Hey Nube

[Tfng]

You've got one heck of a season on the go. I saw you're closing in on 100, congrats! I was curious how many baits you are running this year? If you don't mind.

[nube]

4 baits
I got one bait that I have 30 at so far this year in just over a month if I remember my numbers right. I started keeping track of what I am catching at each bait and it is cool to see. Basically hitting the same 3 spots as last year and I have a new one.
Problem is I am running out of bait. Still getting some every 2-3 days but not like it was earlier on. I had my best day at 14 with the 4 baits and 2 days that I got 11 on them as well. I figure I can pick up the odd one here and there the rest of the season. It sure is a blast. I have learned a lot this year and I am getting more high neck catches and my loops are getting smaller. I don't get as many chewed cables so I think I am doing a better job at things. One thing I have noticed is it is hard to find the right habitat for a good bait site with the right sized trees and high grass around.
One thing I want to mess with a bit this year is a way to anchor to the ice and stomp down a trail through the cat tails on some ponds. Coyotes love the ice and digging up rats. I drove my skidoo a couple weeks ago through some cat tails on a big pond and now there is a coyote trail on it. I think it would work well with some of Marty's springs and light wire

[gman1978]

Nube, 100 dogs on four baits is incredible. I helped a fellow one winter and we hit 400 on the last couple days of February. But that was on 20 bait sites!!! Good work!

[Tfng]

That's amazing on four baits. I ran four as well for most of the season so far and have recently added two more which are starting to pick up. The best I've managed is 22 on one bait. (It's an old carcass dump)

Just wanted to say thanks for sharing. It's because of you posting last year I got into snaring. I'll admit I've done a fair bit of lurking here before I signed up lol.

I had a rather ambitious goal of one hundred but it looks like I will have to try again next year.

You're right about the difficulty of finding just the right spot for baits. It seems if they aren't in the right spot the coyotes get thinned out and few move in. As well as like you mentioned nice snaring conditions. Most of my spots were picked where I could get permission not because of ideal locations.

I've read about guys using ice climbing anchors to anchor traps on ice. I don't think they come cheap though. A bit of chain frozen into the ice might be the ticket.

I've had terrible luck anchoring to the ground without entanglement. Things may improve with Marty's magnum springs now that I'm setting them properly.

Anyways, good luck on the rest of your season!

[nube]

Yup I just counted again and it looks like I am at 95 so far for the season. Think I got 6 or 7 foxes and I just got my 2nd skunk in a 330 yesterday lol He actually didn't stink as bad as the one I snared.
I think the reason I bought the line was that first off I always wanted to catch marten , lynx and fisher. 2nd was reading hear as well like you and just loving the pics and stories.
I got to admit I wish I had my camera more and I thought I would take it out more but I havn't. I am good at taking it on the line but should take it while out catching yotes.
Thanks for the comments guys. I really love this trapping thing. It's a challenge for me catching these critters and I also love the time outdoors. I set a goal of 100 coyotes this year and I should be able to do that by next week if all goes well. I didn't know how things were going to go this year with the new line but I think I am doing o.k. I am a little dissapointed with not having things on the line set up like I wanted and the number of traps but I think it will take a couple years.

My plan on the line is to build double boxes in a lot of spots and keep them permanent as well so things are ready to rock when it comes time to trap. It took me forever just to find 40 spots and get the boxes out. I also have about 5-10 spots that are not good areas it seems but I had to put boxes in these spots to see what was there. Now I know.
It also took a couple trips just to figure out where the lynx are.
I was told it was a good beaver line but to be honest I don't see much for beaver out there and if there is they are hiding or got eaten by all the otter.

Hopefully with the pics and stories on here we can get some of the younger generation into trapping. Hope you guys try and remember a camera when you can and share as much as possible.
I appreciate all the info you guys share and teach me.

[C Taylor]

For around sloughs, I jam some old posts in the mud while trapping muskrats. Later on they freeze in an make a solid anchor. Problem is once there's a arch circle the post area doesn't work well

[Bushmonkey]

Nube, your right about finding a good bait site. I trap private farms. I think this summer I am going to go out with a chain saw and walk into the thick bush and cut a big openening. Big enough for the birds to find the bait. And big enough to set all my snares on the perimeter without the catches disturbing the bait site too much.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Nube, you have a ton of beaver on the west end of your line in WMU 353. The old railroad line along the Smokey have all the culverts blocked so water cannnot drain into Smokey, their is a beaver house about every 1/4 mile, the old railroad is probably 10km long.

[HunterDave]

How many snares are you guys putting up at each bait site?

How far out from the bait pile?

I started with 3 bait sites and about 10 snares at each. What I found was that after initially catching a half dozen coyotes at one site my catch dropped off significantly, or stopped completely. At one site in particular, I caught 2 big males, 2 big females and a pup and then there wasn't a coyote that even entered the patch of bush that held the bait. After a couple of weeks with no activity, I started a new bait site and once the coyotes started to come into it, I moved my snares there. It was similar for the other two bait sites and I'm now trapping 3 completely new sites that are starting to produce.

I suppose that it likely has a lot to do with the locations that I'm trapping and the coyote population in the area but my problem isn't snaring the coyotes, it's getting a lot of coyotes coming into the bait.

I've learned a ton in this, my first season of trapping, and I'm not afraid to try different things. The biggest thing that I've learned is that the bait site selection is probably the most important and I now know what to look for when I'm selecting one. It'd be nice to figure out how to keep the coyotes coming in after catching a half dozen though.

I've caught about 30 coyotes since November 10. I'm not disappointed with that, but I'd would certainly like to know the secret of getting so many coyotes coming into my bait.

[Tfng]

Hunterdave, as you know I'm new at this as well. I've managed 62 coyotes so far. For me the number of snares varies between 3 and 20. It depends on how they are accessing the bait.

I feel I've set some snares too close but it hasn't seemed to affect the coyotes. I've got multiple catches in a snare that is feet not yards from the bait. Luckily haven't caught a bird- I will not set so close in the future. My farthest snares would be two hundred yards.

I add snares when I see they make a new trail into the bait. The bait with only three snares is a new one and I will be adding to it on days off.

I think baits setup in natural travel corridors such as coulees should produce well.

There's only so many coyotes in a given area, maybe you've cleaned them out?
Bottom line is you can't catch what isn't there. I suspect Nube has an unreal number of coyotes in his area.

Next year I plan to have more locations lined up and hopscotch my way through them as they die out. Possibly circling back later in the season if new coyotes have moved in to claim the territory.

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by TFNG

There's only so many coyotes in a given area, maybe you've cleaned them out?

Next year I plan to have more locations lined up and hopscotch my way through them as they die out. Possibly circling back later in the season if new coyotes have moved in to claim the territory.

I think that you may be right. Out of my first 20 dogs, 15 were 2XXL and only 3 were pups. Then came the lull. Now I seem to be catching a lot more pups so I'm thinking that I'm catching the transients coming into the new territory.

My plan for next year is the same as yours. For sure, I need more areas for bait sites. When one stops producing then it's on to the next. I might even find some new areas for this season.

[coy coyote]

As far some how many snares to a bait. Up to 45. Every trail gets one or two I'll place a snare where I think a coyote will circle.. my best bush was 54 and still producing 3 a week. More snares more dogs my theory. I caught up to 7 very other day out of the same bush. I didn't want a coyote to leave the place. I never baited it but it was 1/4 mile from a 1200 PIC sow operation pig barn. I'm well over 100 dogs on 5 snare sights. I baited one with road kill and some chicken guts. 15 dogs in the last week that I started snaring it.

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by coy coyote

I never baited it but it was 1/4 mile from a 1200 PIC sow operation pig barn.

I think that the coyotes around here are Muslim because they don't care much for pork. I picked up a truck load of pork trim and the coyotes couldn't care less about it. As soon as I got my hands on some wild game trim it was gone over night.

[bill9044]

I don't know if this helps or not. So here is what I did. I pre baited 2 sites for about 4 weeks the one site cleaned up a full grown cow in 2 nights during the summer. A lot of guys try and call yotes in that area so they are a bit call shy. It was snared there before about three years ago maybe longer. So I have been snaring since the 2nd week in Nov. I have caught close to 27 some snares were very close to bait some a 1/4 mile away on a fence line. My catch rate and shear tracks have dropped way down. I am still setting and catching a couple a week now. Some are wise to snares others aren't one slap in the face a note walked up to my snare turned around and dropped a duce right in font of my snare.
My second site caught 6 within a couple of days. Then my catch rate dropped. Caught the odd pup here and there. I noticed the yotes caught a deer on the ice right close to my bait site on a creek. I had some live yotes in snares and they tore the area up. After a live one I dispatched nothing into the bait for a few days. I had a few deer hit snares and the breakaways opened. So very slow. I pulled my remaining snares to concentrate on first bait that I was stacking up the yotes. I decided to check on 2nd bait and it was over run with tracks. So now I am throwing snares out on trails. I think training them again with no snares out helped a lot but I will see what happens once I start catching a few. I have never snared either of the areas before.
That is my long winded story
Bill

[nube]

Hey guys I just got back fro the line and back at work now. Lots to read here. hope I can answer a few questions.
I don't prebait. To me it seems a waste of time. Why not just catch them the first tie in to the bait right? To do that you need lots of snares int he right spot. Hard to do if you got no snow so basically when I first set a bait I dump a whole truck of scraps. Do't use small stuff. Go big and use ribs, big leg bones, spine and rib deer carcasses and hides. Then I set about 25 snares within 60 yards of the bait at least. I will put more if I can. The way I see it is that within a 2 month period if there is a 2 foot wide gap in the trees a coyote will at some point go through it. I put snares everywhere I can that looks like a coyote will go through there. I put a big chunk of ribbon above each snare. The bush looks like a Christmas tree when I drive by lol
Then with When it snows you will see the spots that you missed. Pay attention tot he tracks and where they go. Coyotes when they find a bait wil go in and out of a bait a lot. If you don't catch him after he has gone in and out a few times to me you are doing something wrong and need more snares.
As I catch coyotes and watch tracks I add when I can.
I also have my bait so I just back up the truck to dump it. Meaning one side is fully open. I find the yotes will spend most of the time in the trees though. You don't need to waste time dragging it into the bush at all.

I also find a little skunk lure helps if your bait doesn't have much volume to it.

Like Bill My catch rate drops huge after the first few weeks and only catch a couple off a bait every 4 days now. i had some days with 7 coyotes in snares on a one day check. Once the local ones are caught you will just get the transient ones. For me After 15 or 20 coyotes it is slow going like this and I just don't check every day and just go every 3 days.
Hope it helps
Let me know if you got more questions