I wish I could remember who taught me to take a weed stem about a foot high and 14" back and plant the trap right behind the weed stem, so as when the coyote steps up to look over it...SNAP!

Interesting statement LT. At the right location I could see that as a great setup.

Well I went out and braved the impending t-storms and did some practice sets again. How does this guiding look? All these are using the 9-10 inch offset 2 inch spacing (except the double dirt hole. I wanted to post that to see if I have the concept right...

Flat set with rock guiding.


Scent post set with the stick guiding. The stick on the left is a little too flat-leaning but I got tired of playing with it. This is a grassy section off a 2-track.


Regular dirthole, rock guiding.


Here is the double dirthole. How do those dirt ridges look??
Angle one:

Angle two:

look good to me but i dont know anything

i have no idea!! i only caught 5 or six mature ones though...lol. i think it would be traps freezing...and i had a digger, and it turned out to be a red fox..=)...lol.

Most, if not all digger fox can be easily caught. Foxes seem to keep coming back to a set. Coyotes often will dig once and leave it but some will dig your set up, figure out the "deal" and start digging up all your traps....that one is a little frustrating!

It seems a majority of digger coyotes as well as fox come back again, sometimes every day.
One old coyote I remember would start back from the sets about 6' and carefully scratch his way up toward the trap using just a toenail or two. Once he would get up to the trap jaw he would then make a scratch tear in the waxed paper covering to expose the trap. Traps set back of traps wouldn't fool him, he would smell them and tear the waxed paper on everyone of them. Finally after four days of that I took a trap and set it so hair trigger that a breath of air would set it off. It worked, he did the toe nail trick on the waxed paper over the pan and bingo. Of course it wasn't a good solid hold using hair trigger so caught him just across the tips of three toes. I could quickly see why he was a digger and so educated, he had one complete foot missing and toes off two other feet from previous experiences with traps. He would have been gone again with the poor hold had I not got there first thing in the morning. I expect that a majority of trap/set educated coyote would avoid future sets completely but this old snaggle toothed fellow must have enjoyed exposing traps and showing how smart he was. Asa

Number one! Trap bedded improper!

Ever see a Bob Wendt video? He never hardly beds his traps....now explain that one to me!

I have never made a big deal out of firmly bedding traps. After the trap is placed in the right position I simply take hold of each spring and scooch it back and forth a few times until it is seated in the dirt. With real hard ground I sometimes need more than that like placing something under one jaw or spring lever to keep the trap from easily tipping. I never really thought that firm bedding rated as high on the totem pole of important factors as its sometimes made out do be. I have trapped in deep snow all my life and many times it requires just slipping a trap into the snow at a scent post or on a trail without any solid footing underneath it. Seldom do I ever note a problem because of setting that way in snow. Now and then one gets a poor toe hold or a sprung trap because the trap likely tipped when one side was stepped on but bedding doesn't cause any more complete misses than any number of other factors. Asa

you know..im the only one in trimble county, ky that i know of that traps...so i know im catching alot of un educated yotes, and i can use this info to my advantange...=)

...and only 14 yrs old?
Kid, maybe I need to come see you for a lesson!

What I do, is make my standard dirthole, and bed one main trap in front of the hole. (6 inches or so away) Then sneak one in about a foot or two away, to make sort of a blind set. I think that if you got a yote comming in from the back side of the set, they get very close to the front befor they cut to the back. When you make a blind set so close to the dirt hole, and the critter isnt seriously interested in the hole, he will trip the blind set. When this is done, he will also get into the other set trap, and be double caught. I have done this this summer for some family, and it has worked. I staked the blind set away from the hole, and the dirt hole trap away from the blind set. This way, when the yote gets into both traps, he has no chain to pull, and the catch rate goes up. I dont know if this makes any sense, but if you get it, it works good for tricky yotes.

On the bedding traps issue, I agree that "Rock Solid" as some religiously propose isn't always best. I never got them Rock solid in the past (just got the wiggle out of them) but gave the "rock Solid" bedding a try one season (packed inside and outside the jaws) along with the dirt around it. It took extra time and I saw no added results from it and likely less activity. I would even say I think its counter productive as your are messing with all that dirt with your hands for more time than I like. I scrapped the Rock solid method and went back to just taking out the wiggle..and went back to catching coyotes just fine.

I agree, I search just to read his post.

Thanks Asa for sharing you years and knowledge of trapping with us!!

I.T., you must have went way back for that one!

Many trappers will forget about wind direction.
I once watched a wolf, from a distance, walk just two feet from a set I had made with a lure that I had caught many canines on.
Never even knew the set was there...
Eye appeal and how natural the set is are INDEED important, but if an animal never smells the set, what have you then?
Reason I always set at least 2 traps, one on either side of a pass or trail. Wind directions change as weather pattrens change and temps drop. We have no contol over this...we do however have control on where we set our traps.

I will hopefully have more to add on this subject once the season is in. I have a particular new spot that you just reminded me of.

It is a 4 foot wide trail that runs underneath a powerline that goes between 2 large fields. The strip is only 50 yds long (a little corridor and perfect travelway between sections). I have dragged a chunk of railroad tie out about 2 feet into the trail and blended it with grass and weeds. I am going to make this into a true scent post (about a month out from the season I will hit it with some gland lure and urine) and refresh it every couple weeks to keep them checking it.

HOWEVER, I figured they would be so close and used to checking that I paid no attention to wind. I will also have the far end outlet guarded by 2 sets anyway. I simply placed the tie for ease of drive-by checking. I will have to see what happens and report back.

Good point CF.

Many new trappers fail to realise that coyotes have feeding patterns that often times will match the changes in weather patterns.

I get PM's from trappers who have sets on good locations, clean traps, good bait and lure only to have a coyote or coyotes walk right by their set. They catch a few but check way too many empty traps to be satisfied.
They fail to realise that, during early season, it's still very warm and dry.
At times a cold rain, early snow or shift in the weather will change things around.
The worst thing a coyote trapper can do, is run up that set every day and check it real close trying to figure if there's a track on the pattern or not.

LT Grey wrote...The worst thing a coyote trapper can do, is run up that set every day and check it real close trying to figure if there's a track on the pattern or not.

I agree, once that set is made stay away unless you have to tend the set because its sprung, the trap is showing after a rain or an animal dug at it or one's guide sticks blew down over the set. Even when I want to refreshen a set with urine after a rain I have a long range squirt bottle so I can stand back 10 feet and off to one side and give the backing a squirt. Asa