And yet, Bob Waddell is resetting traps that have caught coyotes, in his quest for 1000 coyotes, with bare hands. Obviously his smell is there as is the saliva, blood, urine, fecal and any other secretions of the caught coyote he just removed. I think coyotes do more than react to smells. Call it reasoning in some sort of way. It’s beyond me.

In a high population situation, the animal lacks the suspicion than that of an animal in a low population situation. The competition for food and mates causes the canines to be less cautious about odors. I've seen it over the years lay out like that. In South Dakota when I trapped coyotes there, the coyotes were danged near as easy to catch as possums. When I trapped coyotes in the UP of Michigan, it was a completely different story. I believe it's the competition that causes this difference.

I have seen the same thing. If you keep hammering in a high population location, a few always show avoidance though. Hard to know except when your in a easy tracking condition like snow or real dry dust or sand. Sometimes I wonder if a few are just more nervous than the rest. Not a learned behavior just something they are born with. When your catching real regular you are busy. But I bet you have seen that coyote that never gets closer than 3 feet from your trap when the rest of them wade right in. When you move to keep your catch rate up that handful left behind are the ones that spook easier, I think.

When your in an area where the USDA has been killing them from an airplane, the county trapper has been putting cyanide guns out everywhere, every high school kid old enough to drive has a coyote rifle in his pickup, the coyotes are nervous. And even with all that going on a few pups survive. Some coyotes still get old. I think its like a bird dog that is born with an instinct to point birds. Some coyotes are born more suspicious than others. In a high population area you just dont worry about the few that are really scared of anything new. Your still catching.

Asa Lennon has wrote on Tman a lot about catching more fur by targeting the spooky ones even in areas with a high population.

Good posts Danny and Paul. The population dictates it all! Snow allows you to see how many times yotes walk by sets like they don't exist. Especially now.

I just showed a video time and date stamped at the school of 3 grey fox smelling a scent test site. coming to it and hanging around. The next day time and date stamped a grey fox walks up to the same site puts its nose on the spot and freaked out and took off. The same site and smells in 2 days, 3 positive and one major negative reactions. Paul, I see the same behaviors in the wildlife control field. high population densities easier to catch low population densities harder.

Paul and Danny explained very well some real time trapline scenarios across the East and West. I have seen all of it first hand and most experienced trappers on the line for many years have as well.

Some places you think you have it all figured out and you can just about do anything and catch fox and coyote regularly. You experience those areas that you just cant understand what is going on. Its an education that is priceless but you learn from it if you understand what is happening. High pops > low pops and trapping pressure govern the day in the end. If you trap long and hard enough you will experience it as well.

From what I have read that long coyote snout contains a lot of specialized gear in it, not just increased sensitivity of gear like humans have.
We know coyotes can remember, and I for one believe they have some reasoning ability. I am not conceited enough to assume only humans can think.

Old cowboy friend of mine says some animals can think. He had a big mule that could untie itself from a pen rail or tree. it wouldn't really go anywhere after it did either. The mule I saw untie itself. He has told me about other stuff. That mule didnt appear to me to understand knots. It took awhile to get untied. It did grab that lead rope knot in its teeth and pull on it. So its one of the few things we don't agree on.

I think in the animal world mules and coyotes are way smarter than most other species. Most lessons dont need repeating.

It only makes sense that concentrating on those sharp coyotes makes the rest of them seem easy . It would do us all good to remember to stay with our A game, I know I’ve let my stuff get lax at times when everything seems easy ! KISS is great but a person needs to remind themselves not to slip up with the basics .

Hope that made sense,
Don

Words of wisdom Don. One of the flaws of human nature is just something we can't avoid at times. It is a good reminder to us of what can happen when we get lax on things at times. We all are guilty of that. Its the wise man that sees that flaw and corrects his ways every now and then.

I didn't realize this came back up again. Great replies and input by all, thank you all for contributing to this thread.
I am am still in the process of learning what the coyotes want when they encounter your set along with most everyone else.

After reading the 1000 coyote thread and seeing where Robert only used bait and urine
and no lure made me rethink my approach to canine trapping.

My thoughts could fill a book but the condensed version is to start with bait then add whatever you think is necessary after that.
I should add that what has already been posted above, one of the major factors in your success is the coyote population.

One of the things to consider is if you have done well at catching a good number of coyotes in your area, you should also consider what the coyote population is or was.

Next question--- what is your guess at how many different smells are in an average commercial bait being sold these days??

Multiple smells. Not all the same.

My guess would be in 5 to 6 range

I was thinking about the same ys. So if that is an approximate average and the info gained from earlier posts on this thread then technically some commercial baits could be maxxing out or close to maxxing out a coyotes nose with just bait with no lure added.
Not bashing bait or lure makers here just thinking out loud and giving folks something to think about.
No right or wrong when it comes to trapping, never say never and never say always.

I will say I've done a fair amount of testing including some baits I formulated myself that have 5 or 6 ingredients in them. They were made and tested one ingredient at a time and every ingredient in them made them better or the ingredient wouldn't be in them. For whatever that's worth.

Have you felt that the bait alone was enough of an attraction or did you also add lure?

I use bait alone and I also use a lure or urine at a set with bait. Both ways work, two different attractants at a set might have a slight advantage in my experience. But a good bait will get most coyotes to work a dirt hole pretty hard when testing.

Multiple ingredients in a lure or bait solution all help to provide the collective trigger effect delivered by a product. The number of triggers and their proportions can be few to many which is at the discretion of the formulator.

All species of life forms that are comprised of tissue and blood all carry their own specific identifiable odors. By products of these life forms are in themselves a natural occurring attraction without other elements being added. They or some by product of these species are essentially the building blocks of most lures and baits that are used today.

I won't share in house information or processes but I will say that there can be many active elements in any formula. Some lure and bait mix formulas may be quite simple and consist of only a few basic components. While other formulas may be very detailed and lengthy by nature. That is something that would be determined by that individuals knowledge and experience in that area. All things based upon what is their desired result in a final product at its maturity..

Once you have learned the mode of action of each element then the amounts used become quite important when added to a particular volume of material. These adjusted amounts will give you your desired animal reaction when used in a particular lure or when added as a bait solution to a selected meat bait. A well formulated bait solution can be very basic or quite complex with its makeup.

Well blended components in a lure formula or bait solution may be very difficult to decipher for the common trapper. A seasoned formulator should be able to detect several ingredients just due to their daily experiences working with various materials. Recognition of some ingredients would be quite obvious for them. Other well blended and aged materials would be a more difficult challenge.

A multi ingredient bait solution requires much less of that material to be used per a volume of bait,. Multi ingredient exposure to another material will boost the value of the base material many times over if selected ingredients are well chosen and blended in a good soluble material that will penetrate a meat and not just coat a meat.

Balancing the best ingredient component values of " Push/Vapor and Penetration " beomes the foundation of most good products.

Very well thought out explanation Bob. Great points and very informative. Thank you for taking the time.