I know this will get some different responses. I kinda have an idea where this thread is going to go but I thought I'd ask anyway. The reason I ask is because I watch YouTube videos from guys that seem to do pretty good. Their scent control is almost non-existent and they seem to get away w/ it. Then I watch others and they are pretty strict in their scent control practices. They do well also. I'm just learning this game this winter. It's been fun and educational. However I think I may need to step up my scent control game and reduce my human impact to set areas. I do know from 45 years of bowhunting that deer will quickly avoid areas that are overhunted. Same logic should apply to set locations that have been devoid of human activity all year then suddenly get impacted every other day or two.

There is various schools of thought on this, but as a general rule reducing your scent signature can't hurt your odds. The other approach to this is to make yourself a part of the landscape, don't just start showing up to trap, be there all the time and have your smell become normal. Once an animal comes across your smell a few times with no consequences, in theory your scent shouldn't be alarming to them. I follow both thought processes, I'm a normally occuring phenomenon to the animals around my traplines, but I still try to minimize my presence at an actual set location. I can't trick a wolf into thinking I was never on the trail, but I may fool him to thinking I didn't stop to do anything he should worry about

I read an article a few years ago about how they where training dogs to detect cancer cells in the human body. Bif a canine has the ability to do that then there is no way you can make a set scent free. At best you can do is minimize your scent. I used to do take extreme measures but not so much any more. Like TT said, don't let them associate your smell with trouble.

I agree with AK Timber, I try to reduce it as much as practicable but I don’t go crazy. You’ll never fool their nose, they know you were there. I use separate leather gloves that I keep hand in a big pocket when handling steel or snares. If I remember, I’ll rub the snare with a piece of spruce or whatever is near buy. Just grab it between the thumb and forefinger and run the cable through. It’s easy, only takes a few seconds and might help.
Sweat (or shnot from your nose when it’s super cold) is a no go, or having a couple others with while setting and they’re bored and tromping around, I hate that and usually just put my gear back on the sleigh and move on. “This is a waste of time boys. Sit on the machine and wait”….lol.
I’m a terrible teacher. If they want to see what wolf trappings about, they should’ve showed up at the free course last summer.

As others said, try to minimize your scent at the set, and in particular on the traps. Then if possible check your traps from a distance. Or ideally if they are beside a road/trail drive by them without stopping or stepping foot on the ground. If you minimized your scent in the first place, what you did leave will dissipate in a couple days and as long as you don't keep refreshing it by tromping around your sets, they won't be on edge because of your scent.

I think it’s a matter of location as well as previous exposure to man-made smells. I’ve taken 2-3 coyotes in the same trap at the same location, a couple of times. Those traps were dirty, and a bit rusty after the 2nd catch but they kept catching. The location was frequented by people, tractors, a neighborhood dog and so on. They didn’t seem to care, though I made it a point to be clean when resetting.

Virgin territory is a different matter. I think people smell foreign to wildlife so they try to avoid us. Trapping clean never hurts.

Set and get out, they gonna smell you no matter what. Some critters shy away and some don’t care.
Curious why you think you need to step up your game. Not catching? Has the place been trapped before? More important, are there critters there?
Generally my first year on a property has me looking like I should have my own channel and website. By year 3 I’m starting to wonder if I should call it quits, lol. I hit my properties twice a year. It will NEVER be like the first year it was trapped, lol. Did they learn me that first year? Or did they learn my smell after twice a year for a couple of years and just avoid the property? Either way it’s a win for the landowners. They get no pics or have issues and I’ve done my job.
You’ll find that some things that are supposedly written in stone, aren’t actually written in stone. They’re actually written on a chalk board and can be erased. I think a lot of things are just passed down because so and so said it so it’s the Gospel. A lot of what’s passed down works, a lot is unnecessary as you stated. Some folks go overboard on the scent control and catch. Some don’t pay it any attention and catch. Just bed, blend, and get out.

On another note, setting in catch circles. The 2 pullouts I had damaged a big area that looked like a bomb went off, the one that held was much smaller. Urine & crap all over. There’s a crazy amount of info a wolf reveals to others in urine, like physical condition, sex, reproductive state and stress…etc. Not one wolf ever stepped near those areas, even the loner that came through came within 10’ then into the bush. I did make blind sets about 20’ from the catch circles right on the snowmobile trail, but the loner missed them.

Absolutely! You’re not walking in the footsteps of “those who say it to the greatest magnitude” and they haven’t walked in yours. Guidance and food for thought is one thing but the Gospel is another!

I've said it 100 times, there's only 2 definite's in trapping...the animals have to be there, and you have to know where to set your trap (location, location, location). Everything else is opinion, theory, and personal preference. There are no "experts" or "professionals" unless you choose to call yourself one.

Don't worry about scent control. Put as many traps in the ground as you can, and you'll catch more animals, simple as that.

I kill more coyotes, faster, the more careful I am. Hard stop.

I’ve done it both ways enough times now to know there is something to scent management.

CLEAN equipment, CLEAN gloves, speed, deliberate movements, and a drop clothe to keep the set area tidy.

Just the addition of the drop clothe makes such a difference. Especially during certain times of the year.

Your opinion, your theory, your preference.

I admit I was late to the drop cloth game but I used it for the 3 years prior to my quitting trapping coyotes that it absolutely made a positive difference. I highly recommend using a drop cloth when trapping coyotes, bare ground or snow covered.

Remakes in the catch circle can go both ways. I almost always remake. Usually in the catch circle, although I have remade in the original bed when the catch circle is off somewhere due to the trap being on a drag. Ideally you would do both, and set another trap (or more) outside the catch circle. But this posits that you both have more traps with you, and time to do so. I've had wolves and coyotes avoid catch circles, in fact I caught two wolves once, where the rest of the pack never again came within a quarter mile of where I caught them, even years later. On the opposite extreme, I caught a triple this year out of a pack of six and five traps in the vicinity, next check I had the other three... in the same three traps, set in the old trap beds! Two of those were within the trap circle, one was outside of it due to the wolf making it about fifteen feet on a drag.

I've seen coyotes avoid catch circles also, but I have coyotes avoid wolf catch circles much less than coyote catch circles, and wolves seem to avoid coyote catch circles less than wolf catch circles. If I catch a coyote in a wolf trap (it happens, although I miss a lot of them due to pan tension) I feel pretty confident if a wolf comes by he will work the set. Conversely, if I catch a wolf, I'm really confident that the majority of the time if a coyote comes by he will work the set.

Sometimes they are going to avoid them, but the trap is already there and already dirty, I'm not going to pull it and go set it somewhere else, if I pull it I am taking it home with me. So I almost always remake, I've got a heckuva lot better chance of catching something in a remake than I do without a trap there. Making sets in the vicinity of a catch circle is also a very good idea, however, for those critters that won't work a catch circle.

If you don't think there are experts or professionals in trapping u have ur headed buried to deep and should come up for oxygen more often

And if you think there are, you’re buying into it. Don’t treat this as rocket science, because it’s not.

Only thing I buy into is what coyotes tell me themselves.

X2

I do the best I can but don’t get carried away with it. Like today I set bare handed but washed my hands really well and used alcohol wipes several times while running my line.

when i first started i used different gloves for everything. different gloves for setting. different for baiting. different when driving in side by side when checking.
and yes i caught coyotes.

now years later i only wear gloves to protect my hands a little and if its cold.
i always set and bait bare handed now . it hasnt hurt my catch numbers at all.

the only way they might not know you were there is if you wore a NASA spacesuit on your line.

i dont have many first night catches and that could be from scent.

the main thing i do is set "em and stay away from em."

when im checking i get only as close as i have to.

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

I would spray my sets with that stuff when I first started. I dont know that it hurt, but I do know it doesn’t help. Not long after that I stopped using it altogether in the outdoors because I realized it was more or less snake oil.

I guide hunters, and a ton of them (more or less every archery hunter) bring and use that stuff. I don't know what exactly is in it, but I usually tell them they are just paying a high price for water in a spray bottle. My experience, if you are downwind of the animal they aren't going to smell you even if it has been a month since you took a shower, but if you're upwind they are going to smell you no matter what you do, you can have bathed in Scent Killer two hours before and they are still going to smell you. Good quality, clean boots will lower your scent, and various other things, but I wouldn't put anything on traps myself.

But feel free to do an experiment with some traps sprayed and some just clean and handled with gloves, then report back to us. You're going to anyways, so I would like to hear your results.

The sprays are mostly an anti-bacterial to keep BO at a minimum. Which they do accomplish. They're more or less baking soda (some odor absorption) and peroxide (anti-bacterial).

And lets remember, they're targeted to ungulate hunters, and ungulates don't have anywhere near the nose power (or brain power) of a coyote.

I think they work better at cleaning up "where you've been" vs fooling anything "you're not there."

I totally agree. Unless you take drastic measures, you not going to fool a mature buck or a coyote that is downwind. Look up John Eberhart. He says he can. That's a different story and topic. Anyway, Notice I didn't say that they were downwind of me. I said they crossed where I walked and did not blow up. My boots may have been the reason however if I was adding scent w/ the spray they would have smelled that and blown out of there. I don't know if it helped but I don't think it hurt either. Your right though, I'm going to do it anyway just to see if there is a difference. What's it going to hurt?

Well it appears to be working. I set in 7 locations w/ cameras. Mostly gate openings or on the 2 track in likely spots. Nailed a dog on the 2nd night. In the EXACT spot that I had the most hope for. A bend in the 2 track in a dip in the road. Brush on both sides. The inside track was dry, the outside track muddy. Coyote Tracks on the inside. I put a white bone that I found on the edge of the track. 2 traps on either side of it. No lure of any kind. I set while kneeling on a knee pad on a board. I wore gloves. NO spray this this time. (I need to make some up) I also had 2 other locations where the dogs went through the gate openings on camera. They never even looked at the gate posts that had urine on it. However they were upwind of the urine posts so I don't think they even got a wiff. They were unconcerned and on the hunt. They were in the opposite track 5-6' away. I added traps to those tracks yesterday. 4 traps at each gate opening. It snowed 2" the night before and it got to 42 degrees yesterday so it was muddy out there. My gloves got totally muddy from dealing w/ the dog. I couldn't set the traps without my hands slipping off the levers. I had to set w/ my bare hands. We will see if that makes any difference. No dogs on camera last night.

Are you trapping dogs or are you trapping coyotes? Coyotes are not dogs. The terms we use matter in the fight to keep trapping legal.

Thanks for the tip. Have a nice day.

Interesting update. Not sure what to make of it yet. Initially, I caught one coyote (dog) right off the bat on one of my road sets. Almost all of the sets had pics of coyotes on camera multiple times through out the week. Most of the time they were on the other track that did not have a trap. No sign of them investigating the post that had lure or urine on them. They simply were just passing through. Deer had snapped off a couple of the traps so I had to go back and re-set them. I decided to set both sides of the 2 track/lane. Urine post set on one side of the 2 track and a blind set on the other. I wore gloves, kneeled on a board w/ a knee pad. Not 100% scent free but better than before. Here's the interesting part. Not a single coyote pic on camera in 5 locations since then. Total avoidance. One week of human presence and they don't just avoid the trap, they just avoid the area. However at the same time I noticed something else that might be the reason why there are no coyotes on camera.. They might have left the area entirely. The river opened up at the same time that the cameras went dead, Open river means that it's time to set beaver traps. Saturday I set 7 locations. Several of them on islands in the river. At just about every location including the islands, there were fresh coyote tracks. I know coyotes swim but it surprised me that they were out there hunting that actively. Now that they have access to a different food source, They might have simply just shifted to hunting beaver and muskrats on the river instead of mice and rabbits up on the higher ground. Not sure if that's the case but just an observation that I noticed. Anyway, In the interest of being more efficient, I'm going to move my coyote traps to the river. I can check them at the same time as I'm checking the beaver traps. It's very muddy so I'm not sure exactly how yet but I'm gonna least try to see if I can get some in dry location.

You should do well on coyotes along the river.
Check out the trails that parallel the river just inside the timberline a short distance. The coyotes really like to travel those corridors.
That would also get you a little bit farther away from the coon mayhem as well.

You might consider ditching the trail cam recon on the coyote sets.
I believe in many cases it can really hurt your chances of making a catch.


Good Luck on the river, and congrats on another coyote!

I was thinking the same thing when reading this thread but didn’t want to ruffle any feathers.

You might also want to consider snares for the coyotes along the river. The vegetation along river trails often make ideal snare locations and may be easier to setup and maintain than traps in muddy conditions.

They definitely are paralleling the river. Yesterday while checking some beaver traps, I found 5 sets of coyote tracks between the water and the high bank. It's a tight corridor. It's tricky to make a set because the ground is so soft. The stakes won't hold. I figured something out and made 3 sets. No scent control measures used because I didn't have my gloves or my knee pad with me. We will see what happens. I may let them soak to dissipate any human scent. Eventually they have to go through there. They are also running above the high bank. along the fence line. I come back and set that area later w/ the boat while checking beaver traps. I don't even have to touch the ground so they won't even smell that I've been there.

I hadn't considered coons but that not a huge deal for me. My grandson wants a coonskin hat. I'm sure they are there even though I didn't see any tracks.

I'm curious as to why you think the cameras will hurt my chances. Do you think it's the cameras that are tipping them off? I was thinking it was scent. I have a deer cell camera in a location that I left out over the winter. I hadn't been able to get to it till recently. I haven't had time to go get it but soon will. Anyway, I got daily and nightly pics of coyotes all winter long. Sometimes as many as 3 at once.

Thanks for the congrats. More stupid luck than anything. It's been fun and educational.

I'm considering it. I found a section of woven wire fence that I didn't know about. Several locations look ideal for a snare. I have a buddy who uses snares. I may enlist his help.