See also:  Our Quality Smears

As a bait and lure maker, I constantly study the behavioral, eating and dietary habits of quarry in its natural habitat. Then I design attractants that will mimic their attractants in nature.

For example, when I study raccoons, I study when they eat sweet corn from a farmer's field, when they eat berries from the vine, and what they eat when their favorite foods are out of season. I know when their appetite is high for sugar to keep moving but also to store fat for the winter. And I know when their diet switches to fish, clams and frogs.

For each type of quarry, I study which scents arouse their curiosity, which scents draw them in from afar, and which foods make them take the final bait.

I study what makes them wary (like, perhaps, the scent of humans or a predator passing by) and what makes them feel secure (like perhaps, the urine from another fox who has passed that way without incident.)

I study how long a scent stays fresh, and how to keep it fresh and appetizing longer. I study how scents in water drift downstream and draw beaver or muskrat back upstream to our traps.

In short, I study everything there is to study about the natural habits of our quarry.

I gather up natural ingredients from the field and make my lures, baits and cover scents from them.

Then I lay out a stealth campaign that puts me, my traps, my lures and my baits where my quarry is during different seasons. When the quarry's natural appetites are demanding berries and sweet corn, I lure them with berries and other sugary treats. When their diet switches to acorns, I switch my bait. When my quarry is living on frogs, clams or dead and rotting meat, I change lures accordingly.

So lures can be used for any of these purposes:

• Long distance, or "call" lures

• Curiosity-invokers (did you ever take your dog for a walk, and watch her sniff everything she comes across? She'll take a pass on some things she sniffs, but others pique her interest for more exploration.)

• Persuaders -- mind-changers that will cause an animal to change directions, cross the river, be led into the trap

• Gland scents left behind by other animals that mark trails, danger or safety, that can cause an animal to shy away from one direction and steer him into another.

• Food lures, which work on his stomach.

• "Cover scents," to cover human or predator scents to reduce the prey's nervousness about approaching the trap.

I've spent 35 years studying the movement patterns and dietary habits of just about every kind of fur-bearing critter you'll want to trap. You'll see that our catalog of lures and baits reflects that, for it's an extensive catalog with different lures, virtually hand-designed, for each kind of quarry.