Gumbo the Catahoula just turned eleven years old.

I’ve learned a lot about coyotes from him through both actions and recon.





He still has the energy and build of a three year old Catahoula.





The "Coyote Stare".

Good looking dog James

It’s getting that time of year again.




I caught this young rattler trying to sneak in the shop.

He didn’t quite make it.

Dang

I'm sure they will be out soon up here too

I was looking for a gator last weekend with temps and sunshine I figured one might be soaking up some sun

Gators were out in South Florida…actually don’t think they are ever not out, lol.

Here’s a little question or two for the T-Man Coyote Crew.

With spring upon us I thought it might be interesting to compare notes.


What month(s) of the year do you find to be the most challenging when it comes to catching Wile E.?

What have you found to be the primary cause and best solution?

In my limited opinion, all of them! LOL Still trying to figure it out. They keep adjusting and I'm trying to adjust with them. Moves and counter moves. Check out my thread on Scent Control.

My toughest months are Dec and Jan. Usually due to snow conditions here. I seem to catch some early in our season (10/25 - 2/15), but not later. May be that I caught the young ones early and the old ones wised up to what I was doing.

Populations are at the lowest they’ll be right now. So if you’ve been trapping all year then mating season through denning season, say March - May, would be your toughest. June-September would be the best for numbers with pups emerging.
If you wait to trap only a certain time of the year then you really don’t have a tough time of it. Sorta like brand new properties, you feel like you’re a God amongst men, lol. Showing up and setting for a month once a year will produce good numbers as well as long as you have coyotes.

February I believe the coyotes are fat from deer season scraps and they are on cruise for the rut.my coyote numbers seem to be a little low for this year.my best month is the end of May.

Around here there is very little coyote sign in September.
October brings a little more traffic, but it is still on the sluggish side.
I do not like to start trapping early when things are slow.
I believe it gives an early warning to the coyotes trickling in and they wise up a lot quicker.
The element of surprise is lost so to speak.
That seems to really impact my overall catch.

February has proven to be the toughest month for me here. That seems logical since the coyotes have been beat up all winter in most cases.
I have also started lines in February and they were some of the toughest catches I've encountered..
I don’t know exactly what happens here to trigger the spring change, but the old drive-by is definitely the order of the day.

I have since found somewhat of a workaround that has produced well during this time, but it quickly reverts back to a slow hard grind in short order.

If coyotes are trickling in and getting caught in your sets, how would they be getting educated? It seems like you would do better to catch them as they come in instead of the population being loaded and seeing all their buddies get caught

Tejas, you don’t trap all year? Just certain months? I would’ve thought a ranch would want them gone year round.
What about cats? Do you ever catch those or target those?

"What month(s) of the year "
Same here but will mention
deer season people throw a
shwap in their zump.

"The element of surprise is lost"
Importance of timing.
Try small parcel habitat that
you do mot Control. Give you fits.

Fun read guys.
You can keep the
snakes and gators thank you.

In a perfect world the newcomers wouldn’t become educated if they were all caught at the first set they came across. Unfortunately that is not always the case.

When a transient coyote wanders in here and walks by a host of catch circles scattered along the roadway like a minefield you can bet it is going to make an impression.
With every circle he encounters he gets slapped on the sniffer with a gross olfactory overload of coyote stink and numerous attractant smells.
Rest assured that can and will raise a huge red flag. The element of surprise is instantly forfeited, and you can bet that coyote is on point from that moment on.
That is giving any new coyote an edge as soon as he steps onto the property.

My catch numbers are much better If I get a lot of coyotes rolling in here before I set.
This allows me to kill more coyotes in a shorter amount of time with fewer disturbances.
That way i can send a good percentage of the contestants to Coyote Restland before the last few survivors catch on.
That is just one reason why I gang set so much.Gang setting can help keep education to a minimum by simply snagging more coyotes on their first and only visit.

I usually do not trap the midsummer months WB.

I try to pull in and kill as many coyotes as I can from neighboring properties in hopes to establish a buffer around the ranch.
The plan is to create somewhat of a void prior to when the fawns to drop. The same applies to post-rut buck morality as well.
This strategy has served us well in the past. Both the fawn and post-rut buck mortality has remained extremely low.

In the last few years drought conditions have been pretty severe.
Cover for fawns to hide in is virtually nonexistent.
Our deer herd for the 2024-25 season produced a fawn crop of 106%.

It's interesting to read that folks think a coyote automatically knows he/she is being targeted by just smelling/seeing a catch circle....if it's never had a bad experience with traps.

I realize getting into the technical aspects of why coyotes do what they do is interesting, but they don't have super powers.

That is an interesting take on what was actually written Swamp.

It's a given that a coyote doesn’t suddenly realize someone is out to get him after encountering a few catch circles.

What he does know is uncommon sights and smells are to be approached with caution or avoided.

Anything out of the ordinary from what a coyote comes across in his everyday travels can put him on point.

A coyote put on edge is always tougher to catch. That was the point.

That's not some mystical Wile E. Superpower. That is just common coyote wariness.

As for the cats, the ranch owners want them left alone. I release all that I catch.

I don’t target them but there are times where they sure seem to target my sets.

Over the years I have become pretty efficient at avoiding them.

You can bet if I start using a lot of coyote gland and urine I will start seeing spots.