Reflecting on my season, where I primarily targeted foxes & coyotes.
All of my catches came from sets with bait - dirt holes, buried bait sets, and hay sets with bait.
0 catches on flat sets/scent post sets using only lure or urine.
I ran 50/50 baited sets and flat/scent post sets.
All on good locations, often 1 of each set type at each good location.
Always blended my flat/scent post sets well to keep them as natural as possible.
I read a lot about the effectiveness of flat/scent post sets but I didn’t see it this year despite a consistent effort.
What’s the deal?

Next year just might be different. The weather I think can make the difference also. Were you using the same lure at your different sets or did you change it up between the different type of sets?

Where I'm at when it comes to catching foxes and coyotes it depends what time of year it is.

During deer season its hard to trap anything because of the guts piles on the clubs and leases. I mainly catch them on blind sets.

There is a time right after deer season that dirt holes work great. The gut piles are gone and they are trying to fatten up before breeding season.

Flat sets/scent post work late January through March. They are looking for each other and it works. The key is to put them where they are traveling.

That's what works where I'm at.

Hard to beat a good bait. Real winter meat fed urine is hard to beat too if you can get some. Looks like you got it figured out with the bait. Keep doing what works.

I’m not sure where you’re at in PA but my numbers are opposite. 60+% come from flat sets and I’ve never really caught what I’d consider a big/old coyote in a dirt hole

I tried to use a different lure at every set on my line to limit redundancy.

I’m in central PA, a bit west of State College. Are you doing anything unique with your flat sets? I tried some different variations of flat sets and they didn’t seem to get much attention or action.

I'd ask how many catches are we talking about? Only a handful of catches could be too small of a sample size to really make any conclusions. I do as a whole find flat sets a bit tricky to control foot placement. Only good urine is worth using and there's more not so good urine out there than good. Might consider testing your lures in the off season and make sure they consistently get responses and commitments. Ive tested some pretty popular ones that didn't meet my standards.