We have about 12” of snow on the ground which thawed on a 45 degree day and has now refrozen with a hard layer of ice/snow on top.

It seems like flat sets/sets in the snow aren’t doable now because the snow is hard and sets can’t be made without greatly disturbing the frozen snow, limiting how natural they look. I also can’t sweep out my tracks/human sign in the frozen snow.

Any tips for the types of sets I can make now? I feel like I’m limited to dirt sets and hay sets, but I haven’t been having luck with these the past 7-10 days.

Thank you!

I try to blend my tracks the best I can but I’ll never fool them, snow or not, they’ll know I’ve been there. When I set, I sometimes “blend” a big area around the sets so it all looks disturbed.
Hay sets sound good to try. Keep in mind, if one gets pinched, they’ll learn. Same with scent and lures. They’ll start to associate a certain smell to danger over time. That’s why guys crush the numbers with a certain lure, then it tanks for some time.
Those are some tough swings in weather you have to deal with. Mines generally a little more stable.

I just had a guy that transports the Amish around call me and give me an address of two Amish brothers that are having trouble with coyotes killing there sheep and goats
when i looked at the job there was about 4in of snow the one fella offered to push-blade with there tracktor the roadway back to the ponds to expose the ground and i asked if he could scrape 6ft either side of the roadway
they were all about it .........so setting up mon am if your setting farms the farmers might be willing to push out a lane to expose the ground or even just flip a round bale or two to get to the ground

Temps moderating big time here next week, high 40's Monday and pushing 50 degrees daily with rain by Wednesday. snow sets will melt out daily and the hay sets will stay working the best when my other trap beds fill with water because of frozen ground. Otter season may not be fully iced in this year in PA!

no

Danged if it ain't, creeks are up and rain on the way...we lost a lot of snow today.

If legal there snares work wonders in the above mentioned weather conditions ! Just don't set them in the same pasture with the sheep , the outside of fence crawl unders can be a hot location !

If you a)can drive to where you are setting up and b)am the only person that is, you can make a set of tire ruts in the snow, and then set right in those ruts. These can be snow sets where you don't make a lot of disturbance by walking straight down the rut to make the set without stepping out of it, or if it is warming up and melting like Regular Joe says, the rut will melt out first and you can make dirt sets in it, while the snow either side of it still remains. Because of where I am, I've used snowmobile tracks a lot more than tire ruts to set in, but when I've had the opportunity to use tire ruts, they work very well.

You can make a flat or post type set by putting your lure/ attractant on the edge of the rut (either on an object just out of it, or on the actual snow edge itself. Or you can simply set it blind in a mafia style set. Coyotes will run tire ruts heavily.