How many out of ten that smell your set do you think you actually catch?
I know when it snows while I got trap sets it can be humbling and i doubt i only have walk bys when it snows. I also saw on a guys YouTube channel south of me where it doesn't snow very often where he had got snow and had something something like 5 or 6 coyotes and maybe a cat or two come up to his sets and not commit to the set. This was in the middle of his trapping season and he was averaging pretty close to a coyote a day. I remember someone one a few years ago that trapped in snow say if you caught 1 out 5 you were doing OK. Pretty easy to think you catch most of them if you don't have conditions for reading sign. I also see some guys think if they miss one the next one they catch was the same one they missed. Probably happens sometimes but I'd guess the majority of the time it's a different coyote. No way to prove it one way or the other. But from my experience watching coyotes work sets on camera their intrest is usually highest the first time they smell it and it falls fast after that. I normally only set an area for about a week and in that week I'd guess I'm catching 6 to 8 out of 10..... kind of a guess because it's sometimes difficult to see sign in our ground. Past a week I'm probably missing that many out of ten because the ones that are left are probably on to me. Just some food for chatter while we wait on season to get here.

I feel I do miss more during the month of February than I do from mid April on into the summer due to the fact the coyotes are traveling and making bigger loops during the rut. This also could be due to the fact that I use more bait than lure earlier in the year.

I caught a coyote a couple winters back, had fresh snow that night. Seeing where she came from decided to back track her. She had went by five other sets that were scattered over 200 acres. Humbling indeed.

I’ve had six coyotes pull out right in front of me (or the rancher ) in the last five years.

I’ve caught five of those coyotes back in anywhere from two weeks to three months. One was eight miles from where she was originally caught.

Pay attention. Change with the seasons. And don’t be afraid to change up what you’re doing.

Dirt holes don’t get em all.

Y’all got a serious population of coyotes, lol. I can only think of one time I’ve even seen two on camera and it was after a possum had already clogged up the set.
Put another set in and remade the possum set and had a double 4 nights later. Only reason I remember it was it was my first coyote catch on a Full Moon and a double.
I’ve had a coyote come through 3 nights in a row and walked the road and never broke stride the first 2 nights. That 3rd night it made a beeline for the dirthole and stepped right on the pan.
I run a lot of cameras and have had a set get a visit after a week and then get caught on week 4 with nothing done to the set other than a drive by if I thought a deer might have tripped it from pics off the camera.
I can’t see sign down here so all I have to go with is what the cameras show me.
But I don’t think I have that many passes mainly because we don’t have that many coyotes. I wouldn’t know what to do with coyotes coming by every night. I’d sure like to try it though.

Mr. Boone I am interested what did you do different to pick the coyotes back up. Different. Baits, lures, sets?

Boone your results don't count compared to us part timers. Lol
Pretty intresting what you posted though.
What percentage do u think u catch at come within 3 foot of your set and smell it.

It seems like you might have more coyotes than you think if your trapping them and calling them in regularly. If you just went off my deer cameras around here you wouldn't think we have that many coyotes. I can run 8 to 10 deer cameras for 3 months and maybe get less than 30 pics of coyotes. Later in season coyotes will move more into deer habitat being forced to hunt rabbits more as other food supplies dry up.

Yes, just change things up.

Even locations. We get pretty habituated to the types of locations we will (and won’t) set. Change that.

If there’s one thing that seems to be most consistent in getting the hold outs, it’s going subtle.

How much time do I get? Haha

I think I typically get 60-90% in the short term.

And of course 100% in the long term .

I used to see those walk bys, refusals, and just plain ignoring my sets a lot more, but I was stuck in what I was doing. I was slow to change what I was doing when it quit working, because it had been working. (Not saying I still don’t see it sometimes, just not as often as I used to).

I’ve forced myself to get out of my own “comfort zone”, dump what’s quit working and figure out what is working.

Slowing down and observing more is a big part of it. I may drive 40+ miles on the buggy to set just four traps. But they’ll be extremely high percentage sets.

Slipknot (from LA) has a lot different weather, climate and conditions than Boone (SD), not to mention population densities. Glad to hear the Game Cams mentioned along with tracking snow as many of us only had snow to observe coyote activity in the 60's to the 80's (and then only in the winter). The original question was how many take a ride with you out of 10 that you offer to. I don't know, but I have observed, during tough winter weather conditions, that I catch coyotes that have escaped from MY sets (snare and foot traps) more frequently than in the spring or fall. Its reasonable to assume their stomachs get the best of them then and they take a chance more frequently. I will say I know of 3 excellent denning sites within a 4 mile radius of my farm that coyotes use traditionally. After a tough winter when they were worth the effort and conditions are good for "truck hunters" the population is reduced and I see a lot fewer tracks in the mud roads, field and pasture trails and hear no vocalization from those site (areas) prior to and during denning season. Don't know why as spring dispersal is supposed to fill in the good denning sites and it seems to work that way in normal winters. During some winters, I see fewer coyotes (tracks) visiting my sets and leaving before I arrive (lower pop). It seems those are the winters FOLLOWING the tougher winters and the overall tracks are fewer. I can only speculate they are interested more for a meal or the scent of another with that reduced pop. density and work a set more (kind of odd from what I would expect). They are are a lot fewer in #'s by then with fewer overall visits but fewer leave the set prior to my arrival percentage wise than when the pop is higher. I may be just a poor trapper compared to others and just an observer. My experience. ...............................the mike

Good post!
I think what Boone said is the crux here at least in my world. I am limited to setting in places to AVOID PEOPLE FIRST....then set up the main travel ways.
That doesn't work too well and I find myself setting up near the SAME AREAS EVERY YEAR. I do change set type construction ie dirt hole to flat sets to trash mounds etc.
And I do change my attractors up and still do catch coyotes but still see walk bys in the mud/snow. Not sure what the solution is besides having a longer more liberal season.
Time is my enemy (As well as low fur prices and justifying fuel costs). Throw in the night vision/thermal hunters and a guy starts scratching his head in what he is doing out there.
For me I will continue to explore setting those HOT LOCATIONS, mixing up my sets and attractors and trying to use more subtle sets.

Not sure how many you actually catch but I think snow adds to a lot more coyotes walking past and misses from what I have observed. I have heard people say, "snow is the best teacher." I don't quite agree with that statement unless you have snow on the ground the whole season, then that may hold some truth.

Silkyplains, I completely agree.
Wind direction matters. So do visuals. A fresh early snow changes everything.

I have seen you say this before, and I one hundred percent agree. I have never ran cameras on my sets, but do a lot of trapping in snow, and also tend to see the highest interest the first time they work a set. I will preface that though by saying that canines (coyotes and wolves, I have very limited experience with foxes, but they seem to act similarly in my limited experience) at times are "on a mission" and will walk by every offering you have without breaking stride. They just are not interested regardless of what you present to them. That doesn't mean that when they come through next time, whether it be a week or a month later, they won't find the same sets that they ignored last time interesting, and they will work them hard, having not worked them before. Also sometimes a set needs to "weather in" if the set is too blatant or the lure too loud I believe it causes some animals to be too nervous and leery the first time by to work the set effectively. After everything has had time to sit and weather in, the next time they come by curiousity may get the better of them and they will work it.

Of course a lot of this is supposition with coyotes, seldom can you tell for sure by tracks in the snow that the coyote that comes by this week is the same one that came by last week.

9 out of ten. Eventually.

I don’t hide my disdain for the thermal craze.

And I’ve mentioned in the past about behavior shifts in coyotes for one reason or another. In the past, it was always that pairing/denning season shift in behavior.

Typically, (at least in this region) that was when you’d see a lot of fickle behavior in coyotes to stuff that was creaming them just a couple weeks previous.

Of course, that was a hormonal driven shift as they got more interested in breeding. A guy could change to social smells and keep on keeping on. The guy that just kept on with the baits and dirt holes that were knocking em back a month ago, maybe not so much (unless the weather really helped him).

But, over the last 15 years that calling has gotten ultra popular, and now with the last 5-6 years of the night doggers out there with the thermals, I start seeing a very serious shift in coyote activity and behavior around thanksgiving. Up here, Thanksgiving kind of kicks off “calling season”. Big game seasons are wrapping up, only the real hardcore bird hunters are still at it, so for many, that’s when they’re out after coyotes in earnest.

The bad part of this shift, is it is 100% human caused. They’re figuring out real early to avoid anything and everything human. It’s impacting daytime calling tremendously, and it’s impacting trapping and snaring. This night time pressure affects them differently, more profoundly than daytime pressure does.

Lot of good food for thought here. I trap the same area most years and the same spots. Some of these same spots I test lures in almost year around. I might need to mix it up some.

So what do you do to catch coyotes during that time?

I'd say that I catch about 1 out of 100!

Yes Sir when you are putting out test sites, the ones that get hit do you find that when you go back to that area to check sign do you notice coyote tracks will continue to swing by that site for a a couple months.

For me we have such a good population of coyotes and my test location are such good locations there going to be coyotes on those locations regardless if there was any lures or baits there previously. So it's hard to say.
With that said my coyotes lose intrest in something pretty quick. One or two visits and they usually don't have much direct attraction from there on out. But I can come back again with same stuff in say a month and the freshness of it generally gets their attention again.

They’re not “unkillable”. But they’re probably not gonna fall to the wham bam thank you ma’am tactics.


Whenever I’m faced with “tough” coyotes I seem to always revert back to subtle, less is more tactics.

We have good coyote #s here in KS and if you know what ur looking for you can get into some down right silly numbers of coyotes. But not all of them are stupid and there's some things that don't seem to work very well for me that in other areas trappers seem to be able to make work. One is bringing a new object to a set, just doesn't work for me. Drag a log over 50 foot to make a set by it and your going to get more referrals. Even bones like tee bones and skulls seem to spook more than they catch. Another is trap bedding. Waxed soil doesn't seem work well here and if you cover your traps with too light of a covering your going to have problems.

We have a lot of coyotes because we have a lot of food for them and I think it can sometimes make them less aggressive to a set than say somewhere that finding food is a problem.

I also believe because of the numbers we have and availability of food our coyotes can have a smaller home range which means if your on a good location they are going to find your set in a day or two. Which for the dumb ones that's great but the spooky ones will find that set pretty regularly while there's still a lot of human scent concentrated there and therfore might not ever work that set as they see it as danger from there forward.

I do a lot of testing and 95% of my first digging at a set will be day 3 or 4. Way to high of a percentage to be coincidence as some have told me. And I've seen on camera plenty find the set in first day or two but not work it hard. I believe it's because the human scent level is above there tolerance level for the first day or two. That being said I catch a lot of first night coyotes but by watching them on video they come in pretty spooky and if they didn't get caught it would probably be come in for a quick smell then bolt.

Had a guy come to my county a couple years ago so I know exactly what kind of population he was trapping. He would make some trapping videos on YouTube and he looked like he could catch some coyotes where he lived. He came here for a week and caught 3 coyotes. I think I took 13 within a half mile of my house in two week that year. They are here if you know a little about what your doing but can still humble you if you ain't got it down pat even in my part of Ks

According to this thread I’ve got a whole heap more coyotes than what I thought. I’m not doubting, but I’d think with about 20 something cameras scattered about that we’d get pics of something, unless they’ve learned to sniff out cameras and avoid the areas.
I would think right now with pups venturing out that they should be showing up.
Seeing how Doc gave me clearance to start walking more, I may get up early the rest of this week to go listen. Or see if I can illicit a howl or two from the groups.
My son did text this morning and said he saw his first pup tracks. We knew they’d be out so he’s been looking for them. They should be easy to kill about this time if I can find an open area to see!!

Well, how many squatches have you got a pic of? Just sayin.

Touché…the exact same number of black panthers unfortunately, lol!

Lol

I’ve been running six cameras for a month.

I have more lion pictures than coyote.

And I will GUARANTEE you we have more coyotes than lions here! Haha

I personally feel as though I don't miss many. I'm sure earlier on before I have evidence in the snow, I miss some, but I don't feel it's a lot. Since the yote market crashed a few years back, I switched 100% of my attention to cats. So now using "cat tactics" I manage to miss most dogs. Not all, but most. We're in the "No Game Camera Season" now, so I typically don't bother with them.

Mr.Boone how many of them you ever hooked up on.Do you have to release or have a quota.

I catch a few every winter if I go after bobcats.

My biggest winter was 7.

Can’t trap them, have to release them.

I am sure that can get interesting pretty quick.id like to see it.lol.

I'm guessing that he does the Crocodile Dundee mind trick on them, and releases them by hand!

I’m not sure how many I got Seth

I don’t think I’ve seen that many tracks all the years I’ve been trapping, lol.

I'd say that you had 1, that just left the bar and couldn't find his car.

Brad I'd say you got enough u don't need to worry about my question. Lol

So if coyotes shy away from anything new, wouldn't that limit one to using blind or flat sets as they would shy away from any new holes.

I myself don't see a ton of avoidance to dirt holes. There's some educated ones that darn sure avoid them but we have enough coyotes you don't need to catch the smart ones to put up good numbers. But my general population will be spooky of new objects that you bring to the set location like a log or bones. I put a stick about 3/4" in diameter vertical in front of a camera with about 12" above ground. Two different locations. I put a proven lure coyotes loved to roll on to see if a rub set would be effective for coyotes. Probably got about 6 or 8 visits to those test set and only one coyote got within 3 foot of that stick. He came up to it and smelled but I suspect it was his 3rd visit before he got his courage up. I've run more blind sets last couple years but they are slower to connect for me than a good dirt hole but probably catch more of the shy coyotes. They also catch a high percentage of non targets here. I keep telling myself I need to learn to master flat sets and I've caught coyotes in them but I have a mental bias towards them because I feel like I can't control foot placement as well at them and I hate to miss one by three inches. Also we have enough coyotes the dirt hole is just pretty effective. I'm going to force myself to use more flat sets just to master another tool and skill set. Same for snares.

Thanks' for explaining Seth, was confused for a bit. I too prefer a DH or step down more for guidance but also throw in a blind or flat set to change things up a bit just to keep them guessing. Once you get used to using a step down and find the ease of guiding with them, it's difficult to go back to something else.

I’m a dirt hole guy too. From what I’ve seen a lot of sets are made to close to tall backing, and by tall backing I mean anything over 6”. It takes a really hungry coyote or a dumb one to commit.

I’m heading out here shortly to set some traps.

Won’t be no dirt holes.

That grounds HARD already.

Probably could pin down a few pups pretty easy in em right now though on this deal as I’m sure it’s a family group that’s just blew in from across the border.

As it is, it’ll likely be some flat sets with a couple real sneaky sneaky curve balls for ma and pa.

Make them pay Boone

Ok I lied.

Found one place to make a hole. Or rather depression, it only ended up being 4” deep. So I stuffed a hunk of goat hide on top. Give em something to play with.

I feel better knowing even you can't resist putting in a dh every once in awhile.

I'm assuming your trap is up tight to the hole? If it's where I think it is the covering doesn't look table top smooth. Do you do this on purpose so it looks more natural and doesn't stand out or just don't pay any attention to it and that's just how it comes out.

looks like a family group before they break-up, had this happen just a couple hundred yards just south of my house,a couple years in a row. all the yipping and caring on sounds like a pack of 20 in reality only six or seven pups and the alpha female or alpha male bringing food back to the den. I caught 4 within a 1/2 mile from that sight, all were pups about 6 months old at the time.

That was 10 years or so ago, property owners have changed twice since then. I heard them again once this year but not a peep since. Health issues have kept me out of the field since 2016 and I can't hold out long but sure want to get back at it.Just dreaming I guess.

I see this said a lot, and used to put more faith in it. But I see often where they pee on big trees, just like a dog. And when you find those they are a dynamite set, even though the "backing" is 80-100 feet tall. I find myself using more large trees for the backing/lure holder on flat sets and pee posts I make myself and having good luck with it. The coyotes don't seem to avoid them at all, of course that tree has been there the coyotes whole life, so he is perfectly accustomed to it. Now that being said, you want a tree without low branches, if you can walk under it without ducking, or at most just ducking your head, not having to bend your back any; that is the type of tree you want. They are leery of having a bunch of low hanging branches hemming them in. Now I've not tried making dirtholes up tight against big trees much, because a)I'm not much of a dirthole guy and b)roots really get in the way of digging your hole, they can often get in the way of a trap bed, much less a dirthole.

Does anyone else not have an issue with sets, but actually finding coyotes?

Yep I haven't seen a coyote for a couple days now
Just messing with u

Yup.

I got one lever more or less “in” the hole.

I keep my dirt holes pretty rough. I’ll take my rib bone when everything’s done and before I bait it and scrape some extra dirt out of it and splash it over the “pattern” just like something digging in that hole would.

Don’t feel bad.

These ones I’m going after right now I’d bet my next paycheck just bounced in from lord knows where in the last few days. It is that time of year. If you told me they were 10 miles away three nights ago, I’d say very well could have been. Maybe further.

This is on a sheep outfit that’s been quiet since April. They killed two 40 pound lambs last night and slicked one up completely, so I’d be surprised if it’s a dry pair.

Well my sons place has a LOT of roads that you should see tracks on and he’s been texting daily of nothing. I have a few I could see tracks on and nothing. I mean over the last month or so, nothing. Trying to illicit howls at dark or before sunrise has produced nothing. Cameras produce nothing. They have to be there…2500ac and 5000ac has to have coyotes somewhere on it, lol. Can’t see enough at night for thermal hunting, so I guess we wait until they start sounding off or we start harrowing fields. Although that won’t be for another few months.

Been quiet around here lately too but then I believe their numbers around here are down. Not like we had alot to start with.

5000 acres isn’t but a spit.


If I have a family group per township (36 square miles, 23,040 acres) that’s high cotton.

And again, don’t feel bad. It’s the dog days of summer. The worst time of year in my opinion.

I’m out just about every morning (somewhere in 3000 square miles) trying to locate. I haven’t had a coyote howl back at me in almost five weeks.

Bearcat, I agree with some of your post but I’m not referring to post and trees. I agree he’s not as scared around structures like those. When it comes to grass edges or tall weeds a coyote is always on guard when he’s traveling. Small backing and placing the dirts hole 10’ away from these structures will increase a guy’s catch. Makes him feel a little bit more comfortable.