Coon in my boat
 

I went down to my boat this morning at 6 and was ready to do some serious damage on the bluegills in a bay just up the lake. I added some oil to my VRO tank and started to check my rod and tackle lockers to see if I had everything. When I opened the rod locker there sitting in the middle of 10 very tangled up rods was a huge raccoon. I let out a yell and it turned and went back into the bow of my bass boat. My boat is on a vertical lift at the end of my 50’ dock and somehow the coon probably attracted to the fishy smell that is always on the boat made a home. I guess he must have gone under the drivers console and went through the chase way where all the wires are and went right around the bow where my tackle boxes are and into the rod locker. I got all the rods out but didn't touch the main hatch where all the tackle boxes and bags are located. He is in there and won't come out. I set up a havaheart trap on top of an old piece of plywood and left the rod locker open. I hope right after dark he decides to dine out and go for the peanut butter sammie and 3 marshmallows that I put in there for bait. I'll check before I go to bed. I hope I get it and that there is only one. He chewed the rubber backing on the rod locker door but so far that is all I have found. Kind of bummed but it is almost time for a new boat anyways. Wish me luck guys because the gills are really biting and they are paying $.80 a pound right out of the lake.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Good luch partner...:)

RE: Coon in my boat
 

People are paying for bluegill? Damn, I wish it was like that around here, I would make a killing, I love catching bluegill.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

10:33 went down to the dock and found the marshmellows gone and the trap wasn't sprung. He pulled the sammie under the trip ledge so it couldn't spring the trap. I re-set it and am going to bed. He will be mine in the AM. Odds are he is a real trophy. When I get them around the house messing with the birdfeeders I usually truck them to the other end of the island and let them go.This one is dead coon walking since he is messing with my fishing.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

we need video of this;)

RE: Coon in my boat
 

I got up at 3:00am and went down to the boat and found all the marshmallows gone and the trap wasn't sprung....real smart coon. I re-set and set the trip lever real light so even the wariest of all coons will fall victim to my trap. 2 years ago I was having a bad time at one of the birdfeeders on my back deck. I went through this for several nights until he got careless and finally was caught. My wife and I were in bed with the windows open and heard the trap go thunk as the door came down trapping the culprit. I raced out there and saw I had a real beauty and went back to the bedroom to get dressed and asked my wife if she wanted to see my trophy. She got up and went out on the deck and said...there is nothing in the trap. I ran back out there and nothing. That little larcenist escaped faster than Houdini and I was beside myself. I re-baited and waited for the next night and the same thing happened. I figured I would just sit inside and watch to see how the darn thing escaped. It lay down on its back and reached its little monkey arms out through a crack in the side of the door and actually lifted the outer door up and pushed its way out. The trap was an old havaheart that was borrowed and it didn't have a safety catch on the outer door keeping it down. I used a coat hanger and fashioned a catch so when the door fell and the outer door sprang ahead it would cause the coat hanger to fall down thus eliminating the door from being jimmied up. My engineering background came through and provided something other than a decent way to earn a living. The next night I got him and left him in the trap all night and then trucked him and3 of his cousins to another side of the island over the next several nights. I was finally rid of the little thieves and was happy...so were the birds. I did read in our little weekly news paper that the residences of that side of the island were having problems with super raccoons that were called educated and un-trappable. I went out and bought my own state of the art Havaheart with a safety catch and last summer it worked great. This year those coons are cunning but I will find a way to win....I have to they are on my turf.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

in the meantime just enjoy your new fishing buddy[:-][:@];););)

i still say we need some video;)

RE: Coon in my boat
 

I am glad I checked the rod locker first before take off. Can you imagine blasting down the lake wide open and have one of those maskedbandits come out of the console under your legs. With a bass boat there is no place to go but overboard. And I don't usually hook up the kill switch either.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Sounds to me like he (the Coon) wants to be your fishing partner

RE: Coon in my boat
 

;)A coon would make a nice fishing partner for sure...You catch them and he'll clean em.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

CI, this remind me of a practical joke i (well a friend of mine;)) pulled on a guy one time, i caught 3 ducks and put them in this guys livewell, well he goes thru livewell check the ducks go crazy, and there is duck poop and other poop all over his boat;););), made for a very exciteing blast offeverybody had a good laugh about it, my draw partner for the day was asking me "we are boat # such and such, why are we up here" he never put 2 & 2 together:eek:, my buddy just looked over and laughed with one of those "i'll get you back" looks. lucky for me we dont fish many tournaments together anymore;)

we are still friends, but one of these days i know he'll pay me back big time;)

BTW, please, please, please hook up your kill switch,i have picked up people that have been dumped minus the kill switch, and lost two friends a couple of years ago, at least hook it a belt loop or something,, please

RE: Coon in my boat
 

I am with mt we need some video of this

PS they love sardines on peanut butter;)

RE: Coon in my boat
 

So you relocated him...??...

If he'd given me THAT much trouble I'd have dropped him off the dock, trap and all, and waited to see how long hecould hold his breath.....[:@]....

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Roger on that MT...Wilco

I didn't get him. Went down to the dock and the trap is still baited and the door is open. I left all the hatches open on the boat and took out all the tackle. He may have gone elsewhere. Today I'll get down with a flashlight and see if I can peer into the bow cavity. I hope he is gone. I trucked all the ones I caught the last couple of years Pygmy because I have a hard time killing anything other than wild game. I am a hunter not a killer of animals I don't plan to eat. In the previous cases all they did was raid some bird feeders and that isn't a capitol offense in Frank's court of law and I rule on this island. Getting into my boat is..... and when and if I catch him he is toast. The trap will go off the dock and the remains will end up in the landfill or up in the woods as yote food.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Sorry CI... I misinterpererated one of your posts, when you told about altering the trap to keep it shut....

A couple of suggestions....If you have any trapper friends, you might enlist thier help...An appropriate sized conibear trap might do the trick, or a snare pole...Many trappers in my area now carry snare poles on a regular basis to release protected animals such as bobcats, fishers and bears that they sometimes catch unintentionally in thier fox and coyote sets...

RE: Coon in my boat
 

throw in some sardines my dads a profesional trapper and he catches them all the time.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Try and stick the marshmallows down with a little peanutbutter. They will have a hard time stealing them that way. Good Luck to you.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Since opening all the hatches on the boat the coon appears to have left for better digs. I placed the trap on the dock and it is still baited and set. I leave it there for a few more days until I am sure.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Ding Ding Ding..... update. I went down to the water this morning and I caught one right on the dock. I guess he was heading back to eat some more of my rubber lures. The old marshmellow got him and true to my prediction he took an eternal swim. Glad I put a piece of old plywood under the trap because what a mess. All rebaited and waiting for another.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Way to go, CI... Hopefully he was the offending critter, but if not, you may have averted a future problem....

I like animals as much as the next guy, but there's a point when a little CONTROL is necessary... When they begin to be a PITA, it's time to cull a few of them...

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Ya I know and felt bad about putting him down but he was getting to be too much of a problem. If they just mess around with the bird feeders I usually just relocate them but he did do some damage to the insulation in the rod locker so he is history. I checked and it was a adult male so I know I didn't orphan a litter. This is the first time I have ever had them bother my boat. I have a 50 foot metal dock and the bass boat is on a metal vertical lift. I just can't imagine why he went all the way out there. I set the trap at the halfway point so I might get another. When I trap them I usually get two or three before they stop.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

if you use the sradines you will probably catch them much faster

RE: Coon in my boat
 

and are you saying you drowned him? lol

RE: Coon in my boat
 

i think he is saying the coon commited suicide;)

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Yeah it sounds like the coon called it quits to me too...:)

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Unfortunately he had to be terminated just like a bad rogue bear. Eating garbage and messing with bird feeders is acceptable coon behavior here on the island. When they get so brazen that they break into camps, homes or boats then they are judged to be beyond relocation and rehabilitation. They can learn bad behavior from each other so this bad seed had to be removed from the picture. I am the kind of guy that will stop my truck on a busy road (this is Vermont so the roads aren't all that busy) and help a turtle get off the road. I have saved more than a few this year. I don't have any problem killing game that I intend to eat like my turkey from this year and last years buck and elk.I just hate to waste any animal or fish indiscriminately. I do kill lots of pan fish but I sell them and they provide food for someone so they aren't wasted. All the game fish are always released unless I chose to have a fish fry. So for me to kill the coon was a moment of sadness but I figured it had to be done. If I moved him he wouldn't have bothered me again but his bad behavior would have just been passed on to another person and or boat. I watched him die and gave him respect. He is now providing food for the coyotes, foxes and fisher cats that live in our woods.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

Unfortunately he had to be terminated just like a bad rogue bear. Eating garbage and messing with bird feeders is acceptable coon behavior here on the island. When they get so brazen that they break into camps, homes or boats then they are judged to be beyond relocation and rehabilitation. They can learn bad behavior from each other so this bad seed had to be removed from the picture.

I have to agree with C.I., once distructive behaivor sets in it is implanted in then forever... An old house next to me is infested with them, the owner lives in N.J. and they have distroyed the insides very badly. I have been awakened more than once with one on my eve looking in a window. So I have recently went to the town office to try and have them removed and the house fixed so that they can not find a way back into it.

For as far as bears they live trap them and take them in the woods about 50 miles. Only to have to trap them again as they broke into camps. The bears that are live trapped are measured and tagged. When catching the same bear more then once it has to go to lalla land.

RE: Coon in my boat
 

You are right Phil about their destructiveness. A buddy of mine had a real nice cabin cruiser type boat all equipped with electronics, downriggers etc. Over winter the coons somehow got into it where it was being stored and set up house. The boat was almost a total loss in the spring and it was difficult to restore it without gutting all the seats and fabric inside. He couldn't get the smell out of it. Luckily we don’t have any bears in this county since it is all islands and they are hibernating when the ice forms allowing them to get from the mainland. Nothing can be as destructive as a bear on a seasonal property.