I last baited/lured this coyote set 45 days ago on December 19th. I used a golf ball sized chunk of skunk meat and a tiny amount of curiosity lure with coyote urine on the backing. Since then there have been 3 snowstorms, all of which have melted off with rising warm temps and at one point this set was completely underwater for 5 consecutive days. Then things "dried" out and another snowstorm hit a week later leaving a foot and a half of snow. That almost melted off, maybe a few inches then another storm hit a few weeks back and left a foot of snow. I pulled all my sets on that storm in mid-January and it has been raining every day but 2 days for the past two weeks. So today while checking some water sets in that same area I went to check on the sets I had pulled to see if any action. I found this, appears that a pair of coyotes worked the hole pretty good and left me some presents.

I love it!

Impressive!

That is why you should either take the lure and bait smells home with you or pound in that set and cover deep enough so they can't get to it! They get used to smells left behind and show no interest the following year. They have a memory just as good as their nose!

I have seen where a cow was buried about 5 feet deep and there for over a year and the cotes have dug down 5 feet to get to it. The ground is frozen and they are still digging away. The animal has been buried for two winter and they are still after.

Unreal

No very real. Buried under a load of manure and it was still dug up. Seen that too......jk

Good advice, but sounds like you could never remove 100% of the bait/lure short of digging up and removing 1/2 ton of dirt and replacing with fresh dirt.

I would like to see a picture of where the coyote dug down 5 feet. How big is that hole?

I had something similar happen to me. Three years ago I had a dirt hole that got flooded over and 3" of ice covered the set. Didn't have a metal detector to pull it and being on our property I just figured I would pull when thaw came. Approximately 6 weeks after making the set and a month after being under ice I noticed a coyote had scratched all the snow away from a spot in the vicinity of my set. Went out with ice spud and sure enough the trap and dirt hole was right there. Never would have believed it if I didn't see it myself. Gave me a whole other mid-set on quantity of bait / lure to use at a set and to not get eager to "freshen up".

Dave

Moisture helps to carry scent further. As far as trapping goes, what may work in areas with high humidity may not work in drier climates.

There are lots of things you can do. If your talking about dirt holes, put your bait or/and lure in pop cans. When done pull them out and take with you. I don't worry about a gland lure, as that is natural and you won't have the same reaction. Flat sets and posts, the lure goes on the attractor, take it with you when done. One of the worst things for your future trapping in an area is to just pull the trap and leave the rest. They associate the look of the set with the smells you have been using, then next year, you may have forgotton, but an old female coyote will train her pups away from anything that looks and smells of your go to lures and baits. Coyotes get harder to catch...And you made them that way.

Maybe a badger dug hole,as much smell as a dead cow would have it would be easy for an animal to smell it through the dirt, coyote carcass under 3' of compost smells to me