Does anybody use drags for Coyote or Fox anymore now days? What would you suggest? Whats a good Bait and Lure where it gets cold for Canines also?

I've never used anything but drags for both canines and cats. Your right here in the U.P. with me so I know that you have the type of terrain to support drags. One doesn't need any specialty drags in our wooded country, just a plain 'ol 2 pronged drag made of 3/8" rod attached to 6' of additional chain and a couple swivels is sufficient for 90% of applications. I have the remaining 10% of traps equipped with 3 pronged drags and 8' additional chain for usage in large farm fields and forest clear cuts.
As for cold weather lures, I use mainly conspicuous scent posts after deep snow set in and let visibility and eye appeal of the post be the call lure. Scent posts are lured witha urine gland passion scent that keeps them working the post until a connection is made. With plain urine at a post the canine or cat steps up, takes a squirt and moves onward missing the trap pan a majority of the time. With a good lure the canines will bite, chew, scratch, etc the post with little chance of a complete miss and cats will rub on the post.

Thanks Asa, I cant wait to get your catalog and put my order in, you will be hearing from me soon. Heith..

i might not see or track as good as ace does. all mine have eight foot on the drag plus the 16 or 18 inches of chain on the trap. one place a longer chain comes in handy here is along hard packed gravel roads, coyote got a bad habit here of running right down the road after caught. if the chain is shorter then 8 feet the coyote can get the drag bouncing and it's hard to see the drag marks.

like ace said, dont make to much difference what type drag...

matt

When you're following the trail left by the drag let your eyes go out of focus. That seems to really help me find trails.

good point expl...one more tracking trick is to get down with your face about a foot from the ground and scan out from there. things look different down there then from the (air)...lol track shot deer same way...or hounds

matt

WHY DOES EVERYONE MAKE IT "ROCKET SCIENCE"........good grief, use your freakin brain for a change, it really aint that difficult !

settle down you long necked,no feathers on the head,carrion eatin crabby bastage

buzzard...i going to come up there one late fall and out drag find ya one of these years while we both can still see

i cant beleave someone has not said use a dog..they would be right too

matt

Mr Jones,

I doubt you will ever out drag me..........dogs ??

You hang around w/ too many 15 year olds

naw buzz, zaggers rubbing off on me

matt

The secret to following drag markings in even the worst terrain is patience. There are always markings even though they may be quite subtle at times. In a country like mine 19 out of 20 animals can be found by just circleing around the perimeter of the entanglement and one will hear the jingleing of the chain when one gets close and the animal gets nervous. What happens with novice trappers is most everyone gets a shot of adrenalin when they see the trap missing from the bed and take off running all over the place looking for the animal. If they hear the jingle fine but if they don't or the animal has pulled loose from the trap then one isn't going to find their empty trap that way. The best way is to have patience right from the beginning. If one buries their drag and chain underneath the trap in the bed as I do one can clearly see the direction the animal exited as the dirt is pulled out that direction and the trap cover is out in that direction too. One needs to stand right there looking ahead until something is spotted. Drag marking may be well pronounced or very subtle but there will be something within a few feet. It may be just a bent over blade of grass, a turned over pebble, stick or leaf, a small piece of snagged moss, etc. When one sees the sign they proceed forward to that point only, standing there looking ahead for the next clue, etc, etc, etc until the animal has been tracked down. If one runs all over the place first and then has to come back and start tracking from the set they won't know whether the subtle marking was made by the drag or by themselves. As for animals taking off down roads, it happens about one time out of 100 in my country and then the animal seldom goes more than 30 yards on the road without veering off. One can walk carefully along the road until they quite easily find the exit spot. I won't say I've found every single animal or trap but that doesn't happen often generally without an explanation. For the few missing animals and traps that might happen one will catch a dozen extra animals because they were able to make their sets in more precise locations such as right in the edges or center of two track roads without hiding the sets from passerbys and thieves. One wants to set in road edges to be precisely on location but want the animal to get far enough off the road to bne hidden from view. This is why using heavy multi-pointed specialty drags when not needed is a detriment as small animal like fox won't get far enough away from the road, sometimes not even pulling the drag and chain out of the bed. A couple more mistakes trappers make with drags is sharpening the points too sharp. What happens is the points then spear debris like leaves and rotten sticks quickly clogging up and quit leaving markings. The second mistake is bending the points too far outward from the shank thinking they will dig better but instead they will bound on hard surfaces like Matt mentioned leaving fewer markings. A bend from the shank about 1 1/2" is about right. Hope this is helpful!

here are a couple from the same day last winter that ran down the road a few 100 yards

you can see drag marks in the first pick zig zagging back and forth down the road

the coyote that was caught in the third pic went over the hill right up that road for 200 yards or better...like ace said most don't go that far but some do...

one more thing, if the coyote your packing out's tail looks like the one i'm dragging in the above pic...he ain't dead

i figured that out when i plopped him in the back of the truck...lol

had to re-kill-em
matt

Just goes to show you never stop learning, heh Matt!

Thanks for sharing those pics

I went to customized HEAVY drags because of tree climbing bobcats and coons! 99 times out of 100 if the drag is heading down the road it's a dog, now and then a coyote will take off down them but not often. Did have one go like matt's for about 150 yards before deciding to head off down in the woods in big open pine's with nothing to hang on! lol. He made it to the bottom of the hill where it turned into hardwoods and had brush he could hang up on.

Gave up the 'store bought' variety a long time ago though. MB Trail blazer's as well as several others available now so you don't have to live over a welder to make your own anymore.

bucksnbears,, lol

There is a third mistake trappers make that I forgot to mention above. When one buries the drag and chain in the trap bed underneath the trap they want to first place the drag and cover it completely with packed down dirt. Then lift the trap and chain and carefully coil the chain around and around into the bed and cover the chain with packed down dirt before bedding the trap on top. If one just throws the drag and chain in the dug out bed haphazardly like I've seen happen many times by novice trappers one of the drag points may snag a chain link when being jerked out of the bed by the animal. When this happens an animal might go a mile if one ever finds them at all. One wants the chain coming out smoothly without kinking and completely out of the bed first so the drag can not snag it. This is particularly a problem when using drags with more than 2 points.

Nice pictures Matt, good looking trapping country...makes me want to make a set right now!!!

Asa if you set now you would puddle your set with sweat....shucks its hot. Sure hope Escanaba isnt this hot in couple weeks.

Used to trappin' in the hot Summer from the time I was born until I was 38 years old we trapped all Summer for bounty. Had to wear a sweat band around my forehead to keep sweat from dripping on the set. I'll see 'ya in Escanaba, forgot what date that is so refresh my memory Lee!