Let's discuss eye appeal

[frozentoes]

Maybe that is part of my problem. What does it mean? How can you make a set with more eye appeal?
Aside from my pvc sets, there really isn't any thing special about my sets. I am talking mainly coon here. I make my set and try to leave it as close to original as possible. Am I missing something?
Let's hear what your idea of eye appeal is. Thanks. Mike

[Wackyquacker]

I guess I would define eye appeal as a visual attraction / lure.  A dirt hole is gives eye appeal.  I bleached bone, hanging rib or feather, some wool or cotton in the hole, a blacked stick, lone fence post or just a unique rock or stump that stands out, anything that may cause a critter to wonder over and investigate.  I don't know how important any of these are for coon but I suspect they will improve the set.

[RdFx]

As Wacky says anything that would catch an animals eye would work... WIth coon  i use alot of 160s in boxes and i will put that box right out in the open, (sandbar, top of log)  to make it stick out... In areas of theft i dont do that and rely on loud scent to attract coon.....  For canine appeal  imagine   looking at large open field with  a rock pile or lone tree in ctr... canine will check that out...... now if nothing is out there , go put a bale of hay or  like Wacky mentioned a blackened stick...   Get down to  the eye level of yote and  put something out in field that sticks out.....  Just raking up a pile of grass so it sticks up  from regular level of field is eye appeal... now you can use yr imagination and your eyes and pick things out......  For instance go and stick something out in field now and  put some strong scent on or near and watch for canine  tracks around it and you will  get the idea..

[Asa Lenon]

As RdFx and Wacky already have said, set visibility and eye appeal sort of go together.  For example, a dirt hole set has a visibility factor that many times gives it an advantage over more subttle types of sets.  Now, to add to that, I like to choose set spots that offer even more appeal such as a bright or colorful dirt to cover the set, sets made in reindeer moss that really stand out, sets made in sand that canines love to get their feet in and if for example, a turd was lying near by I might place it at the set for the final eye appeal.  At post sets and flat sets, one might use charred wood as the post for added visibility, curiosity and eye appeal and at flat sets one might use a bleached bone as the eye appeal, as it might be more appealing than just the visibility of a visible grass clump as example. Although I never personally use this method on bobcat, one might use something at the set that moves with the breeze to get the cats attention and pique his curiosity.   I guess to sum it up, one must learn the nature of the animals they trap and take advantage of those traits by incorporating into sets anything that happens to be present that makes the set more appealing to them. Ace :-)

[tabbycat]

:shock: Here is something I've read but not gotten around to trying yet. I read this was good in an area with educated coons or just high pressure. It did seem to me however that this would fall under the category of eye appeal. :shock: Wrap the pan with tin foil & bed or set under water with a soft plastic crawfish glued to it. I've been meaning to get back in an area that I missed a few coons with a bad trap. I figure they'll probly be wary of the same bucket set & since this is along a branch I'll set in a water hole & squirt some crawfish oil in.

                                       Tabbycat Elkins

[Bogmaster]

Eye appeal ,at times is just the fresh dug dirt of a dirt hole or pocket set.
 When constructing a pocket at the edge of the water,I often slick up the pocket with water and my gloved hand.This leaves the set all bright and shiny,especially in clay bank areas.You can do the same thing to an older set and rejuvenate its looks--thus giving it more eye appeal.
 With Beaver,a fresh made mud pie(castor mound) adds the eye catcher,and the lure is your nose catcher.A couple of fresh chewed sticks with their contrasting brightness can be added to the set for a bit more spice.
  Tom

[jim-NE]

Just my two cents on eye-appeal for coons here. I went to majority land sets in recent years but before this latest price boom on the long hairs, about the only consistently paying bread & butter fur in my section of Nebraska is the coon. I prefer to trap coyotes, fox, and cats, but can't deny that if I wanted to cover my expenses while waiting for a decent yote catch I needed to suppliment things with some coons. Easy to catch, high populations, fairly small territories to trap for each local population, etc. Just always made sense to me. Problem was that initially I tried to land trap coons like I tried to land trap coyotes, and mostly because I consistently took a high percentage of coons in my coyote sets, and vice-versa. I scaled back on my trap size to no more than a #2 longspring or coil maximum to be easier on coon catches (both still too big for coons, in my opinion, but was OK compromise). and modified my dirthole and post sets. I take a lot of coons at post sets juiced up with nothing more than fox pee only, and absolutely no eye-appeal. But, those sets are generally right on the edge of a hedgerow, along a waterway, corn field, etc. so are good coon travel routes anyway. Coons tend to not travel much off their normal paths, and they are fairly near-sighted, in my opinion. I don't think that they have the whiffers on the end of the face at near the level that a canine does, but coons can pick up odors some distance away. My rules of thumb when land trapping coons: Make sets close to "edges" and normal travel routes, and absolutely set near hot coon trails where they interesect these "edges" and routes. Then, if I want to take either a canine or a coon, I make a set more geared toward canines. If I want the coon more, I make a big dirthole, with a big torn up dirt pattern, no backing or a very big backing, and don't crowd the hole too closely with the trap. I also pin the bait at a right angle to the line up pull so the coon has to work the bait to steal it (and hopefully move his feet around a little more in the dirt pattern). I clear everything grabable to about 4' around the set, cause they can grasp anything with all four feet and because of their narrow, rubbery, tapered feet can literally power out if I don't have a good hold on them. Keep the chain short, and you should be in business. Much easier to skin a fluffy dry coon than to wash up a muddy one from the creek bed pocket set. I use crushed up styrofoam paper cups, eggshells, bits of paper confetti, etc. around my dirtholes for even more eye-appeal, and really load up the fish and gland lure, too. Coons will eat a decent rank coyote bait, and coyotes love fish so the set almost always can take either species for me. If I think coyotes or fox may be a potential catch, I just skip all the white stuff like the crushed cup, eggshells, etc. and leave the set more natural looking. One year I even carried a can of christmas tree flocking and sprayed the white stuff around the dirthole itself...really made that hole look black (we didn't get much snow that year) and it ended up being a killer coon set for me.

[trappenjoe]

Speaking of eye apeal ,  find you a clump of salt grass make your set in front like you usally would take out your matches and burn the grass
then ad your urine & gland lure .This works prety good as a post set.
Little joe