First Time Coyote Trapping-Any Advice is Welcome

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Jan 24, 2025
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I am in North Central IL and the coyotes are horribly thick around me. I have hunted them in the past, but I'm too tired at night now to getting out my night vision and coming in past midnight and waking up for work. Each year I say I am going to start trapping and I never do. This year I am doing it. I have watched plenty of videos, so I think I have the general idea. What I am most interested in getting your opinions on is what scent/bait works best, and where to get it. I see plenty of places offer a beginner's trapping bundles, but I think I would prefer to purchase exactly what I need. And then any advice in general would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
There's so many different directions your can go with this. I'd start with beaver, and mice based meat baits, try a few different lures, red fox gland lure will really get the attention of a coyote, skunky based lure like hellfire. Another thing that's widely over looked is making kind of a blind set with coyote poop from a different area. Carry a few sandwich bags with you and if you find coyote poop, bag it up and use it around a trap site a few miles away with urine. Coyotes will mess around smelling it and trying to figure out who's in the area, the stepping around will give you more chances on a catch. Domestic dog and cat poop also can work for this.

Good luck and hope your traps are full of fur!
 
If you can snare do that.
I agree! Snaring is much easier and faster than foot traps, as long as you understand and are ok with the risk to domestic animals etc.
That being said, I prefer using foot traps. My go to bait that I have had excellent success with is Minnesota Brand’s Hiawatha Valley.
My favorite lures that have yielded very consistent results are Minnesota Brand Violator 7, and Milligan Brand Steppenwolfe 1 and Cat-Man-Do. I have generally ordered all of the above direct from Minnesota Brand.

A lot of great stuff out there, but these have worked well in my limited experience.
 
I'm a new trapper that just started last year. A couple of things I discovered. Look into a trap dip such as Dakota line or full metal jacket instead of dye and wax. Also, I like underalls instead of pan covers. Look at quick link's instead of S hooks
 
Patience and ton of time. Dont get worried if they walk by your set. And dont work it. You have that happen. Read as much as you can on coyote trapping. I am finishing up dipping my water traps tomorrow. What bait and lures are you going to use? I like to think out of the box on some stuff. I am trapping a 5000-acre hunting club. No horses around. But I started using a horse base bait. That one season i caught 53 coyote off it. I did snare a few. But too many deer. To snare alot. Plus the hogs will get into them. I would start off with
Few gland lures
Few baits
Few food lures (I dont use much myself.)
Urine (maybe red fox and coyotes.)
I dont like the trapping kits. Most of them you only get 6 traps. What traps are you going to buy? How are you going to anchor your traps?
 
You can try urine as others have suggested but may have trouble with deer tripping your traps. If so, stop using the urine. Deer won't get caught, they will pull out, so you will find your trap tripped and pulled out of the ground. Expect to catch plenty of coon in your coyote sets. Sometimes that's what it takes for a coyote to take interest in the set (remade) and work it. Dirt holes and flat sets work for coyotes. For the smart ones, make a flat set using a stick/dead branch and put a hole on each side offset from each other. Bait one and put the trap in front of the other. A coyote will check out the baited hole first, become less suspicious, and may get caught checking the other hole.

The Trapperman forum has lots of info in the archives that can help you.
 
You can try urine as others have suggested but may have trouble with deer tripping your traps. If so, stop using the urine. Deer won't get caught, they will pull out, so you will find your trap tripped and pulled out of the ground. Expect to catch plenty of coon in your coyote sets. Sometimes that's what it takes for a coyote to take interest in the set (remade) and work it. Dirt holes and flat sets work for coyotes. For the smart ones, make a flat set using a stick/dead branch and put a hole on each side offset from each other. Bait one and put the trap in front of the other. A coyote will check out the baited hole first, become less suspicious, and may get caught checking the other hole.

The Trapperman forum has lots of info in the archives that can help you.
Some places deer will do that. I had some new Bridger #3 4 coil offset fully modified traps. I caught a yearing and held that deer. I had to kill it. Call the game warden. Pulled its shoulder out. Pigs are like deer too. They will do the same thing. I caught 3 young pigs in coyote sets. One of my favorite sets is a flat set. I like using a vertebrate from a cow. For my flat sets. 2nd picture is a dirt hole. I like using pieces of wood.
 

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A number 3 Bridger has a 6 1/2" jaw spread which is too big a dry land trap per the regs for many states. I suggest you check yours for max space between the jaws for land traps. The limit for Ky where I trapped is 6". You might be OK or might not. A number 2 bridger or 1 3/4 Duke 4 coil will hold a coyote just fine and won't close on a deer above the hoof wall and they should be able to pull out. Also, a number 3 is too big for coon and especially fox, both of which will get in your coyote sets.
 
I really like coil spring traps. I've done well with duke pro series and bridger and MB traps. I don't personally use 4-coils and have actually cut all my 4-coils back to 2 coil. I trap after deer season, mostly dirthole sets for coyote and bobcat (you'll catch coons and possums too) and dogproofs for coons. I generally don't trap when the ground is frozen.
Dirthole sets are easy enough to make. Drag a log or rock to your site, use a cordless drill with a long auger bit on it to drill a hole at an angle back under the rock. Or log. Or tree.

You can hang a single feather above a set, so that it moves in the wind, to target bobcats. They'll notice and investigate the movement and find the bait in the set. Hard to believe that works until it does (see pics below - notice the crow feather). I use basically any form of red meat for bait. I've bought canned beaver baits but squirrel hides/guts and deer scraps have worked well for me. I use sardines for coons in dogproofs. The *best* advice I would give a new trapper is this: run trail cameras on likely travel routes. Any natural funnel where you see deer traveling is a likely spot. Coyotes and bobcats will run those trails also. Find areas that they naturally travel - you won't likely nail this in the first year - and then set your traps (again, a basic dirthole set is fine) 10-20' upwind of those trails. I've found that I can put the traps in the edge of thick stuff where deer don't/won't walk and avoid catching deer for the most part. If a coyote smells your set, he'll investigate.

Because I only trap in winter, I will often move logs and rocks when I happen to be around during deer season. Like if I need to go to a trap site to retrieve a deer or move a deer stand, I'll do double duty and move a log or rock and let it sit for a week or month before making a set from it.

Nothing has improved my trapping more than paying attention to my trail cameras and putting sets where animals will find them. I've made some beautiful sets that I was really proud of that never caught a thing because they were in dumb spots.

Buy a bunch of wolf fang type anchors. It's amazing how well they hold if set properly.

You need:

A half dozen traps. This stuff takes time; if you're a farmer with winter free time, you might run dozens of traps, but most people can't spare the time.
At least a dozen wolf fang anchors and a driver rod and hammer. Or get one of those long t-handle steel probe rods. That's what I use to set anchors.
Buy at least a dozen screw-type chain links to attach your traps to your anchors. Have a wrench because they'll rust up or get stuck and you won't be able to unscrew them with your bare hands.
Understand that anchors, once set in the ground, are pretty much there forever.
You can use chains or cables to wrap around a tree as an anchor, but I just use wolf fangs most of the time for dirtholes. Set the anchor, then attach the trap to it before you bury the anchor the last couple of inches, then set the trap right on top of the anchor site.
A suppressed .22lr is the ideal dispatch tool but I've made other things work.
You need a cordless drill and an auger bit to allow you to make your dirtholes
You need a small shovel, some gloves, maybe a garden trowel. Go on and dig up a 5 gallon bucket of good sandy dirt and keep it in the dry to use to bed traps.

Some sort of mat to work off of and mitigate the amount of scent you leave, is helpful. You'd better believe they'll smell you. Fortunately, smelling people is normal for them, where/when I trap.

Whether you need trap pans, waxed dirt, and things of that nature, depend a lot on weather. Here in the south I don't trap much when the ground is frozen but if you're further north, you should look into those things, but I can't really help you with them.

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I get all of my supplies from F & T trading post. I have had really good success with Cavens Hiawatha Valley predator bait. At a trapping convention many years ago I attended a presentation by a professional coyote trapper, can't remember his name but one thing he said that I put into practice was that something like 70% of the time a coyote will approach a dirt hole set from the left side. So he would offset his traps an inch or so to the left. I have been doing this ever since, seems to work as I have a few less misses every year.
 
A number 3 Bridger has a 6 1/2" jaw spread which is too big a dry land trap per the regs for many states. I suggest you check yours for max space between the jaws for land traps. The limit for Ky where I trapped is 6". You might be OK or might not. A number 2 bridger or 1 3/4 Duke 4 coil will hold a coyote just fine and won't close on a deer above the hoof wall and they should be able to pull out. Also, a number 3 is too big for coon and especially fox, both of which will get in your coyote sets.
Depends what size rod u use on the inside jaw spread. To make your your inside lamination. My state is 6 1/4 inches. Mine are legal. I do nuisance control trapping for the game and fish. I trap 2 game warden's hunting land. I run a bunch of 550's 650'S and Bridger and Duke #2 dogless offset 4 coil fully modified. Hard to beat the Duke #2 dog on coil spring traps. Them 2 Tom's was caught in Duke 1 3/4 offset 4 coil traps.
 

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We got into it a lot on here:


@go_deep made a great suggestion to me when my season stalled out with the skunk lure.

I'm ambivalent about urine. I've gone thru a gallon of coyote and a quart of fox and didn't see any correlation on catches and always found it kind of gross to handle.
 
There’s no secret bait/lure for coyotes or any other predator.

Best advice for a new guy is to find a local trapper who catches lots of coyotes and learn from him!
 
I love coyote trapping! Set where there are coyotes moving. I'm not the best trapper but I sure do like to catch them when I can. I haven't had time to trap much the last few years.
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