I ran a very small trap line this year. All but one week I stayed within a half mile of my house. Best catch rate ever. But I chose this area because it's the very best spot. 12 coyotes within a half mile of my house. 25 total for the year.

^^This^^

Now if I could just work out a better way of keeping notes on all of this I could figure it out (of course I'd have to set some traps too).

I guess I missed the part where we were concentrating on coyotes for this "Catch Rate" topic. Lots of variables makes it hard for me to generalize catch #'s. If you are going to specialize on one species, with locked gates - no competition, on big acreages, and moderate weather variability - then a lot of these percentage estimates makes sense. I would guess that the vast majority of fur harvesters are part time semi hobbyist types that get real serious when the fur price is up. There are probably over a hundred trapping licenses sold to hobbyist trappers for every one sold to a "pro" trapper. I also guess that most of these hobbyist operate on farmland or mixed farm livestock land with a little public land to keep it interesting. So keep in mind the statistics from those types of situations before we go comparing wilderness Canada to wilderness Georgia. And these guys are right on with their percentages so don't think I am criticizing them in any way. The animal species they are harvesting may be pretty select whereas the fellow in Ohio, is getting a 50% catch rate on muskrats and 30% catch rate on coons. Plus he is happy to add a mink or a skunk and opossum to that # and count that. You need to include the "Therapy Rate" that most get from catching (and utilizing) all critters from a trapline in my view. Keeping a rate high is knowing how much harvest the area you are working in will provide and working efficiently to move your harvesting activity when needed (Swamp Wolf touched on his ADC aspect). And unless you take a muskrat hut or beaver colony count its a guess on your experience and observations on what kind of population you will start with. So that "Therapy Rate" sure gets a high peg in years like this for me ! ! ! ................. the mike

If I figure in "Therapy Rate" my percentage jumps to 100 the minute I leave the house with traps in the truck.

Definitely can have better percentages with small trap lines if you pick and choose the locations. I guess when I have a hobby line to feed my trapping desire it's usually a location close to home so I can get in and out then back to work. Sounds about like you did, living in a small city close to home usually equates to lower total numbers of coyotes per square mile where I am. If I go 20 miles south I can get into larger groups of coyotes but it doesn't usually work for a line before work. This year especially I've been doing about 10 hours in the office and an hour drive each way, it just didn't make sense to trap. If I wanted to set a 1/2 dozen traps on a hog unit for a night I'd be disappointed if I didn't come back to 2-3 coyotes the next day at least. Locations like that would definitely skew your catch rates as do the locations with just no population. When I am trapping for 10-14 days straight covering ground it's usually just above the 5% rate per day and that's kept me happy.

I looked back at notes from a five day run on a small before work line that was 3 square miles, 16 traps out target coyotes.
First night: one bobcat (didn't count him early and let out) five coyotes =31.25%
Second night: three coyotes= 18.75%
Third night: Blank= 0000%
Fourth night: two coyotes=12.5%
Fifth night: two coyotes=12.5%
Pulled for deer season.
Overall 15% for five days. Cleaned out a hog unit. Definitely higher than normal catch rate.

Pretty good #s Wade even if it was a short line. Definitely would scratch the itch. Thanks for sharing