But I have caught 4 cats so far. I also oiled up the trip hinge on it today so it works better. I have tried bread with meat juice and a little cat food so far but today I baited it with some sweet corn, cat food and dog food . Ya I know the cat food is asking for a cat but that is also what the coons have been eating so I do not want to change there diet to much

while my phriend Thurlow usually gives good advice, I think he's off on his last advice on the book writing. I think you should write exactly the way you write here which, I presume, is the way you talk. Don't let anyone put exclamation marks where they don't belong. Let the spelling go thru as is. Write it just the way you'd say it.

try sardiens they worked for me

I have caught them with sardines as stated by C.R. I have also used canned salmon.

Well I guess when I talk to a person on the phone or in person I probably talk on a higher level but that is because I can talk a lot better then I can spell. Never did well in high school but got 3.8-4.0 in the college course I took a number of years back. Plus having a Preacher/College Professor as a father talking at a higher level sort of rubs off on a person but writing that is another story and if I do write a book it would be in the same format as I do here

A coon will eat almost anything. They can peel a banana quicker than you can. They love marshmallows, go crazy over grilled hamburger patties, potato chips, Frito's, etc. I think they just love antagonizing you....lol.

Try grape jelly. Cats won't be interested, but coons will. If you have some fruit flavored kool-aid packets, sprinkle some of that in the bottom of the cage. They can smell that for a long ways.

I have live trapped and disposed of a couple hundred coons in the last three years. Finally got their numbers down to where I don't catch many anymore. Problem was trapping the coons while my hard working vermin patrol was around. 20 plus good farm cats.

I was lucky that while walking out of the TSC store with my new Havahart live trap, I met an old trapper buddy.
He asked what I was going to do with the trap ? I told him I was over run with coons.
His second question was "what do you intend to use for bait?" I told him the sheet with the trap said to use cat / dog food. He said" no way, all you will catch is your cats".
He said to use large marsh mellows, the cats ignore them and coons will fight each other to get to them.
He was right, the cats mostly ignore the marsh mellows unless curious, while over 200 coons have given their life for a sweet marshmellow.

Another qiestion he asked me was " how do you intend to dispose of the coon when you catch it ?" I said I would shoot the coon in the head with the 22 and dump them out. He said, "Ill give you a little tip on that, use 22 short ammo." He said" with a head shot using a 22 short, it will kill the coon, yet not go through the coon's head and blow the bars off the bottom of the trap" He was the voice of experience on both counts , Rerely had a cat in the trap and never tore up the trap shooting the snarling coon.

When you catch your first big coon, you will find out how well your trap is constructed. A big coon is incredibly powerfull and will tear the trip mechanism and sometines the side bars to bits. We have done a lot of reshaping and welding on our traps.
The big havahart trap is built of heavier rods and gets less coon damage. We had one of the smaller ones, but the coons destroyed it.

If you catch a mangy one, handle it only with a fork or shovel. The mange bug likes humans too. ;-)

I

I have live trapped and disposed of a couple hundred coons in the last three years. Finally got their numbers down to where I don't catch many anymore. Problem was trapping the coons while my hard working vermin patrol was around. 20 plus good farm cats.

I was lucky that while walking out of the TSC store with my new Havahart live trap, I met an old trapper buddy.
He asked what I was going to do with the trap ? I told him I was over run with coons.
His second question was "what do you intend to use for bait?" I told him the sheet with the trap said to use cat / dog food. He said" no way, all you will catch is your cats".
He said to use fresh large marsh mellows, the cats ignore them and coons will fight each other to get to them.
He was right, the cats mostly ignore the marsh mellows unless curious, while over 200 coons have given their life for a sweet marsh mellow.

Another qiestion he asked me was " how do you intend to dispose of the coon when you catch it ?" I said I would shoot the coon in the head with the 22 and dump them out. He said, "Ill give you a little tip on that, use 22 short ammo." He said" with a head shot using a 22 short, it will kill the coon, yet not go through the coon's head and blow the bars off the bottom of the trap" He was the voice of experience on both counts , Rerely had a cat in the trap and never tore up the trap shooting the snarling coon.

When you catch your first big coon, you will find out how well your trap is constructed. A big coon is incredibly powerfull and will tear the trip mechanism and sometines the side bars to bits. We have done a lot of reshaping and welding on our traps.
The big havahart trap is built of heavier rods and gets less coon damage. We had one of the smaller ones, but the coons destroyed it.

If you catch a mangy one, handle it only with a fork or shovel. The mange bug likes humans too. ;-)

I

Jon is right coon love marshmellos. I have caught a lot of coon with them and very few cats.
Bob

No Offense but I hope you never catch them, Makes something fun to read every couple of days, Then maybe once you do catch one that will make a good story to. and putting cat food in it what did you expect to catch? HAPPY HUNTING!

I had trouble with coon last couple of springs in my shed where the cats hang out. I use a live trap baited with cat/dog food. I put a hay bale on each side of the trap and the cat dog food on the ground with the trap on top of it. I started catching cats but they learned fast it's not a place for a fast snack. Then I started getting coons a couple of chucks and a possum.

I've had good luck with peanut butter. Harder for them to steal to.

Old, do you have dogs too? If you don't the common flybait Pepsi stuff doesn't seem to be attractive to cats. I've used it in the building the cats always hang out in and I haven't lost a cat yet. If you do have dogs, well that's a different story. Jim

I could always spice it up with things like this.
My mom has been having problems with an armadillo in her yard and it digging up the yard real bad. Well she has on of my 22 rifles and the sons 22 pistol. Well the other day she saw it in her yard and she shot at it but missed. So she went back in and waited about 30 minutes then walked out and got about 5 foot from it and shot it. It rolled over on its back and is still laying in her yard. We figure maybe if we leave it lay for a while that maybe it will keep to others away

Ya I have 4 dogs and who knows how many cats

I was told by a local coonhunter that the best bait for coons is nilla wafers.