I normally will suffer through failure after failure until I have through the process of elimination figured out what I am doing wrong when attempting to accomplish something new rather than reach out for help. Maybe that's just my stubbornness and stupidity but I think the lessons learned stick a little better with you too. I have been attempting to trap coyotes for the first time this year. I set a dozen mb550s and 2 dozen CRs out on a couple different private properties. One was some old pasture type land. The other was a 40 acre plot set up and meticulously maintained for deer hunting purposes. The 40 consisted of some pine tree rows and food plots along with some tall marsh grass. I initially set traps on Jan. 1st. Most of the 550s were dirt holes with combination of beaver and/or Cavens predator bait. I used multiple different scents on all the sets to see what worked ranging from bait with gland lure to some bait with coyote or fox urine. Some were just flats sets as well. I even used some of that Gusto long call lure in the area of some of them. The CRs I set up on any trails with yote sign. I have been checking them daily and maintaining the bait or lures/scents every week to two weeks. It's now Feb 11th and I have yet to catch a coyote. I understand it's really not feasible for anyone to give me specific criticism as to what I may be doing wrong. I am curious though if anyone has any potential advice for me. Maybe common mistakes in beginner trappers going after coyote or maybe my expectations are naively too high and it's not uncommon to not catch a coyote in Central Wisconsin with only 3 dozen sets out from January to middle of February. I am truly stumped though at this point. I've been reading constantly about trapping coyotes and implementing all the tactics and techniques I come across from meticulous scent control to a wide variety of bait and lures used with different types of sets. I was surprised to see that the coyotes don't seem to stay I'm the area for more than a day with them coming through once a week or even once every 2 weeks. Any advice or critics is welcome and greatly appreciated.

I can tell you what I did wrong for a while. I spent three winters before I caught one, though I was only putting out 3-4 footholds. By far my biggest mistake was not understanding what people meant by "set on sign". I thought of it similar to bowhunting deer, if I was within 20 yards of where they traveled I was good. Wrong! Set on sign means set ON sign. Now when I know a path they travel, my set goes within 3' - 4' of it, max. Many sets they almost have to trip over.
All that being said, I'm still having trouble the last couple weeks with coyotes going right by my sets and not even slowing down. I've also noticed that at least here, they've changed their patterns the last two weeks. Areas with regular coyote traffic in Dec and Jan are dead, maybe only one set of tracks per week. By far the largest concentration of coyotes is in my neighbors pasture where he winters his cows. They visit mine too, but he has a lot more cows. Not sure what they're after, they're not calving and he's not feeding anything but hay, but every coyote around seems to be visiting that little 5 acres. I watched 6 leave the other day at daybreak. Point being, maybe the sign you're setting on is old and they're no longer visiting those areas regularly.

You did not give many pertinent details . How did you bed your traps ? Are you checking traps on foot , and how close are you going to them ? Why did you rebait , did it rain , snow on your sets ? How much did it snow , did you shovel , rake or broom he snow away ? How close the sign did you place your sets ? Lastly how close are the coyotes coming to your set, are they working the set or just walking by ?

Coyotes have a big territory that grows and shrinks depending on the particular season we're in and available food supplies. It can be quite annoying when only trapping a few properties as the odds of Coyotes coming across your sets each day are low.

First, no need to touch up bait and lures at all except for heavy flooding.

Second, for your foothold sets, where and why did you pick your locations for those sets?

If you’ve done everything right to begin with, then I’ll give the same advice that was given to me...leave them be. I won’t even freshen up urine at a set unless we’ve had 1.5” of rain in a 24-36hr time frame.
Make that coyote work for what he’s smelling. I’ve caught coyotes on first night sets and sets that have sat for 21 days. These were set on sign too.
This year, I haven’t done very much on dirt holes but the Pipe Dream set is producing. This year we are also getting an abnormal amount of rain. What few dirt holes that have produced were holes punched almost horizontally rather than straight vertical or even at 45 degrees.
No need to keep “refreshing every week or two weeks. And with skunky lures a little dab will do. If you can smell it, then it’s overpowering to their olfactory.

You can't try to get the coyotes to come to you, you must go to them. Around here they switch pattern completely in the winter. Find the food and you will find more.regular coyote action.

I try to make sets within INCHES of tracks and/or scat. Doing this makes you think your lure and bait is actually working.

This is mating season and I find them to be more finicky this time of the year. Try using gland/sex scents and be patient. If you use a food lure or bait, try a big step down set with tons of eye appeal occasionally. Set upwind of the sign slightly. Where I trap, they may only come through one every week or 2, so you have to be ready when they do finally come through. If you are confident the sets aren’t freezing down, lure or bait should last a couple weeks if nothing is molesting the set. Fresh urine every week is my norm. When you do connect, the remake will be the one to watch. Also, put in more sets like the one you connected on. It’s all a learning experience, have fun learning.

Last year I only caught three coyotes in four weeks of trapping and those were my first coyotes ever. This year after three weeks I have only one coyote to show for my efforts. Me and a friend have two dozen sets out specifically for coyotes and set right on top of lots of fresh sign but it seemed like they had just moved through and didnt see any new sign for almost two weeks. We had fairly warm, dry weather and we left our sets alone, just drove by to check daily. Then we got a bunch of wet weather that turned really cold and froze up our sets right when they seemed to be moving, which was during the full moon phase. I had two tracks right on my pans and so did my friend. Other tracks just went on by our sets. Now we are not seeing much sigh again so we are waiting for them to come back through. With limited time to check and only so much area to trap, this is how it has been for us. Good thing we are only doing this for predator control or we would be starving, LOL. We have been catching lots of nest robbers with DPs, but coyotes not so much.

Hard to say but you never know what else those coyotes might have seen or are seeing now in your area. Have they had a lot of pressure from other trappers in the area? Have they been exposed to lots of dirtholes with stinky stuff coming out of them and maybe got a face full of dirt in one, or to see some of their buddies disappear?

Try some very subtle sets, like just a small amount of straight up clean gland lure on a grass clump with a small squirt of urine and your trap bedded and well blended with what looks natural around the area, out from it 3 to 5 inches and maybe some scat off to the side of the trap another 5 or 6 inches. Hard for a coyote not to investigate another coyote being in the area and it's natural.

Also, any place you can find where they are traveling, just blind set them. If you see tracks consistently going up on a knoll, or hugging a fallen tree, or traveling thru an area where the brush tightens up and leaves just a trail - that's money. Blend trap well so it looks like it did before you bedded your trap. Good luck!

My biggest mistake starting out and still occasionally is over doing it with the lure. If this is the issue you may actually see the tracks heading to the set then veering away and around it. Remember, you do not have to smell it

I refrained from giving all the details of my sets in my initial question just to keep my question from being too lengthy. I bedded the traps all with wax dirt and used the screen type pan covers. I had dyed and waxed the traps as well. I did set the traps initially right on or within 10 feet of fresh sign from the the night prior. I eventually moved them after 3 weeks because when I did see fresh sign the next 2 times they came through it was on the other side of the property where the property owner later told me he generally sees them most often. I had to walk the property to check them because all the sign in which we set them near was behind trees or in the rows of pines themselves. The other reason was due to high numbers of deer on the property the traps were often set off from the deer. Some of the sets had the bait stolen by mice which is one reason I touched up the bait, but honestly the main reason was what I'm realizing now was just my own ignorance thinking that if they hadn't touched it in a week or two maybe it wasn't emitting enough scent to attract them. Same with the scent or urine. We did get some significant snow falls that I thought may be covering the scents as well. When it did snow I tried with a few set to brush the snow off the set and add some sight appeal by brushing some dirt from the dirthole on top of the snow. Attempting to make it look like something had just dug the hole. When I first placed the traps I had no coyotes come anywhere within 100 feet of the sets. After I moved them to where the most recent sign was they never came down the same trails and the closest they came was within 25 ft of the traps. What I'm gathering so far from all your advice is I know now that I was most likely disturbing the sets to much with my scent and/or presence by not having them set where I could check them from further away. I was also unnecessarily rebaiting and probably adding scent too often and maybe too high of quantity. Based on what you have all mentioned here I would guess that those are the primary reasons I never connected when they did come through. I also didn't think they would change their patterns in such a significant way that they would almost completely vacate an area. There is plenty of small game, mostly cotton tails, on the property and figured that between those and the deer the coyotes would have no reason to change from the circuit they were doing on their home range. I know I have plenty of competition with the guys running dogs on yotes in the area as well. Maybe the population of coyotes is not all that high and the dog runners had put a dent in that population by the time I got to setting traps. We have had about 2 weeks now of single digit or sub zero Temps for highs which I have seen altering all games movements out there. Areas I saw sign from otter, mink, coyotes and everything else out and about 2 weeks ago is still sitting with a clean canvas of snow from a week ago with no sign whatsoever. I got four days left and I'll try to put to use what you have all given me for advice here. It is much appreciated.

I refrained from giving all the details of my sets in my initial question just to keep my question from being too lengthy. I bedded the traps all with wax dirt and used the screen type pan covers. I had dyed and waxed the traps as well. I did set the traps initially right on or within 10 feet of fresh sign from the the night prior. I eventually moved them after 3 weeks because when I did see fresh sign the next 2 times they came through it was on the other side of the property where the property owner later told me he generally sees them most often. I had to walk the property to check them because all the sign in which we set them near was behind trees or in the rows of pines themselves. The other reason was due to high numbers of deer on the property the traps were often set off from the deer. Some of the sets had the bait stolen by mice which is one reason I touched up the bait, but honestly the main reason was what I'm realizing now was just my own ignorance thinking that if they hadn't touched it in a week or two maybe it wasn't emitting enough scent to attract them. Same with the scent or urine. We did get some significant snow falls that I thought may be covering the scents as well. When it did snow I tried with a few set to brush the snow off the set and add some sight appeal by brushing some dirt from the dirthole on top of the snow. Attempting to make it look like something had just dug the hole. When I first placed the traps I had no coyotes come anywhere within 100 feet of the sets. After I moved them to where the most recent sign was they never came down the same trails and the closest they came was within 25 ft of the traps. What I'm gathering so far from all your advice is I know now that I was most likely disturbing the sets to much with my scent and/or presence by not having them set where I could check them from further away. I was also unnecessarily rebaiting and probably adding scent too often and maybe too high of quantity. Based on what you have all mentioned here I would guess that those are the primary reasons I never connected when they did come through. I also didn't think they would change their patterns in such a significant way that they would almost completely vacate an area. There is plenty of small game, mostly cotton tails, on the property and figured that between those and the deer the coyotes would have no reason to change from the circuit they were doing on their home range. I know I have plenty of competition with the guys running dogs on yotes in the area as well. Maybe the population of coyotes is not all that high and the dog runners had put a dent in that population by the time I got to setting traps. We have had about 2 weeks now of single digit or sub zero Temps for highs which I have seen altering all games movements out there. Areas I saw sign from otter, mink, coyotes and everything else out and about 2 weeks ago is still sitting with a clean canvas of snow from a week ago with no sign whatsoever. I got four days left and I'll try to put to use what you have all given me for advice here. It is much appreciated.

Good luck and keep after them. Once you get your first one more will follow soon after and you won’t even know what you did to change

Sometimes your better off not chasing tracks, especially tracks that arent going both ways on a trail. The worst thing i want to see sometimes is fresh coyote tracks.This gets worse later into the season. That means they might not come through again for a few weeks, or even a month at times. Probably wouldnt of moved your sets though with limited amount of traps its a torturous decision.

This is my first year trapping coyotes, too. It is a challenge and fun. I made a lot of mistakes prior to catching my first. I think one of the biggest lessons learned is patience, for me, I believe checking my traps from a distance with binoculars helped me by reducing scent and disturbing the area. The property I trap is also my hunting grounds. I have been seeing coyotes for years and have learned their travel trails. I had a few learning experiences prior to my catch. I made either dirt hole or flat sets within a few feet of the trail and always up wind with the prevailing wind. I was getting the coyotes to my sets but had traps dug up or misses or pull outs. I learned better bedding techniques and pan tension/night latching. I also think there has to be some eye appeal.
Something else I found interesting, I caught my first on a set that was out 11 days, never freshened up the set, just made it and forgot it, I caught him with snow on the ground. Made me think that too much or too loud of lure may not be a good thing. I guess letting the set soak is a good thing. I also use sheep wool in the hole and sometimes I plug the hole with a wad of grass.
My cousin has caught 7 this year and most have been on about a week or more after the set was made.
Again, I am a rookie, but I feel I have learned a ton.
I am now addicted to chasing and trying to catch these critters

My question Is this. With all the snow we have on the ground here In WI how are you maintaining your sets? Your not just brushing snow off those sets you have to be digging those sets out to make them functional.
Then you said you moved your foot holds to a new location. How deep did you have to dig down through the snow to get to bare ground? And was that ground frozen. Stick with Crs at least In most cases snow won't put them out of commission.

When I moved them I dug or rather chipped and clawed them down into the frozen ground. Where I moved them to had only a couple inches of snow at the time. With the ground having a pretty good layer of pine needles insulating it some areas were not to bad getting through the inch of frost or so. I used wax dirt and it did a pretty good job keeping the traps functional. On a couple of sets I did use some trap antifreeze flakes mixed in with some dry dirt from an anthill nearby because I ran out of wax dirt. I never did have any issues with the traps freezing in. They were all meticulously bedded and solid. Although that may have been the only thing I did right.

It did seem like SniperB mentioned that by the time I set up on tracks they were only going through one direction and I wasn't getting in front of them. My other big mistake probably being my failure to be patient.

When it does snow say 6 inches is it necessary to clear the trap of snow or just leave it be?

Make sure you pull your sets on the 15th as that's when the season ends here in Wisconsin. Unless of course you own the land or have a permit.

I will be pulling them tomorrow since it's the last day I will have available before the 15th. The stake puller will get some good hard use after the last 2 weeks of subzero temps.