Quote:
Originally Posted by caustin
I am a junior partner on a line in northern Alberta. My senior partner and I have been using the same bait station for 4 years now. We are getting very little results. 3 weeks ago we managed to pick up 1 wolf. There was probably a dozen or more in the pack with all the tracks they had in the area. They tore our bait pile to shreds and combed through every inch of our bait station. They had tracks for miles in every direction of our bait. With all the tracks around we should of cleaned that pack right out. They side stepped approximately 25 snares in our set up. Like I mean there heads had to be in the snare and they backed out. Last week during our routine check again, the same thing had happened. They are just destroying all of our bait and not getting caught. This is very frustrating!! My senior partner smokes lots and I'm wondering if this has anything to do with it. They have to be smelling something! I use separate gloves to touch the snares and they are just walking up to the snares, stepping around them and continuing on the same trail. Although the 4 wolves we caught in the last couple years have been in my snares. My partner just uses bare hands and smokes while setting snares. I tell him not to but he refuses. Just wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on this? What could we do different to catch these smart critters?
|
Anyone that smokes while setting Wolf snares and touches the snares with his hands will not catch anything ever. I hang my snares well before the season opens and just leave them closed and out of the way. When it is time to set you can do it with minimal disturbance and time at the site. I make sure to be very near to where the Wolves normally travel and do not use a bait pile but bury a small amount of bait in about three places with 25 to 30 snares in the area of about 5000 sq.ft. The alpha male or female will go in first to check it out and if you can catch one of them all hell brakes loose and I have caught 6 or 7 on more than once. Catching Wolves is a lot of work and you can't set for one or two, but for the whole pack to make it worth while.