I need to catch a few foxes in an area where wandering dogs are a possibility. I'm going to try live trapping but have never tried it before. Any advice on trap size, set location, bait, etc. would be very much appreciated. The site is predominantly thinned timber ground with a long, meandering meadow with two small ponds surrounded by cattails and tall grass. The meadow is surrounded by a dilapidated fence. I know there are foxes at this site, but I will be starting my sets blind. Thanks in advance for the help.

Snares. As long as there's no entanglement they work like a charm. Use earth anchors and set the trails in the meadow and every active fence crossover. Check twice a day if possible if domestic dogs are a concern

It would be interesting to see if cages worked as well in what sounds like a fairly wild area as opposed to urban and suburban lots

where they have become quite used to the sights and smells of humans.

Thank you both for the replies. This property is a little over 700 acres but is the largest track of land on the county road. There are a lot of houses on 2 to 10 acre lots all around the property. My theory is that if I trap relatively close to the county road, I can find foxes that are hanging close to the houses and avoiding the dense coyote population and the wolves that are found on the rest of the property, not that the coyotes won't be closer to the houses too. I'm just hoping to find and exploit that niche. There are a fair number of silver and black phase foxes close to town here and I'm hoping if I can figure out how to catch them in live traps, maybe I can get permission to live trap some properties closer to town and maybe pick up a silver fox.

Thanks again for the replies. I really appreciate how willing people on this site are to share information.

greys are easy,,,,,, 15x18 havajunks....... No reds here, there or elsewhere that i have dealt with

This is going to be my first go at reds. I've read a lot about trapping reds, but geographically the area I live in is quite a bit different than typical red fox habitat. Its pretty high mountains with a narrow river valley and what I feel is limited habitat. There are a lot of foxes around but most of them stick pretty close to the houses and town. I've picked out some areas, primarily along the fence where the trees and meadow meet and around the cattails at the ponds. So far I've not been able to positively identify a crossing, but will keep looking. Will a 36 x 11 x 11 or a 32 x 10 x 11 be big enough? If not I'll have to order some traps. I live in a small town with limited supplies. Any suggestions on bait? Would beaver meat work or should I go with something like chicken? Any particular scents a good go to?

Thanks again for all of the help.

The cages are large enough and I'm thinking both baits will work and if you catch something else, take it out and reset the cage

without moving it. You can experiment with scents if you have them but if you don't I wouldn't worry. This time of year I would guess

that any type of food would be welcome.

Thank you so much for the help. Sorry to ask such basic questions but having never done this before I want to make sure I take nothing for granted. I greatly appreciate each of you taking the time to help me out.

If trapping in suburban areas my dad caught one by putting the trap in a trash can

I caught four red foxes the last couple of weeks in cage traps. I used muskrats wired to the back of the cage and no lures at all. I first prebaited them with muskrats outside the cages for a couple of days and after they got used to eating those I set the cages.

mttrapperguy what kind of trap is that?

Thanks

Chuck

looks like a Mercer,,,, Camtrip

It is Mercer Lawing camtrip.

Thank you very much for the information everybody. I'm only a couple hours away from you mttrapperguy, next time you're in the Thompson Falls area let me know and maybe we can meet up for lunch.

Hey, any of you Montana guys know my old friend Edward Hebbe III or his son, Edward IV? Got a super card from him at Christmas time

with a picture of the buffalo he shot last fall.

What part on Montana is he from?

Deer Lodge and if I remember correctly, he used to be involved with the Montana Trapper's Association. President maybe?

Very nice! I'm a ways west of him, almost to the Idaho border.

Make sure to cover the cage bottoms with local debris so their feet don't hit wire.
Often, you can push down while pushing back and forth a couple inches to make the dirt come up thru the bottom, if its a dirt floor.
And I brush cages in a bit, especially on the sides.

MTbadgerland, I fish Noxon Reservior a couple times a year and if I do this year I will pm you and maybe we could do lunch, that sounds fun. Paul I do know Ed Hebbe well from the MT trappers association and he is a great guy and does a ton for the MTA. You could not ask for a more stand up trapper than Ed. I have met his son a few times but do not know him as well as Ed.

I first met Ed when I was a sophomore in high school. That was 1958 so a lot of water has flown over the dam since then. He and Diane

moved to Montana so he could trap beaver and coyote, while I stayed in Wisconsin.

Thank you to everybody for all of the help.

Traprjohn - that is great advice I will definitely heed.

Mttrapperguy - what do you normally fish for? I do a lot of pile and walleye fishing on the reservoir, but get easily distracted when I stumble onto a school of jumbo perch.

Also, in summer I look for mis-mixed EXTERIOR latex paint marked to $5/gal at Lowes or Home Depot in ANY woodland color like tans or greens or greys.
Then, using a 3" roller paint cages inside and out.
It delays rusting and helps the blending process.

OMG, the guys can't remember where they set their cages now; I can't imagine how many they would lose if they were blended in. Wait a

minute. Do they ever mis-mix fluorescent orange or yellow?

I hadn't thought about painting. Thanks for the advice. I made my first set this afternoon so we'll see how it goes. I'm going to pick up a couple more cage traps on Saturday. Thanks again to everybody for your help. I'll keep you posted.

MTbadgerdad, I usually fish for the bass and like you get side tracted on perch. We have also caught some monster pike over 40". Starting to catch more and more walleye. It is an awesome fishery. I hope you catch some of those fox. Guy

Trap in a trash can is a brilliant idea. Even better then feeding them your muskrats for a few days.

Thank you very much everybody. I am definitely intrigued by the garbage can set. I'm not aware of any garbage raiding foxes in this area or I would be all over that. I feel like I'm more or less guessing on my sets at this point. There isn't really anything to draw them or hold them in this specific spot, just good habitat. I know they're in the area and banking on one coming by eventually.

If you set up the garbage can just right, you can sometimes catch the homeless.

The garbage can set is specific really. we got in on a fox that was coming into the shop, the wood box, and around the property. He was going into human stuff already

I am not a fox trapper but I would find an wing of some type and hang near the trap just to get the fox to come take a look. The wing move around a lot with little wind.

I agree that the garbage can set is pretty specific...for raccoon.