Grey Foxes..and Other Stuff..

Catching a few....

...but today's temps are making trapping not appealing...84 F at 2:30 pm on January 9th. This is a little much even for the deep south.

... ain’t that warm here Swamp... nice grays. Dropping into the 30’s for lows tomorrow... hope it makes it over to you

Looks like you need gas Swamp Wolf . Looks like Savell got the good weather for trapping.

Have caught 8 greys past 4 days. Trying to get the local coyotes that haunt that small farm, but the greys keep plugging up my Bridgers...

Cold front is supposed to move thru here in early morning hours tonight. Maybe well have some frosty mornings by Tues or Wednesday...

Almost 1/3 of a tank....I'm good for a day or 2....

The others...and some hill-walking dirthole-caught boar coon..

Prettiest animal in the woods...

Awesome! My favorite animal. Sure miss them here.

Funny looking grey fox....


And a nice kitty..

... good deal Swamp

Well,,come on up here and your can set your traps under the 30 inches of snow I got last night.High temp for tomorrow is 6 degrees.

Can I bring any snakes I see so it'll be like home?

I pre-dug and baited about 10 sets yesterday. It rained good about 4 AM last night. This afternoon I set all the pre-dug sets and a few more. Never done this before and conditions were right to see the activity today.

A coyote (or a pair of coyotes) visited over half of the baited holes this morning after the rain. The locations were all on logging roads and scattered across about 150 acres.

Bait was ground beaver tails with tail oil, ground deer rumens and deer livers preserved fresh, and ground aged bibcat meat with my version of bait solution. There was no preference for any particular one of these baits. All were dug at...but none were dug aggressively. At about half of the holes the bait was removed and eaten...I assume.

At one location the coyote took a dump about 5 feet out front. At another the coyote urinated about 3 feet in front.

All but one location was worked from the right side of the hole and at all but one the coyote(s) walked behind the hole. Probably same coyote(s) but it was some interesting info. We never have snow here so this was a good opportunity.

Most common right side scratching...


The only set that bait hole wasn't worked nor did coyote walk around behind it. That track to upper left is a deer.


If the coyote(s) return tonight....A SURPRISE!!

love the greys

NO.Leave all the creepy crawlies down there.

They couldn't move too fast in your kind of cold...

Nice looking greys!

Love to catch those greys. But they sure like to work a set from the rear

Great thread guys. Nice pictures. Those grays are beautiful

Well...none of the locations that coyotes visited when there wasnt a trap there were NOT visited last night when a trap was there. But, at least 3 sets were walked right by without coyote stopping at set. I added lure to each set but did not rebait yesterday when I put a trap there. Used Kaatz Toxi- Dog, Carmen's Canine Call, Fox Hollow's Bounty Hunter, and one of my lures...only one lure per set.

Coyote(s) must have satisfied their curiosity yesterday...

But, I did get a young female at a location that wasnt visited night b4 last.

A couple of adult males....this is likely the coyote(s) that worked the trap-less bait holes, as they got caught at 2 of those sets last night.

One of these coyotes had been caught by someone by back foot (last year probably) and lost a toe. I caught him by a front foot.

Not terrible for a game warden I guess

Are you on a pay job Patrick or are you on one of your properties?

Playing around with the coyotes is on my place.

Those grey foxes are from a pay job.

Most of us older game wardens are pretty good trappers and hunters.

Well I'm still gonna give them hard times but I know you are right. I have had way more conversations with WCO's about use of lure and trapping techniques than I have about what I may or may not have done wrong.


FYI I give those guys a hard time too.

I have a few c.o. buddies and you are right. They are good!!!

The younger game wardens...not so much. So, that is an indication of what's to come...

Afraid you are right!!!

Great job! Those greys tend to get feisty when caught, lol.

What kind of vehicle is that?89 miles to empty and you got a third of a tank?
My truck is good for 1200 km when full.

2016 Toyota Tundra. Has 26.4 gallon tank. It shows the mileage based on the last time it was reset....both offroad and highway driving. But, the truck doesn't get very good highway fuel mileage. About 16 or 17 mpg is it. About 300 plus miles when full. Gasoline.

Gotta look at the needle for a more accurate amount of fuel.

So, your truck must have a much larger tank and gets good mileage...probably a diesel? 1200 km = 745 miles.

Ford ecoboost-big tank.Long ways between towns in the north.Have to carry some gas cans if your vehicle has small tank ,especially if you drive at night west of Hearst.
In summer on the highway the truck gets around 12 ltrs per hundred km.Cant compare by gallons-your gallon is only 3.7ltrs,our gallon is 4.5 ltrs.

Those grey fox are a neat little animal-none here except in the carolinian forest of south western Ontario.

Nice double...lol

Turkey egg eaters! But, now they are digging up the chufas planted for the turkeys.

Couple more...large female and large male.

Another young female this morning...

Nice looking coon for what I'd think comes out of that state. They must be prime about now down there...

Many coon down here (except for near the coast) are nice silverbacks. 50% plus of coon catch is 1x and 2x. Rarely get a 3x...never a 4x. Had several top lots in Central and Western Semi-Heavy over the years...probably due to the nice bright color. They're at full prime now.

Another...

And another kitty...


A climber...

Nice catches.That bobcat sure looks pretty in the trap.

Another kitty...same set as yesterday.

Keep piling them turkey eating jokers up!!!!!

Chunky cat

IMO, Grey fox fur is the prettiest fur there is.

Yessir! All those turkey killers are off Arapaha.....

Gotta look out for the boyz! >>>>>>>>>

A cat a day...past 3 days. Pic dont do this one justice. He is a nice tom.

Stay after them!

Been killin beaver for $$ for my farmer neighbor to the north...so trapping my place for a week or so is free...lol

I’ve got a pile of nuisance jobs when the ice goes off. Below zero tonight. It’ll be awhile lol

I’ve got the Wuhan Virus right now anyway. Been sicker than a dog since Monday afternoon. Feel like I may be coming out of it. Fever broke last night.

Dang! You got the jab too...right?

I hope you continue to improve.

I did not get the jab.
Doesn’t seem to matter much lately. Everybody is getting it around here whether they got the shots or not lol

Same around here.

Hope you get to feeling better Clay, shot's half way worked on variant's 1 or 2 but this far out they are as useless as getting a rabies shot for the flu! Niece got both shots PLUS the booster and just got over the mess a few days ago.

Enjoy those grey's while you can but not sure who has the ugliest coyotes you or Savell, lol. Glad someone else is having to fight with the beaver's, they about to kill me!

I can’t figure out how those fox can dig up a trap, flip it upside down in the bed and never set the trap off. I’m not sure I can do that.

There are pockets of good grey fox populations around here. Not sure I could catch 200 of em like back in the early 2000s, but I could probably break 100 trapping about a 45 mile radius of my home. The greys have held their own pretty good with the coyotes here.

Our coyotes have wire hair and no fur.

Right now these beavers are paying the way...lol

Dang hill-walking coons are very good at this^^^^^^^

Certain properties I trap have a decent grey population. Really wish the reds would make a come back, miss seeing those. We actually put a camera behind my sons house just to see what’s back there and we’ve had a red fox for two nights now coming in eating the peanuts with the deer, lol. We don’t shoot them and I release any I catch even if it costs me money, lol.

I dont think you will ever see reds in high numbers.There has never been high populations of em during my lifetime even back when there were no coyotes.

Caught 197 foxes one season. 16 of em were reds. Had many seasons well over 100 foxes. My fox catch has always been 10% or less red fox since 1978.

Coon's get distemper here then it kills off all the grey fox then gradually they try to rebound then get killed off again, same ol cycle over and over.

Grey fox are the best at flipping loose jaws up, just missing the pan, paying no attention to blocking in fact half the time using it to get all in the trap bed while working the set, basically doing everything to you but pulling a knife instead of just stepping in that nice little smooth spot any other 'normal' animal would step in, haha. Probably lost more hair worrying with a dern grey fox at a set than I did trying to figure out a coyote!

Update Patrick?
Or did a Cottonmouth get ya? Lol

He's probably trying to figure out how to deal with frozen ground, lol

A little more PC on my property near home....protecting my fawns and young turkeys.

I could reduce the local coyote population if it wasnt for the hound enclosure about 2 miles west of me. The fence is dilapidated. It was built un the late 70s and patched. Electric wire does no good. The old geyser that leases/operates the pen is oblivious or just dont care. Back when I sold live market I captured at least 2 coyotes that I had caught only weeks b4. How did I know it was same ones? They were black uns and easy to distinguish. I told him they were escaping. He didnt believe it. Lol His $$$$$$.....

I have caught about a dozen over the years that had trap scars on a foot.This is 2nd one this winter that had already been captured and foot healed.

Caught this one by same foot she had been caught b4. My Bridger made the high mark. They are a bit more cautious around a set when they've been captured (and held) b4. But, modified dirtholes seem to grab them again.

Also had a yearling bcat today and a couple more egg-eating possums.

Very good thread and very informative, that being said, I would trade you all our Turkeys for your Bobcats and Greys.

Nice catches and pictures.

Awesome

Too bad we cant make that trade....

Another bcat this morning.

... that’s a nice one Swamp !

That's 6 kitties off 400 acres. New clearcuts...with cottontails, keep pulling em in there.

Nice bobcat.Way to go

Good going Swamp...pretty critters.
I miss catching gray fox.

And the bcats keep coming. Nice tom this morning. Gotta be the flush of rabbits in the recent clearcuts. Plus, the neighbors have conducted controlled burns of their timberlands this week and last week.

This is an older cat. Lots of pink gristle under his hide...but he had good belly fat.

Not very clear belly fur though....

Catching them in flat sets that have mininal or no blocking. Sometimes we are just lucky......

Bulk of my cats have ALWAYS come off flat sets, why i quit making them fancy 'cat' sets years ago.

No idea how it's that dry down there, biblical flooding up here, why im chained to a desk doing paper work!

I have probably caught 4 in dirtholes to 1 in a flat set over the years.

We are borderline dry here. No rain in over 2 weeks now. Increasing wildfire danger in these southern pineywoods.

haha, sun just came out this afternoon, first time ive seen it in a week!

Id guess you dig more dirtholes than flats. Agree though a dirthole looks more attractive to a cat.

Nice bobcat

Yeah...since I discovered a cordless drill and those dirthole auger bits several years ago it is easy to make a pretty dh set down here.

Caught this one by same foot she had been caught b4. My Bridger made the high mark. They are a bit more cautious around a set when they've been captured (and held) b4. But, modified dirtholes seem to grab them again.

Curious about the modified dirthole. Would you mind sharing?

Sure. Here in southeast Ga we have sandy soils. A trapping auger and cordless drill works like a dream here.

I auger dirtholes straight down vertical as deep as the auger will go...about 18". The auger pulls out dirt as it drills. I pull a little of this dirt away from hole on one edge wiyh my tire brush. I bed the trap on the opposite side of that....not tight to hole but center pan back about 8 or 9 inches. Use natural bait only in hole...no lure. I like ground fresh or tainted deer or ground tainted beaver tail. Beaver meat, cat meat, fish, etc would probably work just as good. My theory is the natural baits are just that....natural.....nothing added....no bait solutions, etc. I dont want anything added that couldve been in a commercial or homemade lure. I put a golfball-sized glob of bait in hole. A good quality urine can be used but I usually save that as a set refresher as needed after several days.

I do a lot of remakes with the vertical hole.

Also....a lot of books about dirtholes go into detail about hole angles and that a coyote or fox can stand back and look into a shallow angle hole without getting up close. I agree. But,
how close does that coyote have to be to look down into a deep vertical 3 inch hole? They will pace around the hole until they cant stand it any longer. This is a great set for two traps, but I never do that.

Nice catches and some very good information Swamp!

Do you ever run into coyotes that work a certain type of set/lure and won't work it again but walk within feet of the set?

I'll have to give that a try. Thanks for the reply. Mine is mostly red clay, but I don't see why it wouldn't work the same. Do you use a preservative on the bait so it only taints to a point, or just straight to avoid any foreign odors at all?

Yes...sodium benzoate. 1 cup per gallon of bait.

It's the unique lure odors that I pull back from using as much. Smells like tonquin, ambrette, civet, etc. These, and other common exotic lure ingredients, are strange smells to an already skittish coyote. Yes...they work on some coyotes, but its noticeable that they dont on many others.

Mink and muskrat are also exotic smells to southeast Ga coyotes.

All these smells, and many others, are very common in commercial lures and I have seen some reluctance in coyotes over the years. Foxes and bcats = these odors seem to always produce them with no problems.

Not sure if reluctance is due to coyote's prior experience with smell or the fact that they have never smelled it b4.

Yes....that's one of the reasons why I change up lures and baits often.

Most coyotes seem to satisfy their curiosity once they actually decide to approach a set. After that, and not getting caught, they seem to lose interest in that set, but usually work another set same night or next night or 2....one with different smells.

Addition of urine, if it didn't have urine originally, and after a coyote has missed the pan, has successfully captured a coyote in next few nights. Never sure if it was same one that came back.

Thanks again.

By the way, on your ride along thread, you mentioned skinning, especially around the neck and head, was bad on your hands. Mine too. A skinning machine makes a world of difference. On thin skinned animals like cats, I just use it to keep the pressure on the hide. Really saves the hands.

I have a skinning machine, but havent used it in a couple years. May have to start back.

Thanks for answering Swamp.

I guess that is coyote behavior in general. They seem to be individuals more than other animals. I like to compare what I see on my line with other people and pick up tips from you far more experienced trappers.