Just curious, what's the smartest/toughest coyote you've ever caught? Got a digger on my hands right now that I'm trying to outsmart.

I have a big male that won't work a baited/lured set I'm trying to get now. I'm going to try blind sets but he uses a different trail everytime he comes through.

I had one come in today on pipe dream set cleaned the grass off the trap then spent 4 minutes messing around the set taking a dump ect cellular camera shows some interesting things.

years ago----- a pack of coyotes, female and last years pups----this was in the summer, she didnt have little pups -----and a dog, could tell by the tracks-----were herding cattle into canyons and killing the very young calves--- about one a day--- coyotes wouldnt work any sets as the dog would--- he would dig up the trap, turn it over, set it off and urinate on it--- I tried everything, the killing continued until I got crazy and set a trap upside down--- he dug it up and stuck his foot in it--------- neighbors australian shepherd.---------true story

Yes as "ks wolfer" stated set a trap upside down. I have done it with a digger coyote and it worked. What have you got to loose ?

I've got a one eyed female on camera the last two years and I can't catch her or her mate. The female will work my test sets and the male will urinate close to the set and give a kick back but put a trap in the ground and it gets dug. Ran more blind sets last year and this year but no go. Fixing to put a dummy trap in tomorrow on a couple sets they have uncovered a couple times and move the real trap back were it looks like they stand to uncover original trap. If that doesn't work I'm hanging snares next year. I think there's probably a few more wise coyotes on more traplines than most think and unless u are a serious damage control coyote you just don't realize it. I can trap an area pretty hard and there's always coyotes running free when I'm done. Caught 13 within a half mile of my house last year and a month later I'm still seeing at least 6 different coyotes I could Identify on camera when I started testing lures in same area. My diggers usually just uncover part of trap and don't move it.

Here is a tough one I was determined to catch during the '20 fur season and it took me a month to do it. I called him 2 snares when I got him LOL. Doing spring/summer ADC work I have had several that I did not catch but was able to eliminate the Damage so that was considered a win for me as the perpatrator did not come back after I scared him. (got a good sniff of me LOL)............................................... the mike

I’ve caught some tough ones. One was wearing an old snare. Caught a few that were full of birdshot, or had .22 bullets in them.
Blind sets and snares seemed to catch some oddballs for me. Peg legs, older females with worn teeth and scars, they never got wise to snares or blind sets.
Jim

Took 2 months to catch this big female in field next to river. I had already caught alpha male and 4 others in pack. She wouldn't come close to a set no matter how "clean" or savy I got. I waited until a nice snow fall was on us and then bedded traps (with only thin white foam pan covers, no wax dirt) and spread deer scraps under brush. The snow covered my tracks and threat of starvation did the rest.

I get a fair amount of these tripods every year. Always figure my chances are down 25% just to catch one. Lol

A digging coyote, habitually, is NOT a smart coyote.

Smart coyotes don’t go within 20 feet of lured/baited sets.

Habitual diggers are fairly easy to get with a little planning.

They were probably shot from the road at distances too far than the shooter was accurate at. Don’t think a coyote would chew its own leg off and don’t know of any traps that hold a leg, a paw maybe, but not a leg.

I had a digger I was after many years ago. I had to remake the same set every check for a week. I put another trap in front of it and blended it in good and had him the next morning. Sometimes you need to do something different. I think the tripods are tough coyote. I have caught one also but did it with a snare.

I don't have a ton of experience but I had a bad digger on several sets over a month or so. Finally caught him on an O'Gorman Mafia set on a trail leading into the area.

I had a coyote dig up my trap three times and I called my friend and told him. He said beat up the ground in a three foot circle and reset. I had that coyote the next day!!! experiance is priceless!!!!!

With all due respect as you are obviously more experienced a trapper but I don't know. I've met some awfully stupid people in this world.

Predator calling or howling up those "tough coyotes" can SOMETIMES help to eliminate them.
I do remember catching a peg leg female at a cattle farm by the pegged leg in a Jake Trap one Spring...what's the chances of that? lol

What he said !