Tman, I would vote Yes, coon are hard to hold in the water. I run all slide wires and big traps (no. 2 bridgers) for the reasons old coon stated, too many sprung traps by hind foot. I probibly catch 30-35% of my coons by the hind foot. I truely beleive that these 30-35% hindfooters are plane lost 3/4 of the time in smaller traps like 11 and 1 1/2 coils. This with trap set tight to pocket on a shaved straight up and down bank. I think most sprung traps in the water are hind foot sprung, going to a bigger trap gets more catches,but if that trap is weak, many coon will pull out. I'm refering to hind foot catches. Ive been using N.W. and Bridgers for quite a few years now, New northwoods would hold most coon till the traps were about 2-4 years old, then I saw many pullouts at end of slide wire. New bridgers dont have much of a spring on them and I saw quite a few empty at end of slide wire. I have found putting n0 3 or 4 music wire springs will eliminate most of these losses. I was running about 150 each day on 2 day check this year and some days will see 4-5 empty at end of slide wire. Some days I saw as many as 10. I had 3 doz new bridger 2's that I didnt have time to get respringed this year and it DEFINATLY cost me some coons. The % of pullouts on these traps was much higher than my older stuff that had good springs. With good springs I would guess off top of my head that I lose 1-3 out of 50, and with stock springs I would guess it jumps to 1 out of 10, maybe less. Every pullout is not the fault of the trap I believe too, many are just not caught good initially by side of foot and whatnot. I dont know what to think about your theory about them standing on the levers, I suppose its possible, but looking at the uneven bottom, soft bottem mucky bottem you have at the end of the slide wire, I would think it would be hard for a coon to get the trap to lay flat enough for this to occur, my guess would be that they just plane power out jerking around when they figure out they are in trouble. I do see that many hind foot catches in the bigger no 2, usually the jaws are above the "ankle". I think its harder for them to pull trap over ankle. A smaller trap that would grab them hind foot coons lower down would be easyer for them the pull out of. Put a hind foot of a big coon in a small trap and give it a good jerk, you will see how easy the trap really slides on their hind foot. Do the same thing with a No 2 over ankle and you'll see that they dont slide near as easy. Many guys say they dont catch near as many big coons in the water. I catch just as many big coons in the water as I do snareing dryland. Could it be they just dont "hold" them big ones 1/2 the time or that them big coons spring the trap and dont come back. big coons in water, I guess that is a whole different subject. Ogorman made the comment about that he loved seeing the compitition running smaller traps in a recent cat trapping article. I feel exactly the same when I see my compition running 11's or 1 1/2 coils with 6 year old weak springed traps on slide wires. Yes I do think coon are hard to hold in the water on slide wires.
