First coyotes

[trappnman]

most of these threads are about our learned experiences. Where we are at today.

So- what did you think of coyotes when you first trapped them? A fool could do it? rocket science?

My coyote days started out a 20+ years ago. Asked a friend if his dad would let me trap coon. He asked him, and his dad said sure but only if I trapped coyotes, because he had a real coyote problem. I thought "coyote problem" as I'd never even seen one close, although had heard them now and again for the past few years. So I said sure.

I went down to the library and got all there trapping books, plus all my old FFG. consensus was a big trap at a big dirthole, so I took my #3 dls and set out.

That first year, I caught 7 coyotes. 3 at that farm, 4 at another trying mainly for badger. Thought it was cool, but not as good as water.

The next year, I tried a little harder, and got zero. Thats right, now I was trying. So then I got pissed and got serious and now I live to trap coyotes. And I started learning the trade on coyotes.

I paid my dues for sure. They baffled me for a time, but basically self taught, learned as I went. Flat sets were a bugger to learn, and learning the walk through made that click.

Been a heck of a ride, but I personally am glad we got em'.

Next- and please, no negative stuff, lets make this a fun post. Do as Bambi's mother says to do....

[ricardo]

mine went some what like yours did,my first year to try and catch coyotes was 4 years ago and I only caught 5 over a couple of weeks, man ! I thought I was catching on, this is easy who couldnt catch a coyote , that was with a about 6 traps, then the next year it was 2 coyotes with about 15 traps, and I thought man i MUST BE STUPID there was sign , just no catches ,what am i doing wrong then I hit the books and started buying videos and started doing that stuff they said and nothing was working very well ,then I bought the bob video and it all clicked,this last year I caught 20 in about 2 weeks.[this is not a plug for bob its just the truth]. so now I can go out and be confident that I am going to catch some coyotes.maybe not 100 or even 50 but for the time and amount of traps I have thats not to shaby.

[S. LULA]

Moved out west 20yrs ago from SW pa. Did some fox trapping growing up but I was more a coon & possum kinda guy . after I got out here caught a few reds then decided to try yotes . Got couple dozen snares and started catching a few I was Hooked Got into the leg holds on them .When the weather dont shut em down . Read some books and talked to some top notch coyote people amazing what you can learn from these veterans if ya JUST LISTEN . The rest as well as a whole bunch of coyotes are just history. The thrill of coming around the corner to a set is just as great now as it was then. I started a freind of mine a few years back .I warned him once you start settig traps you will never look a piece of ground the same way again. I know he dont.

[Steve B]

I started trying to catch coyotes 4 years ago myself. I was a coon trapper and thought I would give it a try at a couple of locations. I had read an article by a trapper advocating the use of smaller traps for yotes so I bought some 1 3/4 cs and some good lure, made a few sets and continued to check them as I drove by checking my coon sets. Finnaly one Sat. morning on my way to work I pulled in the driveway and looked accross the field and there was my first coyote jumping around in one spot. Boy was I a happy trapper!!! I managed to catch a whopping total of 3 that first year. I have moved up to larger traps now and am increasing my catch every year, no big numbers to brag about but I am defineatly hooked on coyotes. When I get the knack of picking the proper locations I know my catch will increase more. I owe all [what little it is] my knowledge to the great people on this site who have shared thier knowledge with everyone else here...

[trappnman]

seeing that coyote bouncing in a trap, has never grown old.

Was talking ot zagso nce, andI mentioned had to go, I had coyotes to takeo ut of traps. He remarked, wasn't it nice to get to the point where you didn't go out hoping to catch a coyote, but knowing you had coyotes, just not how many (and yes, I do get an occasional skunk day)

[Mike Prust]

Trapping the big woods of northern Wisconsin, location has allways been my biggest problem. My first yot came in a #3 coil, set dead center in the middle of a two track. Had an alder swamp bisecting a pine plantation. I blended the trap on a drag where the two track cut the alder swamp. Punched three small holes in a triangle pattern around the trap and used three different lures. This set up still produces for me today. Although location is still my biggest headache. Seems these yots are nomadic, and patience is necessary. Mike!

[17HMR]

Well for a few years I didnt know anything but blind set a carcus, and thought I was doing ok. Then one day I got a copy of "The Trapper" mag from somewhere, wore that out, read every word in there about 500 times, found out that wasnt the only way to catch them. so the opening of the next season I was armed with some store bought lure (Grawes grey ghost) and a little new info. I setup on nov 1st, 6 dirt holes down a 2 track on the way I had to go to feed cows each day, about 3 miles total. Next day 5 COYOTES!! Heck I started counting my money right then, I was ready to drop out of school, and go full time. Most times I wish I would have but, I didnt. So I guess Im in the, "any fool can do it", group.

[coyotewhisperer]

forgot your question steve yes I thought it was rocket science.

Right at 20 years ago for my first coyote too Gappa except your about double my age ;D I started out on the creek through town trapping coons, skunks and possums. I would devour everything in the FFG and Trapper and Predator caller. Lots of red fox around the edge of town and every article said how smart they were so saw an ad for instruction by James Lucero who was only an hour west of me.

Saved all summer and mom dropped me off at his place. We caught some coyotes and really I don't know how he put up with me being so young and dumb LOL I can still remember him scolding me when i was bedding a trap that I hadn't been paying attention. I came home from those couple days with a mission then I was 14 and got my drivers license and I went out in the country and caught my first coyote it was a huge triumph for me I don't think my parents got it as they never hunted or trapped.

After taking instruction there wasn't a safe fox anywhere near town LOL I even sent some down a slide wire for coons in an uncovered coon set so much for them being smart LOL.

Only trapped coyotes here and there through highschool still loved the creeks but got out of the marines and started up agian but wasn't confident until watching bob's on the dog line then I started piling them up again.

It may seem weird but i think i enjoy trapping coons more than coyotes and cats most of all. A guy has to go after what he has the most of though and thats coyotes for me.

Jeff

[bobwendt]

jeff ran with me this year and I sure enjoyed having him, not an instruction, just 2 guys watching cats run off and such. we been friends before and since. that`s nice.

[coyotewhisperer]

It was nice to ride with you bob except for the cat running away ;D I'll never forget that badger set LOL or how a guy can come in the worst weather KS has to offer and catch damn near a hundred coyotes in three weeks.


Jeff

[bobwendt]

the weather wasn`t the bad part( well , really it was), it was the no coyotes left ,at least none with hair! between the mange and distemper I`d say the shine is definitly off kansas anymore. my first coyote was in `74, just drove over the hill and there it was in an old square jaw #2 victor, which was the touted red fox trap back in the day. I says, hmm, that`s a coyote, what is he doing here? then the catch just gradually grew till here I am now stuck with all coyotes and no reds. like the indian in dances with wolves would say, " bat trate LT."

[JP]

I started out coon trapping back in the eighties. Didn't even think about coyotes back then. Caught my first coyote about 4 years ago and that was it for me. Now, whenever I scout, look for new ground etc.. it is always with coyotes in mind. I have generally the same type of ground as trappnman and I don't have to worry about catching coon when I run my coyote sets. They will find them. I know I have caught bigger and better coon at my coyote locations than I do at my typical "coon spots". I think Garman mentioned this before in another post, but the biggest coon I catch all year come from coyote sets in hayfields.
JP

[ricardo]

I always heard they are the most cunning and hardest to catch [hog wash]! I even heard of a goverment trapper in this area that would drive up to a set, back the truck right up to where he was going to make the set ,crawl into the back of his truck never touching the ground and putting on his rubber boots in the back of the truck then lower his tailgate throw a setting cloth out from the back of his truck that had a big hole in the middle for the trap to beded that way he never touched the ground then do the reverse when finished. its a wonder that anybody learns to catch them with all this crap floating around and the do this and the dont do that and coyotes are the smartest animals you will ever come across, sent issues, oh no! they will smell you if you eat onions that morning or if you fart when making a set,lol. trust me you can fart while making a set, and if they are interested in whats in the hole they will forget about all that other B.S., kind of slid of the point there t-man but its just demeaning that its mad out to be so hard by most people.If anyone is having problems with all this b.s. of trapping coyotes,like i did , just purchase a video put out by someone that frequents this site.its called something like ,dog lines, on the dogs line, line of the dogs, anyway you get the point.

[bobwendt]

buy the fox vid. instead, it`s lots better and the same info plus more.

[romans117]

November 17, 2006 was my first yote trapped. I was a water trapper since i was 12. Never had the money as a kid for big traps. No mentor other than what I read in PC&T mag I got. There were no cats to catch back then. I too was told canines were super clever and not easily caught. I set some box traps in 2005 and caught some cats and was hooked on them. I decided to go after yotes to pay for gas in my pursuit of cats. I bought John Grahams vid on coyote trapping. Then Wendts vid on cats and dogs. John taught me the walk through type flat set. Bob taught me the dirthole, location, and the most important thing IMO "CONFIDENCE". I thought Bob was full of crap when he said yotes were easy. The musings of a senile old man so full of himself he could not see the difficulty of a beginner canine trapper. I was wrong. I read the archives and the posts here and learned. I caught a few yotes the first season, but most important I learned how to trap canines and a long line. If the location is good I will catch yotes but the focus for me now is how to trap a given ranch in the most efficient manner and excellent fur put up.

[FWS]

Caught the first when I was about 12 in a Victor #2 DLS in a big dirt hole set just like I'd seen in "The Craft and Science of Catching Fur- Bearing Animals",by Harold McCracken and Harry Van Cleve. Still have that book around somewhere.

It was set for gray fox. I still have that trap, one of the old forged jaw types.

I think the lure was sardines in the hole. ;D

[trappnman]

"The Craft and Science of Catching Fur- Bearing Animals",by Harold McCracken and Harry Van Cleve.

that was one of the ones I got from the libaray. Remember thinking.... If I could just get a steers head.....

[garman]

My first oyote experience and coyotes are not the same, man the first year tried to get by cheap, no dry dirt, not properly treated traps (rusty), etc. Traps froze in ground tracks all over the top. Next year new traps, prop. glycol, snares, advice from a old timer-unknown longliner no one here probably knows, you know the kind you meet that keeps to himself and shares very little, and I started catching yotes boy was I cocky, then moved back to NW IA less coyotes at the time and not much time to trap and not as much good land, I got my a*& handed to me in a basket!! Ha But I agree not hard to catch not rocket science just patience, and repeatability. Like they say ok you caught one, do you know how you did it, repeat it a hundred time!!! So Bob you believe your Fox video is the one you would recommend? Do you have any DVD's of that left?

[3n]

caught my first coyote in one of Grawes figure 7 snares..read his snare book bought some snares and caught some critters.

[trappinwi]

My first one was in a coon set. They had a highway alongside a cut corn field. It was a stock Duke 1 1/2 with a bait stick loaded with fish. the thing is I almost had to clean my shorts. It was real foggy that morning and I got out of the truck to walk over there thinking that nothings in it, because I couldn't see anything. All of a sudden up jumps a coyote! So many emotions at one time!