My homade concoctions from stuff around the house are these two:
(1.) I use a lot of cheap sardines, canned mackeral, tuna, etc. that I buy during off-season at dollar stores for practically nothing. I always get the stuff packed in oil only, too. (I bet your frozen fish would work as a substitute here quite well) Then I dump several of the cans of fish into a large mixing bowl, add about a cup of salt (helps preserve a little, antifreeze, etc.), some honey, some strong limburgher cheeseb (or not...works fine with or without this smelly stuff...I mostly use it as a change up odor), then crack open 3 or 4 eggs and dump them in (no shells, just inside contents only), and 1/2 bottle of anise oil (this too can be omitted if you don't have it on hand). Mix it all up, let it stand at room temperature for a day or so, then jar up only what you can use in a few days on the line (use it fresh) and freeze or refridgerate the portion you don't use right away for later.
(2.) Not sure why this works, but had good luck with it at pocket sets last year...sort of a "school lunch" approach in my opinion. Only ingredients were Bananas, peanut butter, and grape jelly. Mixed it all up and used it fresh. Mice and squirrels worked the sets when I tried it on dryland coon sets, but the coons really liked it at pocket sets along the creek banks. I added anise oil scent when the weather turned cold and it still worke pretty well on coons. Caught 1 muskrat too at a pocket set baited with this but couldn't tell if it was the set or the scent that attracted it.
(3.) Bacon grease, honey, anise oil, and any fish chunks or pieces is also a pretty good coon combination for me.
I rarely buy any commercial coon baits anymore and use almost exclusively the above baits for them. I do buy commercial coon lure though and use it at some sets and not at others.
Hard to beat a good fox or bobcat gland lure for coons at dryland sets later in season, too.
