looking for ideas on anchoring and supporting cable. Presently thinking of earth anchors, then #9 wire twisted around small non-rooted brush to hold snare off the ground. Anybody have any better ideas, or better ways to do so with our rules? We have about a foot of snow, and would like to see some action.

Don't live in WI, but since you asked I am going to share what I did today here in LA. Find a sapling close to where you want to trap, and remove all the branches from it if you can bend it over and it seems springy. Make yourself a leader wire with swivels, and attach to the sapling in 2 places! Now find a good beaver stick, shove it on the ground at an angle, connect the wire leader to your snare setup. You make a small loop that is semi loose that fits on the stick which keeps the sapling held down. When the animal is snared, they will pull the loop forward off the stick and get lifted off the ground.


After you do it once, you will be able to do it much faster. You can use two sticks with notches, but this is just a lazier version I guess.

The point being that in Wisconsin you can only use cable restraints, relaxing locks, no entanglement, etc. Since the idea is that you restrain the animal, not kill it, I'm positive that a tip up or spring-pole type set is illegal there.

I have been simply pounding stakes in through the frost for anchoring. I will punch a hole with the stake and then take a 2-3 ft piece of 9 guage wire and stick it down next to the stake and I use that as my support for the cable restraint. You can bend it as needed and just put the support coil over the end. Probably better ways to do it but that worked for me as far as setting the cable restraint. No luck so far catching any coyotes though with them.

The cable stake is a good idea WIHAWK76. As for your support wire, I'd use a piece of 1/4" rod about 30" long, with your #9 welded near the top something like this...

Wrap the wire around the end of your Re bar stake and drive It In the ground. Now you have your snare stabilized and anchored.

This is illegal in WI.

All good ideas, I wish we could use regular snares here, or weighted tip-ups.

ADC - that is a good idea, i am just concerned i would bend the 1/4" over trying to hammer it in the ground. I think the snow would hold it especially with the crust. I was thinking something similar with the un-rooted vegetation.

Plumber/Beav - I have thought about that as well, though I am a little leery using the stakes with the frost. Will the coyote not be jumping like in a trap and possibly pump the stake? Is a double stake necessary in your opinion? Only asking cause i do not like to use stake when trapping. Unfounded in personal experience but I feel better with the earth anchors. Have you had any issues?

I have yet to connect with a coyote in a cable restraint myself but I can say that 2 2ft rebar stakes pounded in the ground is secure enough that I had to work pretty hard to pull them even using a 4 ft bar. With that said though I think a cable stake would still be more secure.

I build my cables with the stake directly on the end. I support with stretched #9 wire so it is perfectly straight.

This is for the wide open with no brush for the live market, basically what you are restricted to do. There is a video on my YouTube channel of the support

When using a 6' or 7' cable set up your not going to get any pumped stakes. My last 5 coyotes where held using One 18" stake. If you feel that isn't going to cut It cross stake with 2 stakes.

I'm not much of a snare guy, but I've used quarter inch cold rolled (or is hot roll? The soft, cheap one) rods similar to what ADC posted in frozen ground with good success. rather than putting another leg on them like the picture, I just put them on an anvil and pounded the end flat like a screwdriver tip. Helps it go into the ground and not spin as easy, you don't need much to keep it from spinning, the snare/cable restraint should close before they have any pressure on it to cause it to spin.

My supports are 1/4" square stock about 18' long. I have one hole lazier cut at the top and a slot lazier cut about 4" below the hole. The support wire goes through both the slot and the hole and dosen't move. + by using square stock the support dosen't spin. And It drives Into frozen ground with no issues. And when a catch Is made the material Is soft enough that in most cases the support is either pulled out or just bent over.
I have yet to find a better system for supporting my CRs.

That is really not a problem here anyway. You can tap them right into the frozen ground, tap on one leg then the other. You could grind points on the bottoms if you were worried about it. If they do get bent, just bend them back straight. I don't like using #9 clear from the ground on coyotes. It flexes too much for me, so you get them lower on the neck and they are tougher for the snare to kill, but that wouldn't matter with your crappy CR laws,,, so beavs suggestion is good IMO. Other than I'd weld the wire to the stakes after wrapping so they don't get loose and wobbly. I've done that type supports A LOT.

With the #9 are you doing any prep on that before hand? as far as smell/grease?

Thanks for the ideas and sharing, i hope to get out this weekend and get some in the ground.

Beav - i know you said 18" long, is that counting on 6" pounded down?

ADC - how tall are your supports?

I know person who uses the long pole barn spikes (9-10 inches long). Wraps the 9 gauge around the top or head and drives it in the ground with a hammer. Attaching to the same stake as the anchor makes really good sense.

Bryce

I'd make them 24" long total with about 6" in the ground. Your #9 only needs to be a maybe 12-15" long so you can get the support off the side of the trail a little. If the #9 is greasy, I wipe it off with a wet soapy rag (dawn). Nothing special. Mostly to keep the grease off my hands or gloves.

Todays deep snow will probably create good opportunity for bobcat trappers to use cable restraints

I just started using cable restraints in Wi last week. Been very close on 3 of my 5 cables so far.

I went with a guy who showed me how he uses them and he does very well.

He uses a 24" rebar to anchor the cable. Has the #9 wire swivel and an inline swivel in the cable.

His support wire is #9 wire , 30-36" long wrapped around about a 6" nail that he drives in the ground . His cables have the poly wammys which work far better than mine with the coil spring wammy.

He also paints them a light tan to take the shine off a few weeks before season. I had to pull mine because of the weather so I will be painting mine and letting them air out for a few weeks until the fields freeze up.

I have been using earth anchors, and have the pigtail supports which are designed for rebar anchors. They are a pain if you don't use the rebar for your anchor, they move too much.

I got some old telephone wire and am going to try that. They make a tool called the Redman tool that allows you to drive the wire into the ground in a way it won't move. You could easily make one if you have a welder, but they are like $6 otherwise. I plan to go this route myself.

I am new to trapping but so far a deer triggered one and then a coyote ran down the trail after (fresh tracks in the snow right on the trail I was covering).

Another walked up to one and saw the cable and turned around.

The other ran thru it and fired it but I missed him. My cables are too "slow" so he showed me how to load them for speed so they don't miss as much.

From what I can see and have read, cables in Wi are the fastest way to take coyotes once there is snow and you can see their trails they are frequenting.

I just had to pull mine for now to do some work to improve them and the fields were way to soft to be driving on to check them.

He told me to drive by and check them vs walking up to them to leave less scent. But, he did say make sure you can see the actual loop because they could be blown down or bumped by deer, or wind so you want to physically see the loop. I have to check before and after work so I shine a flashlight on them from the truck. He marked all of his spots with a ribbon on a nearby bush or tree.

Get some fiber glass electric fence poles. I think they are 3/8ths In diameter. Cut them about 16 Inches long and drill two holes through them. One hole near the top and one hole about 5" from the top hole. Cut some support wire about 18" long and start It through the top hole. Leave about 10" of wire sticking out then bend the remaining wire down and shove It through the bottom hole. This will give you a good solid support system. You can also get the fence poles made out of steel.
I make my supports out of 1/4 " square stock. And your best whammy's are made out of rubber gas line. It dosen't freeze In cold weather and and It holds the support wire real well.