Originally Posted by
Tripplebeards
Good tips!
I only hit it hard one season to be honest with you and that’s because I got drawn for a bobcat tag. Maybe because I was trapping for bobcat and doing things differently is why the coyotes and Fox stay away. I did have fox tracks come up to one of my sets, but it didn’t commit and walk all the way into the hole so I backed out my traps another foot or so back from the bait holes.
I boiled my traps till all the grease came off then I let them sit for a day or two to get a little orange rust on them. I then dipped them in boiling pot of water with floating wax. I’ll have to try wax paper over the top! I just put pillow stuffing from Walmart under my pans to keep from freezing up along with sprinkling salt under the trap in the bedding area to keep from freezing. I laid I good layer of salt, then peat moss over the top. Then I placed my trap on top of it. Maybe the salt had a smell? Then I bedded the taps with 6” nails on each side to keep from moving. From there I covered with peat moss till flush with the group. Lastly I used a wire basket and graded the dirt I dug out of the hole over the pear moss to look like the trap was never there. My bait and scents used was all bobcat stuff. The bait used was sardines with cat nip. I used 2 different bobcat specific scents. I did catch the biggest raccoon I’ve seven 2ce in my foot holds. It chewed its toes off the first time in a duke 650 and got away. Caught it a day later in a duke 550. I never caught anything else accept for my first Bobcat a few weeks later…beside a trespassing farm dog. I also only have five traps. Three duke 550’s and 2 duke 650’s. So not a lot of coverage. I only have two or three raccoon cuffs as well. I need more. We had some nuisance beavers, coming up in the yard last year eating our trees that hold our bank up. I had fun and put each one of the Duke 650s on both sides of the tree that they were chewing on. It was trial and air experiment and they ended up killing the tree before I could get them all but I caught seven in a week and a half! The biggest one was a pound and a half shy of 90 pounds.
I saved a bunch of beaver meat to use for bait, but I didn’t get drawn for bobcat again. I would assume that would be a good universal bait if I dug a hole by my trap and shoved some in. I also saved a bunch of the casters which I believe that’s one of the commercial baits that I used for bobcat.
I started seeing bobcat tracks for five years ago on my land for the first time and had one on camera for the first time ever. I knew they always had to be around but I don’t think there was a population ever in my area. It seem like I would get one picture on my trail camera every year. The last couple years I’ve been getting a half a dozen pictures of them each season or more. I was excited to catch one 10 days before season close. It was a front double pad catch! I tubed it and had the hide tanned along with the giant raccoon and a grey Fox I shot one morning while bow hunting that year. They turned out great.