Hey folks. Just excited ahead of time and hoping to get my first coyote this year. aiming for live catches and planning on 10 foot chains and grapples with coil springs where it's going to be on a logging road with lots of sign. lots of questions coming out again. Love to pick brains of you veteran trappers on here.

Asides from bedding the trap securely, any tips? Do i cover it with 1/4" or 3/4" soil etc?

Would putting a lure under dirt just encourage them to dig it up on a flat set?

For the flat sets where there's so much traffic i'm seeing, should I bother baiting or just play it cool and let them keep doing their thing and try and get them by surprise? I'll probably do a dirt hole, or post set somewhere a little off in the woods where they're coming and going.

Do you folks prefer snares or footholds? I don't think i'm setting up my snares right at all so i'm going to try and learn and practice that a bit more. I had an experienced coyote guy show me and some others good practices on foot holds on an apprenticeship course, so I feel more confident on setting footholds.

Lastly, do you guys change tactics much from early to late season in sets or lures/baits? We can live trap coyote from oct 15 (still quite here in Atlantic Canada, snow isn't till sometime i November and not usually much at all, may even be mild still around freezing point) to march 31st.

Thanks folks.

Carpenter

Um...yes

1/4"

digging is not always bad

blind sets work. use a stick to get them on the pan

i prefer snares and footholds. both are good tools

i use a prepared bait all season long in dirt holes

Yes.... to everything?

location of the set determines what i use

Footholds here and I go Dec 1 until about Jan 1. Sometimes later if quality is holding up, but rarely go earlier than that start date.
I put two sets at each location. One is a dirthole with bait and no lure, other is a post set with urine just or a smear of beaver castor. Beaver caster about the only lure I buy for coyotes. Once and a great while I’ll use mink gland lure for a change up at the post sets.
I have no clue why this works so well for me but I’ve stuck with it once I started using this combo at locations and catches are about 50/50 in either set.
Jim

This fella, NSHUNTERTRAPPER on Youtube, appears to have a pretty good system for trapping coyotes & cats in Nova Scotia.

Early is not as difficult.
Late is more challenging.
With your enthusiasm do both.

Drags can be set somewhat "directional".

To double your chances, get twice as many spots,
miles apart.

How do you use the stick? Lay on ground bed trap in front?

I want to hit it hard with many traps soon as it opens up for just a couple days/weekend, then pull away for a solid month. hopefully give them a break and make them less caustious, come back and set the whole place again when fur is prime.

Our coyotes aren't really worth anything, I think someone said 5 or 10 bucks a pelt. That seems like a big waste of time financially, so we want to keep the fur to make things out of it. headdresses, mittens etc. Maybe some leather for knife sheaths and all that.

what do you mean by directional drags?

…. Here late season when they’re breeding is easiest…but I have open thaw ground

Our winters aren't a touch of what they used to be. We hardly get snow and it doesn't stick around much usually. but we can get stretches of it for weeks. it's tempermental. Ground is usually froze though.

What about it makes it easier too Savell? Are they just less cautious, like a buck in the rut? or go more readily to a food lure or what works well during the breeding season to trap them?

Hook drag on stake or branch angled
pointing to direction you want it to go.

…. I think they just flat out cover more ground in a night that time of year