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Okay took Bella out again last night and she is really getting out there and wanting to hunt. Forgot to take my Blackberry so didn't get any video. Took her up Jacob canyon and was hoping to find some sign or game. Suprisingly there was not much in there. I did find an ideal lion crossing and will have to keep checking back on that to see if my assumption is correct. I can see by the way she is getting out and hunting she has the makings of a fine trail hound. Walking back out she was working our back trail and didn't miss a step. Real nose to the ground hound. Like I said I see she has what it takes to make a trail hound, but I deperately need to get her on some game. I noticed the ranch has a couple coon traps sitting out by the greenhouse. So I think I will try to capture one for her to play with. Now it has been many many years since I have messed with coons or even trapped one. I know there are secrects to trapping them and not skunks.... If I put the trap in the hayfields near an irrigation ditch what is the best thing to use as bait? Like I said I only want to catch coons or maybe a cat no skunks or fox. Let me know what to use please Think I will head out again with her in a few if it cools down a bit. Bringing the blackberry this time

I use sardines...rarely ever get anything but a coon...housecats don't seem to mess with em much...have'nt caught a skunk in a long time.

I have found that kipper snacks will nail the coons! I do catch an occasional house cat or skunk, but trap placement will help that. I try to place the trap where I will catch a coon first. good luck and let us know how it goes.

Last summer I had the chance to catch a bunch out of a fellow's sweetcorn patch...
that is a tough order But using sardines alone did not work... I mixed peanut butter, Honey and sardines and caught 14.. and 12 possums.
moved to another neighbors patch and caught 3 coon then one of the stripped buggers.
I had an old blanket available.
I cut a hole in it for the handle. walked very slow up to the live trap and draped it over the trap..loaded in the back of the truck
hauled it 2 miles to the open field for the disposal....
just slowly moved it to the ground from the truck
then very slowly rolled the trap over and opened the door. the little stripped bugger took forever to mosey away from it .. no stink until it was over!

Oh just in case of an accident there get a quart of peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of dish soap. mix it up and lather up wait 4 or 5 minutes and wash it off.
I will guarantee that is from the voice of experience
those skunks ALMOST have become a non issue.

it's not hard to let a stinker out of a live trap, you just have to have big cahoonies. as long as the skunk keeps it's back side toward the back of the trap just slowly open the front door and then run. i've done it a few times without beeing sprayed.

thanks guys will try here in the next few days.

Driftwoodblue, if i catch one the thing can just die in the cage, cause no way in heck am I going to attempt to move it!

houndnem wrote:it's not hard to let a stinker out of a live trap, you just have to have big cahoonies. as long as the skunk keeps it's back side toward the back of the trap just slowly open the front door and then run. i've done it a few times without beeing sprayed.

I don't have any cahoonies I will call skunk removal a man's job.

BHP, skunks won't climb usually so rig the trap where the coon has to climb (which he certainly will do). Use some lumber or whatever around and underneath the trap so the coon won't reach thro and trip it from the outside. Most anything will do for bait.

I don't have any cahoonies I will call skunk removal a man's job. [/quote]

Gotta say, it's friday afternoon I just got done pourin concrete in 105 degrees and got home mixed me up a whisky and coke and read this. fell out of my chair twice and I'm still laughing my butt off.

bighorn, you got cahoonies, they aint the same kind your thinkin but all alone makin a pup into a hound in some of the most gorgeouse country I've ever seen, that takes the cahoonies in your heart!! It's the american dream and anybody that hasn't listened to a pack of hounds howlin down a canyon an hour before dark and grabbed a flash light exited as hell as everybody else is headed home, will never understand!!! Keep runnin belle and good luck to ya, I only hope I can scrape up the $ to make it out there sometime this season. saddle em up, I'll be there, Jared.

Jared,

Now I am laughing. Oh my gosh well I dont think what I have are called cahoonies Thanks for the sweet compliments. I am just so happy I have the oppertunity to get back to what I love most. I am headed out right now to explore more of this place and hopefully find some cougar sign. If you only saw me a few years ago when I was hunting a pack of 4 to 6 dogs and hunting 4 times a week. Yes, I have a ton of heart for hounds and running lions. It is the one thing that makes me truly happy and content. I am going to see when I get my stuff from storage Monday if I can send in all my hunting videos and put them on a DVD. Those were some awesome times, but there will be plenty more now that I am back at it again. Well. I better roll so I can get a good hike in. Will take my blackberry this time for video Thanks again for the nice words.

I have caught a lot of skunks in foot traps get down level with the skunk and shoot him through both lungs he will just sit them blood will run out his nose and he will fall over.I swear if you shoot him in the head he will spray every time. we have a old trapper here that can release them from a foot trap and never get bit or sprayed ,get down on his knees and start craweling toward and talking very softely and just un snap the trap.
I shoot them.

In Kaycee do you know any ranchers by the name of Lunds?

Okay just back from another adventure with Bella. I have a new found respect for you Southwestern boys getting into this red walled cedar canyon country is tougher than it looks. Sure the red clay dirt is easy to read tracks but in the steep stuff it is hard to get around. Not like my limestone timbered canyon country on the other side of the mountain. I took some video of me getting rimrocked not once but twice. Was more of a training sesion for me than it was for Bella tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRjkCl_4h0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpJYUlYX4iI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvU7Ubc8QY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbdPMt_3z3k

Arkansa Frog, yes, I know the Lunds very well. Lyle Lund used to me my landlord.

Had a friend who was trapping coon in his barn. All he caught was barn cats. He switched his bait to marsh mellows and starting catching coon and no cats. I don't know if skunks like marsh mellows or not. Just a thought.

i like your vids. nice country . But if your gonna hunt in those ledges...you better pack some rope...and a bunch of bandaids.

or take someone dumb enough to hike ahead of you to find the way through the ledges, like maybe me.

TUCO,

Going out for another hike this evening. Be here by 5 if you ain't scared.