One of the most important things for a trapper to have
besides his or her traps are lures and baits. Except for
blind sets, lures and baits are needed to draw the attention
of the animal to the set. There are four main types of lures
that are currently produced and they are: gland lures,
including matrix lures, curiosity lures, food lures and call
lures. Gland lures and matrix lures are lures containing the
glands and or sexual organs of a certain species of animal,
matrix lures are those gland lures made from female animals
that are in heat. Curiosity lures are lures that are a
combination of food lure and gland lure or sometimes a
mixture of glands collected from different species of
animals. Food lures are lures that are are made, usually
with food stuffs, and indicate to the animal that there is
food here. Call lures are just that, the call animals from a
distance though they are not used to call animals across a
river or canyon, they just can't get across. Besides lures,
baits are another important attractant to trappers.
The simplest attractant to make for trapping are the baits.
Baits can be as simple as chunked or ground meat from an
animal of your choice to a lure with many different meats
and other ingredients.
A simple and easy bait to make is a chunk or ground bait.
This can be made from groundhog or woodchuck, beaver,
muskrat, horse, cat, rabbit, fox, mutton, squirrel, mice,
turtle and other food meat that the animals you desire eat.
For the smaller animals you need to remove the head, tail,
and intestines, beaver livers can be saved for other baits,
and skinned, you could also leave the hide on to give the
bait more appear. After this step is complete, you need to
cut or chop the carcass into walnut-sized chunks that can be
used as is or ground to make a ground bait. After this done
you have the option of freezing or aging the bait. To age
the bait take a piece of cheesecloth or T-shirt material and
hold in place with the lid if using a mason jar or rubber
band if using a jar that has a one piece lid or if the mason
jar you have is missing its lid. The purpose of this is to
keep flies and maggots out of your aging bait. Place your
bait in the sun and let it be for a day or two, you should
notice that the meat on the outside has changed colors but
the meat in the center is still its original color, stir up
the bait and and let it sit until all the meat is of a
uniform color and reached the desired odor, making sure that
it is a spoiled odor not a rotten one. After this is done
use 20 Mule Team Borax, sodium benzoate or glycerin to
prevent the bait from going rotten. Store the bait in a
dark, cool spot until season begins. If you want to add more
ingredients to your bait to make it more appealing, go ahead
just make sure that you don't use too much or you'll ruin
your bait.
Lures are a little more difficult to produce than baits and
require more time, patience, and money. The two simplest
lures to make are castor lures, a gland lure for beaver, and
fish juice, a food lure. Beaver castor is made by taking the
castor glands and oil sacs, optional, from a beaver. Simply
grind up the castor and if you want to use the oil sacs, cut
the bottom of the sac so that the oil comes out and mix the
two together. Fish juice is simply made by letting fish
parts decompose in a jar or bucket till only a black juice
is left, this is used either alone for coon and mink, or
added to baits or lures.
Gland lures are made by taking the glands and sexual organs
of the animal you are seeking and grinding and aging them
for maximum effectiveness and adding urine if so desired and
adding a preservative listed in the bait making section
above.
Food lures are made by taking juices, liquids, and oils that
smell like food to the target animal and mixing these
together in the proper portions.
Curiosity lures are made with many glands from different
species with or without other ingredients suggesting food.
Well what are you waiting for go get started.
The FurBearer.com
conservation of Wildlife
