What would be the most effective trap method for cats.

Snares

leg holds

conibear

or live box traps

It depends on what is legal in your state. I am by no means an expert on this subject, but I did manage to catch one on a MB650 at a dirt hole set. I also learned the hard way that releasing the animal without a catch pole is a pain. Lets just say, I had one on order the next day.

Bobcats seem to move to slow to be easily caught in snares. Conibears are very non selective. I prefer double longsprings with a piece of shingle on the pan to make it larger. You can hold cats by one toe most of the time. The larger pan just increases the chances of the trap being thrown. You don't have to cover the trap for cats. They like to look for a good flat place to put there paws. Live box traps will work good set like a cubby with a live chicken in a cage attached to the rear of the trap. Check out www.trapperman.com lots of great info on there.

God Bless, Louis

God Bless, Louis

If we we trapping cats and cats only a #3 in longspring or coil would be perfect. A big Lynx doesn't even make much of a catch circle. Easy to catch and easier to hold!
2 lynx on the same set,,they where just waiting for me.

Here in California you can only use a cage trap where I live.

We are trying to move back to Texas or back to Wyoming at the end of the year.

California taxes and gun laws suck.

All are effective tools in certan situations. There is no one best trap. That said if I were limited to one type of trap it would be be a foot trap as they are the most versitile overall. MB 650's are my prefered equipment.

Look at your terrain and environmental factors to choose the best tool.

Here are a couple of cats I caught in number 3# Bridgers.

Twilli, that top one has rosettes like a Jaguar?

American Trapper magazine just had a good article on bobcats with rosettes. Nice cat!!

Thanks, they are one of my favorite animals to trap.

I set a #4 victor or Newhouse, with a trap cloth and sift silt over the trap and hang a chicken feather on a branch about 8 to 10 inches over the trap...I have also set the trap in front of a bush with a cat turd soaked in about any kind urine behind the trap..Bobcats are easy to trap IMO...Lions are the easiest to trap. Coyotes are the smartest cuz they speak English and Spanish and are smarter than humans.

When I was trapping in eastern Washington before we lost foot traps, snares and conibers to the ballot box, I used 220 conibers and cubbies made from fencing. The kind with the 2"x4" grid. I made it 30" deep with one end closed in and would stake it down and cover it with conifer boughs. I used a generous chunk of beaver meat in the back for bait and a 220 in the front.

Cats are very visual hunters and the best visual attractant I ever found was the silver bird scare tape commonly used in orchards. I have used bird wings and pie plates on fishing line with swivels but never felt they worked as well as the scare tape. The scare tape is highly reflective and when placed head high near the cubbie, will move in the slightest breeze and even from the thermals as the air begins to warm or cool.

I used snares heavily on log crossings and picked up many cats that way. I did have to use break away devices that would hold a bobcat but let a cougar break away.

I caught several over the years in foot traps incidental to coyote trapping but did my best with the cubbies and snares.

This one was a Christmas morning coniber cat.


And this one was snared on a log crossing.


I was a lot younger and prettier back then.

My brother has had reasonable luck catching them in large box traps with a live pigeon for bait. And he has caught some in his coyote sets with leg bold traps.

What is most effective. It depends mostly on what time of the year it is, what type of terrain you are trapping in, and what the local available food sources are. Years and years ago when I trapped a few bobcats in woodsy terrain the most effective set for me was a baited cubbby set using a large bait. My favorite trap was a Victor #14 Jump Trap, or a Victor or Blake and Lamb #4 jump trap.

My favorite place to set was where there were a lot of rabbits, and along small rivers and streams, which are travelways for most wild animals, including cats.

In the winter the baited cubby set also works well, as does trail sets using snares. In really deep snow cats will tend to walk in their same tracks, sometimes even if those tracks are like little dimples in the snow. Hanging a noose over a trail is a good bet to catch a cat.

I trapped in the Sonoran desert of Texas on the Mexican Border and Big Bend country..Snares worked pretty good on sheep fence holes for both cats, and other varmints. Holes dug under the fence..Everything used them in order to travel, even Antelope, coyotes, Bobcats, Ringtails, Badgers, skunks and deer.

Other than that and inside the fences on 30,000 to 100,000 ac. ranches in the area we used Victor and Newhouse traps, mostly Newhouse as a Lion would scatter a Victor all over the place and walk away. Nothing was tied, all had 10 ft. of small chain and two pronged pointed trap drags made from rebar. That gave a Lion slack on that first powerful jump and they hung up pretty quick in the grease wood or rocks and it worked just as well on other varmints, including Javalina, but the set was soley to prevent losing a Lion...

If you are losing game in steel traps like Victor and newhouse its because your staking your drag in the ground or to a tree or whatever..put a rebar double hook drag on the chain and they will go about 10 yards at most and lie down..what loses varmints or whatever is that first high jump backwards, it has a lot of power and the foot comes out..If the leg is chewed, then your lax in running your line, once the foot goes dead they chew it off..Run your line once a day..

Traditionally leg hold traps that has change do to various anti trapping laws in some states.

There are many books and videos on the subject I suggest that you get a couple and watch a few and have at it.

I posted this in 2015 originally.

2 years ago we could box trap bobcats in California, now we can't trap cats and I don't live in California.

Now I live in Germany, and am about to take a German trappers course so I can trap this winter. Of course I will be trapping fox, badger and weasels. If we have racoons and racoon dogs in our area I will be trapping them. But it will all depend on that, what a difference 2 years makes eh?