Are trappers kidding me that they don't know how to 'erase' their own foot prints in the snow ?

I've been using a very simple trick for thirty years and that is to drag something that weighs at least (or about ) twenty pounds or more behind you...
and the deeper the snow, the better !
A two year old beaver is about perfect,( or perfect size, weight and shape) but I don't expect you to dragging a frozen beaver all over tar-nation, but I've done it with a slightly damage one.
Take a double strand of bailing ( the plastic kind ) loop it around the tail and drag it behind you.
An old coyote , (and I always get a 'bad' one) loop right around the neck and drag it behind you. It will leave a smooth, clean path, that coyotes and foxes will follow.
Don't have either ? Use a canvas military bag with two to three gallon milk jugs filled with water. It will freeze, when left outside overnight.
String around the handle and drag it behind you. Smoothest, prettiest path you've ever seen !
Deeper the snow, the better ! Whatever you drag, (within reason) will glide with ease.
I quite often 'drag' in bait and yes, it will erase those tracks too, along with laying down a scent trail for a canine, wolverine or any other predator to follow.
Light snow overnight ? Oh, will it get any better than that !? Wind ? Same thing .
Tracks are gone and that path, much like a vehicle or snow mobile track will be followed by the animals in the area.
When checking snares on foot, I drag it right up to the snare, step over, turn and pull whatever it is I'm pulling, right under the snare and continue on.
Try this very simple trick and you will love the results.

* The following photo is of a student dragging in bait and while it is NOT the best representation of this trick, it will give you the basic idea *

( I'll search for a better photo)

Great tip. Thanks.

That simple trick has allowed me to trap and snare in the snow and keep making some pretty decent catches while a good many trappers are sitting at home by the fire !

Thank you LT Gray. The dragging of the bait has another effect as well some pieces may fall of the big piece leaving them in the snow for the coyote or animal to follow the scent and small pieces into the bait pile.

So y’all’s critters can tell human tracks and avoid them?

You call that snow? Try and walk through 2 feet of snow dragging that carcass. LOL

Lol you guys crack me up sometimes. That might work in an open cut corn field, but here in the bush you won’t make it past the tree line.

We put drags on traps to prevent the animal from getting away. No sense putting a drag on myself while checking 300 snares.

Fail!

Good share LT.

"So y’all’s critters can tell human tracks and avoid them?" You may be able to get away with tracking up in some areas but most cannot.

So they’ll avoid human tracks but follow another track, that’s interesting. Thought I read that guys will use their ATV or snow machine and set there traps in those tracks.

Is covering up the tracks really that important? This year I had fresh fox and coyote tracks along and inside my tracks on several mornings.

All depends on coyote population and pressure.
In my area they are hunted all year. And trapped hard.
Pressure is high and numbers are low so they turn inside out to get away from human tracks or tire tracks. Snow does not lie.
Just my observations from my area. Everywhere is different

I do not worry about animals seeing my tracks, but if I am setting snow sets in deeper snow, I’ll stay out of their trail so I can set a blind set under one of their tracks. This is just so they will only have their own tracks to step in when they come through again. I do erase my steps somewhat with a spruce bough right by a blind set and just where I left their trail, again just to keep their attention on their own tracks so they don’t follow me.

If I catch one in a blind trail set, I usually reset with lure on a post in the same spot. I don’t worry about tracks at all at that point.

Cool way to set a scent trail!

Around here you just wait a couple days then it all melts.

I've seen the about face skit addle, I've also seen it without snow on the ground.
Deer too.
I'm not going to drag dead stuff while walking.
With the truck though...

Glad to see trapping talk on t-man.

[quote=The Beav][quote=LT GREY] That simple trick has allowed me to trap and snare in the snow and keep making some pretty decent catches while a good many trappers are sitting at home by the fire !

You call that snow? Try and walk through 2 feet of snow dragging that carcass. LOL [/quotep



In two foot of snow, I'd be running sets differently, because animal movement would be different. . .
That said, the photo was taken on a gravel lane that had been snow plowed.
It's a lane, not a set location.
The snow in the background is 11 inches deep

And I snare in the brush too, more often than not.
I make adjustments and adapt if the snow is deeper or the brush is harder to travel in.
Yet, if a coyote goes in it, I'll go in after it !

Around here the wolves will avoid post holed tracks/trails in the snow like a fence. Gets to be a real challenge since boot tracks remain visible for so long. I've used a road killed deer to sweep out my tracks on many occasions. Drag it in to where I want to make sets (usually under a bared off tree), make my set, then drag my tracks on the way out and leave the carcass for bait (mindful of setback rules). On rare occasions I've had the wolves use my trails but it was only where I'd been beating in a track all winter and dragging a bait sled and in deep snow. Guess they took the path of least resistance over cation, but it was also pretty open.

Interesting thread. My 2 cents

I snare in snow usually for 90% of the season. I catch a few coyotes. Most of the snow is a foot or deeper. Right now the snow is up to my waist in some of the snare sites. Roughly 1/2 the season is soft snow then when the wind blows it gets hard as concrete.

I will drag bait into a bait site but that’s as far as it goes. In deeper snow coyotes/ foxes will follow the least path of resistance. They have no problem following foot , skidoo, truck, quad, deer paths ect. I’ve put snares on most of them(stay off deer trails)and caught coyotes. I don’t get a lot of pressure on my line so it might be different with places where coyotes are pressured a lot more.

It’s an average temp of -15 to -25 where I trap. The colder it is the more the coyotes will move. I set snares bare handed. I do not worry about my scent. Don’t worry, if you were there the coyotes know you were there. In colder temperatures I don’t think scent matters as much as most people think, but I guess that depends on how bad they are pressured.

I can set a snare on a foot path through the trees and it’s not uncommon to have a coyote in the snare the next check. Run a skidoo path through deep snow and you will have a coyote highway on it the next check, easy snare trail.

Coyotes are 85/10/5. 85% are easy to catch, 10% are smart but a little work and you can catch them, 5% are the exception. The 5% you have to work your tail off to get. They are smart and will take something they haven’t seen before to get them but you can.

Do I want to catch them all? NO I trap for fur to sell. I want the 85% easy ones. Every one traps for different reasons. Different areas have different exceptions. Use what works best for you. Your area could be 60/30/10. I just put numbers to where I trap. Are they correct? Maybe or maybe not. Just an estimate from my experience.

Again, good stuff guys. Thanks for posting LT.
Interesting Saskbone. What is the yearly harvest for all of Sakatchewan area?
thanks for posting Jumperezee, interesting stuff
It is interesting to hear what it is like in different areas.

Mac

I've used a mesh laundry bag with 3 or 4 deer livers in it. I keep it in the chest freezer when not in use. Every meat eater in the woods follow that trail.
I also do a lot of setting in my ATV tracks. Either blind sets in the actual tracks or dirt holes just off the track as seen to the right of the track in the photo.

Smoothing out your tracks in snow is just another activity that peaks their attention IMHO. The coyotes will still know you were there as simply removing your tracks will not remove your scent.

Spot On Bctomcat.

Scent or whether you were nearby is not the issue. Those are given. It’s making them walk where you want them to that is most important. They like to walk in trails. Their trails, or ours. Just use that to your advantage.

Totally understood when dealing with deep snow conditions of 10-12 inch or greater depth conditions, but that's not the conditions depicted in the original picture postings.

Understood.

Coyotes will step right in your boots tracks or any path you create in snow truck tracks etc... Cable them all the Time in paths I walk in when it snows..
Dont think they have the Reasoning skills to decipher what type of track it is other then From scent. In and out fast is best.

Same principle applies to deer hunting. Mow a path through the blackberries and they will come.
we have removed 51 coyotes from the tree blind this year
Amimals are lazy like humans and will follow the easy path.....

Holy cow, 51 coyotes from one location? Or even small area? I bet there isn’t 51 coyotes within a 5 mile radius around my property.

I agree a lot with what Saskbone said.
I seldom use gloves when setting snares and we're a long way from -25 degree temps.
While the terrain and the snow depth may be different, the basics are still the same.
If our snow was deeper , a snow mobile would be the way to go, as coyotes will follow those trails like a highway.

Yearly harvest that is documented was around 15-20000. It’s tough to know exactly but they( goverment)keep records of all animals trapped and what zone they came from. Every year they make a book and list how many coyotes, fox , beavers etc were caught in each zone. My guess is it’s a lot of work to make this book every year but it sure was nice to see what areas fur was coming out of. Probably a good percent of fur is not ever documented for one reason or another.

I’ll see if I can find one of the books and take a picture of a few pages

Ok my coyote numbers are off

Zone map


First row is coyotes next row is fisher third is fox


This picture corresponds to the last picture. 2008-2018