Coonduke: Re: prebaiting coon

[trappnman]

early last fall, you mentioned your plan of prebating coon using tires.

What conclusions did you come to?

Did you find it gave you more coon, quicker?

[17HMR]

Im not CD, but I tried it in a small area I trap every year, took the coon in the area in 2 checks that was normaly 5 checks for the aprox same # of coon. I did keep checking 3 more times to see if there were anymore hits and caught just 1 more in the 3 days.

[CoonDuke]

I did not have good luck with it.

The tires placed in good locations produced some coon, but the locations that I wanted to "create" did not pan out.

The problem with it is the coon did not really want to eat the corn. The trail camera showed that. Often the first night 2 or 3 coon would show up and never come back.

The key is finding something they really want to eat. I think if a cheap source of food that is cheap is obtainable it would work.

I think there is too much waste corn and acorns out there for them to hang at my bait stations.

[CoonDuke]

This location is 50 yards behind my house. Caught 5 or 6 coon in this area 2 seasons ago.

This video was from the first night I put the tire there. They never came back to the tire after they ate the dog food I scattered on the ground.

[mustelameister]

Mar 6, 2011 16:05:56 GMT -6 CoonDuke said:

The key is finding something they really want to eat.

That is a very elusive key. And it probably changes as fall turns to winter.

[thebeav2]

I was never a big advocate of pre baiting. In my opinion It's a huge waste of time and bait.
Set on sign and you will catch your target animal. And don't just set ONE trap the animals are In that location for a reason so set heavy and catch them before they move off to other locations. 5 or 6 traps set at a location Is not to many.

There are basically only 3 locations for catching coon and there ALL SEASONAL.

Fall and early winter a local food source. CORN in my area and If you have a good MAST year you will find them In the hard woods.

Once the local food source Is gone they will move to the water. There will always be some coon on the water at all times or at least till It turns hard.

Then when things tighten up they go to denning areas.

So you have 3 trapping seasons for coon and two of them are food orintated and one Is a comfort zone.

Find these three areas, set heavy and your going to put up large numbers of coon.

[trappnman]

the trouble with stating that corn and mast are the foods of choice and set heavy there, is that in areas like mine- both heavy corn AND heavy mast crops, there is SO much food, that there are no real concentrations.

The closest to real concentrations are when crops like wild plums, etc are ready- in such, I do find heavy concentrations- or rather, the past sign of heavy concentrations. Trouble with small desired food sources, is that they come and go quickly, often in a night or two.

you will never be able to play catch-up- one needs to be ahead of the game- and thats often easier to say, than do.

-----------------------------------

I do agree with there are a couple of "seasons" on coon.

Early season- the fat buildup time. Starting before trapping season starts, and ending when cold weather first hits. I don't find a whole lot of difference in land or water at this time insofar as targeting setting different. They still are in the "eat til ya roll" mode.

and I find most if not all hotspots, are the obvious ones- ie corn field bordering a creek, etc.

Winter season: I do think beav is right about a comfort zone, they will indeed be concentrated in denning areas. But they do move- quite a bit actually when conditions are right. And those conditions involve temps, and travel ease.

for example, this past winter, our first snow, early, was 2+ feet of light fluffy snow, that stayed. Temps were just fine- but coon aren't going to move in deep fluffy snow. Put a crust on that snow however, and you will be surprised at how much coon do move in winter. At this time of year, I firmly believe that you DO need to change up some in setting, and thats primarily by changing the attractant, or more accurately emphasizing one more than the other. Coon moving in winter, from all I can see and conclude, simply are not interested a whole lot in food per se.

Spring season: hunger- pure and simple. Its not hard to tell when this occurs, you start catching coon in odd spots, in unbaited underbank rat/mink sets- sets that caught no coon all winter long. At this point in time- coon are working the banks, working the creeks hard- searching and looking for any food they can find.

Then is the time to resume baiting hard with food baits.

----------------------------------------------

I've not done much prebaitng either, but to be fair, never really made an all out effort to do so.

I do think it could work, if the right bait was used- and what that is- ?

I'd think something like moist dog food, or cat food, maybe with molasses or something else sweet added, might be such- but then cost becomes prohibitive.

[gcs]

I'm sure it depends on availability with the corn, "here" corn put out for deer will attract coon, LOT'S of coon, especially if it's spiked with molasses.
I've always thought cheap dog food soaked in fryer grease would be a big draw, but too expensive for our quality of coon unless you could get broken bag and sweepings practically for nothing.

[jsh0927]

CD try putting 2 packets of grape or cherry kool aid in with the corn. You can pour water over it so it mixes or just let it rain. I train my hound pups of these and 50 lb bag of corn in tire last about a week at my spots. My tires are set up a little different. I use a tire still on the rim and using a 2" hole saw drill about 5 or 6 holes in the side wall. Maybe you tried this. Just a suggestion, it works.

[cmr2]

Has any one tried mixing baits together to make some of the costly last longer ,i.e. corn,fish pellets,dog food, hard molases,or any combo there of ?

has any one tried fish pellets?
seems giving corn in the farm country would not be productive ,being its every where not much draw, putting something that is not in the area would create a draw and have them comeing back,

[CoonDuke]

Tried the grape koolaid and molasses. Didn't make much of a difference.

It did seem the coon liked the corn more once it really soured.

They sure do like dog food though...

[trappnman]

the coon liked the corn more once it really soured.


combine that with how coon love silage- and maybe the thing to do would be to buy silage, and put that out-

[thebeav2]

Just set traps at natural food sources and travel ways and you will do just fine. All this mixing and baiting Is complicating the game. In fact In some states It would be Illegal to do so. Here In WI for sure.

Use The KISS method. KEEP It SIMPLE STUPID LOL