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Here in Michigan our season opens 10/15, about 2 -3 weeks early for prime Yotes. You sir are spot on, It is all about photo period and the age and health plays too. I'll hold off on further comments until this thread develops..

Problem with coyotes is they can be as prime as they get and still have mange. My coon here are all over the board, some prime early, late etc. One thing I do believe is my coon change into D colors as the season goes on.....

You may be about the same latitude as South Dakota, but are you also at about the same elevation? Priming may not be affected by elevation, but length and density of fur is because of temperature. Many years ago I visited Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. Folks there said weather on the mountain was equivalent to that of southern Canada because of the elevation.

Where I trap coyote the elevation is about 5,100 feet above sea level. Coyote in early October are worth about $20, October 20 around $40, November 20 up to $160 at NAFA. By December 15 they are degrading and by January 20 few are worth skinning. The high elevation is colder but probably gets more light.

Hold off harvesting until the large majority of the species you are after are coming on to prime.That would be a I-II grade.Anything that grades II is too early in my opinion.
That said,some species like marten prime early and others like cats prime later,but you should know from past experience when to start to get that grade of fur.
Where I am I start land fur first week of November,and get almost no II grades then unless its an incidental cat in a wolf snare,or a sick animal,which in the big picture is very rare.
Same goes for the other end of the season.I find the late season,when fur starts to get overprime and open more unpredictable from season to season.At the tail end of the season,a lot has to do with the snow conditions here where I am.

Nov 15. To Christmas is good as it gets, around here
Before dates given (for my area )and after down grade accordingly.

Last week of October is good for coyotes here. I am also 400 miles north of the border. The yoy will not be great but they still sell very well. Depending on snow,freeze thaw conditions you can go till January ,February and on a good year sometimes March. Nice powdery snow makes for good coyotes longer than you would expect. Light snow with hard crusts makes coyotes go downhill fast. Open prairie coyotes seem to have nicer fur than bush running coyotes. 60 miles apart can make a difference on coyotes around where I trap. One area could be all rubbed and the other could be great.

To many variations to figure out when to start and finish, BUT if you can tell a good fur from bad fur you are half way there. That goes for all types of fur. NAFA the last few years has been bringing five different grades of coyotes,foxes etc to our convention. It is a big eye opener to a lot of seasoned trappers when they look at the different levels of grades

I will talk coyotes and fisher above 46.5 degrees North. Season opens for coyotes the middle of Oct. I will get some II's & some I-II's. If I wait a week - 10 days I get mostly I-II's this is a NAFA. Our fisher season opens about 1 Nov. I usually start then and trap mostly in Nov. I usually get about 20% select and an occasional top lot. Lat year I waited until the last week of Nov and trapped about three weeks. For the first time in the past 10 years I had no selects. I will start the second week on Nov this year. I get some II's in the first week of Nov.

I fully agree with most of the above comments but with private landowners I must work around deer hunting seasons. In my Management Area, 6A the deer season can last about 74 days. Of course this includes, early,middle, late bow. Muzzle and regular rifle. Not to mention rock throwing. Dumb!tff

Some of those farms can manipulate the priming process artificially to spread the labor out.


Really, the best rule(after following state seasons) is to trap when you can trap. Can't sell what you don't catch. Dont worry so much what guys in other state's are doing as their circumstances are completely different than yours when it comes to weather, seasons, people, etc.

2X

If you are talking strictly when fur is prime,and not the other unrelated variables,just check the priming cycle charts for your area.That will give you a good idea and a place to start.After a while you will just know.
And don't forget,just because the markets today demand prime fur,that is not always the case.

Spot on.

In the current market you are just wasting your time and money fur trapping too early,or going too late,unless you have a market other than the raw fur market.

If you are trapping just for the sake of trapping,why not challenge yourself to something like taking one of each species in every month of the year to put together a pelt study collection?

Whenever I feel like setting traps. You learn pretty quick that when you think the best time to set traps for any animal is usually when everything goes to heck in a hand basket and the animals may or may not be what you were expecting them to be.

Now that's a neat idea! Coon would be a easy one to try, set the first week of each month. However there would still be variables like age, genetics, diet, etc. Neat idea though.

Couple things:

The problem is its a GRADUAL transformation from sorta-prime to perfectly-prime. So, timing it across a vacation trap line, or across a state, or region or country would be difficult to impossible......

IF I had a choice between 100 coyotes trapped on Oct 25th (I live in NY) OR 100 in January, I'd take the Oct 25th versions......this is not based on guessing or speculation, but rather, actual experience here with THESE specific coyotes. Can't speak for others.....

The quality of January coyotes just is NOT consistent enough to count on, IMO, compared to late Oct/early November. Sure, you get some gems but you also get more turds.....

Ideally, I'd trap coyotes IN NUMBER after Nov. 15th and before Christmas.....but I simply cannot do that due to our deer gun season. Can I trap during deer season? Sorta, but not the way I'd like. We are just hand-cuffed during deer season up here.

Yes, of course, I know the guys up north start trapping during gun season.....and they are therefore handicapped right out of the gates. I DON'T trap up there and I'm glad I don't or I'd NOT get the numbers I do down here!

Fisher are NOT coyotes...they prime late, and of course the later season start for that animal, the better.

That said...I DON'T embrace trappers looking down their noses at guys that DON'T wait till the perfect time. As long as the season is open and therefore the fur is LEGALLY taken, then who am I to judge another trapper's motives????

Some guys say: un-prime fur brings down the fur sale averages!

True! But last I checked, I don't get paid the FUR SALE AVERAGE. I get paid on MY average. Heck, every sale I go to, I bring UP the average!

It's not like we are in a co-op, throwing all of our furs in together, and then we ALL get paid the same number based on ALL furs in that co-op.

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So, this last season, I trapped NY coyotes from Oct 25th till gun season (mid-November). And then I caught a few over Christmas.

I decided to ship a small sample to FHA. I have NO idea which dates I caught these coyotes, but since 90% came from my early vacation line, I'd assume the bulk came from Oct/Nov.

Here's my grades and payouts from the May 2018 sale:

15202 3X-2X SELECT HVY A-B 9515020 5 $125.00 $625.00
15204 3X-2X SELECT HVY A-B 9515047 2 $125.00 $250.00
15205 3X-2X SELECT HVY A-B 9515042 1 $125.00 $125.00
15207 3X-2X SELECT HVY C-D 9515021 1 $105.00 $105.00
15208 3X-2X SELECT HVY C-D 9515046 4 $105.00 $420.00
15216 3X-2X SELECT SEMI B 9515011 1 Unsold to be re-offered
15240 3X-2X I-II DARK HVY-SEMI B 9515050 1 $25.00 $25.00
15241 3X-2X I-II DARK HVY-SEMI C-D 9515049 1 $26.00 $26.00
15282 1X-LG I-II DARK HVY-SEMI 9515066 1 $19.00 $19.00

Average: $99.69 Sold: 16 Unsold: 1 SubTotal $1,595.00

While I did NOT have actual coyotes in the "Top Lot" the "Top Lot" price of $125.00 flowed down to the next few sections.....which was great!

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So, in the first post, the guy said: Even an Oct coyote is worth $100.00! Well, in this case, I guess I agree! LOL

The point is I'd trap when you can trap. For me, numbers are my motivation, so I start on Oct 25th and squeeze in three weeks before gun season the 3rd Saturday in November. Some years, I don't trap ANY coyotes after that time frame.

I'll put my average up against anyone with similar coyotes, and yes they were largely/mostly taken "early".......

Mark Zagger

Good work Zag, alot of your prices have to do not only the coyotes but the fact your put up metheds are excellent. Theirs a lot to be realized by that. That is a lot of selects by any standards..

True, you can put lipstick on a pig and its still, well, a pig!

BUT...I DO believe you can take a B coyote and turn it into an A coyote with proper handling.

If anything, those numbers above prove that ALL Eastern coyotes are NOT equal!

MZ