Wondering what kind of sets some of you on the prairie run during unseasonably warm weather while K9 trapping. Flushed a coyote out of a field that had 7 sets in it. 5 dirt holes, 2 urine posts. Already trapped a fox and badger from the same quarter. Before I scared it away it was walking about 30 ft from a urine post.

Sometimes I wonder if trapping with dirt holes in October is worth it for coyotes. I usually put my gland lure down the hole with the bait, so maybe I should have just skipped the extra work to make the hole and just put in a flat set and be just as productive. So much food out there. Maybe just use a curiosity style lure to mix it up?

That or maybe I should just wait for colder weather before putting out steel.

I use dirtholes predominantly even early, some trench sets on sign. I will agree though temp affects the results. Last week was in the negatives at night and today was 71°, had better catch numbers last week than I have had the last few days.

Yep warm weather and a full moon is a recipe for disaster. I’m not running much but my action went to minimal even on new farms. Dirthole start to finish though. They still have to eat.

Make the dirt holes while you can.

Soon enough the ground will be a lot harder.

It's more about the full moon than the weather! Try flats with mink gland. Backed up with urine sets.

Its your lure and baits job to attract them to the set if you have taken care of everything else. Dirtholes catch coyotes.

Winter trapping with hard ground I go to more FLAT SETS

I'm going to wait for one more rain here this week and then I'll be going out where I'm running and drill dirtholes. I have done it in the past early without seeing much sign of issues. Get there before the ground freezes up. I did one early this year just to try it and see what happened a little mini experiment. Two confirmed visits in a week with scat and possibly more. I caught a coyote in that set the first night I put a trap in front of it. There was no bait or lure in the hole prior to putting the trap in place but was once it was guarded.

Nothing but another badger and some deer sprung traps today. Badger really like the coyote gland lure. Had a coyote visit a dirt hole and flat set both about 30 feet from each other. Walked in from behind the set, knocked over the backing and left some tracks in the process. Guess it didnt want to comply with the instructions on where it was supposed to stand. Due to deer gun season I pulled the traps today, but when I reset next I'll have two traps per set, one out front, one blended in flat behind.

T- bones and corn cobs work well for me in the fall

I run a lot of stepdown dirtholes. I like the natural guiding, however blowing snow will fill them up. Seems like you are running a lot of sets for a small property, might do better with fewer.

Chopping out beds and drilling holes before the ground turns to a rock around here is definitely helpful. Do it wherever you may think you might want to make a set later.
I run mostly dirtholes and pee posts. Late in season in bean fields a chaffe pile or trash pile set with bait or pee works well too. I dont trap early any more I generally wait until after thanksgiving here. Its mostly to avoid the orange army and bait or pee posts seem to be more interesting after rifle deer season, plus I like running in the colder weather. I just have less issues after that crazy deer week for some reason. Everything I catch since I started waiting until later seems to be in better shape so I target stretch between thanksgiving and end of the year.
Jim

Flat sets, portholes,
But if understand correctly by reading your post as I read it about the coyote you bumped out of the field?
A trail set on trails they use is winner if they move .
Sun moon or rain or shine.
Everybody like's me included dirthole flat sets post sets or whatever we like to see coyotes bounce around in them ,,, not much glamore in a trail set. But effective for catching hard to catch coyotes or other reasons that might be
present.

On your trial sets do add gland lure or urine?

Imo that is wrong thing
I want them coming down the trail bebopping along smell something natural like sleep hide elk etc.
Then once that that set catches and it will once ,he or she uses trail again then I use a quality lure from keg creek baits & lures for a remake catch another one or 3 good lure has its place. But so does natural stuff.
Now for gland lure and urine.imo the only thing it does in the fall is tell the critter someone else has been there. It works in late December to early march.
In place's if you notice ,,,, look where the poster is from?
High competition area's Kansas, new mexico, nevada, texas.etc. coyotes are high populations imo the reason they work in that areas is because they competing for the same food source willing to take a higher degree of risk.
Imo a coyote if young of the year has got his butt beaten he is nervous when he smells another coyote.
Urine and gland lure starts working for me in the months mentioned above and at territory boundries early not very often for then only then I use them almost extensively in the period because that's who there looking for each other.
I doesn't 't mean that's the only way but my coyote population let's picked on 365 day's a year by ranchers, WWS agents, and callers denners, airplanes, snares, county control agents. And every tom ,dick, and harry with a rifle looking for a good time. Population density here is a family group of coyote to the township.