More cleaning than I want to do

Happy Christmas Eve

Don't own/use a swagger but I have bought snares that have been swagged...no issues. I pound mine but am only beaver trapping with cables... except when I throw one around a tree for an anchor on dry land. I used cable stakes for years and again pounded mine. Out of thousands of cables utilized throughout the years, my only breakages have been when pulling stakes out and when cables were rusted.

Only ice here will be in your glass. 49° and foggy now.

Send your rain over the crest but change it to snow when it get here

One advantage of no snow don't have any skinney skiers around

My beard is mostly white now. Mustache is starting to turn more but still has some dark color to it yet.

Toby was a good man, spent many a night at my place, had him up on my trapline once, always bringing maple syrup with him, big loss for all of us.

He had a rough go the last few years, will miss him.

They keep you pretty drugged up the first two days.

Great series of questions Oreamnos !

No matter what number of traps I have in the presentation, I stick to one rule.

I show the Wile E. what he expects to see and smell in that specific situation and location.

I have mentioned this numerous times in this thread.
It is one of the most crucial aspects when it comes to quick catches and snagging older coyotes.
Countless illustrations throughout this thread show flat sets using poop and urine as the attractants.
Those are the attractant choices because that is what the coyotes left behind.
They expect to see answers to their marks, so that is what I give them.

You don’t have avoidance when you show them visuals and olfactory attractants that are common to that place and circumstance.
When you show them attractants foreign to that spot you are asking for trouble.
This will not only get you a lot of avoidance, it can also put all coyotes that encounter those sets on high alert.
Putting a host of strange smells in one location can get you twenty yard walk-around passes and/or avoidance of the entire area altogether.
The same applies to visual attractants. A stark or out of place visual can really kill a set.

Keep in mind the catch circle can be a huge deterrent, but it can also be the absolute best attractant you can have at your disposal..
Learning when, where, & what to add to that fresh catch circle if anything at all takes more than just a little bit of thought.
Think about what is left in the circle and what addition would best accompany that set in that specific situation.
In a gang setting, often times the fresh set next door is all you need.

Years ago catch circles meant the death of that specific set location.
It was to the point where I would pull the trap because it was a dead spot as far as a second catch was concerned.
Now a hot catch circle is certain death in most cases.
The devil is in the details. So is Wile E.

My experiences are about the same as Brian's.

One interesting , difficult call I had was with a squirrel in a fireplace with a prefab insert that was installed improperly with the provided metal flue terminated just above the masonry firebox. This gave the squirrel a place to hide in-between the conventional fireplace and the metal insert. Tried a bunch of traps , but no luck. Removing the insert was a very difficult job that would have taken hours.

Finally I went ballistic. Put a net over the top of the chimney while standing on the roof. I took a small firecracker and dropped it in from above like a depth charge. Squirrel came out of there at light speed right into my net.

Removed the squirrel and capped the chimney. Referred the homeowner to a fire place / insert installer to have the insert pulled out to check for nesting material behind it and get the metal flue properly extended to the top of the masonry chimney.

TTT1