Well I've always thought the definition of a "professional" was someone who made their living at it. There are definitely professional trappers by that definition. Now some of them I might not consider experts, but there are "expert" as in "extremely good" coyote trappers, both professional and nonprofessional. Now there probably aren't as many experts as there are people who think they are, but to say there are none is blatant stupidity. No it isn't rocket science, but neither is making a really good hamburger, yet while most people can fry an edible burger, there are still expert cooks, and when you eat one of their burgers you know the difference.

No matter what you do they know you have been there. What I try to do is set a routine. I will drive the same route, walk the same path and try to do it at the same time each day. I want them to get use to me and I have found after a couple of days most things just get on with their routine. I do not allow smoking, dipping, spitting, urinating or anything similiar on my trapline and anyone who goes on my line will follow the same rules. I have very specific spot I will relieve myself as I want the smell in a particular spot to become routine. My clothes are washed in non scent Tide and I wash my boots/hip waders each day. A drop cloth will give you an adventage. Also, I will try to erase my tracks, where I knee down, tuff up pushed down grass and try to make it look as natural as I can. I have a lot of water on my long line and I will walk in the water intead of on ground to try to keep my impact down.

I hear stories of Kansas and watch a guy named Ed on youtube set trap after trap and catch coyotes, oh...bare handed too. I think the same way trappers have different ideas on scent, coyotes have different levels of alarm to human odor. It seems like greater numbers of dogs in areas with fewer humans could care less about scent, while conversely, areas with more humans and fewer dogs, they figure out fast how lethal we are, and they grow suspect of our activity, expertly avoiding our presence. There are urban coyotes that almost never get seen. Deer do the same thing, mountain deer here act dumb, they can run a long way straight away from danger, a farmland buck with 1/100th the escape cover, takes many fewer chances with his life and will adjust quickly to pressure. Just my take on critters.

I went from the mythical era of the boom era of yesteryear where we seemed to figure it was possible to be scent free to trapping bare handed a decade later. These days I say let them tell you what is needed. Every family of coyotes will have a percentage of stupid bold ones and a percentage of shy recluses. But on average the survival instinct seems to be like every other critter we hunt or trap. High population, non pressured targets will behave slightly different than hard pressed critters. You get away with some things routinely in some areas. Try those same practices in another place and you very well may find yourself scratching your head. Doesn’t take too long for them to key in on danger. Put that level of danger on them for a long time and it may get frustrating. Success or failure will fall back on our ability to adjust to what we are presented with

bearcat2-
I made my living for over 22 years in the military. Never considered myself a "professional".

Professionals have endorsements, sponsors, hire agents and play on Sunday afternoons.

Good advice from RegularJoe and BigBlackBirds.

I'm the OP. To answer your question, Basically Yes I'm not catching , Trying to determine why or how to improve my odds. The ranch hasn't been trapped in a while. The neighbor is trapping though. Still I figured it would be easy. It hasn't been. Definitely plenty of dogs there. I saw 3 fluffy ones the other day running away from me at full bore. All of them stopped to look at me. They were lucky I did not have my rifle with me. Previously I had found obvious pinch points between the river and a high bank that had tracks. I made the sets and added a camera. I got them on camera checking out the sets maybe 1 time. He was lucky A Deer had snapped off the trap. I re-set. Total avoidance of the area after that. I think it has to do w/ a couple factors. 1st the sudden influence of human scent in areas that they are not used to encountering it. 2nd They don't have to use the pinch points any more. The river is frozen so they are running the ice. Sunday I found 5 sets of fresh tracks 30 yds from 2 of my sets at one of the obvious pinch points. They were running parallel to the bank and then crossed over to the other side. Old tracks as well. I backtracked them. It was interesting. They had a beat down path on the ice. Not sure how a guy would set that. Anyway, When I hunt, I don't do much for scent control other than play the wind religiously. I've learned that it's generally almost impossible to be scent free. When the wind is wrong for a certain location, don't hunt there. I don't have that option with trapping. I have not been practicing any scent control other than making sure my wax dirt is not burnt. I set w/ my bare hands. I see other more experienced successful trappers doing it so that's how I've been rolling. I figured their curiosity for the gland lure and/or urine would overpower their fear of human scent. Not so much so far . It certainly has been educational.

I think parts of the country is different. Some areas the animals live right with us and sometimes have learned to rely on us for food. Then there is the very opposite. You make a set the animal already knows you have been there. Seen it to many times while bow hunting whitetail where a coyote comes across your trail where you walk in and stops dead in there tracks. They know.

so geographic location is key to this question so here in ontario canada the avg farm is 100-200 acres in size with the average concession being 1000 acres so most nights a coyote willcome into contact with at least 5 farming practices plus any other smaller properties along his route so i dont get the wholw scent thing coyotes know what a human smells like and are not scared of them here anyways i do boil and dye my traps every year but thats bascally it for scent control and yes i catch coyotes best ive ever done 27 in two week period 14 off one farm with two traps set at that farm as for catch circles nothing draws a coyote in like the smells of a caught critter they (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) and crap and tear the area up yes a few wiser coyotes will skirt the trap circle but if i notice that then i put a new trap in just outside the circle as for out west where farms get bigger like a 1000 acres a coyote may never come across a human smell for several days and caution when approaching a set ohh yes i set bare handed and use gloves for handling bait and lure even notice this a good practice when checking cameras after having a few bears and the odd raccoon chew on them

Looks like you answered your own question 1S.

To ignore the best weapon Wile E. has in his arsenal is bad for business.


What is your countermove to get things back on track and up your odds?

This thread was an interesting read.
Thanks guys.

I like to read stuff like this thread so I can hear wha different folks think.
This old trapper is not a coyote expert like many posing but I have played at the game a bit.

If coyotes were ignoring my offerings at this time of year I personally would not be surprised. If. your trapping troubles started at the start of last season, that might require a different sort of look into the entire operation.

Coyotes being coyotes act indifferent at different times of the year.
Coyotes that have made it through a trapping season or more, act different in February than they do in October. If you started having issues at the start of your season, do you have any idea of hired gun trappers had operated there in the spring, summer of fall?

Some guys scoff at the idea of being a trapper that controls human scent or any oder.
Some guys have a pretty good method of reducing human scent and other oder issues which do not add any effort to their method.

It is an interesting study for sure.
Have you ever considered setting out bait stations and blind setting trails to it.

Sometimes you got to know when.you are beating the proverbial dead horse.

Mac

THIS^^^^

Right now coyotes are at their lowest numbers they’ll be all season except for March and maybe April. All that’s left is what hasn’t been trapped or shot. If they aren’t paired up then males are making some long treks in search of a female. I could get a pic or find tracks today and it may be another 3-6 weeks before I get another pic or find tracks.
We’re going to a property tonight and attempting to call some in. Supposedly 4 different “groups” have been heard. We shall see…

Yep. I’ve got a camera about 100 yards out my back door over a couple sets. I had some coyotes come through the end of January, then not again until February 19th, and haven’t been back since. I’ve caught 8 coyotes so far in the area, so maybe they are trying to maintain a bigger territory? Either way, the lack of consistency is tough

T,
Your right. I already knew the answer but conflicting Youtube videos were going against my gut feeling so I had to ask. My next move is actually several moves. The drifting snow was an issue. Way TOO much work for almost no results. I pulled everything till the snow is gone. Snow should be mostly gone this weekend. Hopefully the river ice as well. I'm abandoning my baited site sets. Too many issues. I had 3 sets at each site. I can cover more ground if I set them individually in other locations. I'm abandoning the sets up in the cliffs. Lot's of walking getting to them( I like the hiking but its not efficient) and I'm disturbing the area too much getting up there. I have them on camera so I know they up are there though! I'm going to re-set at every obvious corner post and gate post that I can drive to in the side x side. I'm going to turn the side x side off when I make the sets. The concentrated exhaust might give me away. In the snow, I noticed them peeing on several of posts . On the others, they walked through the opening ON the track. I don't want to do a bunch of walking around plus I think they will be used to human scent being in these locations. I'm also going to reset at bends in the 2 tracks that have thick brush on the inside of the bends. Usually they walk the inside track. I'll blind set both sides just in case. I can get to these areas easily and not disturb them too much.. I'm going lay a tarp of some kind down when I make the set. I'm also going wear some kind of glove as well. 2 things in life that I HATE. Wearing a watch and wearing gloves especially mittens. I can tolerate gloves so I will make the exception in this case. I'm also toying w/ the idea of using a scent control spray to spray down the trap. Not sure if it works or not but I have sprayed down my boots before and had deer walk over my trail with out getting alarmed. Not sure if it was the rubber boots or the spray or a combination of both. Also I am going to re-set the pinch points along the river. They were running the ice however it's now rotten and flooded so I think they will prefer to keep their paws dry instead of running the ice. I''ll give it a couple weeks and re -evaluate. Then I'm probably going to go full bore on the beavers as soon as the ice clears. I'm also going to put in some K9 sets above the huts. I've always noticed coyote tracks at huts. Hopefully I can keep the coons out of them. That's my plan.

That sounds like a well-thought-out plan that will put more coyotes in your buggy!

For me the tarp is by far the most important scent control tool because it acts as a barrier between the trapper and the ground.
Leaving a bunch of stink at the foot of your set is never a good idea. Gloves are a given.

Keep in mind gang setting ups your odds tremendously when you are on a good location. Setting in pairs can be really productive.
In the event of a catch, wind change, defeat, or drive-by you still have an additional look at the ready.
That extra set can make a huge difference in your catch rate.


Good Luck in the coming weeks on land and in the water!

I would steer clear of the scent spray, but feel free to try it and report back. If you have a harbor freight near you, buy a box of their 7 mil rubber gloves and use them to set, much less encumberance than most gloves.

Yeah I definitely wouldn't spray anything directly on a trap. Can't hurt to use some on yourself if you think you're leaving too much of a scent signature, but not on a trap

I'm not adding scent. I am de-odorizing. I can't for sure that it works only that I've seen mature deer NOT explode out of there after crossing my scent trail into my tree stand.. If there was any scent left, it's highly unlikely they would have tolerated it.. Also I am not going to spray all of them. I am going to do a test sample. All will have cameras. so I should be able to see photographic results as well as physical results. The great experiment begins Sunday!

From your perspective you're de-odorizing, the only perspective that matters is the canine's you're trying to trap. From their perspective nothing is scent free, so you're adding a bunch of odd smells from the scent killer factory that they're not familiar with. And to them it will not be 99.9% scent free. Ungulates have a great nose, canids have an unbeatable nose