The waterways in my trapping area are now frozen and are littered with coyote tracks. I am trying to figure out how a person could use foothold traps on the ice? Of course there are a lot of issues with this idea, trap freezing down, staking, and of course ice falling through. I have a couple ideas as far as staking but just have not tried them yet. Can you imagine the eye appeal of say a hay set out on that white ice? Any suggestions or ideas or do you know anyone that has mastered this concept, let me know. Im going to try it a couple different ways and ill post pictures and post my findings and any catches i make. All ideas are surely welcome. Roman

Maybe I could suggest a hay set next to the waterway ... on land?! Plenty of eye appeal with less fuss.

If youre rivers are prone to overflow, invest in a metal detector and an axe before setting on river ice!!

Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but worth considering the overflow...make sure you have a spud or axe to chip out an expired critter also, in case fur freezes to ice.


For anchoring, you can chop or drill a hole and freeze chain links in with a thermos of water and some snow slush. I avoid setting on ice because of overflow problems but it is done up here by quite a few guys..

Roman, might try snares. Those frozen waterways (alder and willow thickets) usually have nice "neck-down" areas perfect for snares. I will try to take a few pictures for you in the A.M. to give you an idea. Stand on the willows to make the set, not on the clean white snow (ice). Let the existing coyote tracks run right through your new snare set. They will follow those tracks.

kinda neat post in archives i read yesterday on this but it only caught one fox read it though should help you also was thinking snare where they enter onto the ice and were exit

im not sure about yotes but fox love to get up on rat huts. i use a 4 or 5 foot stake and drive them down through the hut. mkae a normal flat,sent post, or "dirt hole".

I use a variation of the hay set on waterways works for me. I set a bunch today, had the same thing fresh yote tracks everywhere.

What about a hay set with the trap attached to a drag?

A urine post works good on ice, put something there for a pee backer and visual aid. Of course you need enough snow to cover the trap, put wax paper under and over the trap. Freeze chain into ice as Pittu suggested. For some reason most trappers in the lesser 48 don't think freezing the chain into the ice will hold coyotes but it works fine for wolves.

For stakikng, drill a hole all the way through the ice big enough for your earth anchor. Put your earth anchor through the hole and pull side ways and your set.

Check out Lennitrappers post on this he covers it well.

Wow thanks for the fast response everyone. Bangtail I just ordered 2 doz snares from john graham on monday. Im sure there are some places on this waterway, its actually the big muddy creek. Its pretty wide and not real deep, overflow is not any thing to worry about in this particular instance. Bearbait im glad you said what you did because thats what I was going to try and if it works for wolves then im sure it will hold coyotes. Im going to try it tomorow and ill try to post pics of a couple sets and see what happens.

Take pics Roman....

I will, I was up till 11:30 last night just thinkin of different ways I could make this happen. I dont think Im going to use the hay set exclusivly, there are all kinds of ideas entering my mind of how I can transfer my land sets to the frozen creek. Ill take lots of pictures and hopefully post them tomorow. Mtbadger, have you used the cage traps yet? Hows your season so far? pm when you read this

go to the wilderness forum and ask this. Those guys have perfected this method of wolf trapping.

can you use snares? I set bait stations on many frozen ponds and bogs and set snares in the beaver routes. For anchoring I wire and secure the snare to a hardwood sapling about 6-8' long and a piece of #9 wire foes off that for stabilizing the snare.

They don't ruin the set location and they only make it as far as the nearest brush, if that. I've even got an incedental wolf that never made it out of the grass!

michael

i beleve this may help ya http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthrea...tml#Post1146836

as far as staking i have been taught a better way, use cable attached to a peice of rerod is some fashion and drop teh foot long peice of rerod down teh hole then pull it up to it makes T under the ice to to speak and cant come back thru the hole.

Drag under a big ball of hay in the middle of the set with 2 traps, 1 on each side of the ball on hay. Cover each trap with enough hay to camouflage the traps with some urine on the hay ball. Good luck.

you need your swivel on top of the ice to prevent the fraying, or use a drag

I read the other post from the link and like the idea of setting the snares before it freezes.....if only I could get to my line before it froze!

rerod doesn't float too well. How do you keep it to the top before it freezes? If you are chopping a hole you could just use a strong stick too.

I'd be careful though, sometimes when you cut holes on the smalled ponds the water can come out there. Could make for a mess next time around.

michael

yes it doesnt float however, if you make a small hole lik ei did for my ets with a hatchet or even a drill with a large spade bit or something just big enough to jam the rerod down the hole then when you pull on it with the cable centered it will work like a giant bershire. and it cant come back out the original hole.catch what im throwing at ya?

Lennie I read the whole link, thanks. I was going to try that with a piece of rerod, sounds like that would work the best. How long did you let the ice freeze back over the hole in the ice? I was thinking about two full days, that should be enough? Im going out to experiment with making the hole and anchoring this morning. Ill take pics and post them tonight.

im traping reds they arent veru strong so i set it that day. i pulled on it and it didnt pop thru so a red wasnt poppin it.

The amount of snow(weight)on the ice itself has allot to with backflow.

How thick was the ice where you set? I dont know for sure how thick it is here, but its been -20 ... 3 degrees here for over 3 weeks, so Im guessing the ice has got to be thick enough, and there is no snow insulating the ice either.

Maybe you guys can coerce Lt. Grey into reposting his below the surface of the ice scent post set.......a very unique application of Grey matter....pun intended.

How about just an old fashioned blind trailset with a drag? Approach the set area from the side. Slip your trap under one of the yote/fox foot prints and toss the drag up on the bank. If you have no snow to slip the trap under you could probably just put down some dry grass to set the trap on and cover lightly with a little bit more grass...then add a stepping stick both sides of the trap. No need for bait lure or anything since they are already traveling there.

-Skunkly-

Lt Grey oh lt.

i was wondering the same thing i did that on my river about 25yards wide and i just tied it to a huge log but it did not work to well i think this year i am going to drill a hole and put rebar in it on wire to make it hold . there are tons fo tracks on the river. i had a like ice hole set and i would think a hay set would be much better.
Shawn

Well I went out to a dugout thats full of water at the farm this morning, Tried to use a chisel to get through the ice. It works really good, but I dont have a chisel thats long enough. So I have the wife getting me a masonry bit from a hardware store. I took some #11 wire and made it into rope by twisting it, then wired the wire rope to a 5 inch piece of rerod for the stake.
As far as the set itself, I had another crazy idea, Has any one ever seen that post for fox, where the person used a straw bale and basically made a urine post with it? Im going to try that also, I ll take pictures of all of this.I keep getting more crazy set ideas and Im really interested to see if they will connect. lol, Darn I feel like a fat kid in a candy store with this idea.

Roman

Forgot to mention, drags will not work where Ill be trapping on this creek. There is almost no brush or small trees. Its surrounded by farm fields and some CRP grass. Ill take pictures of the areas tonight and post them as soon as I can.

I'm with bearbait, a small hole in the ice big enough to get about 4"-6" of chain into, pack that tight with a little snow/water from a thermos. I first saw this demo'd at a ATA wolf trapping school. The next morning to prove that it'd hold the instructor hooked his snowmachine to the chain and hit the throttle, even with several feet of slack before it got tight that chain didn't pop out. You might also consider attaching your chain to a 4" dia. log about 3' log. Dig a trench in your snowmachine trail, lay the log in there and bury it with snow. Run that over a couple of times to pack it down and you'll have to chop it out.

We made some sets for lynx last weekend on the ice infront of pee posts. There wasn't enough snow to bed the trap so we chopped a hole slightly larger than the trap about 2" deep. Made chaff out of swamp grass and used it as bedding for the trap. Tossed the drag out into the brush, added a little fox urine and covered the area in the remaining chaff. I'll let you know how it turns out, the set looks great though. I also made a step down trench set by chopping a sloped area out of the ice. A small about of gland lure on the stump and trap bedded in chaff out front.

Anyway, just some thoughts of what we've done here.

TrappinAlaska

guys drags arent the greatest idea on cricks....LONG SMOOTH FLAT surface void of brush? animals could litterally go MILES before either gettin off the ice or gettin hung

I agree lenni, especially here. Posting pics of the area now

How does a person add pictures to this post?

Just wanted to clarify what TrappinAK said about the "drag"...if you have enough snow, put your drag log in your snomachine track and after you run over it a couple times and once the snow sets up it will be an anchor and not a drag...I do this a fair amount and use a 4-6" log about 4-6 feet long..those things will not pull out once they're packed in...I guess it may depend on your snow conditions though..

Hey I finally got it to work. Now I know how to do pictures... lol, look out everyone, Im goin picture crazy now...lol

The first pic is where I trapped muskrats, for some reason they were really thick there. But the most coyote activity is in the 2nd picture. There are some muskrat houses and what looks like a feed bed. There are tracks investigating the houses and feed beds.