My cousin raises watermelons and cantalopes. The yotes eat lots of his produce, along with coons. The early cantalopes are beginning to come in and the yotes are already on them. Is there any trick to catching summer dogs? My first thought is dirt holes around the patches where I find sign, with cantalope in the hole, and use a little urine. Also, to backtrail and find trails coming out of the woods to set on. Will they respond to gland lure this time of the year?

I trapped coons for him last season and caught 32 in 14 days, so at least I thinned them somewhat, but Im sure they will show up en mass shortly.

I've put in over a hundred mock sets since the end of March, up till now testing lure, bases and ingredients. A good gland lure has gotten the most consistent reaction this time of the year on coyotes. I'd go with a good fox gland lure.

Thanks, will do.

Urine and gland lure. Find where the coyotes are entering the field, and make post sets. Bed your traps solid, pack inside the jaws as best you can, and use plenty of pan tension. The coons will be just attracted to your sets as the coyotes. Your only hope is they check the set and leave instead of digging at your trap. Drags are good in this situation also to preserve the location. This is a good time to hunt at night if allowed.

Just run good Flat Sets and Post Sets

Gang set, and for your situation 20 sets is not out of the question, so you have ample opportunities to clean out the coons before they foul your foot holds.

If you have them, I would set up as many live traps for the coons as you have. Dry dog food works as bait and you might pick up some yote pups.

I would add to steeltraps recommendation, that you might try Ron and Pete Legget's step down set to the offerings as a change up.

I feel for you as low fur prices have coons like corks in a bottle, in there are so many around, that you catch a half dozen and twelve more show up. I'm on a location now that I just caught #15 and they are still flowing in. A farmer I was speaking with took 150 raccoons off a silage pile they were ruining not long ago. I never noticed a drop in road kills or control work, even with that many removed.

There are multiple places the yotes are coming from, two of which are my favorites......pond dams. Ill gang set the yotes, and put out several dogproofs for the coons.

Do not use drags in the field
You could have big piles of vines
Cantalope rubbed on a set post then put urine on top of it has worked for me

Set traps yesterday, and caught a young male last night. I started using the feet of yotes in dirt holes years ago for attractant and bait. When I was removing the feet today I discovered a missing front foot from last season. I tried to upload a pic but file size is too large.

If the field is fenced, look for crawl unders then back track to find good trap/snare locations away from the fence. A few IR or cellular wireless cameras scattered around the field and focused on the crossings will provide some good intel and entertainment.

If you have coons, you will need more than "several dog proofs". Throw a dozen or two out there. It will likely be an endless stream of coons.

Dave

There is no fence for 1/4 mile, 360 degrees, and then its a 2 strand efence. There is one end of the field where I see the majority of tracks, and have it set heavy. The farmer started irrigating today, which will add to the challenge, but also may help with finding muddy tracks and entry/exit point. I picked up two coons last night. I already have a dozen dogproofs out and are saving a few for his sweetcorn, and my own cantalopes. One of my dogproofs was cleaned out two nights in a row without tripping. The ground is so hard that when digging the first two inches shatters like frozen ground, and it doesnt improve much after that. Ticks,,,,,,,,unreal!!!!!

One more yote bites the dust last night.

What type are of sets and lure did u catch them on?

Both flat sets with red fox gland lure, one had urine and one without urine.

Mafia Set / where the entry and exit points are.

I scouted today and found an entry point where they are crossing a beanfield and entering the cantalope field. Ill put in a mafia set tomorrow, and a couple of fresh flat sets.

Do y’all not have deer??? How do you find coyote trails or any trail deer don’t use?

Plenty of deer. This a unique situation trapping mostly the field. It is a small tract of land with the yotes coming in from land I do not have permission to trap under permission of the depredation permit.

What I meant was how do you keep deer out of your sets? Tried “trail” setting and tripped traps every night. Got old quick.

If you are using urine it will draw them to the trap and they will investigate the smell until they trip the trap. If its deer, your trap should be out of the bed stretched to chain length.