Post by Steve Gappa on Feb 15, 2004 15:00:45 GMT -6
Reprinted from Trapper & Predator Caller- Special issue- Fall 2003
Coyote lures- their use and misuse…. By Steve Gappa
While just about every type of trapping can take advantage of using lures and other attractants to increase your catch, only in canine trapping does the use of lures reaches it’s zenith. There are perhaps more arguments concerning lures and uses among canine trappers than among any other breed of trapper. Call Lures, Extra-long distance call lures, gland lures, skunk lures, sweet lures and on and on. Add in urine and then bait- which really are nothing more than specialized lures and the new canine trapper doesn’t know what to believe and what to do. Lets see if I can remove some of that mystery for you. To begin with, let me borrow a phrase from J C Conner that is on the back of his videos- “Opinion- A Professional Judgment Expressed”. If I may, I’ll say the same thing here. This means that by no means am I setting myself up to be the definitive opinion on lure usage- instead what I am giving you are my thoughts on lure use, as noted by me in the years over my coyote line. In other words- my opinion.
Lets start out by looking at the types of canine lures. As noted above, coyote lures are divided into many categories by lure makers- but for all practical purposes there is only one type of coyote lure- call lures. By this I mean the lure is intended to “call” an animal. It might be only a few steps or it might be formulated to carry over a longer distance. It’s just that simple. That’s the sole purpose of the lure. If it didn’t aid in your success by “calling” animals to your traps, you wouldn’t bother to use it. So I think we all can accept the notion that the purpose of coyote lures is to call an animal and that is why we use them.
While I said all coyote lures are in effect call lures, there are of course a few different types of lures. The many types of coyote lures available can be confusing - early season, mid season, “hot” weather, matrix lures, gland lures, curiosity lures to name but a few. And even more confusing will be the descriptions of each lure. What is really all comes down to in my mind is that there are 3 rough categories of canine lures- gland lures, food lures and curiosity lures. Most lures contain a mixture of many ingredients so clear definitions might be hard to come by. While it can be argued that this simple classification might be too simple, for our purposes it suffices.
The first type of lure, gland lure, in its most simple form is simply a lure made from glands of that animal. A coyote gland lure contains coyote glands; a fox gland lure contains fox glands. Gland “lures” can be as simple as using a tuft of anus hair or hock hair from a coyote at a remake or may be a complex mixture of glands, musks and exotic oils. In any case, the purpose of a gland lure is to make the coyote (or fox) working the set to think through smell that another canine has previously visited the set. Urine and droppings if used are also in effect gland lures.
Food lures are just what the term implies- lures that either smell like or actually are food. Food lures and baits are birds of a feather to me. A lightly tainted gopher tossed down the hole or a brewed up lure made from gopher parts all means the same thing to a canine- food. Food lures come in a variety of types ranging from the afore mentioned natural food baits like a gopher to sweet lures containing anise, mint, berries and other sweet ingredients. In all cases, the goal of food lures is to make the canine work the set looking for a free meal.
The last category of curiosity lures includes all the other lures. This is the lure that I believe makes great lure makers great- the quest for that one perfect lure- the lure that triggers the coyote into taking (as Scott Huber often says) that “one insane step”. Over the years, many lure makers have tried for this Holy Grail of lures, the ultimate curiosity lure, and a few have succeeded- I‘ll leave it to you to experiment and figure out which ones - I don‘t want to spoil all your fun. These curiosity or call lures are usually the most potent lures in a canine trapper’s arsenal. Many contain a blend of ingredients such as skunk, strong food oil smells, imported musks, essential oils and other animal glands as cat or mink.
Now that you have a little understanding of the types of canine lures, how do you go about using them? Some people use a few drops while others pour on a half an ounce of lure. Some are careful to never mix lure smells at a set and others mix and match odors at will. So what’s the correct way? As you might imagine, there is no one correct way for all trappers in all situations. What works for a trapper in the desert in January might not work for a trapper up north during October. So much depends on the weather, the habitat and even the animals pursued. What is constant through out the country however is that, for all practical purposes, a coyote is still a coyote and a fox is still a fox. And what this means is that for the most part the things that trip his trigger in one area more likely than not, in the proper application, will trip his trigger elsewhere. That’s why most really good lures work over a wide range of different areas and conditions.
So how do you use your lures properly if their use varies so widely? Good question. A good start is to listen to the lure maker. He wants you to have success with his lure- and will happily tell you what he recommends as the correct amount to use. This varies from a few drops to a bean-sized glob to a stick dipped in the lure. Start with this recommendation and go from there. Lure as instructed. That’s how the book tells you to do it. But what about if you didn’t read the book? Or don’t quite believe the book? Or as in my case, wanted to see what would happen if I did as I wanted, not how the book told me it should be- especially with me not having so much luck “going by the book”?
As I set more coyote traps each year and began catching more coyotes, I started to get that feeling that every coyote that came by my sets should be there in the morning- not that that ever happens, i just "expect" it to. I noticed and wondered about the tracks that only gave my sets a quick look-see, and then moved on without working the set. I started wondering why some coyotes would notice the set- but would not work it any further. The only conclusion that I could come up with was that the coyote was simply not interested enough in the set to work it thoroughly- either because something about the set spooked it and/or the lure was not doing the job enough to trip that trigger. While I know that you aren’t going to get all coyotes that come by to work your set- I do strongly believe that in an average population most coyotes can be induced to work a set. And to that end I started thinking. While in many cases that process has led me to trouble, in this case it ended up with a lot more coyotes on the boards.
What I came up with was this. First of all, I didn’t want to have to re-lure after every couple of days or after every little hot or rainy spell. I came to the opinion that as far as lure INTENSITY, there is little difference in how strong the lure smells between a whole bottle of lure, a half a bottle of lure or a 1/10 of a bottle of lure. In other words- the QUANTITY of lure (staying away from the extremes of a couple drops vs. a 4oz bottle) for all practical purposes produces the same intensity of odor. I reasoned that to a canine, an application of 2-3 times the recommended amount would smell about the same. But one thing that would be changed would be the LONGIVITY of the lure smell. That is, a larger application amount would seem, at least to my nose, to give off the same constant odor over a longer period. So taking these two thoughts, I began to use more and more lure at a set. I like to pour a good amount onto a cotton ball, and shove this down the hole. I find the cotton allows plenty of air access to the lure and seems to hold and dispense it very well. My alternative is to dip a porous weed stem into the bottle and let it absorb the lure. I found out two things after I started luring this way. One, I began catching more coyotes overall and I was catching as many coyotes the next day after putting in a set- even with the supposedly too intense luring. Secondly, and more importantly, I could lure a set at it’s making and be confident that it would not need re-luring for a long period of time. I very seldom ever re-lure a set any longer unless it is after a remake, after a very heavy rain when redoing sets or if it sat untouched for a very long time. It simply is not necessary- in being generous with the original application, the job is taken care of properly and in the long run I find I probably use less lure than I did in constantly re-luring with small amounts.
Coyote lures- their use and misuse…. By Steve Gappa
While just about every type of trapping can take advantage of using lures and other attractants to increase your catch, only in canine trapping does the use of lures reaches it’s zenith. There are perhaps more arguments concerning lures and uses among canine trappers than among any other breed of trapper. Call Lures, Extra-long distance call lures, gland lures, skunk lures, sweet lures and on and on. Add in urine and then bait- which really are nothing more than specialized lures and the new canine trapper doesn’t know what to believe and what to do. Lets see if I can remove some of that mystery for you. To begin with, let me borrow a phrase from J C Conner that is on the back of his videos- “Opinion- A Professional Judgment Expressed”. If I may, I’ll say the same thing here. This means that by no means am I setting myself up to be the definitive opinion on lure usage- instead what I am giving you are my thoughts on lure use, as noted by me in the years over my coyote line. In other words- my opinion.
Lets start out by looking at the types of canine lures. As noted above, coyote lures are divided into many categories by lure makers- but for all practical purposes there is only one type of coyote lure- call lures. By this I mean the lure is intended to “call” an animal. It might be only a few steps or it might be formulated to carry over a longer distance. It’s just that simple. That’s the sole purpose of the lure. If it didn’t aid in your success by “calling” animals to your traps, you wouldn’t bother to use it. So I think we all can accept the notion that the purpose of coyote lures is to call an animal and that is why we use them.
While I said all coyote lures are in effect call lures, there are of course a few different types of lures. The many types of coyote lures available can be confusing - early season, mid season, “hot” weather, matrix lures, gland lures, curiosity lures to name but a few. And even more confusing will be the descriptions of each lure. What is really all comes down to in my mind is that there are 3 rough categories of canine lures- gland lures, food lures and curiosity lures. Most lures contain a mixture of many ingredients so clear definitions might be hard to come by. While it can be argued that this simple classification might be too simple, for our purposes it suffices.
The first type of lure, gland lure, in its most simple form is simply a lure made from glands of that animal. A coyote gland lure contains coyote glands; a fox gland lure contains fox glands. Gland “lures” can be as simple as using a tuft of anus hair or hock hair from a coyote at a remake or may be a complex mixture of glands, musks and exotic oils. In any case, the purpose of a gland lure is to make the coyote (or fox) working the set to think through smell that another canine has previously visited the set. Urine and droppings if used are also in effect gland lures.
Food lures are just what the term implies- lures that either smell like or actually are food. Food lures and baits are birds of a feather to me. A lightly tainted gopher tossed down the hole or a brewed up lure made from gopher parts all means the same thing to a canine- food. Food lures come in a variety of types ranging from the afore mentioned natural food baits like a gopher to sweet lures containing anise, mint, berries and other sweet ingredients. In all cases, the goal of food lures is to make the canine work the set looking for a free meal.
The last category of curiosity lures includes all the other lures. This is the lure that I believe makes great lure makers great- the quest for that one perfect lure- the lure that triggers the coyote into taking (as Scott Huber often says) that “one insane step”. Over the years, many lure makers have tried for this Holy Grail of lures, the ultimate curiosity lure, and a few have succeeded- I‘ll leave it to you to experiment and figure out which ones - I don‘t want to spoil all your fun. These curiosity or call lures are usually the most potent lures in a canine trapper’s arsenal. Many contain a blend of ingredients such as skunk, strong food oil smells, imported musks, essential oils and other animal glands as cat or mink.
Now that you have a little understanding of the types of canine lures, how do you go about using them? Some people use a few drops while others pour on a half an ounce of lure. Some are careful to never mix lure smells at a set and others mix and match odors at will. So what’s the correct way? As you might imagine, there is no one correct way for all trappers in all situations. What works for a trapper in the desert in January might not work for a trapper up north during October. So much depends on the weather, the habitat and even the animals pursued. What is constant through out the country however is that, for all practical purposes, a coyote is still a coyote and a fox is still a fox. And what this means is that for the most part the things that trip his trigger in one area more likely than not, in the proper application, will trip his trigger elsewhere. That’s why most really good lures work over a wide range of different areas and conditions.
So how do you use your lures properly if their use varies so widely? Good question. A good start is to listen to the lure maker. He wants you to have success with his lure- and will happily tell you what he recommends as the correct amount to use. This varies from a few drops to a bean-sized glob to a stick dipped in the lure. Start with this recommendation and go from there. Lure as instructed. That’s how the book tells you to do it. But what about if you didn’t read the book? Or don’t quite believe the book? Or as in my case, wanted to see what would happen if I did as I wanted, not how the book told me it should be- especially with me not having so much luck “going by the book”?
As I set more coyote traps each year and began catching more coyotes, I started to get that feeling that every coyote that came by my sets should be there in the morning- not that that ever happens, i just "expect" it to. I noticed and wondered about the tracks that only gave my sets a quick look-see, and then moved on without working the set. I started wondering why some coyotes would notice the set- but would not work it any further. The only conclusion that I could come up with was that the coyote was simply not interested enough in the set to work it thoroughly- either because something about the set spooked it and/or the lure was not doing the job enough to trip that trigger. While I know that you aren’t going to get all coyotes that come by to work your set- I do strongly believe that in an average population most coyotes can be induced to work a set. And to that end I started thinking. While in many cases that process has led me to trouble, in this case it ended up with a lot more coyotes on the boards.
What I came up with was this. First of all, I didn’t want to have to re-lure after every couple of days or after every little hot or rainy spell. I came to the opinion that as far as lure INTENSITY, there is little difference in how strong the lure smells between a whole bottle of lure, a half a bottle of lure or a 1/10 of a bottle of lure. In other words- the QUANTITY of lure (staying away from the extremes of a couple drops vs. a 4oz bottle) for all practical purposes produces the same intensity of odor. I reasoned that to a canine, an application of 2-3 times the recommended amount would smell about the same. But one thing that would be changed would be the LONGIVITY of the lure smell. That is, a larger application amount would seem, at least to my nose, to give off the same constant odor over a longer period. So taking these two thoughts, I began to use more and more lure at a set. I like to pour a good amount onto a cotton ball, and shove this down the hole. I find the cotton allows plenty of air access to the lure and seems to hold and dispense it very well. My alternative is to dip a porous weed stem into the bottle and let it absorb the lure. I found out two things after I started luring this way. One, I began catching more coyotes overall and I was catching as many coyotes the next day after putting in a set- even with the supposedly too intense luring. Secondly, and more importantly, I could lure a set at it’s making and be confident that it would not need re-luring for a long period of time. I very seldom ever re-lure a set any longer unless it is after a remake, after a very heavy rain when redoing sets or if it sat untouched for a very long time. It simply is not necessary- in being generous with the original application, the job is taken care of properly and in the long run I find I probably use less lure than I did in constantly re-luring with small amounts.