Since you are just starting out and still learning,when you visit your trapground,dont remove your unproductive sets right away.Add more and varied sets each time you visit.Then you will start to catch some fur.Once you start catching,take note(literally take notes) of the kind of sets and locations that are producing fur in that particular terrain.Catching will build your confidence and confidence will allow you to eventually catch fur at will in the future.If you have a chance to observe the animals themselves,or if you get snow follow the tracks to learn how the animals move thru their environment and their behaviour.This will also help you learn the land and Identify the areas that the different animals use.Studying a bit of biology about the animals will also help you immensely in being able to confidently make sets and catch them.

Being a productive efficient fur harvester doesn't come overnight.

Go down the road and get on a couple dairy farms.Find the dead piles and make some sets around them.Keep it simple,dirt holes and check from truck.When I trap in Pa,I have lots of farms that don`t catch much and other farms that really do great.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the advice and motivation.

Realy locate youre animals dont worry about setting anything until you have good sighn then start with a good few sets on that sighn base youre sets off what the lication has to offer food travel or communication kickbacks droppings etc you can blur the lines on youre sets food curiosity scent posts with something out of place etc but the main thing is find location and set on it its worth the time to walk areas out starting off to find exactly what you need to and then set them up

You have beginner’s blues! Here are the steps to becoming a good trapper.

Do everything to the best of your ability.

Leave the smallest amount of scent possible.

Keep things simple.

Use the best gear you can afford.

Apply a good dose of patience.

While you are being patient, learn more about the intended animal. Go out in the field somewhere to walk, look, and listen. Then go do that again and again and again. Learn the land and how animals move on that land. You need to earn experience and skills. You cannot buy them. Observe and learn something new everyday. Spend less time on the Internet and more time in the field.

Pick one or two lures and put the rest away. Pick one or two sets and learn how to make them well and efficiently. You have way too many variables happening.

Similar principles apply to most endeavors in life.

Best wishes.

Walk over that land, all of it, looking at the ground like you have lost a $10,000 ring or such, notice vole holes and chipmunk holes and bird droppings, keep that up til you find coyote scat; when you find scat you have found SIGN and you are in business. But pay attention to the voles and chipmunks holes and rabbit scat because as old Furvor has said there is a place of interest to a predator. I count those places as good locations even if there is no coyote or fox scat around, I believe they know the food lives there. You should also see tiny paths through the grass and ground litter, things you've seen before but took no notice of. Pack rat nests or even squirrel nests, fallen trees, old hay bales all are places that say Dinner to a hungry predator.
SniperBBB has twice mentioned the thermals involved in working a mountain or even a big hill- pay attention to that. Uphill as the sun warms the air and down hill as the sun sets and temperatures drop, with swirls if there is a prevailing wind at the time. Do not set your traps according to the wind direction at midday or afternoon; set according to your estimate of where the wind/breeze/slightest air will be from in the hours of dusk to midnight. It might help to walk over every piece of that 100A just at dusk so that you get a feel of how the hill affects the air currents. Where the animals have been seen running/trotting/cantering/loping is not a fine place for trapping, as someone mentioned those critters are traveling and you need them in hunt and sniff mode, most likely out of sight of the house and barn.
My old Auntie always said luck is spelled with a p. (pluck)

On the news/weather, the wind usually blows West to East,
on the ground it rarely does that here.
I'm in hill country but a long ways from your area.

Sometimes I need to un-learn what I think I've learned.

Boots on the ground trumps book smarts.

60's tues. and wed. wont help a bit either.

I am in the exact same boat. First year trapping, chasing yotes. Set up 5 traps 8 days ago and caught a nice young male the following day, not a thing since. By the hind foot catch, I believe my catch was accidental/luck. Not finding much for sign. Tons of deer tracks and mouse holes. Right now I am basically just setting on features and fencelines.

That's where I would say you went wrong. Never leave sign to set traps where there isn't sign. Find tracks, find turds, set traps. If you literally don't see any of these from where you are standing to make a set, then you're not in the right spot.

One thing I do when Im at a loosing streak is keep thinking the animals are getting closer to your sets. I will go several days with lackluster success then boom- seems like every other set makes a catch. Most often than not the weather and animals will not cooperate, keep plugging along and it will happen.

Sniper, thank you for the reminder about the thermals. I completely forgot about that. LOL Too much info between family, career, hunting, fishing, trapping, etc....

Carolina, I think that the biggest problem right now is that the hay is still green and fluffy. I can't find anything in it. Of course I can find plenty of deer and cow scat as well as tons of prints in the pastures but to be able to pick out a K9 track or scat in that environment is darn near impossible. I know that they're there, the farmer knows that they're there, and the farmer's grandson who also lives on the farm with his parents knows where deer carcasses are, etc...

Of course the carcass is on the side of a very steep hill inside of a group of pines inside of the pasture. It's probably around a 40-50 acre pasture and is very steep. It's definitely quite the hoof on foot since it's too steep for a quad.

But again, I'm almost 100% positive I know where they're coming and going from and yet I have yet to find a track or scat in those areas given the amount of deer and cow prints and scat. And yes, I know there's a difference in the scat of all 3 but you try to pick that out among all of those cow pies. LOL

For what it’s worth, I have set a couple of farms this year that had sign and got nothing in 10 nights.
You swear your doing something wrong and then you move traps to a new farm. Set the same
way with the same lures and catch coyotes immediately. I don’t have a clue why.

I feel your pain. Started trapping this year and not only am I not catching what I thought, my schedule is making checking traps hard, and my skinning is garbage. I originally was "allowed" to buy 6 DPs and see if I could make a go at it. Instead of my wife complaining I'm the one who is questioning myself. I'm leaning towards buying more traps and pushing forward but there is a lot of obstacles in the way. Reading this post has gave me a lot of encouragement and it should you as well.

I didn't catch anything this year until the day after Christmas, and it remains the only animal that I've caught this year because I pulled my traps on New Year's Day. On December 26th I caught a fisher. It was very exciting and expensive in the end because it's at the taxidermist.

I sit here and think of the things that I've learned about this year. Location, trap bedding to thwart freezing, etc... I say to myself, "I've got a plan for next season and am going to nail them to the stretcher." But then I think, "That's what I said this year after reading many books, watching many videos, and doing research." But the one thing that I didn't have going into this season was FIELD EXPERIENCE. I'm hopeful that will be the game changer for next year.

This year I was off location. Not by much but enough. I also had a huge problem with frozen traps. I'm sure that it'll happen again next year, but not to the degree that it was this year.

I have not had the pleasure of skinning, fleshing, or boarding any furbearer as of yet. As for buying more traps and pushing on, it's become a sickness and I can't stop. I've got more traps than animals that I've caught in all of them combined. But we'll push forward and not give up.

Good luck to you Brother, stay the course.

Thanks man! The kicker for me was after pulling my traps last week to relocate I aggravated my foot walking out which puts my trapping DOA till it heals. I have to walk to set/check traps and the miles of walking a week has put a toll on my old/fat feet. I like the brotherhood of trapping and think I will push forward!

I feel your pain Brother. I have severe osteoarthritis in my hips. You should see me try to get down, you should see me making a set, but the funniest part is watching me try to stand back up. But I love it, I'm having fun, and I'm going to become smarter than some dumb animal. One way or another, I will.

Guys - If you're having fun and enjoy being out in the woods, creeks and fields... Then just ENJOY it!
Foe me, it's not about how much fur I can pile up and send to a buyer or auction house - it's about learning more all the time and the anticipation of what I might have caught the night before. Life is short...
It's also a great way to do a lot of deer scouting!! LOL!

Big1 - Congrats on the fisher catch! You’ll have to post some pics when you get your mount back.

Oh don’t you worry, I’ll be doing just that. Lol