hot spots/cold spots

[musher]

Last week-end on a run I saw a fisher track crossing my trail. It was the first time I had seen a track there. It made me laugh because, way back when, the guy that owns the line said that it was a hotspot. Since I've been there it hasn't!

In other locations I've seen where a spot will be good for several years and then go dead. A few years later it's a good location again.

Any thoughts?

[trappnman]

what drives me crazy, is when some thing is a normal hotspot, then it just goes dead like you say.

I always wonder what the reason is- on coyotes, I wonder if its something occurring "over the hill" that I don't know about.

mink and rats are usually pretty consistent for me- even in down years- its still the hotspots that produce best relative to the lower overall numbers.

Coon are usually pretty predictible also- a good location is a good location becasue of how it lays in relation to crops and cover- and that remains consistent.

I think more often that not on coyotes- it just the matter of a litter not being raised locally for some reason-

[bobwendt]

tman, last choice you said. none there this year, or you caught 9 and then they ran out. simple as that. catch out the old female here and often it`s years before another moves in. and this is in coyote rich indiana.

[billcat]

Cats do the same thing.

Bill

[musher]

I've wondered if it has to do with travel routes.

There are some places in the woods where all the furbearers gather. Beaver dams are one such spot around here.

In other spots nothing lives there except for the trees.

I've considered the possibility that something has cut off that travel route making them avoid the hot spot. Once the obstacle is gone the spot becomes hot again.

Excessive cutting, human activity and such could be the obstacles.

[trappnman]

I've considered the possibility that something has cut off that travel route making them avoid the hot spot. Once the obstacle is gone the spot becomes hot again.

I think that also- around here- just 1 farm changing their use patterns, could be a difference.

But I also notice- that it seems each year when a hotspot doesn't produce like normal, there is always one that produces much better than normal.

[rk660]

Ive got a spot that will consistantly do 20 coons from 4 traps, and did 46 one year. This year it only coughed up like 6 for some reason, but I was 2 weeks later starting than most years. I did see a lot of coon track there on the ice later on. Im guessing our early ice up, I didnt get my usual drift that comes along around thanksgiving.

[Bob Jameson]

Over the years I have seen and had others experience similar situations. Some areas were explained a year later at a banquet dinner I attended. It turned out that there had been increased calling activity at nite and coon hunting in several areas that explained the lack of activity that normally was there in the past and had been there earlier before the season opened. Other trappers harvest certainly plays a role but calling especially coyote contests and such in around our 3 county area has impacted several typical good producing locations over the years.This after hours activity has been noted and has explained a few non productive farms that usually was good for several animals each year.