This photos has been around since last spring.

Double on a pair of spring coyotes taken on a bird preserve.

Female,(the pale one) was carrying four pups in her.

And mouse took the lighter female while working with me of the double.

Oddly enough that coyotes pelt was still good enough to skin.

Like I had mentioned before, I don't pick on the coyotes too much in the spring and summer months…..as long as they are behaving themselves. In addition, I like to save them them for the fur season so I can at least recoup the cost of me playing trapper for a couple of months. However, you now have my curiosity up on spring/summer trapping for them. What do you do differently, and do you change up your bait and lure combo for that time of year?

Blind sets are more productive for me in the early summer. We are not allowed to use snares. If I use call lures they need to be sweet gland, the skunking ones are not very good here. Don't know what LT will say but flat sets or buried baits with fruit and sweet baits working best. Water mellon and cantaloupe being excellent baits.

Not many people think about watermelons. I have seen them munching on melon patches quite a few times!

I know in August and September the coyotes LOVE my apples that I put in front of the trail cameras to get a deer inventory. I have a female on video running 3 large bucks off an apple pile in the daylight. I caught her the first night I put a snare in a hole she was using to get there………

They don't think of persimmons in the fall, the persimmon buck lure that the feed stores sell is a fine bait.

I had 80lbs of corn out on a bait pile last year with a trail cam set up on it. I checked my cam after 4 days and saw I had 156 pictures. I was excited to see all of the deer pics...until i hooked it up to my computer. I had two pictures of deer and 130 pictures of coyotes eating my corn. The rest of my pictures we false triggers on my camera. In four days, the coyotes ate 80lbs of corn...I never in my life thought that would happen.

Up north one of the states my mentor used to trap did not allow meat bait so he soaked corn in bacon grease.

I think if I did that, I would end up in my own trap...

Yaz, how many of them apples did they eat? I know anywhere I have seen them, the gorge themselves in a hurry.

I had to ration them, thats for sure. There were 4 bucks that would visit about once a week. A couple does and 4 yearlings would visit about 3 times a week. That female coyote, and her three pups were in there at least once a day, and sometimes morning and evening. I'd take two 5 gallon buckets on Sunday, and they were gone by mid week. Id put two more out. By mid September, I got tired of hauling apples back there, and they cleaned it up to bare dirt in no time. I know the coyotes ate more than the deer did. Coyotes ate the rotten, mushy apples, that the deer wouldn't touch too…..

Land owner is worried about his deer herd and rightfully so.....caught these two a hundred yards apart both are personal best for me I'm hopin the tom will cross the 50" mark.

One way to really get a big ole male coyote's panties in a bunch is make a howl with a pup howler then do a challenge howl with the pup howler. Do not use this every time, but it is a deadly combo when things aren't happening fast enough. Many a big coyote has succumbed to their dominant instinct with this calling sequence.

Summer time trapping is great, the ants almost carry your bait or lure away the instant it's applied! Snares loops get smaller, foot holds get closer to water.

Works good until you get into an area thats been exploited hard and the coyotes go silent.

And they WILL go silent when pressured hard.




I worked a pasture once in late summer/early fall about the time the pups are just starting to get a little vocal. The owner was getting ready to drop some goofy early fall calvers and wanted the dogs gone. I knew there was a litter in there. It SHOULD have been a simple matter of going in, getting the pups to talk just a bit, than going in and cleaning em up.

Well, I DID get the pups to answer me. Than I heard three distinct barks from another coulee bottom a quarter mile away, and all was quiet. I couldnt get a coyote to answer me in there (and they never left) again.

Momma (im guessing) was on to that game, and she reprimanded those pups with just a few barks.

Now fast forward to when those pups reached adulthood. They were raised by a female that was probably not into talking to much, and they got reprimanded probably more than one time for being vocal. What are the odds those coyotes grew up to be highly vocal?

Passing on experiential learning is something that has been fairly well documented in coyotes.

That's when you get them with other sounds. They will respond other calls. Even if they hang up 200 or 300 yds out..they have responded...you just have to add the correct dope to your scope and send them a long range greeting round.

It is true that many people go out and think that all you have to do is sit in a field and wail on rabbit squeeler and the coyotes will come blindly charging in to your set. They have read that you should only be on a stand for 15 to 20 minutes tops and then leave if you have no action. Well, I've sat for two and three hours before that old dog has decided to commit and make his way in. One thing that has been consistent for me..is that coyotes are completely inconsistent.

Good stuff boone.

I've read about control operators who maintained getters for extended periods of time in the same location. Eventually entire litters would avoid those locations. Probably a combination of watching litter mates getting dusted and parental reprimand. Also have heard that in the 1080 days there were whole litters raised in close proximity to 1080 baits. I can only assume that if there wasn't a heavy disciplinary influence by the adults then those dogs would have been goners.

This is Gonna be a great thread! Thanks for getting it going LT !!

X2

Thanks

I am going to be following this thread closely. I start my dream job the 28th of February, as a Animal Damage Control Specialist for the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks.
My job will be 80% coyote work and will be doing it year round, in Bison South Dakota. There is 20,000 sheep and 25,000 cattle in my territory of Perkins county. They said I will be a very busy guy!
Thanks for starting this post!
God Bless,
Dustin