Here's a guy who I pay close attention to when it comes to coyotes. A real professional that kills coyotes 365 days a year. Well put Boone

I don’t have enough coyotes to really tell if I miss or not. I run MB450’s and MB550’s.
I can make a cat set with serious guiding and catch coyotes and fox. I can put a dirt hole in with no guiding and catch a coyote or fox. I can bed the set right up against the hole and catch a coyote. Or bed it back and offset or even off to the side 90 degrees and catch a coyote.
The one and only thing I know for certain is if they can’t smell what’s there, they can’t be caught. Got them on camera passing by at 10ft with the wind from them to the set and they never break stride. I also have them on camera passing by at 20 yards and making a hard turn to the set when the wind is right.
I have them on camera working all around a dirt hole set but never committing, only to go in the next day and put a blind set in and them getting caught that night in the new set.
I envy those with large populations of coyotes and snow or dirt to be able to see tracks of how they work sets. If I get a pic of a coyote I may get another pic the next day, if not it will be a week or two before they pass back through. Trail cameras have really helped a lot.

Our snowfall is erratic at best here in Pa. Sometimes we get snow in early trapping season but that is not the norm. I've seen fresh coyote tracks in the snow on my line but it was over 14 days until they traveled that route again. Now I don't know if that is their normal interval for them or not. They could have just as easily came through the area on a different trail that I didn't see at the time. My point is I haven't seen yet that the coyotes spend any time in the areas I trap. They just move along and are here today and gone tomorrow.

Where I trap there are valleys with farmland and on each side of the valley is a ridge. Since it is very difficult to get permissions to trap in the valley I set mainly on the ridges and cross overs from one valley to the next when possible. We have land owners that have acres and acres of forest adjacent to state forest and state game lands. I have yet to figure out where the best set locations should be among the areas I have access to. I pick up a coyote here and there but I don't have enough interaction with them to learn much. There is some municipal water supply lands that have become available to trap that were previously closed behind a gate. There are areas to trap but many of them are remote with no access so it is difficult to take advantage of them.

Next season I am going to have to spend more time walking to check traps instead of burning fuel in the truck. That is why I was wondering about smaller traps and utilizing guiding to be successful. A lot of work for an animal that right now is topping out at about a $5 to $6 average in Pa.

Thanks Boone, appreciate it!

Ya buddy! well put x2

So in the case of a dirt hole set, what goes on in a coyotes's brain if he sees the set before he smells it? And would his approach to said set be different than if he smelled it first?

Also, does his willingness to approach a blended hole set, as in the case of a mouse hole set differ than a larger gaudy dirt hole, if he smells it first rather than seeing it first?

It has been said that a coyote will approach from the high ground to an attractant. So would it be better to make a dirt hole set on a slope going down to the hole or make the set in standard fashion and set up with the trap on high ground behind the hole? Would this method setting up behind the hole catch the yote quicker before he decides to approach from the front?

I only ask about the dirt hole because it seems to be the set many trappers use. I myself make more flat sets every year. Sometimes my terrain is not very easy to dig a hole! I also think flat sets are less obvious, at least they should be if made correctly. Thus they should be less threatening and not create the phobia that coyotes are known for.

I guess that depends on how your using the term “approach”.

Personally, I could give two hoots how he approaches a set. To me approaching a set isn’t “working” a set and isn’t getting the coyote caught. A coyote may approach a set, circle, etc. It may dart in and out many times. It may go sit on a mound 20 yards away for a certain amount of time pondering things. I’ve got video of what have to be very submissive coyotes belly crawling in to a set afraid they’ll get their butt kicked. An abundant, competitive coyote population they may just wade right in immediately. But when you use terms like approach, I think of a coyote that can still be several feet back and not caught. I don’t call this a worked set.

When a coyote goes in to actually work the set and get “danger close” so to speak, they want the wind in their favor. They want to lead with their nose.

I used to set a lot of secondary locations along two tracks using the two set mentality.

On the upwind side I’d make a nice flat set. Trap more or less downwind of the backing and smell. Let their nose find that one. On the downwind side I’d make a set with more eye appeal, with the trap usually on the upwind side of the backing and smell so they couldn’t miss the visual cues. Let their eyes find that one.

Guess what sets had the most “misses”? Had more coyotes work the set from the back side? And had more coyotes “approach” but not “work” the set?

They want to “work” the set with their nose.

Got it Boone, thanks for responding. Lots of good knowledge for me to absorb. Straight to the point, I like it!

Take good notes, he knows what he’s talking about. Sometimes I fancy myself a pretty decent coyote trapper, but in reality I’m probably not half as good at killing coyotes as Boone is.

I’ve shot more than a few coyotes that have seen me. I’ve had to move to a new position, get closer, etc etc.

Many times I’ve had to do this under direct observation of the coyote. But the distance was great enough, background colors were right, and I moved slow enough where they didn’t know what they were looking at. They saw mainly the movement, they knew “something” was out there, just not what was out there.

Some have even been the second animal in a double that ran off 1/2-3/4 mile after shooting the first one. And I was still able to work in on them a second time.

But when a coyote gets in my wind. There’s no mistaking what they smell! They don’t sit around and they leave the country! Even late fall pups don’t often dilly dally after getting a snoot full of you.

They trust their nose.

Sounds exactly like whitetail deer. When they see you they will usually try to identify you by moving slightly or stomping their feet trying to get you to move, but once they smell you its over. They're gone.

When Boone talks, I listen even after 55 years trapping and trapping over 1,000 coyotes...

So I guess what the guiding question comes down to is it depends on terrain, wind direction, time of year, age of the coyote, gender of the coyote, what mood the coyote is in at the time, and many other factors. I see many experimental sets in my future with many different size traps.

I have to say I am surprised that more trappers haven't responded that "guide" more at their sets than what is traditionally acceptable. I realize that in wide open terrain that a coyote wouldn't accept much guiding, at least not as much as a coyote that makes their living in more dense cover. But there have to be plenty of pup coyotes out there that fall victim to sets that have guiding or fencing at sets that are made by novice trappers that don't have the knowledge or skills yet necessary to take larger volumes of yotes.

It is my belief that local populations of canines are low in my area. We don't see as many fox as we used to. Now most people will say that is because of the presence of coyotes. I don't know if that is the case here or not. I can only go by the amount of sign I see and as far as I can tell we are not over run with coyotes. Habitat change could be more a factor than most would like to admit to, I don't know. I just don't see enough of action around my sets to learn much. I know some coyotes are present but I believe they use the habitat differently and are not in the area as frequently as in other areas of the country. I may be way off base here. I don't know. Tell me what I don't know.

How about you guys in Pa. and the rest of the northeast? I need as much input and info as I can get because what I'm doing isn't cutting it so far.

You and Boone are both on my setup and listen when they talk coyotes short list

Mark Zagger and Phil Brown are two guys from I believe the North East that know coyotes. They both have some YouTube videos and are on here from time to time.

Yes, Phil can catch anything out there and he guides his yotes very much. He mentions this in his new video. He said his sets are guided to the point that they look like a child made them but the yotes show up in the sets anyway. I'm sure that is understated but.....it is what it is.

I have also talked to Mark briefly but I don't know how much guiding he uses. The pipe dream set he has perfected doesn't guide too much either. He deals with a lot of rain so the pipe dream sets works great in his area. It has worked for me in a limited capacity mostly because I am trapping different terrain than he does.

Well I did hear rumors that Phil fellow could only catch pups....I didn't want to believe it but....first the round jaw thing now this heavy blocking.....maybe that x girl friend of his knew what she was talking about. Lol