But, in a way I am being serious…

I know hunters and fishermen look at some ways as cheating, such as live bait vs artificial baits in fishing and say using decoys turkey hunting vs using woodsmanship and calling ability.

Do trappers consider anything other than say bait or lure or urine or any combo of those as cheating? I’ll give an example, my son wanted to try a scent post set so he got a piece of fat lighter and stuck it in the ground a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t place a set or anything else, just put it near some tracks and waited until after a rain to see if anything was spooked by it or seemed ok with 9” of pine sticking up out of the ground.
When he noticed tracks after a rain he decided to set it this past Monday when they had the day off..

Here’s the cheating part…bedded trap, used a coyote lure to the left, a cat lure to the right, urine at the base of the post, Gusto on top, and bacon grease rubbed in the middle. That was Monday afternoon and had a bobcat this morning. I was ragging him asking, did he not have anything else to put out or was he bored? I told him anyone could catch them with a hint of every smell there was. Of course I was just giving him a hard time, because he’s like me…a catch is a catch.

So any of y’all out there that think that’s like “cheating”? Anyone else throw the gauntlet at them on occasion? What’s crazy is all he saw was coyote tracks at that location and ends up with a cat.

I feel a little guilty sometimes setting up heavily used beaver and otter crossovers.....NOT!!! LOL

That brings up something else…two traps at one set. I did that on a coyote that wouldn’t commit. My son at the time said “cheating.” I told him being smart!

I always thought that overdoing it was counterproductive when using baits and lures with coyote. I do occasionally overdo raccoon sets with trailing scents, so guilty there I guess…..

I don’t think any of it is cheating. Goal is to catch critters so setting on sign and using scents are part of the game. I also don’t think that using bait for fish or deer is cheating either if it helps you get them. If someone wants to challenge themselves to hunt or fish without bait, it’s their own thing. I don’t look down on them either. When it comes to trapping, I’m not sure why someone wouldn’t do exactly what they thought would help them catch the target as long as it’s legal and probably cost effective.

If it works then it is not cheating. I think it is Cheating when you walk 3 miles to check your traps and they are not all full. That is not fair and the critters should be more understanding and sacrifice rhemselves a little more!!!

I really admire when someone comes up with an idea and after a few years the DNR decides it’s an unfair advantage and makes it illegal.
Just to be clean I admire the person with the idea not the DNR.

His goal was to catch a predator and he did just that. I had some coyotes that would not stop at my set so I dug a hole and started dropping table scraps and deer meat scraps in the hole since mid December when I was up that way hunting. They started hitting it but I had to wait till deer season was over to trap. This morning i caught a big male off that hole. Some times if you rubbing the fur the wrong way you gotta turn the cat around.

While I have strong feelings on calling turkeys and not bushwhacking them I don't feel that way about trapping as long as it's within regulation.

The turkey bit is more because who who taught me and the gentleman's rules they held to as a way of protecting "their" birds. Kind of a self imposed limit.

But trapping I've always been a nuisance trapper from the time Dad set me to rat killing in the barn. The regs I guess are to stop folks, like Dad did me, from pouring gasoline down a rat hole. LOL.

Don't see multiple traps, scents, or visual attractors as cheating.

But always prescribed to the idea that one trap per set was enough, unless dealing with a trap smart animal, but would still probably use a snare instead.

Don't really think it's even possible to take advantage of a furbearer if lawfully trapping, especially a coyote, Lol.

I say catch the critter by any means nessceary

I don't believe in giving my enemies a chance. Especially coyotes. As long as jts within the rules, I'm doing everything within those rules to put the cuffs on whatever I'm trapping.

I once dug a hole. Stuck a dead bobcat in it and set 8 traps around it. Caught the 3 toed female I was after.

I don't think hes cheating at all, hes doing the same thing as the rest of us.

I would consider a strychnine jackpot cheating.

That would be illegal in most US states.

Being a NWCO I wouldn't if it was able to get the problem solved without creating more problems.

The more problems is why we have regulations.

Well it depends on if you want to play a game or catch something and move on

In my case I want to catch every coyote that sets foot on my place, first because they eat chickens and got a baby goat once, 2nd because I want fawns to have a better chance of growing up.
I don't care if they get caught by an ear or if I used magic dust. Caught is caught

Now that I sit here and think, other than a blind set in a trail we pretty much "cheat" to catch a critter. Use some smell to draw them, something flashy to get their attention, etc

I call it my bag of dirty tricks. My clients usually chuckle when I say that.

Beaver trapping with longer than a 36 hour trap check and temperatures less than 60 in February is cheating.

There are some die hard coyote trappers that consider snaring cheating.