Making coon bait....can you over-do-it?

[iowaminker]

Hello.  This will be my first post on this forum.  I have been reading it for awhile now, but had not registered.
Ok, now for my question:
Can you add too many ingredients to a coon bait?
I am going to try a little premade bait this year.  I'm not going to be using a lot of it, since it mainly doesn't gel w/ the type of sets I use.
Back to my question....can you over-do-it, when it comes to what you put into a bait?  I realize you can catch a coon on almost anything, but at times they will not work certain foods or lures, or at least as well as they would other types of foods or odors.  So, if I make a blend of a bunch of different ingredients from fruits to ground fish, along w/ oils, etc.... do you think it might be too much?
Thanks in advance.

[Asa Lenon]

Personally, I think more ingredients in a lure is always better even with a 'coon lure.  There is more than one thing that appeals too and calls animals into a set than one single substance.  The added ingredient may be the one that sparks interest in the 'coon even when he has a full stomach and we don't know which ingredient that might be.   I believe one should keep the added ingredients more subtle so that one does not overpower and nulify the other, otherwise it is a waste of time.  A good example is castor or muskrat musk, it holds attraction to all animals and i've attracted many a coon with that alone.  However, it would be a waste of castor or muskrat musk to overpower these modestly mild ingredients with a powerful chemical fragrance for example.  I used to believe that a 'coon would come to anything because I caught so many of them in canine sets, some scented with plain coyote urine alone.  However, it is a number of my lure customers, who are professional trappers  targeting 'coon in big numbers that convinced me a good multi-ingredient lure, that is made specifically out of known coon calling ingredients, will greatly increase the harvest.  From my observations, its not how many 'coon one harvests but how many they could have harvested with the same amount of traps and effort if an unknown number of 'coon had not passed the set uninterested in the attractor.  Many trappers do not realize this is happening to them on a regular basis.  Ace

[mattjones298]

very insightful post asa, thank you

i would like to put my 2 cents in on beaver castor,  i coon trap by boat on the larger rivers, these rivers have a very high beaver population, i made the mistake of useing a beaver castor lure at some sets last year for coon, they were pocket type sets at the mouth of some smaller creeks. i said lure i meant bait, it was ground up catfish with honey, some sweet anis oil and some beaver castor with alittle shellfish oil.  well the dang beaver got to pushing up mud right on top of my traps, it was funny at first, but even when i switched to plain catfish, the beaver kept it up.  i had never ever had this happen before.  and i aint going to again....matt

[iowaminker]

Asa:  
Thank you very much for your thoughts.  I did not think you could add too many different ingredients, but wanted to pose the question, to be sure.  I guess I hadn't really given much thought to overpowering the main ingredients or other odors, thank you for bringing that up.
Matt:
Thanks for the warning on the beaver problems.  I have very few beaver in my small drainage ditches here, so that is one thing I don't have to contend w/ very much.

[Asa Lenon]

Matt:
Thats interesting about the beaver working the coon bait with beaver castor added.  Its a perfect example that even a little castor goes a long ways in a lure, as the beaver were able to easily detect it even with all of the other ingredients involved in the bait.  Castor is a really mild ingredient in any lure but it can also be intensely dominating and extremely long lasting. It goes to show that to be effective a lure does not have to be so loud it can be smelled by the human nose for a mile.  Castor is a perfect example of one not allowing one ingredient to overpower another if they want the concoction to be most effective overall.  Ace  :grin:

[mattjones298]

asa, i built that mess of a coon bait myself. on a scale of 1 to 10 as a lure maker, i`m a 1, the only lure or bait i make is for coon.  on coyote,cats and fox i learned along time ago i`m better off to buy it from guys like you.  on the coon bait i`m talking about above, i put 4 rounded table spoons of ground dry castor to the gallon.  did i use alittle much??...matt

[Asa Lenon]

Matt:  That sounds about the right amount of castor for any lure formula except beaver lure.  Like I pointed out above, that small amount was enough to attract every beaver along your coon creek even though it was mixed into a gallon of other stronger ingredients.   We humans will never fully grasp the animal worlds ability to smell even the tiniest amounts of anything.  That is why lure making, especially for the canines, can be really touchy.  Ace