Typically when the snow comes out so do the snares but I've never caught a coyote in a Double longspring and I've never caught one in the snow with a foothold so trying to do two birds with one stone thing. Anyone have a set recommendation? I've done hay sets in the deep snow before but foxes seem like they can't resist them and I'm trying to avoid foxes if possible.

This is more of a personal challenge, not an attempt to get rid of a problem coyote or get a pelt, I'm prepared for some frustration and setbacks.

Thanks

I am interested too. Best thing I have tried is clearing the snow down to dirt. Not real effective though. It spooks to many of them

Take a DLS, stake it how you'd like, put wax paper under the whole trap. Push the trap down into the snow along a trail where the coyotes have been stepping over a stick or knocked over clump of grass be sure the pan is where the track was in the first place. Then cover the jaws and pan with another piece of waxed paper. Then cover with snow and make a print on the pan where they had been stepping already. Make sure to keep the snow covering powdery.

You can use a few drops of urine right along the trail by the trap if you'd like, I feel it makes them do a double take and gives a better chance but some guys don't want them to break stride.

Be sure to crumple the wax paper into a tight ball, twice, and then open it up so it isn't so crinkly or stiff.

I started doing this when the farms I trapped didn't leave much grass or brush between fields or even along the woods so I was having trouble finding good spots for cable restraints.

I am by no means an expert trapper but it works for me.

Oh don't walk on the trail, approach from 90 degrees and fill your footprints when done as to raise as little suspicion as possible.

Trapsetter, even in decently cold weather the sun comes out and softens the snow then freezes again at night. 2-3 days its stiff enough the trap wont fire or if it does its slow and the snow will hold the jaws open. At least that was my experience in low humidity sunny day weather in WY. Seems like a natural snow covering stayed working a LOT better. Even sifting the snow above the trap I couldn't keep it working very long. Something about scooping it up changes it.

For CATS that worked pretty good. I didnt even use wax paper. Just juniper duff under the trap and more duff to conceal it some. A stick under the loose jaw. Again, most coyotes wanted no part of it though.

P.S. I am not arguing just telling about MY problem. What am I missing?

Don't sift the snow and don't go thin with the covering I usually set 6 inches deep sometimes as deep as ten. I quickly snap my trapping ax under fluffy snow move it over the trap and snap the ax away. (Think of the magician pulling a table cloth out from a set table) Try not to not disturb the snow while doing this. If the coyote is already walking in deep snow the trap depth won't matter. I use the back of the ax to make the "print/track" over the pan. It's not freeze proof but it'll last much longer than a trap just dusted with snow. I also file an interlocking notch in my pan/dog connection but I don't have a way to adjust pan tension so this gives me a pound or less of tension but enough to not set off the trap while making the track.

Also WI has a 24hr trap check. I have sets working at least a week and as much as three with good freezing weather and little precipitation. I don't often leave a set more than that without a catch or a visit and if it is truly set "on the spot" they won't visit without being there waiting.

First chance I get I will try that. Thanks

Asa Lennon had a lot of tips working in snow, Maybe some of those posts are still available in the archives....go back a bunch of years

That is who I learned from. I trap not far from where he did. Big traps are key. #4 jumps with PIT pans are my favorite. I sift the covering but it only works good on a really cold day and I like sets in the shade of evergreen trees. I don’t get the time and weather to do it often, but some years it is fun and successful. Blind sets and no scent is my technique.

Right under the footprint. Tried this on fox. An old dam between two ponds. Piles of tracks on the ice and most funneled to one crossing over the dam where they used the exact same footprints. Almost seemed like it wasn’t fair….hahaha.

You can set trap in a track under the snow, it's ok to cover the track the trap is in.
I make hole for trap, anchor or drag, then take a thin crust off the top of a driftand lay it over the trap so it's level with the rest of the snow.
They are already walking in the old tracks, and even though one is gone they will still step in that spot

I've made trails with my truck to the point coyotes run the trail then pull off the trail in the deep snow, back up in the same trail to your main trail get out and go to the end of your track dig a hole straight down 6-8 inches around and deep enough the coyote can't see the bottom scatter the dirt around like a varmit dug the hole then rite at the edge of the hole and slightly lower bed your trap and cover with dirt they will step there trying to see what bait or lure you have in the hole. I've caught both cats and coyotes this way in upto a foot of snow.