Dose anyone put golf balls on top of there DPs. I put a few on my DPs but have no clue if it is hurting me or helping me.

Didn't have good luck using them myself. Sometimes they would steal the golf ball. When I used cat food it still got wet. Had better luck with those cheap plastic shot glasses

If you are catching coons with anything on top of your DP it's inspite of it and not because of it. The right bait and the trap set properly is all you need, no gimmicks.

Have luck keeping mice from cleaning out trap. Sometimes hard to find after catch. I have had some disappear and don't know what takes them.

Have luck keeping mice from cleaning out trap. Sometimes hard to find after catch. I have had some disappear and don't know what takes them.

If you don't mind me asking, what bait do you use?

I use Barnes Cherry Bend over bait, Shellfish Payback and Raccoon Trail Mix all made by me. Rain doesn't hurt them and if you set your trap up high in the center of the trail away from the tall weeds you can nearly eliminate mice stealing your bait. If you use plain old catfood and shove your DP deep to the ground, you'll need a lot more DP's to keep up any kind of a higher average number of coons.

I think they help with mice ,but they don't help keep rain out.

If I don’t put golf balls on top in most of my areas I’m checking bone dry empty traps. I like them because if the ball is on I know I still have bait and I don’t need to walk all the way to it. The mice will sometimes learn to knock it off and then I just move the trap.

If i didn't use golf balls i would be checking 90% empty traps on a three day check. They just get cleaned out .Using dry cat food .All set within a foot of a river.

No gimmicks, keeps the mice and rats out and the bait viable in the driving rain storms we get during trapping season here. Without a good cover I've seen my catch rates drop. The cover is not used as an attractant in my case but a tool to increase catch

I've never seen a need.

When I am trapping heavy mouse and rat areas, I fill a coat pocket with bird seed and scatter it in the general vicinity to keep the rodents busy. The mice and rats would rather have that than my coon bait.

While mice and rats get some of the bait, it’s those dang flying squirrels that’ll clean out a DP over night!

sure helps with the mice!!!!!!

I tried it and felt like it was a waste of time and may have hurt my catch ratio.

I’ve used them several seasons, and I’ve gone without using them for several seasons too. I’m not convinced they help much other than keeping mice out a little better. Mostly they were one more thing I had to gather in off season and pack to locations when setting and after a catch you have to look around a bit to find them. I don’t like to spend extra time on DP sets if I can avoid it. Set and move on quickly. I doubt I will go back to ever using golf balls again. I started just loading up my DPs with more bait and that mostly took care of the mice problem at some locations. Someone would REALLY have to convince me using golf balls have more benefit then I found them to have before I go back to putting them on top of my DPs.

X2 - If you'd try and knock down the weeds a little, just stomp them, around your dp and only push the stabilizer half way or less in the ground so the trap sets up higher, that will help greatly with mice stealing your bait as well.

Instead of a golf ball, try using a short length
of white 5/8ths plumbing conduit with an end cap.

Bait your DP, then depress the spring & slip the
piece of conduit into the tube of the DP so it
is now semi-set. It will hold your DP at 3/4ths set
and hold the bait inside until you set the trap.

You can now set the trap very easily with just two fingers
and the white conduit cover provides eye appeal,
weather proofs your DP bait, & keeps the mice &
others small bait raiders out of the DP tube.

A coon has no problem pulling this conduit cap off
in order to work the trap.

This has worked great for me to solve the bait stealing issue
and speeds up the setting procedure significantly.

walleyed

Thanks ADC.
Jim