old on-the-job
training.
I recall taking many old, wise red fox in the glory days of high
fur prices, on a buried skunk. Trapping pressure was heavy then
and fox were wise. You had to know your stuff. Fox shied away
from my fresh dirt, so dirt holes and flat sets were ineffective.
Somebody told me to bury a skunk along their travel way and set
a couple of traps around it. I thought they were jerking my chain,
but they assured me it was an old time set that worked when nothing
else did. I buried a road-killed skunk in a small mound, set two
#2 Montgomery’s by it, and waited. A week passed without
any activity, although I was sure that reds were walking by it
every night. I consulted the old-timer who told me about the set,
and he told me to be patient. The fox would continue to walk by
it until their curiosity got the best of them. He assured me that
sooner or later it would happen because they would just have to
dig to see what was in there. He asked me if the fox bait was
completely covered and I assured him that it was. The old man
was right. On the tenth day I had the biggest red fox I’d
ever seen. He weighted fourteen pounds and was caught in both
traps. That set produced a couple of dozen $75-$80 red foxes for
me in two seasons and I never told a soul about it. It would lose
its effectiveness if everybody used it. It always took at least
a week to hit.
Many years later I caught a skunk in a coyote set in Arkansas
and decided to use it as buried bait. I made a small mound, set
two #2 Montgomery’s, and only waited one night for it to
hit. The next day I had a small bobcat; I was elated. That set
was there another month and produced nothing. Later that season
I caught another skunk on another farm (by the way – skunks
in Arkansas are not very plentiful). I buried the skunk, set my
two traps, and it rained hard all night. I drove to the set on
a four-wheeler in a pouring rain to find that both traps had hit:
The both held skunks. I couldn’t stop laughing. I recall
thinking, “Use a skunk for bait and you shouldn’t
be surprised to catch a skunk.” That was over ten years
ago and is the last time I ever used a buried skunk for bait.
While on the subject of skunks attracting skunks, I remember the
best call lure in the glory days of trapping: Hawbaker’s
600 call lure. You put a few drops up high near your trap and
a fox could smell it a mile away. Its dominant odor was skunk
essence and it was powerful in any kind of weather. If it didn’t
draw a fox to your set, it would draw a skunk. I caught every
skunk within smelling distance and never associated the high numbers
with the call lure. Ohio always seems to have plenty of skunks
and it took a lot of years for me to make the connection. Sometimes
you can be as dumb as a box of rocks. I was.
Nothing beats big, dead baits like cattle, sheep, deer, or some
other big critter during the dead of winter. Food is scarce then
and every coyote in the area will be attracted to the carcass.
That’s when snare-men have a field day. The coyotes make
trails or paths to the carcass, which they use nightly. Such baits
are most effective when placed in a field of high weed because
they become obvious and are easier to hang snares in because they
are kind of like a funnel. Ohio coyotes are smart, but hunger
makes them lose a lot of their smarts. Snares stay effective and
operational in all kinds of weather that would put footholds out
of commission. That’s one reason that Ohio legalized them.
They are a great tool for controlling coyotes, but some Ohio coyotes
are snare-shy and will go around them. Been there and saw it.
When they see pack mates get snared, they associate snares with
danger and avoid them.
Trappers are a gullible lot whenever it comes to lures for the
critters they trap. Some are always looking for that perfect,
irresistible lure that will take every critter that gets near
it. They have no idea that there is no such lure. The only one
that even comes close is pure beaver castor. It’s used primarily
for attracting beavers, but is also attractive to every animal
that walks. Your cat or dog will even find it irresistible. Beaver
castor is it; nothing beats it. I’ve caught every critter
that walks and has fur on it. Use a dab or a spoonful in a dirt
hole for canines and it works. I have no idea why so many animals
are attracted to it, but they are. I grind my castors, mix it
with beaver grooming oil or pure glycerine, and store it in capped
gallon jugs. I usually grind several hundred castors at a time.
The more you have, the better the castor is. It drives beavers
crazy. If there is a better lure, I’ve never seen or smelled
it. Why is it so effective? Only the critters know. Watch how
every animal in an area will visit every beaver lodge there. Their
big attractor is the smell of castor coming from the lodge. It’s
amazing. Coyotes, bobcats, otters, mink, fox, you name it; they
all visit beaver lodges. Check the snow and you’ll see their
tracks.
If you’ve used some lure maker’s lure for years and
gotten the results you wanted, by all means continue to use it.
I know trappers who enjoy using different lures and keeping records
of their results. It’s part of their trapping enjoyment.
How can anyone tell them that they are wrong? They’re doing
what they enjoy. That’s what trapping and life are all about.
Most successful lure makers use tons of natural ingredients in
their lures. They blend them so each one will emit its own odor.
That should make it appeal to most animals. I’d be the last
to tell them that they don’t know what they’re doing
because they do. I’ve had some ask me to try their lures.
I refuse. That doesn’t mean that I don’t believe the
lure won’t work – I know it will. I don’t want
to restrict myself to making sets that require lure. I’ve
had bottles of my own lure for years that I know worked. They
remain unopened because I don’t use them. Someday, if I
decided to use it, it’s there. I don’t need anyone
else’s lure. When I make my own lure, I know what’s
in it and what it will attract. I don’t know that about
someone else’s lures. When it comes to lures and baits,
trappers are unique. We truly are individuals with our own personal
beliefs. That’s the only way to be. Only you know what a
lure or bait does for you. It might not do that for me or some
other trapper. A good lure is like a good wife: You’re comfortable
and at ease with either.
Most baits are used to attract animals that want to eat them.
In the case of canines, that’s not always true. Stink baits
are used so they can dig them up and roll on them, masking their
own scents. Canines rarely eat any bait that they dig up unless
they’re the one who buried it. When you use fish for raccoon
or mink or some other bait, they intend to eat it. The same is
true of apples, carrots, or some other vegetable for muskrats.
Mink generally like to kill their own food. Fresh twigs or sticks
for beaver make great bait if you make them look like another
beaver has cut them. The effectiveness of any bait for food often
depends upon the scarcity of food in the area. That, in turn,
often depends upon the time of winter and the type of weather.
There are also other factors. Some animals will not eat what some
others of its species will. Baiting isn’t always a sure-fire
thing that’ll guarantee you success. Often, the sight of
bait draws an animal to it because it’s curious to see what
it is. I’ve caught many mink in pocket sets atop muskrat
houses baited with apples. The mink wasn’t interested in
eating the apple. It was curious to see what it was. I’ve
done the same with muskrats caught in pocket sets for raccoon
baited with fish – and muskrats aren’t fish eaters.
### Jack Hatfield, 14681 Lisbon Road, Salem, OH 44460
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