It is funny when you are struggling on the trapline where your thought patterns go. My circumstance. And I am laughing at myself so don't worry about me. I have had three toe catch misses on my short coyote line i have out this year. No actual canine catches just misses and coons. It is not the actual gear i use as it is solid and functioning. The way i set it up is the issue really. Took me time to admit my own fault. I set my traps with next to zero pan tension. Misses should be expected. All three were textbook as well. So I pulled the short line 6 sets or so and reset traps to 3.5lbs or so. Not exact as i don't have a tester but have a rig set up. Then i reset them and we got frozen over and i didn't use wax dirt and my dry dirt failed. Had two separate sets where i had pads on pans and no critters. GRRRR. Frozen solid. Others dry dirt was still working but with the weather it wasn't going to last. Reset with wax dirt i made on thanksgiving day skipping extra pie to spend fur shed time waxing dirt lol. All sets are perfect in my mind. greatest sets ever. Basically considering how I am going to start the chapter of my first book on Coyote trapping. Already named it too, "Why O'Gorman came to me for advice". I am thinking about thanking those that have helped me on my way to the top. You know My Mom, Dad, The good lord above and so on. Might be able to single handedly change the fur industry by making it a blessing to wear an animal caught by me.

Last night driving home I can see one set of mine is getting some feral cat activity. The cat is walking right in on it while i watch from the road pulling in the driveway. My own pasture by my house. One set I have down there that gets traffic once to twice a week from over the road. Solid location with cover from the road for the distance of my property to cross. I ran off to my daughters basketball game (playoffs pretty important stuff). When i got back i went down to release the cat who belongs to nobody and is not very big. thinking i will actually put him in my barn to kill mice and i got room and board for him already. To my surprise he didn't get caught. Scuffed a little wax dirt off the pan and got into the bait and left. I rebaited and added a small bit of wax dirt to make my set oh so perfect again.

Now the brain gets to working. Should i have caught him. Pretty heavy pan tension for me and it is a small cat. Maybe my goal of cutting back on incidentals is perfectly laid out and the set is like I think perfect. Or maybe it is dead in the water and my whole line which is waiting on me to check fully tomorrow morning is a freaking waste of fuel and i may be the worst trapper ever. Lol. 24 hours of sitting around and thinking you are the best or the worst is grueling.

I find the inner workings of thought patterns and the mind an awesome thing. I truly love trapping. Even without success there is nothing i do personally that keeps my mind as on point and working as it right now. Failures seem to breed more thought than success as well for me. Kinda like sports when i was young. I learned very little from success but boy did i learn from a good butt whooping.

So for the time being my book is on hold but i think I might continue to retain rights to the name (working on trademark now). That seems a pretty solid name for a book.

Dang it Dude, you have ruined it for me. I didn't know I was struggling until you told me. I thought the best way to catch every incidental on a property was to make the best coyote set I know how.

lol Sue. I have caught three 4xl coon on just one set so far in a week. They are the biggest coon I have caught before. Two would be 6xl if the NAFA sizing still mattered to anyone but the history books. My incidental catch books are off the charts this year. Caught three skunks in dogproofs in a two night span at one location. I also caught two rabbits in a fox set in consecutive nights. Then on a beaver job I have caught three phenomenal coon in one beaver slide. I did however catch the one beaver there as well eventually. That is 3/4 of my catches for the year.

Oh and the mink i caught was in a blind set on a coon trail where i haven't seen mink sign at all on that side of the lake.

So maybe i should set a marten box up on a fence post to catch a coyote? That seems like it would fit the pattern for me.

The surprises are awesome though. That is the first mink i have ever caught. My coons are averaging 4xl and the skunks were all full of essence and have spectacular fur. Rabbits are now bait and the wheels keep turning.

It sure can be tough sledding out there sometimes..... at least your willing to change things up which I'm betting will result in success. Good luck out there!

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it...
I get on here and realization sets in that I’ll never be a “trapper,” just someone who catches some critters every now and then. And like you, my mind gets racing trying to figure the why’s or how to’s after a check and even the night before. It seems about the time I’ve convinced myself that I should have taken up knitting instead, I’ll have a check that makes no sleep and overthinking it all worth it.

I agree that the best coyote set will catch every thing else not intended to catch. I think because coyotes have a cycle they are on and it takes longer for them to come back through an area and they have to be in the mood to work the sets. Where everything else like coons are probably living right there in the area and not as suspicious of sets.

Last year at this time I was closing in on 20 coyotes, this year I have 4. Seriously think something killed off the pups, or I'm losing what little skill I thought I had. Add in about 4 times as many accidentally coon catches and twice the #of deer springing my traps and then losing all my setting tools off the back of the truck going down the road. Luckily a neighbor found them for me 24 hrs later because I couldn't. I was pulling traps today until I caught 2 coyotes and a big badger and the neighbor got my tools back.

Hopefully this will help keep ya going, makes me laugh when things are tough going.

That's why they call it fishing...

For what it's worth I too am struggling so far this season. My tried and true short line (25 traps in mostly sandhill pasture) that usually has me up to 20 yotes by now has produced only 5 for me so far...(all 5 have been skinners, the good Lord does have mercy) 3 days after I initially set a Blizzard shut me down for 8 days, then I reset the whole line and have caught a whopping 2 coyotes in a week.... Head scratching over here to say the least. Is it me? The full moon? The warm weather? Or just down numbers this year? I am not one to rely on excuses but I don't have clear direction on what the root of the issue is.. All I know to do is to change up my sets on locations that I know are solid that I just may have set up wrong. All I know is its becoming a grind a lot faster this year than ever before!

All is right with the world. I picked this guy up yesterday mornings check. Looking at the tracks now in the snow for over a solid week i really think the numbers are lower than what i thought. But i do think my setup pan tension and ax dirt wise is spot on. so back the writing the preface of the first of many great books.

I'm up to 10. At least one every morning for the last 5 days. 2 or 3 pups out of 10. The rest mature coyotes. A couple of short toothed old ones. Usually 2/3 pups and a few adults, things are backwards this year. I've had to tighten up my game to catch the ones I have but I'm learning.

I took a young man ( 35 yrs.old I think for refernce)out for a run one day awhile back .
He told me there nothing to catching coyotes there just a dumb dog. I laughed said well then I guess you do not need my help I should listen to you and turn around drove him back to his rig.
Everytime he starts complaining about not catching coyote only fox,,, I tell him I remember you telling me there just dumb dogs a smart guy like you should have no problem.

I will likely actually figure things out 7 minutes after i pass on lol. Learning is half the fun. I often laugh at things like youth and egos and what not. For example i was looking hard at trap setters in the catalog last night thinking how nice it would be to have and save my hands. Any good self respecting stubborn young guy would never admit to the need of a trap setter lol.

we all go through it. I got a super great deal on wax this summer. I used it to wax a bunch of dirt. When I opened the container Saturday a waxy flowery smell hit me in the face. I thought I would try it- no coyotes in any of those sets- not even a foot print- swapping out dirt now.

Im at zero still. But it has not lacked for adventure

Yeah no records being made this year lol, weather has been our worst ever. Mud, mud , mud. Than some snow, more mud you now . Than we check today and someone needed a coyote worse then me. Just glad they left the trap behind for me to catch them another lol. Only 2 stolen and 2 shot up by hunters, way better than last year they stole everything, one that gets the sharpest knife in the drawer award dug out the earth anchor with a shovel. Anyway hope the rest of you are having a good year , and not feeling like the frog. Rank over

When I was first starting out in 1967 I would given a lot to have a mentor or this trapping site .
Nothing wrong at all with saving your hand s dude055 .
A little of common sense would done me well back in the day lol.
A tip for any that is interested
Keep your sets as simple as you can.
That is reason why 90 percent of my sets are flats sets or a real mouse hole with a trap set in front of it. Bait or lure in it.

I have one coyote and one coon.
The coyotes got to my other 5 coons before I did my check and I check traps every day... Sheesh!
Cows are killing me and tromping all over - still having a blast and seeing some good bucks to chase next year!

Dude that is a good looking coyote. Did you get him in one of your marten boxes?