Originally posted by hornharvester:
A guy I know told me he has great success with DP traps. He said the secret is to use a loud bait or lure to call them in. He told me to mix up cheap mackerel or creek minnows and clams in a blender, divide in half then add enough cornmeal to make dough balls. Use the balls in the DP's. Take the other half and set it out and let it get loud...or real stinky...LOL He said smear the load bait up on a tree so the wind will carry the scent to call the coon in. I only have one DP so have tried this yet but he says you can catch a woods out of coon in a matter of days. h.h.
I've heard and read two schools of thought on the DP's for coon. One, is the fish, or fish oil for bait. That is what I tried first. I took leftover gizzard shad (stinky suckers) and used them. Also tried tuna/salmon based cat food. Had limited success with those. The other school of thought is a overwhelming sweet smelling lure, such as sorgum molassas, or maple syrup. I used marshmello's with a commercial sweet smelling lure also. Basically, limited success. I know I was being robbed by mice on occasion with the marshmello/sweet type lure.
I had two DP's sit along a tile ditch for 4 weeks, with fresh coon tracks by there all the time. They ignored them. I know I could have caught them in steel traps. Same with one I had in an old barn. I died my DP's black just like the rest of my traps. Talk is to put some color on them for eye appeal. I used tin foil, and covered the tops of the DP. Still didn't work. I figured out the BIGGEST part of setting up on coyotes is get the trap on the up wind side of where you expect the coyote to travel. That made a big difference on how many times a coyote worked my sets. Maybe I should try the same with the DP's and coons.
