When trapping next to two track roads, do you have problems after a catch the coyote travels down the road at a distance before going into the brush? I usually use drags just to get the coyote away from the set and I wrap the hook 10 feet away on some piece of thick brush.

A little plastic flagging ribbon wrapped loosely around the drag can help with what direction it went.

Yes also in plantation pines where there is space between rows of trees Heres a tip from Morse Oberto maybe some here heard of him Drive a stake in at an angle you want the critter to go as the critter spins around in that direction the grapple slips over the stake and heads in that direction As always nothing is absolute
Personally I didnt think much of this because I was young Until I drove down a hard packed road checking and encountered a porcupine calmly grunting down the middle of the road with my trap and drag in tow Remember the extremely modified products of today didn't exist back in those days

Spot on especially if drags are used on mink traps and snag a coon thread a length in the chain too

Sometimes they will run through open areas. Dodging cover. Not often though. Flagging will let you know which way to go first to look for where it left the road. I had one go down a road 300 yards once. Left the road and tangled up 20-30 yards from it. Where I was the ground was not froze and it was easy to follow. They can sometimes, not often, go a long ways through brushy stuff. Sometimes you can see where they caught and got loose again. Have to just circle in ever widening circles till you find more sign. Great tool in the right spot but should be avoided in others. In good brushy stuff they usually only go as far as the first bunch of thick stuff. I dont often use them here in KS. Sometimes when stakes just wont go in I tie the drag to a tree or something so I can reach the set with the long chain. Drags dont catch on trees too good. Need brush.

Most of th guys I sold my drage to trap two tracks....just made a drag that would catch on them instead of working About brush. Sunbaked clay and frozen ground are the only real complaints I've had ...even then.
Grapples
Brush hooks
Plow drags

Three different things

Had a few bad experiences with them going pretty far with drags. Went back to anchors and cross stakes. Won’t look back. Most of my found didn’t have much cover just mostly fencerows. Don’t want a tangle up there.
Jim

I had a wolf once that crossed a road, got tangled up about fifty feet off of it, got loose, went back down its own tracks to the road, down the road about 400 yards, leaving it once on the left side and then coming back into and going on down, finally left on the right side across a large open area of a few hundred yards and finally tangled up once it hit the timber. Ground was frozen with no snow except a few drifts when caught, then it warmed up and rained after the wolf was caught, then froze hard again that night. Next morning it took me about an hour to find it, found one or two drag marks in four hundred yards of a solid ice road. But as a general rule they hit the brush when caught. Usually tangling up in plain sight, when I am using a drag hoping to get any catches out of sight of passerby. lol

Never had a coyote go too far on a drag, but then all my drags do double duty as wolf/coyote drags, and the light ones are around five pounds, with most of them being larger (I think I weighed them at 8 1/2 lbs with 8 feet of chain attached, once). Majority of the time, if I'm not in deep snow I hook my drags around a tree or bush also. Many times a coyote won't even move a drag in deep snow if it has been snowed over a few times and you've had any warm spells.

The ones that are hard to find are usually when a hooved critter steps in your trap, drags it until the drag catches and then pulls out. This is when the flagging could be very helpful. It doesn't help if you get eight inches of snow after the catch, though.

Good drag Dog

I don't have one, but this is the ideal solution.

The problem with using a drag on the side of the road if it’s not private property or a protected place is catching skunks or a possum that can’t get far with the drag.

Wild critters down here “generally” don’t go down roads, they head to cover.
Coyotes I don’t have to worry about, I’ve held them in 6” of grass before. If I’m in planted pines with no cover, I’ll use a quick link and attach the chain to the brush deflector and make it a loop around the tree.
Bobcats on the other hand can tote a drag, lol. And they’ll have it tangled up so bad you’ll be a while getting it loose, plus they can climb!!
This is SWGA where we don’t have snow…just brush.

Once in a blue moon id have one hit the dirt road and go but it's not common. Usually a stray dog if it's going down the road. Made some heavy home made drags so nothing can climb tree's or go very far. Probably weigh about 5 lbs.