I watched a coyote trotting across a small cut hay field adjacent to a two track highway today; it's primarily wooded around here with the occasional hobby farm. The coyote didn't appear spooked, nor hunting, just traveling parallel to the woods edge and out about 20-30 yds. into the field. I always try to set on sign or what looks like good location, but that generally seems like it has always been within a couple yds. of the woods edge. I catch some coyotes, but am I missing out not making some sets further out from the edge? Or am I overthinking this and he was probably just taking a shortcut ?

Great topic. Ive wondered things like that myself. I can figure out the big picture, especially from maps. But i struggle on the micro locations

If you know they are in the area, set one close to the woods and one farther out. Cover both possibilities.

I always use the wind (prevailing or look on my phone what its going to be doing the next few days and set its farther out if wind will be blowing towards woods or vice versa. There is lure and bait for a reason, get close and hopefully the scent will being them in if off 50 yards. Ive also heard that if you want to avoid skunks/opossum to set further from the woods edge.

Key thing to remember, right there.

I catch a good percentage of my coyotes out in the fields away from edges

30-60 yards. Sometimes I use visual attraction like a small log other times not

Snow cover has taught me they do not always walk the edges

3 days ago while goose hunting I watched a coyote in a clearing in the side of a hill rolling, laying and doing kickbacks. Couple times it stood and shook the few out of its fur. This went in for about 15-20 minutes. After it left and I was done hunting an investigation of the area showed no physical reason for it being there like dead animal, food etc

Set both, the coyotes along the edge mostly in hunt mode while the others are mostly travelers. Remember its all about encounters

Pay attention to elevation changes in fields. "Spines" of higher elevation that cross open fields can be very productive.

Not much grain farming in this area, so, for you guys that use grain fields- do mice and voles stay at the edges or do they colonize the whole field over time?
I've had quite a few dogs that would eat whole corn when I fed it to chickens, do coyotes eat corn in the fields? or beans?

Been chopping corn here, and I see a lot digging in the fields I see this every year, I think coyotes and they are digging into the cracks in the field after mice. The mice are traveling in the cracks.
I would think that some coyotes would eat corn.

Corn will be there main food source here when it's still in the milk stage of development. They will eat a small amount of dry corn on occasion of they are real hungry.

I think most if not all coyotes eat ripe corn.

If you can see where the water runs when it rains real heavy coyotes will follow that. They will follow that low spot even if you cant see it. They don't just run along edges.

Seen a dog go nuts for a dead grasshopper. Rolling and carrying on. When I was a kid I caught a bunch of grasshoppers and put them in a jar for fish bait. Something came up and I left those bugs in that jar for some several days. When I took the lid off it was the most horrible smell I ever smelled. There just aint no telling what that coyotes nose had him looking for.

So, with mice in the field and grasshoppers maybe being a favorite food and corn also being on the food list; we might ask why would a coyote ever be at the edge of the field rather than out in it where the food is waiting?

I'd guess that of all the coyotes I've seen over seven decades that maybe 10% were traveling near the edge of a field and that most of those were traveling the field road.
My pet coyote was a very visual critter, always wanting to be where he could see what was a hundred yards away, either prey or danger. Watching that pup grow up I came to see that to a coyote anything not food is danger, 20-30 yards into a field or open area gives the coyote a head start if danger suddenly comes from the woods, a comfort zone. Of course a dense growing field of corn is harder to see through than the relative open perimeter edges, so, in growing times those edges are more comfortable.
The pet coyote was also very much a flight before fight creature, anything at all that startled him was reason to run; open ares are easier to run away in. The high spots and ridges mentioned above may give sight distance and the watercourses Danny mentioned are always easy running, smoothed by the runoff, plus they provide some concealment from the ever present dangers.
In attempting to learn about wild things our questions should be most often "why?" do they go here or there; understanding why might let us also understand "when" and if we know a little of the why and when it is a great advantage over just knowing that they do sometimes go here or there. Why would a bird feeder full of sunflower seeds attract a coyote?

Cool to see a coyote hold a bird down with one front foot and paw most of the feathers off with the other foot.

Seen a story in the snow one time where a coyote had pulled a meadow lark out from under a bank cut in a pond.

Surly a coyote won't eat bird seed? In road runner cartoons he just uses it for bait.


Big black post sticking up in a pasture there will be cow trails going to that post. Some cow trails get used more than others. Wish I could figure out a RELIABLE way to set those cow paths when the cows are still in there.

in row crops the tracks are generally in about 5 yards out from the actual edge.

where row crops meet grass they will be closer to the grass. especially in bean stubble

the top of terraces are not equal. usually one or two is the preferred route.

the ends of pond dams should always be set

would coyotes be attracted the birds that come to seed....

I would set the edges, then find some visual attractants to drag out in the field to set as well. Carpet bomb it, you got sign.

Coyotes eat everything. Around here they eat silage.

I set both areas that was talk about and also if there is any deer trails going into or out of a field look to see if there is coyote tracks . if so set a foothold near the trail in the field.Could set a snare but the deer will at time give problems of trip the snare or what ever they can do. Also if there is gophers in the area look to see if the coyotes are dig them up.is another good place to set ,but also will get some badgers if they are there also.

I cant stress enough the importance of snow. You have plenty of snow in your area, put some boots on the ground when it snows in all of your areas to figure out the travel routes, dispersal areas as well as areas that different packs mark with urine and scat as their shared boundaries. For me snow is a game changer in a new area. It is an eye opener to the most active set locations. The same routes will apply most of the time when there is no snow on the ground.

This is so true. Snow will humble a trapper real quick. Just when you thought you had them figured out, you find out you don't.