Lets hear your opinions.(not really talking about lures with skunk essence)Take for instance a beaver lure. Does it need to flare your nostrils to be effective? In your opinion? Do you think a very loud lure will always outproduce a mild smelling one?? Is the louder the better nessasarily true???

Milder lures work better here unless it's dipping below 30 at night.

I agree with J, for canines at least milder lures or stronger lures used moderately produce better results. There just is no point in adding great ingredients to a lure like tonquin, civet, asafoedita, muskrat musk, beaver castor, ambrette, muscaro, valerian, etc that are proven to get a maximum response when properly formulated and then overpower and drown out all of those milder ingredients by pouring in an enormous amount of skunk musk. Personally, I like a little skunk in lures but not so much that the whole formula becomes strictly a skunk gland lure. I believe the addition of a small amount of skunk musk to a formula enhances other ingredients, carries the odor of other ingredients, holds up better in cold weather and serves as a suspicion remover in that skunk odors around diggings are so natural in most locations around the country. I guess the proof is in the pudding so to speak, the customers of mine that are old timers and most experienced who trap and order lures year after year buy the milder lures 4 to 1 over the stronger formulas. The real secret to success lies in learning to locate sets along regular travel routes and places visited or frequented regularly. How much lure power does it take to bring in an animal a few feet off the travelway that can smell somewhere between 400 times and 1 million times better than we can? I think it is quite possible that the number one cause of set walk-bys and general avoidances is using too strong of a lure or too much lure of any strength period. It is nearly impossible to consistently call animals far off their travel route anyway. If for example, a coyote in my region went way off somewhere everytime he smalled skunk musk he would be zig-zagging all over the woods and never get where he was going. There are exceptions to every rule but generally speaking the usage of nose burning lures will do little to bring success. Learning animals habits, scouting travel routes and frequented areas by looking for tracks, looking for scat and asking people if they have seen the target animals frequenting an area and through experience and study to better locate sets is what will bring real success. Once one can set in proper locations they will soon see the value of one well formulated lure over another by how many are worked and to what capacity they are worked. I have a lot of professional trappers who use my milder lures regularly, some of them participants in this forum. I will not name any out of professional courtesy unless they were to OK it first. Ace

I think it is quite possible that the number one cause of set walk-bys and general avoidances is using too strong of a lure or too much lure of any strength period.

We agree on something, the world must be coming to an end lol.

Great post Asa! I learned some great tips about lure application and just common sense with using lures, by reading that.

I don't think a lure necessarily has to be loud to be good, and I don't think that a louder will always outproduce a milder one.

However, I do like a lure that "flares my nostrils" so to speak when I smell it though. That could be due to many reasons though, it could be sweet smelling, or just plain attractive if that makes any sense. It doesn't have to have skunk in it or be loud to flare my nostrils and get my attention. Just something with a good allure to it. I guess the good word would be something with an interesting smell.

I do like a loud lure though when I'm not sure about location or when it gets real cold. (Which isn't going to happen this year around here)

Ive noticed that in a lot of quality lures( ones I do well with anyway) seem to have sweet undertones. Whether its from a gland such as rat glands or an oil such as anise.

Many of the common ingredients used in canine lues have a sweet odor, many of them also being used in the making of perfumes. Ones that come quickly to mind are rat musk, castor, tonquin, ambrette, muscaro, valerian and a multitude of essential oils.

I guess I should have said ones were the sweet undertones arnt overpowered by either glands or skunk quill. Many lures Ive tried and smelled were dominated by gland/urine and or skunk quill. Im sure the animal can still detect the other scents but you get my meaning. Im no lure maker but am I far off base by thinking a good lure should formulated so that no one scent is overshadowing the rest?? (other than perhaps a beaver/castor based lure) It seems like cancelling out several good scents like rat glands, muscaro or tonquin with one blantantly overpowering ingrediant would be counterproductive??

KYBOY writes....am I far off base by thinking a good lure should formulated so that no one scent is overshadowing the rest?? (other than perhaps a beaver/castor based lure) It seems like cancelling out several good scents like rat glands, muscaro or tonquin with one blantantly overpowering ingrediant would be counterproductive??

No one could be more on base in my opinion! Blending ingredients in their proper proportions so one doesn't overpower or nullify the others, so each and every ingredient can perform at the set to get a commital by the canine is the secret to the best quality lures available.

Ace just how much does a fixative like Ambergis or Canton Musk help in formulating a lure with a great many and varying scents?? Are they what you would call an essential ingrediant?

...Im somewhat reluctant in picking a lure makers brain as I dont want to overstep my bounds, LOL

Rue oil is the most powerful fixative available in my opinion. It only take a few drops to fix a whole gallon.