Hello everyone, New guy here... I'm going to start trapping this season and it will be my first year doing it. I will be focusing primarily on fox and coyote using dirt hole sets but will also be going after a few coon mink and muskrat on the side. Just wondering if any experienced predator trappers could give a new guy some advice and tips or maybe tell me some of the things you learned during your first few years of doing it and what to avoid. I've been wanting to start trapping for about 5 years now and I'm excited to finally start doing it.. Thanks eveyone

Where are you In WI?

Yes northern Wisconsin.. limited farmland heavy forest

Probably not my place to say this but welcome to trapper man you came to the right place for information. There are ton of really nice guys/girls on here with a ton of good information. My advice is get a few videos or YouTube some videos. Books also help. If going the YouTube route since it seems to be faster and easier I suggest looking up wolfernation they have a ton of info on coyote trapping. Management advantage is another really good one. One thing I can say from my experience when younger till now is keep things simple stick with one or two type of sets and master them before moving onto another type. You mentioned starting with dirt holes here is one I use alot that's just a big deep hole and simple dirt patern.
Again deep I make my hole for coyote 3 to 4 inches wide 18 to 24 inches deep. I'm sure you are going to getting a ton of information on here so find what works for you and is simple for you to do. Best of luck and be safe out there.

who is mentoring you locally?
….Here’s what helped shorten my learning curve by decades. Join your state trapping assn, Google it. Then contact officers off their site and ask for a mentor to ride along with. This gets you in the info loop of FREE trappers ed classes and meets and fur sales/pick ups, and conventions. Then attend ALL YOU CAN, this shows folks you are serious and will be a good student. It sure helped open many doors for me and it could for you as well. ALSO, get several different trapping supply catalogs, like MTP, Sterling Fur, FandT, PCS, Schmitt enterprises, Southeastern outdoor supplies, rpoutdoors, etc etc, THEN circle gear you need, and give the catalogs to loved ones to buy your Birthday and Christmas and July 4 and Anniversary gifts. Explain to them, you want their money to go towards what you will use and need, as opposed to another sweater hanging in your closet. WORKS GREAT in our family.

Also, we have an amazing Archives here: https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/9/1/land-trapping-archive

welcome aboard!

Set location is the key. Set on fresh sign, and pay attention to the prevailing wind direction, so that your lure scent is blown towards the path of travel and not away from it. Make sure your traps are clean and bedded solid, no wiggle at all. If you have access to tools then night latch your dogs so that you get a crisp break and No pan travel when the trap fires. Make sure you use a sifter when you cover your trap, and remove any small pebbles or sticks from the area where the two jaws connect to the trap frame, it doesn’t take a very big stone to wedge right there and keep the trap from closing. Canines would always rather step on a low spot than a high spot, so bed your traps just oh so slightly lower than the ground surrounding it, causing a slight depression where your trap is. Stake your trap to hold the biggest animal you could possibly catch. Pan tension is important, I like mine at 2 pounds for a mixed species canine trap. If a spot is good enough for one trap then it’s good enough for two or three, sometimes up to six.

You will miss animals and make mistakes. Don’t get discouraged. The critters you miss will teach you more than this forum ever could if you listen. Take some time to study the miss, go through what happened and the sign will tell you how to fix it.

These are some of the things that I learned the hard way lol. Every tip I gave you I learned by making that mistake and missing animals. I hope this helps you get a good start!

You've already got good advise now a little work and a lot of patience will pay off don't overthink it there is a reason a life long trapper got a start on muskrats and coon

Welcome. I can’t add a lot of advice as I still consider myself green. When I first started I wanted to target predators, coyotes in particular. Word spread around my elders and a man called Magoo took me on. He asked what I knew to which I replied not much. He asked what my plan was and I replied coyotes, he laughed. He told me we were muskrattin. I was a bit disappointed but after getting out to his spots and learning some muskrat sets and making connections, I was hooked. While I was still trapping with him that season he showed me many other water trapping techniques. I suppose there isn’t a whole lot that crosses over from water trapping to land trapping but I feel cutting my teeth on muskrat taught me a lot of other things like patience and the value of lure and bait. I also had no idea fox and coyote would hunt waterside. I guess my point and advice would be don’t put all your eggs in one basket..

Learn to bed trap perfectly solid every time, find a micro location for set that has natural guides to control were
coyote steps, checks sets from a distance (only as close as u need to see if you have a catch) every 5th maybe go close enough to see if trap is sprung or uncovered. And patients. Check out Ed Schneider YouTube videos.

Learn to blind set trails. Works on mink and coyotes.

Diversify and learn how and where to use snares. Fence crawl throughs, trails in tall grass and brush, other funnels. They work in deep snow, freezing conditions, they're cheap,need little attention except checking, need no bait or lure.

Learn about how to avoid exposure to ticks and control them . I don't know how it is in your part of the country, but I've seen a considerable increase in ticks in the winter months. Some coyotes will have a thousand small crawling ticks on them. I've noted ticks active in the brush at 40 degrees F here.

You can learn an awful lot about your target's behavior by following coyote tracks after a fresh snow.

Learn about location or the learning curve is tough! Nothing worse then having traps and supplies and no clue where to place them that will catch anything.

Go get ‘em.

3 most important things about coyote trapping: location, location, and location. Put it where they are travelling making sure prevailing wind is blowing across trail. I like Hammer's example above.

Once the snow flies CRs will be your best friend. Find a coyote track and hang a CR.

Set on sign is the most important thing you can learn. You can catch a coyote in a bad set if you are on location. You cant catch squat in a perfect set if there is nothing to catch.

When first starting I recommend learning on making a dirthole and forget everything else until you have mastered it and can make the set quickly and efficiently and you learn to have confidence in the set. Too often I see guys trying to learn and use trick sets and don’t really learn the basics first. Very few coyotes that can’t be caught in a properly made dirthole, just need to be on location with a natural looking set.
Later in the season once snow starts piling up then switch to CR, once you start looking for tracks you will find natural travel ways that can be set the next year with traps.

My second year of coyote trapping. Set on sign, be patient. I actually watched and watch a lot of you tube video. WI Trappers convention is incredible for information as is the association. Great people on here as well. I PM'ed a lot of folks here for advice.

If you’ve got a couple bucks buy one of mark junes or Andy weisers videos. I’m sure there are others that are great too but those are the two that have given me a lot of great advice that I’ve used to put a lot of fur in the shed.

Hang cable!
God Bless
Dustin

Since you mentioned dirt holes, I'll comment on the one pictured in the Hammer's post. First, there is nothing wrong with it. You may notice the absence of backing behind the hole. Slanting the hole at an angle serves the same purpose as backing, that is, to guide animal approach direction to the hole. I prefer to use both slant and backing. For coyote and fox backing if used needs to look natural and be low enough for them to easily see over. Presumably, though not proven as far as I know, they would feel less safe if they could not see over the backing.

Bad practices take a few animals, good practices take more. So just because something worked a time or two does not mean it is ideal.

Good luck!

As a new trapper myself with only 4 coyotes under my belt here's what I have learned:

-Ravens are smart
-If you have dogs and get them outside, watch how they behave. Especially how they orient their bodies to go pee.
-A tiny bit of lure goes a long way
-Pee posts are underrated
-Bed your trap solidly
-If possible make waxed dirt the solar method
-Listen to the guys and gals who have been doing this for a long time. I have learned a LOT from very brief conversations with guys who've been trapping 40 or 50 years.
-Plan on a lot of disappointment if targeting canines in the beginning, and don't be afraid to start on rats, mink, coon and beaver and then when you are solid on those move up to coyote.

I would definitely heed Furvor's advice. I would venture to guess he has more trapping experience than 90% of the people on here.

I am not the most experienced trapper but the simple most important thing you can do this season is have FUN. If this isn't fun for you then quit before you start. It is a huge bit to learn and if you don't make it fun it will be a long season of disappointment. Trapping is much like hunting and you have to figure out the animal or you might as well have dirt holes set in the black top . This is the most fun I have every year and it lasts for almost 5 months for me. Good luck and find a local trapper to take you on his or her line and ride along and take many notes and ask questions.

Use basic sets like dirt hole, walk through (if a great location presents itself) and urine post. If you get a set knocked off and no catch... don't think of it as a loss. Think of it as an opportunity to learn something about the animal you are trapping. Study the scene like a good forensic person would do. Where did they put their feet (from tracks left). Was the corner of your trap showing now? Your scent or some other scent on the trap. Did you lack a back stop or was it too small and the animal came in from behind. There are hundred things that could cause a miss. Sometimes it is your fault and other times the animal has already been educated by having their toes pinched.

Read all you can about trapping your prey. Don't take everything you read as gospel, because your situation or environment might be totally different from the person that wrote the story.

Just take your time, don't be in a hurry to make your set or to leave you set after you catch or don't catch. READ THE SIGNS. Most books teach you to make a set but many of them don't tell you what to do if you don't make the catch.

I know there will be people that disagree with me and what I have said, and that is fine with me. Each person needs to develop their own style and techniques according to their potential, their equipment and their environment. Good luck and have a prosperous season.

Garry-

Pay attention to detail. Good advice above!

welcome , location ,location ,location , lots of good advice here

my no. 1 piece of advice--2 words,patience.

KISS

When you find a spot you want to set a trap, set a couple more

Be prepared to catch things you will need to release.(badgers, wolf, bobcat)
logging roads are perfect highways for animals( I try to not go more than 30yrds from the truck)
Gang set areas, if I set a cross road area, I try to get 1 or 2 more sets within that area( I have notice there tends to be 2 or more coyotes traveling together)
Buy or make some waxed dirt
Store some dry dirt now, bedding is tuff in some of the loose composted dirt in the big woods, bringing some dirt with you gives you something to dump in your trap bed to make bedding your trap way easier

Thanks for all the info guys I'm glad I got so many replies. After reading everything you've all said I'm more excited than ever to start putting my MB 550s in the dirt and I'm looking forward to the challenge. I don't expect to become very good at it being it's only my first year but if I can catch just 1 coyote this season I'll be happy. Thanks again everyone

i wanna catch just 1 too,the 1 that was howlin in my backyard last night.

good luck to ya.

Keep your eyes open to themes that present themselves. A few things here or there start to fall into place once you get enough experience.

One thing that helped me immensely was the knowledge that " you will never fool a dogs nose -- you just have to give it other things to think about" . Do not think about outsmarting a coyote because their vision, hearing and sense of smell are unbelievable. Just give them something they want in an area that they are. Definately listen to the experts -- experience on animal behavior is a huge advantage, but like was said in an earlier post don't take everything as gospel -- every area is different.

New Mexico lure maker Wayne Derrick (wayne52 on this forum) has said he loves to get inside a coyote's head. I don't know if he has published his findings.

http://www.derricks-nm.com/