Haven't had much to show for coyotes this year at all.
Last year I caught 21 coyotes - this year just 4 and two were ate up with mange.
Caught some coons in my coyote sets and a few beaver, but nothing is as exciting to me as fooling those 'yotes.

Anyone else seeing things this way?

It's been that way here this year too. Coyote catch is way lower than last couple years, but on the bright side I'm catching more fox this year than previous years. I don't mind but it is nice seeing a coyote in your trap in the morning check.

Don't feel bad. I don't run a lot of traps and the last 3 years I have been lucky enough to take 8 - 9 coyote which is pretty good for me. This year nothing hitting baits and hard to find a track now. Maybe a good thing I will be more ready for next season.

Not sure how it is down where your at Shawnee but here the thermal hunters are making a big dent in the yote population. Kill, pic on facebook then pitch in the ditch. Everybody and their brother has a caller and a thermal rig here.

Same here just add suppressors to that and yotes are the focus of the State trappers here now. Its tough to get excited about chasing less yotes when gas is so high the average price for a yote is less the average skunk if you think about it. LOL Add to that in the mild winters they hang out in the river breaks more unless the snow pushes them out.

Moving to rats soon through the ice to avoid the cattle mud around the ponds.

They are hurting me big-time here Yote. The past 3 years have been terrible in my territory with the year-round night shooting. It doesn’t take many years of spring-time killing of the (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) with pups in the den to make a huge decrease in an area’s coyote population. After trapping a property for maybe 10-12 years with a catch of 3-8 coyote/yr and wonder why no sign and the property owners mentions in passing that he’s had night-shooters on the property for the past two years

Some properties I’ve discovered that I’ve had night-shooters on farms either side of me for a year or maybe two with darned little sign even if I wanted to set. I approached 2 farmers this past July about permission to trap and both said they had to ask the night-shooters if I could trap in the winter!! In fact, one told me that one of his employees was out looking in a hay field to see if he killed one last night.

Numbers are low here as well, did about half of what I usually do. Fox numbers are up along with wolves. Lost some property to new houses being built too.

Coyote numbers are down in my area as well, and wolves continue to increase. My wolf/coyote catch ratio was by far the highest ever this year.

Yes, my coyote take was about half of usual.

That's sad that it's like that, some don't mind it but to me that's what ruins anything outdoors. It also played a huge part in why so many animals went extinct 100 years ago and why game laws were changed drastically. I get to trap on over 150k acres, coyotes don't even begin to make a dent in the deer population. Also have come to appreciate a lot of things about coyotes, including their fur which I never really paid attention to even as a hunter. Also really just beyond me to kill something and not either eat it, use all or some part of it.

Here in Nebraska coyotes are pretty much considered varmints and if there's a chance to take one it's taken. Don't like to see them around the cattle here it's not often but if opportunity exists they will kill calves. Some sheep farmers I've been called to in the past. Thermals have become a great tool for population control for me. I've now shot around 41 total within a 10 square mile radius. I did shoot another 8 so far when I traveled a bit to a buddie's ground to hunt one night. It is much more cost efficient with the current state of the fur industry for me to shoot them with a thermal rather than check traps daily. I also can choose when I have time to target them. There's little value in the fur but the population needs to be kept in check. The good news is I haven't got called once by the guys that are starting to calve. The bad news is other coyote hunters (mainly greyhound hunters) are having trouble locating coyotes in the area. I consider it a win. Less coyotes is a good thing at least for us here that raise cattle.

Helps the deer population.

Should not be legal

Not to pour gas on the fire, but you guys who are for that being legal should never be surprised when voters elect people who are willing to ban take of certain species. Having cattle farms doesn't somehow give anybody a god given right to just destroy the ecosystem because calves could be killed. That excuse was used 100 years ago to crush the wolf population, and here we are spending so much time and money fixing a mistake we caused.

The deer population literally needs no help in the Eastern States, with coyotes abundant they are still completely overpopulated and do far more damage than a predator could ever do to the ecosystem and farms.

Are coyotes considered a game animal or furbearer there? If not, then they can do whatever they want with them.

Here in Maine coyotes have devastated the deer population.

You are spending time and money to fix the wolf population in Louisiana?

I don't think we made a mistake a hundred years ago Tofan.

I've not seen one good thing posted from anyone that lives where wolves are being reintroduced. They did it right 100 years ago. There's no god given right to kill anything if you'd like to get specific (trapping or shooting them). People that raise cattle know how much money that calf that got killed turns into in about six months. We've only lost one this year to coyotes. I've pulled up to one killing a calf of ours out of a set of twins, the mother could only keep the coyote off one at a time, eventually she lost the battle with one. Calf was still steaming in the cold when I was done with him. No regrets. Only good coyote around here is a dead one. I don't think you'll change my mind on that. Coyotes are considered non-game or furbearers here in Nebraska. Their population is doing just fine if I can take out 41 within 10 square miles, more will fill in they always do.