This was a flat set that was not re-lured since early January. Photo was taken last week . X is were Badlands Bob was on stick. Amazes me how good their nose is !

It sure is food for thought isn't it

I was tracking a coyote in a couple of inches of fresh snow one time. He made a sharp left, went about 50 feet and dug up an old dried up white turd, marked it and went on his way. We will never know how good a coyotes nose is. They are amazing.

One time I saw where one dug lure out of the ground where I had made a set 2-3 months earlier. After seeing that I'm always skeptical about adding more lure to a set. You shouldn't need it if you're on location.

Went over my line last week, a lot of sets worked that were made in November and never relured.. Some looked like a bomb went off. Most tracks were within 6 inches or less..

If it took that long you were not on location. More lure may have pulled them in to that spot. More lure and bait every 7 days if no catch. That way I have a reason to go close enough to see what is going on. I have found all kinds of stuff when I do this but the most frustrating one is the bait cleaned out by a mouse or other small critter. Answers a lot of questions I had about the set.

You're correct, I was not on location if it took that long. I don't think adding more lure to compensate for not being on location is a good idea. Sounds like a good way to get rollers to me. If I can tell the bait or lure has been robbed then I'll add more. Otherwise I'd say it's best to pull and move the trap if there is no action.

It sounds to me like you have a population close to mine which isn't great. I use pipe sets now so if I do move a set I don't leave lure and bait behind. I too have had sets worked a spell after I pulled and that just tells me I was close but not close enough.

I know it’s not the proper trapping method, but I have a spot where I couldn’t get the pipe back out of the ground so I left it. After the first year you could tell the pipe had been chewed considerably. I went ahead a set a trap there (couldn’t get the anchor out either). That spot produced 3 coyotes. So far this year it’s produced 2 and the pipe is now a less than an inch above the deck. Soon I’ll have to dig around it somehow to get enough above deck to work. Pipe are great bait holders.

I have seen reactions,as well,after 3 months
.I think my location was off but when things moved into the denning season,it became more valid.

I once had a dog proof in the weeds near my yard to catch nuisance coons. I also had a trail cam on the area for security. I left the dp staked but not set, with whatever mackerel bait may have been left in it after the last catch. Along about September, 4 months later after a hot wet summer, I have video of a coon pulling it up out of the weeds and sticking its paw in there repeatedly, never finding anything to eat. And raccoons aren’t noted for the nose like a coyote. Ray Milligan once told me to forget ever trying to hide my smell from a yote. He said it was not possible, and in fact what was important was to leave only “good” human smell. He believed, as I do thanks to testing his suggestion, that a coyote can smell so well it knows if you were nervous when you were there by the smell you leave. That one tip turned a 16 year old kid from a set maker to a canine catcher. The coyote nose can really not be fully comprehended by we humans.

Well said,Loosanarrow.

Ray was spot on, it's not our scent that needs controlled! If your mad at the world yotes can detect it, same with domestic dogs. Call it a vibe or a mood or whatever but it's a huge factor.

What a great tip from Ray... thanks for sharing, loosanarrow.

Read a story one time, that a trapper in Michigan, during the 20's-40's, used to catch 80-120 red fox a year using only 1-1 oz bottle of lure. Used only a BB size lure drop at each set, and didn't re-lure after a catch. Using a "lima bean" sized portion of lure/bait, as is often recommended, is too much IMO. My thought has always been that it would be the equivalent of getting a good snort of ammonia up your nose.

Concentrated formulated materials can penetrate and leach into some materials that can hold trace odor for many months on their own. This event can cause what I refer to as the root effect. It can trigger its own life force due to random on going visitations. The placement site visits in some cases can continue indefinitely.

The other factors that may not be seen or realized without a video cam on the application site is attempting to physically smell the area yourself. This method is not fool proof but can be a learning experience when you detect odor with your nose and confirm your suspicions.. Understanding the marking affect that is done by other animals keeping the set active due to urine marking. A very common practice with all canines.

I’d like to know a trapper that can smell any odor? Since I started trapping my olfactory senses are way off. I can’t smell anything in my truck or around it, but my family won’t park anywhere near it. They even swear buzzards circle while I’m at work.

Now that is an awesome tip, and pretty accurate too. The less I stress while setting, the more I catch. The less I overthink things, the more I catch. I would absolutely believe there are stress hormones or pheromones or similar that are shed when we are stressed, angry, etc.

I too see sets get worked months after pulling. But those also get worked more often that too. If I don't get visit every 10 days or less I figure my location is off. Yes, they can sit weeks between connecting but in the meantime I could/should be catching in a better location.

The over-luring thing I credit to being a lure thing, and something that can be avoided by avoiding lure. If I re-bait once a week it is a guarantee that the following 48 hrs I will see marked improvement. It's like clockwork. So in that sense I think if I'm just fur trapping hoping to catch a couple at each set, I'm better off with a loud set that the occasional finicky animal might avoid instead of a soft set that most might walk past.



I read on here before to take deep inhaled breaths of coffee grounds through the nose to reset the olfactory sense. I think that was LT maybe.

I had a springer spaniel that could smell quail from the back of a pickup doing 70 mph on the interstate.
In the DESERT north of Phoenix. Friends that hunted with me couldn’t believe it till they saw it.