Bait/lure making

[sportsman94]

There was a post 6 months or a year back about making bait. I was one of the ones on there saying that I trusted the professionals with making the good stuff. Well, I got to talking to a guy who makes his own baits/lures about it. He tests pretty extensively with trail cameras and was very disappointed with the reaction he was getting on commercial baits and lures. He set making his own and exclusively uses his own stuff now. All that to say I was inspired, and am gonna try my hand at making some of my own. If anything I make tests well I’ll be happy to share recipes with anyone who is interested. Seems like a lot of folks who make their own stuff are very stingy with the recipes whether or not they plan to sell it. I’m mostly focused on food lures/baits, but May dive into others if I can get a few good formulations figured out. Figure it’s slow this time of year so might as well invest my time and energy into something useful!

 

[furtaker]

It's fun, too!

I made a couple of homemade baits last year. I caught a coyote on one.

I haven't used the other one much at all yet...I think only one or two sets. It's an early season concoction and I used persimmon oil as an ingredient. I had deer tracks all over the set after I made it. It didn't dawn on me until after the fact that deer would be a huge problem with persimmon odor.

 

[sportsman94]

It's fun, too!

I made a couple of homemade baits last year. I caught a coyote on one.

I haven't used the other one much at all yet...I think only one or two sets. It's an early season concoction and I used persimmon oil as an ingredient. I had deer tracks all over the set after I made it. It didn't dawn on me until after the fact that deer would be a huge problem with persimmon odor.

I’m currently tincturing some tarsal glands to test in some lure/bait and can’t help but think I better be careful when I use it for the same reason! I bought Nick wyshinkis formulating book which I’m hoping will give me some of the “why” behind certain ingredients instead of just use this or that. I’m big on knowing why something works or doesn’t work with something else. If it ever cools down I’ll start punching some holes and testing some stuff!

 

[sportsman94]

I also have a bottle of mashed persimmons I want to play with. Maybe I’ll strike gold one of these days

 

[Doug B.]

I dabble just a little in some baits that I have made. Nothing on a large scale but I have caught a few coyotes with some of my stuff. It is nothing that I would even try to market or anything because I don't feel like it is a consistently good bait. I have also never put the time in to test any I have made. I just used it in a set here and there and maybe caught one here but not there.

There is a lot to bait making. I have never really studied it. I just threw some stuff together on a whim. Good luck with it. It will definitely be a learning experience.

 

[sportsman94]

Just wanted to provide an update to anyone interested in this. I’ve started uploading my trail cam videos to YouTube if anyone wants to see how the animals react to certain things (gland lure, individual ingredients, popular lures on the market). Maybe it’ll help someone with trap placement at a set or something along those lines. If anyones interested, here is he link to a video on there. I didn’t put up every video I had, but at least one reaction per lure/ingredient That I had.

 

[Tugboat1]

Cool video and fun project. The camera footage testing the different baits would be interesting information I think. Keep us posted.

 

[sportsman94]

Thought I’d share a couple small successes on some of my homemade lures I’ve been testing. I’m hoping the summer attractiveness translates to very high attraction in the fall/winter. Have a couple others I’m working on now while also trying to continue to add to what I’ve already got.

 

[sportsman94]

@Mike81 has also come up with some good ones!