THE PROPER BAIT.
Bait is sometimes difficult to get, but usually the trapper will get
enough with his gun and steel traps to keep his line of deadfalls
well baited, without difficulty. In trapping, all animals caught
after the pelt is taken off should be hung up so that other animals
cannot reach them, but will visit your traps.
There are two objects in hanging up bait: First, other animals coming
along are apt to eat them and not visit your deadfall; second, should
you run out of bait you can cut a piece from the animal hanging up,
bait your trap and go to the next. While bait of this kind is not
recommended, sometimes it comes to this or nothing. Fresh bait is
what is wanted at all times, yet the trapper cannot always get what
he knows is best and consequently must do the next best. Perhaps by
his next visit he has bait in abundance.
The writer has known trappers to use a piece of skunk, opossum,
muskrat, coon, etc., that had been caught some weeks before and hung
up in a sapling where it froze and on the next visit the trap baited
with skunk contained a skunk. This shows that when an animal is very
hungry it is not very particular what it eats.
In the early fall while food of all kinds is easy to find, any animal
is harder to entice to bait and at this season bait should be fresh
if the trapper expects to make profitable catches. The trapper should
always carry a gun, pistol or good revolver with which to help kill
game to supply bait for his traps. Steel traps set along the line
will also help to keep the supply of bait up at all times. If you are
successful in securing a great deal of bait, more than will be used
on that round, you will find it an excellent idea to leave some at
certain places where it can be secured on the next round should it be
needed.
Bait may consist of any tough bit of meat, but rabbit is an excellent
bait. Quail or almost any bird is good. Chicken also makes good bait.
Squirrel is all right. For mink, fish is excellent. Mice, frogs and
muskrat can all be used. Remember that the fresher and bloodier the
bait the better--animals will scent it much quicker. They are also
fonder of fresh bait than that which has been killed for days or
weeks as the case may be.
In baiting it is important to see that the bait is on secure. It is a
good idea to tie it on with strong thread or small cord. The amount
of bait to put on a single trap is not so important. Most trappers
use a rabbit in baiting ten traps or less; the head makes bait for
one trap, each foreleg another, the back about three and each hind
leg one, altho each hind leg can be cut to make bait for two traps.
The spindle or trigger is run thru the bait and should be fastened on
trigger near the end as shown in illustration elsewhere. The securing
of bait on the trigger is an important thing. If it is not on
securely and the trap is hard to get off, the animal may devour bait
and the trap not fall. If the trigger is only sticking loosely in the
bait, it is easy for an animal to steal the bait. Usually the
observing trapper knows these things and are on their guard, but for
those who are using deadfalls this season for the first time, more
explicit explanation is necessary.
The bait should extend back into the pen about a foot and the pen
should be so constructed that the bait touches nowhere only on the
trigger. The animal in eating the bait usually stands with its fore
feet upon the under pole, or just over it. In this condition it can
readily be seen, that if its gnawing at the bait twists the trigger
off the upright prop what the consequences will be--the animal will
be caught across the back. An animal standing in the position just
described will naturally pull down somewhat on the bait and in its
eagerness to get the bait pulls and twists the spindle, or trigger,
off the upright prop.
It is a good idea to try the trigger. That is, place the triggers
under the fall just the same as you would if they were baited and you
were going to set the trap. By doing this you will find out about how
you want to set the triggers so that they will work properly. There
is much in being acquainted with the working of traps. Study them
carefully and you will soon learn to be a successful trapper.