So I’ve been reading and watching trapping videos for the better half of 2 years in preparation for this years trapping season. I have 2 properties with over 100 acres each. I have trapped them consistently since Christmas and have 3 possum, 3 raccoons, 1 red fox, and 1 coyote in a CR. I only run one CR in a fence under pass and have out 15 sets. I’m about to pull all due to zero action lately. After the snow a few days ago, I looked for sign at both spots and found only deer Sign…with no visible coyote sign. Is it the population numbers in East central Indiana or am I doing something wrong? Any help is appreciated! I follow Coon Creek Outdoors, Hoosier trapper , amongst others on YT. I have started making straw and pipe dreams sets in prep for freeze/thaw and rain.

You can't trap what's not there...

Sounds like you are doing good.

Yeah I was hoping that was my issue. I Deer hunt approximately 50 hours a year and see very few coyote if any, so knew we didn’t have that many.

Thanks Woods!

We all have to deal with it sooner or later. Kudos for keeping at it but probably time to pull up stakes and find another area. Dealing with the same situation here. Average around 40 coyotes per season but only have 4 to show for it this year. Just found another spot that have a few to chase but it's tough checking empty traps day after day. It's not all bad as you have had a chance to practice making a few sets. Hang in there, that's coyote trapping for you.

Thanks for the reply and I think maybe you’re right. Time to try somewhere new.

Look in the places they hunt like sloughs, hedges and edges of the woods to start you might drop a large bait to see what hits on it. Maybe set up some trail cams they can get you heading in the right direction.

Forgot to mention: I run 4 Reveal tactacams and haven’t had a canine on camera since 12/1.

Ryan, you are in good company with more experienced trappers. I also was despairing over the meagre results I was getting after two weeks of trapping in late December. It is a time of year and in a place that I usually clean house and get lots of critters in a short amount of time. Then we got snow and for days I saw only deer tracks and absolutely zero predator tracks. None. And as 330-Trapper says above, we can't trap what isn't around. I cannot explain what happened to the bobcat, fisher, and coyotes we were getting on camera. They evaporated. Something happened and it sounds like the same thing happened to your trapping territory.

Yessir PAll, thanks for the reply!

Coyotes will travel to where they can find prey/food.

This is good advice. Maybe you're trapping where the coyotes aren't. Try moving your cameras to the above mentioned areas and see what happens.

keep looking for sign, [tracks] poop, if none you have done your job for now, for a first-year trapper, you have done great,

Same thing has happened on my place. Lots of animals early Oct/ nov when trapping season opened, got a coyote looking at my snare and haven't seen one since. I'm sure they will be back before season closes. Feb seems to be best time around here.

Look for more permissions. Its nothing for coyotes to move 10 miles in a single night. Lawdog and Boco had great suggestions. Here in KS you can get a roadkill deer tagged then move move it. Makes a great draw station. (if legal in your state) Dead livestock are good too. Most producers drag them to the same spot. Even if its just bones coyotes especially will routinely come by to have a look and take a pee.

Phishin Ryan,
I built my line up over about 40 years and I don’t trap every piece of land every year either. I don’t have many, maybe 10 farms tops. If I’m coyote trapping I hit all of them. If coon well really only about four of those are good. For cats it’s more like just three.
I also learned a long time ago I have to deal with a lot of other factors around here. I need to actually avoid cover if I’m coyote trapping, and that’s mostly to avoid other hunters and the coyote pickup army that drives every draw and timber line they can get to (with or without permission too). I couldn’t always get to the “best” looking cover ground because most of that was being accessed by hunters too. So I picked the flat barren or crop ground next to the good looking ground. Especially if the crappy ground has a little weedy fencerow or ditch through it or edge of a crop change. Coyotes don’t stick to one area and don’t know what fences mean to stay in or out. So I put a couple sets on either side of those little wispy fencerows or grassy water ways and I pick up coyotes consistently at those on their way to the good looking ground, I guess.
I also found I have to walk or drive off the beaten path a bit more to get consistent catches. I leave the four wheelers at home and hoof it often back over the hill out of sight for sets. Old pond dams, weedy fence lines, thin grassy water strips in middle of a picked field. Old well grazed pastures with old cattle trails. To consistently take coyotes it takes patience, a lot of land with a few well placed sets on each, and then be patient and play the numbers odds.
For cats I have to set in or right next to the heavy cover.
I only put a trap down for anything if there are tracks and sign. Waste of time if you only set what looks good to you. Got to be tracks and evidence they go through an area.
You are doing all the right stuff and have certainly done some homework on here in preparation. After you connect on a few you will find patterns and what works consistently year after year and it will get easier. Some spots for me I can count on catches. Some I really have to scout before I pound a stake.
Bud I am quite happy to help through PMs or whatever. Wished I’d have had more help when I started out and I am quite happy to help newbies willing to learn.
Jim

I will add there is a ton of knowledge on here and some real experienced trappers too.
The you tubers out there are not all great. Some are, and some just act like they are. I found if I kept things simple and consistent I didn’t have to have a whole lot of different stuff in my bag too. A couple baits and a bottle of good pee will make a lot of dirthole and post sets. I make two sets at each location only one is dorthole with bait and other is a post set with pee only, and my catches are about fifty fifty each type. I get a few doubles but not many. Mostly we have so many coon, possum, and skunk around here I need to have a couple sets going at a spot in case I get one plugged with other catches.
This combo I believe covers the food and territorial thing for coyotes and that is a couple biggies for dogs.
Go have some fun!
Jim

I know an awfully good trapper/snareman in Montana who knows his country like the back of his hand and is good for what 60 plus coyotes a year without cracking a sweat.
I was out there recently and he had an empty line for weeks, listening and looking for sign it was dead quiet when it shouldn’t have been and tracks were near impossible to find.
Now it’s flipping back, strange year.

If you’re not having a struggle now and again, you’re not really trapping.

Osky

I’m literally blown away by all the great advice /replies. I went out today and looked for fresh tracks in snow from last night. Found 2 good spots with fresh tracks. Decided to pound in 3 sets literally on the same path as tracks. Made one pipe dream set, 1 dirt hole set with waxed dirt and a straw set . Also found fresh tracks going under opening in fence, so set an IN legal CR on that trail shortly off the fence for no entanglement. Nasty weather hitting this weekend, so fingers crossed.

Jab, Osky, Trapper, Spike, Danny, yote, and Left lane….appreciate your replies and advice. Thanks for taking the time!

Indiana does not have a no entanglement rule that I know of. Only snare rules are that you need written permission on land you do not own, and any snare with a circumference greater than 15” must use a lock that is sold as a “relaxing” lock. I typically try to set for entanglement on coyotes.

Here is what I found with a GOOGLE search- https://www.eregulations.com/indiana/hunting/furbearer-trapping

Yep. We have very short and sweet snare rules. No stops or breakaways or entanglement rules, just written permission and relaxing locks. There are bit more in terms of definition of relaxing lock if you look at the actual discretionary orders but they are worded such that I had trouble understanding them. So I asked the DNR wildlife biologist to clarify, and she basically said if the lock is sold as relaxing they accept that. Good enough for me.

Ryan I'm in east central IN and the yote population has been going down for a few years around me. The plus side is the fox population has increased. PM me if you have some questions. Dennis

If you want to know what you have or don’t have, go out before sun up and right before sun down and listen. Someone on here put out that advice and it’s paid off huge for thermal hunting. Heck, take a howler or caller and just hit it and see if any answer. If they do try and mark where you think they are on a map. You’ll at least know where to concentrate sets. We deal with leaves and pine needles so tracks are really difficult to find…listening helps let me know where to start.

Well had 1 red fox and 1 coyote on trail camera last night for the first time in months. Both of them walked right past my straw set and never even slowed down. Checked the rest of my sets this morning, and all clean of action. I guess that is just how it goes. The set was no further than 8 feet away from them…downwind, by the way[.

I am FAR from an expert canine trapper but I would move my set right out to the intersection of the trails up on that high ground where they can see around a little better. I have never had great luck trying to get them down where they can't see around them. As I said, I am far from an expert though.

The only reason it isn’t directly on that trail is because that is a gravel road ….i have a few feet off the road on the down wind side (SW) and last night wind was out of the SW. I am using Dunlap Rage bait in one Hiawatha valley on the other set. Coyote Gland lure and fox urine on both…very small amounts

I shoot far more canines than I trap but from what those pictures the canines didn’t break stride nor turn their head? Wild canines are always curious, it’s what they do for a living. I’d feel that had no clue your sets were there? Wind wrong, not enough call type lure, out of site?

You may not be able to set on the trail but I’d at least start in the middle of the trail and drip little bits of attractant right on the ground leading toward the set. Maybe a touch of cotton pieces with lure on it under a few twigs leading towards the set? Subtle but leading.

Osky

Sounds to me like you should switch gears to water trapping. Is there any water on the property?

Sounds like you are doing great, you done caught them all.
Get more farms to trap.

The property has a big river running right through the middle of it!

Thank you so much! Appreciate it

I actually made a 2nd set on the other side of the road and did exactly what you said. Dribbled fox urine in road toward a set. Hope I have better luck tomorrow! Bad weather hitting this weekend…should be good

By the way, I made a step down dirt hole set opposite side of the road diagonal from the straw set today. One set has Hiawatha valley and the other has some spoiled venison I had in fridge. Both have call lure. One is Cavems coyote gland lure and the other is Fleming Coyote call lure #4. Fox urine in backing of one and Coyote urine on the other backing. Newest set is 1 foot off of that road. Straw set is approximately 8 feet off the road. Just FYI

Ryan——here’s a couple thoughts floating around my head as I just pulled line. I ran a little in central Indiana/Illinois 20 years ago and there’s similarities to here. First Id say your camera likely told you that there’s some dispersal going on there since it’s the first sighting in a long time. That critter may swing past again or you may have a different one following the similar route. Your moves to have multiple sets to cover the different winds is good. You may want to also take into consideration that with dispersal and the time of year there starts to be more emphasis on territory etc vs food. Critters always need to eat but it doesn’t always translate to them being hungry and id say in the Midwest nothing goes hungry for any length of time normally. I like playing with cameras but not usually where I’m set. Personally I’d go quite aways in bith directions on that road and find a spot where canine tells you to set and then I’d switch every thing up and not show them anything you may have already done

I think that’s some great advice. Gonna move that camera, the other sets I have do not have camera near them.

Carol black told me once if a coyote walks by your set (looking at tracks) without slowing down or pausing to checkout your set, it couldn’t smell it. Even a bad smell will get some reaction. You can see it in the steps and strides. No reaction means it couldnt smell your set. Move them to the upwind wide. Or, use a visual object like a rock or clump of grass something different than everything around. Those make great post sets.
Jim

Up wind down wind . Your wind always blow in one direction? Any birds in season? If you kill a duck , turkey heck s crow even scatter some feathers around. Scent is major part of attraction but visual will help . If that red didn’t work your set throw that lure away. Get you some Wiley red or widow maker from hawbakers. Reds are easy to get to work a set. Some can be tough to catch them. Some are quick and easy

There’s your travel corridor to set . Yes road trapping is like road hunting deer. Quick and easy on you. But if no action around the road set the river bottom. Rain might make trapping it harder. If any fields along that river there’s your hot spot.

If u have alot of dead deer carcasses around they aren't hungry. Need to use good lure and be spot on w/sets.
Should b lookin for mates. Loud gland lure. Be patient. I c a 1 to 2 week cycle in teavel patterns.
Good luck.

X2, you can be the best trapper in the world but if the animals aren’t there you can’t catch them

I will say this about coyotes, especially if they do what they do here...I've had coyotes not come back to property for weeks or months. So there's a decision to be made...do you stick around and wait for them to come back through or do you go find places that they hitting more often. Unless the place is convenient for you to check and not spending a lot of gas to get to it, I would probably pull and go look for hotter spots.

Tried a little of everyone’s advice. Snow has been my friend for setting cable restraints. Landed a male and a female in my snares this week. Also, had a coyote step 1mm from my pan on a dirt hole set (Duke 550), but it didn’t fire. Check to see if it would fire and it did. Re-bedded in wax dirt again and re-lured….dog not exposed. Things are looking up at least! Thank you all!