Remakes

In all cases, after a catch, I reset my trap. I also add a trap about 6-10 feet away. This is nothing new and trappers have been doing it since Moses was a Master Sergeant. Here’s a picture of an example I just took. There’s actually a catch behind me for a total of four circles.

Sometimes the ground is badly torn up and you have to construct backing or make a rock structure. If there’s enough debris, a trash mound set is often effective.

I have several of these a year but never took a picture. Sometimes there will be 8-10 circles.

Do you ever reset a trap after a skunk catch? I often wonder if it would work.

I like a deep step down dirt hole (10" deep at hole end 6" at trap end) for a remake. No backing or blocking needed. But not all ground or weather is conducive for them.

If I see sign that tells me there's more than one other coyote, I'll make 2 fresh sets. I've had spots that had 10 circles within 30 yards. Must be them aliens crop circles LOL... Most of the remakes are trash mounds or just droppings from the trapped yote. No backing. The fresh sets are all flat sets with various lures or just urine. It's strange how in one section they'll work a remake but next section north it isn't happening.

I put in to start 2 to 4 or more sets per location my thinking here is save time making a new set after the remake is put back.
Sometimes I catch all 4 sets at once but not normal.
But my theory is to have new set already there.

If there Is lots of trash at the set I try to pile up the trash and make It a walk through type set.

If a skunk has been caught I just re set that same trap. The whole set smells like skunk so a skunked trap Isn't a problem.

Remakes rock. Caught a ton of coyotes on remakes over the years.

This set caught 5 skunks, 5 red fox and a bobcat

100%, Tim. Nothing stinks of food more than a skunk. Even if a coyote wants to come investigate what happened.
I like these also if I can dig with a mattoc. That ground there is harder than woodpecker lips.
It’s strange, Gary. I can catch in remakes all day long in some places but not this spot behind the house. If you drive up there I bet there’s 40 or more circles from the last 3 years.
I never let them go to waste!
Ken, anymore, I typically put 5 or 6 sets in at a location. Between porcupines, trash pandas, and cows and deer, it’s worth it to me. Can’t catch triples with one or two.

x2 especially with coon, opossum, and fox in the mix, but more traps after coyote catches never hurts. It's different here in the east Red, with gang sets one set gets the most attention and it's not always the first one they come too. Especially now with low populations of all species present. It's getting to where I'll pull the set that caught and move that trap to the edge. And add another 30 feet away upwind if there's not one there already. That's about the distance they seem to stall.

Awesome thread John, some great trappers contributing...

I should add one thing. To me, this is where it becomes important to document what lure you use at each set. Some sets never get touched in some places and you’ll never know why. But you should know to not use that lure in that area for a spell. But I also keep a variety of smells at the different sets. If a store only had onions, I’d never go in. But there are people who would go in that God forsaken store daily.

This snowfall made me remember something about remakes. While remake or catch circle avoidance can certainly be an overload of the smells issue, it’s also a visual issue. After snow falls, sometimes those remakes pick back up like they have here. The circle is no longer seen because of the snow.

Good post John!
I’ll add a tip that may help others...I used to add another trap just outside the catch circle a la J. Lucero and C. Dobbins but if a catch was made it sometimes resulted in the trap that originally made the catch and the new trap getting tangled. Now I will just add a piece of chain to the original trap and make that new set just outside the catch circle. The length of new chain depends on how long your original chain rig is.
Open the J hook add your additional chain and go.
Hope this helps....good luck.

Interesting responses.
I always pull the trap. Next I make a new fresh subtle set with a clean trap about 6-8 feet away from the circle. That keeps my tools from getting contaminated with bait and lure. Also prevents digging and circle shy animals. Also prevents contaminating subsequent sets.
No problem catching animals at the new set next to the circle.

Mchewk - it has been bad juju for me to reuse j hooks using a proper tool. Plus I have had problems from local folks allowing Fido the Pit Bull to wander so I don’t tempt fate. What are you using to open and close them? What type of S hook?

The most important thing here anyway with remakes to produce is to have no bumps in the circle. The only bump is where the trap is. Longer chains help a bunch with that. This year I decided at coyote remakes I'd pull the trap and use it just outside the circle with a clump. 3 locations now with connected circles. Seems red fox remakes gets coyotes more aggressive. Racoon also. Another thing that seems to help is to use a loud type of curiosity smell at remakes.

My best is 5 coyotes from the same set south of the river, north of the river it has been 3 coyotes from the same set (same trap, circle, etc.). My experience: density of predators, food availability, the animal's past experience and his health condition, has a lot to do with a remakes success. Deer gut piles, deer carcass waste dumping, bone yards etc. get visited by opossums, coons, skunks, fox, mink, hawks, eagles, owls etc., etc. I doubt if a coyote can distinguish which (other visitor) animal died there if little/none of their blood and/or parts are present. Coyotes DO seem to know the difference between a visit from a competitor and a prey species from what I have seen. Not to be outdone by MChewk's tip, I am pretty deadly (LOL) with a leaf rake after a catch and can turn a 5' catch circle into a 12' scratch line, so if they are shy, this dilutes the concentrated area scent(s) and seems to give me a better chance with the remake............... my take.................... the mike

I like that idea Wife but then I love setting on soybean chaff fields and raking up those piles for remake backings like MNEric showed.
Also back in the early 2000s when we had an influx of coyotes, catching coyotes back INSIDE the catch circle was fairly common. Now it is hit or miss. It seemed that if you caught the adult female first you were money at catching more inside the circle.
Willy I like the way you think and I follow your way methods....I replace the j hook if I open one up.
No s-hooks for me would rather use a quick link and tighten up with pliers.

They say if you ask 5 trappers a question you’ll get 5 answers - and they could all be correct.

Sometimes I come across a trap that for whatever reason made it though the preseason maintenance but shouldn’t have. I’ll drive a stake in and find the trap won’t stay set (this happened yesterday). I’ll open a j-hook once and reuse it. There are those animals who want nothing more than to go in that circle. I always pull the chain tight toward the circle edge and reset it. A new trap goes nearby.

I agree with Gary, flattening out that pattern should be done to an extent. I have a trap that sits on the edge of a shale ridge. The stuff won’t freeze and I don’t need a softer there. Several days ago I caught maybe coyote number 10 or 12 there in the last 3 years. When you first arrive it looks like a badger dig it up. I just kick the stuff back around the “moat” and reset.

Scent is a whole ballgame in itself. I don’t blame anyone for getting neurotic about scent because it’s talked about nonstop. I generally don’t worry about it. I get I’m up in that circle on my knees and tools. I often lure with the same gloves I set with and handle animals with. My traps are in open wooden crates in my shop and I have two cats in there to kill any would-be mice. They hide behind the traps. When I pull my truck in (a diesel) I suspect scent may get on them. I don’t boil or clean new chain stakes before using them.

Maybe if I did worry about these things I’d have 200 coyotes right now. But the tracks in the snow don’t tell me that. And I don’t have diggers. I think when you do your part on location, types of attractants for the time of year, and bed properly, coyotes are going to die.

Same here with the J hook on canine sets. I do not reuse them if I open them up. I do keep them and use them on DPs or small critter water sets only.

And any time I use an S hook, it gets welded.

My favorite way to deal with good locations is to use a pre-hooked drag where possible. Hook it up away from the trap bed and in cover if possible. The catch will head to the cover and
usually will not create a circle at the trap site and I can put the trap back in the same bed and it is ready to go again. If the location is out in the open, using a clog to attach the drag has the same effect.

I had a location last year where I caught 7 coyotes and several coon and possums in the same trap in the same trap bed. The sapling I hooked the drag to got pretty chewed up but the trap bed was still useable when the season ended.

Ahhh, Harold, I love that about drags. Slide wires are another fantastic tool which I haven’t used in a few years.

Some will, some not, and I don't know why makes it a fav topic for ne.
The ones that wont cross the line showed me to bed new trap on clean side and small amount scent on dirty side.

Cable slide. Bob J shared this. Place a few stops on cable. As you catch crimp one away from stressed cable area so not to kink same place.
Not an always thing, great to preserve trail and hide animal.

Oh and deer step over while fur steps down,, mostly lol.

Can feel the experience while reading, good read.

And I just so happened to have a catch in one of my pre-hooked drag sets today and have decent pictures of it.

Before:

The dead limb is mostly covering the dirt hole and has some lure under it a some coyote urine on it.

After:

The dirt hole is visible and the coyote shredded the dead limb after the catch but the trap bed/dirt hole is not destroyed.

The Catch:

The dead grass and leaves were ruffled up and the sapling chewed on but it did not appear the yote had spent hardly any time near the trap bed.

The Remake:

I had to round up a new dead limb but the same trap went back in the same bed, ready for another customer. Lots of coyote smell but no sharp visual contrast like a typical catch circle.

This might not work for you folks that are dealing with frozen ground but is works good most of the time here.

Great pictures, Harold. I actually like that color phase of the coyote. Hard to beat stage for speed when resetting.

Weight Bros, I’ve never heard of the stops on the cable. That’s not a bad idea for the right situation.

Just caught a second coyote in a dirt hole remake. A few days after the remake I had tracks around the set about a foot from the trap. I added a second trap in the area, about 12" from the other trap and caught a nice female yote this morning. The trap in front of the dirt hole was fired but the one holding her was the one from the outside. It could be that the first dog was a male and this female was leery of the scent he left.

I think it’s worth mentioning…I always re-lure/bait/urine a remake. I’ve heard people say there’s enough smell there already but all that smell is spread out. There is no overwhelming focal point of lure. I like to use the same smell. It may be all over the place from the last catch but if you provide that focal point the next coyote (target animal) will have a bullseye, so to speak.

Gotta agree with that method... I like to spread the bait, lure and urine around a bit to keep Wile-E busy looking and forget about his feet.

I like enough bait (food) down a hole they feel it's worth entering the catch circle for. Not only alot but something they really like to eat. Free hotdogs are ok but give out free ribeyes and you will have more takers kind of approach. Enough coyote smells and curiosity already there for me.

Impressive experience and knowledge here. This is the type of discussion that makes this website great!

USMC - I wish I could work like you do. Here opportunities are not very plentiful so no room for error. Drags would be great, but too many people, houses, and liberals. I must catch quickly, anchor securely, and check early.

QBD - Great system! I can have nice dirt, mud, snow, standing water, frozen dirt and back around all in one week. Dealing with that can be harder than trapping. And harder than that is getting and keeping permission on patchwork land.

MChewk - I agree with you absolutely. J hooks are used once. If I open it, it is replaced. No S hooks at all since my welding is destructive, ugly, and unreliable. Quick links are my friends and get tightened with a wrench and screwdriver. Set for a Coyote and anchor for a moose. I have ends ready to easily change anchor methods using a quick link - single stake in frozen ground, double stake in nice ground, cable stake in heavy mud where it seems best, or slide cable to make something disappear. It is easier to keep tools and gear clean than reclean everything. Clean stays clean and stinky stays stinky.

Good point, seems I get better responses when I insult their nose by reluring with a strong gland mix or LDC for a distinct focal point. I use the droppings from the caught coyote for the backing.

A red by-product from processing chickens (or other) also worked well in that situation.
Place something new, they hone in.

Wayne has a unique approach to using drags and remakes. I’ll see if I can get pop to chime in.

I use a lot of bait at each set too. I think I finally got my bait perfected so it doesn’t cost me much to use produce it.

I just kick the dirt up and make a walk thru set....guess our coyotes are not a bright as the rest of the country...also take bobcats in these walk thru sets....

Here’s an example of a remake. I didn’t go out of my way to flatten the original catch circle but you can see both the original trap, which is reset, and the new trap on the edge. It has a whole new smell on that clump of grass.

Is that a faint trail on top the bank to the right? Classic old school fox set.
Also like the spot by the backing half in the circle on right.
But I'm viewing a pic, you are there.

That’s a trail alright. I catch a couple fox there each year.

Here’s the remake spot with another today.

Good job John...that’s a good population of coyotes.

That’s also some very good dirt to work with ! Mike and I would have a mud hole to work with after a little snow like that . Keep killing them John,
Good job !

USMC47, Our remakes almost always include a coon, opossum, badger or skunk, IN THE EARLY SEASON farm country. When you hit cold weather (What's that?) those critters are hole up in a den so the rambling non-targets are less of an issue at a site. I swear that the home range on those non-targets covers a big chunk of real estate where habitat is marginal and the food-water needs are a distance from any denning sites - hence they are in the catch circle from the beginning to the end of the warmer weather. From my limited view, the coyotes get shy of a circle more so here in January/February than November if the snow/winter/temps are average. If they have been bucking snow for 60 days they will work a buried bait remake circle to fill that empty tummy about any time. All my remakes DO NOT incorporate a visible dirt hole. For me, its leaf rake the land shape, bury a baseball size of meat, reset, arrange some foot guides and go. And MChewk, when you reset your soybean chaff remakes, try to make it like a hay set with bits of food in the pattern, (get soybean residue from afar if needed) it may help. Has worked for me for a long time.................. the mike

Thanks the mike good idea. Like you I have tried a variety of different ideas. Initially I favored CDobbins remake style two mounds with a small pilot hole at each mound with an attractor. Trap blended in between. It works well but there are always other things to try.
And Golfball yep mud like we have today. Lol
FYI...I have experimented with a lot of materials...I have been using dried lawn clippings, cut up grasses/weeds, hay chaff, straw chaff, and currently soybean chaff in areas that don’t have these chaffs with decent results. Example ...made a large boar coon catch in a corn field and did the remake with soybean chaff. It worked as I had a coyote a week later. I even got desperate one year and bought a 50 lb bag of Floor Dry material from hardware store....it is dried clay pellets. It worked well until it rained. But in cold dry conditions it worked! Dried saw dust works etc. Just keep on thinking and moving forward...

I’ve went back to using dry peat and waxed dirt for a top coat . I’m really liking the no pan cover thing and I’ve had sets go underwater and still work like it was supposed to.
John does your dirt typically stay that nice all season ?

... from an eastern perspective... I rarely make a new set at the catch circle. Thought being it would be a waste of time as most sets are on roads and set heavy enough that a circle shy coyote is likely to encounter a new set anyway during his travels. The only time I will start setting new sets at circles is when the catch and sign falls off ....and by that time most of the sets have caught something. Also in this situation I will set the carcass pile as you’ll usually find any remaining coyotes marking it up

Honestly, that’s one of the few locations where I enjoy the native dirt. I think because it’s so windy it stays dry. Anywhere else is like chipping through ice. I do borrow dirt from that spot quite often.


Wife, I can’t disagree with the coons and skunks. I don’t have possums. I started late this year because of the prime factor so most the coons were just not around despite the unusual warm weather. I’ve got to say that remakes are always surprising me. I had one this morning in a spot I’ve caught a couple but the set had been dead for a month. But I have crop circles all around it. It’s the spot with 3 circles in the picture. The middle circle.

Brother, see above. No, this spot is an exception because of the wind. This spot I don’t even bring a sifter or any antifreeze or peat stuff. Just dig with my hand and plant the trap. Like trapping with Wayne in NM.

Here’s that spot. The river’s edge can’t be travelled because of the rock reef that sticks out into the water. Coyotes have no choice but to travel the road over the reef. Otherwise, they have to go up the draw. Traps are waiting but they never do. I take a dozen or more canines from this spot a season and I have to pass it often.

Dropped pin
https://goo.gl/maps/g5qGNB5jaU1Lqakj8

Man, I am jealous of soil conditions where you can create a trap bed with your hand. I remember just looking at Wayne when he told me that...I can see why he likes to use the double longs in those conditions.

I used to always reset, now I usually pull and reset outside the circle. I find this to usually be much faster than trying to construct a remake. This of course is weather permitting. I'm in the part of the season now where you are not going to easily pull your stakes. Good comment about the snow. Once covered by snow there is much less avoidance. Always a good idea to have multiple sets available for them to choose from!

Wayne uses mostly drags. When she makes a catch, a fresh trap goes in the original trap bed. The “dirty” trap gets set where the caught animal hung up. The area where the coyote hung up holds all kind of attraction.

I have 2 circles this year where I have caught 3 coons and 2 coyotes (same trap, trap bed, etc.). Several circles with 1 or 2 coon and a coyote or fox or both. Most locations have 2-3 traps and its odd that the second trap is not disturbed or maybe has a coon in it. The circles (reworked with a rake) may take a day or two longer to connect than a some "new" sets for me here but I can't make them any better of a draw than what a coyote does when he is hitched for several hours................. the mike

Good golly John you almost became a Canadian,lol.

Hey when Mother Nature gives you a gift like that spot you may as well use it. I had a spot like that when I first started trapping coyotes in 90 . Without that spot I probably would have given up as I had no idea of how to keep a set working through the winter. Some days I still wonder, lol .

Golf ball you might have hung up your traps if you saw what I saw yesterday....light snow in the early am looked like a coyote party was going on....grrrr. Had tracks and kick backs all over my line. I know mating season is starting but I hate getting embarrassed like that.
Traps are pulled in those areas...I will be back with a “bag of tricks” after we get the two storms through our area.

Mike I pulled everything several weeks ago . No more coyotes than I’ve got I can’t see killing them for nothing. Heck the leather was still blue on the 2 I put up. From what I understand our best are only going to bring $15 . I pulled a set that had caught 3 in one trap without moving, that circle will be there a while. Most of my catch circles are in farm dirt and disappear pretty quick, this one is in established blue grass . It should be there until they mow in June.

Mike I would say it’s time to go to flat sets, break out the gland lure and plenty of urine . If they want to pss and scratch give them something pss on .

Yep, you obviously have been there and done that Golfball. That’s part of my plan....hope you have a chance to get back out and hammer a few more.

Mike I get a pretty good kick out of catching coon too so I’m gonna tan a few , maybe make moma some mittens, lol .

Seems like my catch in remakes went up quite noticeably when I wen to bloodless dispatch. I always hated that big blob in the catch circle if head shot, and you would be wearing it with a chest shot. Or the truck or the fur room! lol. I know a number of you fellas use my DR, what is your opinion?

Couldn't agree more Lee.

Started doing that this year, and yes, I’ve noticed a difference.

I think I agree, Lee. It’s been a couple years since I’ve shot coyotes with the exception of the boys coming out with me. I guess the only other exception are doubles and triples where the deathray(s) are occupied.