Well this post has been kicked around and gone from one end to the other and I have enjoyed it. The question was, “do coyotes dig?” The answer is yes, but not as much as fox and coon. What causes them to dig is as varied as way some people pick their nose in public and others do not. I for one can not pass a fire ant mound that I don’t kick just for meanness and to watch them work their little buts off. What I am fixing to share is intended as my view and my view only, agree or disagree I have found success with these procedures.

I ran traps the same way with mixed success for years. Once I got on this site I read so much stuff that I was doing wrong I could not believe I had ever caught anything. I began to try some of these things out and watched as my success went down the drain. I said to heck with the way the pro’s do it, I am going back to the old way and began catching again. Dad always said “if it anit broke, don’t fix it.”

First off is 9” back and 2” to the left. That one really blew my mind till I figured out they were talking about the cent of the pan. I use the 1 finger, 2 finger and 3 finger rule. On fox with a 4.5 jaw spread trap I run it right against the hole with an index finger width between the hole and the jaw. How many trappers carry a ruler to woods? I use the old school southern method. I judge everything, but it is measured from the hole to the jaw and with finger widths not inches. Heck half the trappers out there don’t even know how long an inch is, just ask their wives. I set mine back or forward depending on the animal I am intending to catch and the size trap I am using to catch said animal.

Next is the contamination factor. I never thought about contamination till I joined this site and heard had bad a thing it really was. I never said very much because there were too many first year pros out there ready to call me a fool and in fact did. The picture below is of a coyote with a sloppy dispatch. I was hammered so hard by so many people about this picture and the blood ever where. I felt really bad so I started doing it their way and went and made me a fancy catch pole just so I could dispatch away from the set. Dumb me did not think about just how many coyotes had come from this set already with the previous coyote’s blood all over the trap and the blood covered with dirt at set.



Now with the picture above and the sloppy dispatch, why did the coyotes keep coming to the set? It simply as I have stated before, I had retarded animals here. But what really kills me is the statement that you have to change traps after every catch. WOW! I would have to own 200 fox trap and 200 coyote traps and spend half my time changing traps if that were the case. If I changed ever trap out after a catch I would never get the line run or would have to run half the traps I do not. I am hobby trapper who does it before work and takes vacation to trap. All I can tell you is I would not want to trap behind me. Back to the point though, how can I have up to three coyotes caught in one trap with a coon and possum through in there in 7 days. I mean there is coyote pee, coon pee and possum dodo all over the trap with little to no wax after the coon. Still they come. I am sure it is because I don’t have any computation and a high population. But wait a fellow trapper 5 miles down the road states that once they get educated you want catch as many. What ever the reason, they keep coming to bloody, stinking traps.

Below is a picture of crow taken in crow season with a trap set for the crow. The crow was not a non-target just so the picture doesn’t get whacked for it being a non target. I baited or lured this crow with a piece of wax paper over my pan and covered much like you would do for a fox or coyote set. In fact, one might say it looked just like a fox set with nothing exposed. Any way, you can see what a good catch was made on the crow and you can also notice that the lure is gone. The wax paper was nowhere to be found. This picture was taken as he was found. Go figure. I deleted the video of a crow that got caught trying to steal my wax paper because I was told I could not show it as it was non target.


But I keep this one.


Also, this picture below is a target animal. I keep having my wax paper exposed and or missing. There were acorns around the set and could tell they were being placed there, so I set a hair trigger. This is what I found exposing or stealing my wax paper.



So I assume nothing when it comes to trapping. I use the same pair of gloves, the same set, and the same knee pad. JLord said it best and he and I spoke and agreed on about this a month ago, our scent control is simply to spend as little time at the set as possible leaving less scent to air out. Keep your cover dirt clean and put a good lure down the hole that they want. Most humans like the smell of BBQ while it is cooking, but only a few love the smell of chicken (I hate chicken). Just as K-9s have smells that turns them on like a chicken bone while other just make them look or sniff. I still feel that coyotes are given too much credit and humans give ourselves to little.

This video shows the reaction of a coyote to lure. Check out how he worked the set from the front like he should’ve. No trap was in place. I took a red and a cat at this set location two months later. Never did catch a coyote here.



While this coyote came in from the high backing working it from the back side. You can’t tell because you don’t know where the hole is. The hole is to his right when you first see him. He did not work the set, but rather sniffed it. It is still to early and hot to get a true reading on them right now.



Cut apart, dissect and call me a fool. I learn just as much from reading these post as the next guy, I just know what works for me and what I will call foul on.

Digging is not that big of an issue, once again, some trappers use it as an excuse as to why they are not putting the cuffs on coyotes. Several QUALITY lures advertise their product to have a digging and scratching response. Pedersen's" Trench Maker", O'Gormans "Big Horns Medicine", and "Revenge" just to name a few.I don't hit a coyote or fox line without some OG's or Slim's lures in my bag. There are 2 guys that KNOW coyotes.