Based on your observations...

I’ve been trapping pocket gophers on and off over the last couple of years. I’ve noticed canine tracks on some of the gopher mounds. I’ve also had fox and other things, dig the trapped gopher out of the ground and eat most of it. Sometimes they leave the feet—which is what I need for the township bounty.

Have any of you noticed better canine, cat and coon catches from fields which have gophers and other ground squirrels?

if you get a late cut of hay in NH it would be late September then it stays short you will find they hunt that field in November easier to catch mice and moles

Absolutely, without question, yes. Pocket gophers are practically a keystone species for K9 trapping for me. I use the mounds for dry dirt too. The years I have trapped a lot of pocket gophers, I froze them all and then chopped them in half (while frozen). Then I would pull out as many as I needed for setting that day. Makes for a nice, no-mess, early dirthole bait.

Find a cluster of gopher mounds in beans or hay and there will be tracks there, guaranteed. At least that works for me here.

I've had mixed results. Some years they make great bait while other years they seem to ignore it. One year they continued to steal my gophers and thought I would get back at them that fall but they all seemed to disappear when trapping season started. Suspect they where that years pups and dispersed before the season opened. PI always have a back up bait but have caught my fair share of canine off of pocket gophers.

It is not the pocket gophers, it is the fresh dug dirt which attracts. I remember in the Trapper years ago, there was a guy trapping fox and he made his sets the day before season, without lure, traps set, and thought he would come back the next day for baiting, but found a number of red fox in his sets waiting. They came for the fresh dirt.

I have had coyotes bend my traps pulling gophers out, so they will go after the fresh gopher, but there seems to be little interest. I have not rotted them down like prairie dogs like they do in Montana for late bait, but from my experience, they come for the dirt and take advantage of a fresh meal. This was adult yotes before the pups were moving from the den.

I also see that on some gophers mounds that the coyote or badger would dig them up and see if it is fresh and then set a flat set not far or use the fresh hole they done and put some lure and urine in it .

Tom Krause and Mark Steck have both written articles and a book that said it was the fresh dirt that attracted canines. In at least one of his writings, Steck said pockets dug (when the trapper dropped his bait bucket overboard) and actually baited the next day had a catch. Without bait or lure.

Around here you will have better badger catches. That's one of their primary food sources at certain times of the year. When there are lot of gopher mounds on a piece of land expect to see badger activity.

I was talking shop with Ray Milligan years back at a convention about fresh dug bait holes and patterns with no scent. We both had similar experiences with curiosity at these sets without any lure. Those sets came in handy with spooky cautious animals over the years.