Your favorite coyote set(s)

Charred wood at flat sets?

Does anyone use charred wood as a visual attractor and lure holder for a flat set? I have seen this work on several coyotes: a 24 - 30" long piece of firewood, slightly burned (charred) on the top side, with a 1/2" diameter hole (to hold the lure) drilled in the side of the wood, hole angled slightly up so rain will not run in and dilute the lure, hole located right in the middle of the length of the wood (can also use two holes 4-6" apart with 2 different lures), with the trap bedded 8-10" from the hole holding the lure. Sprinkle coyote or fox urine on the charred top of the firewood. A piece of split firewood works well because it has a flat bottom so it will not roll and shift position if nudged by the coyote. If the firewood is round you can use an ax to make it flat on the bottom. The ideal stick of wood is curved rather than straight, with the hole for the lure in the inside of the curve, so that the ends of the firewood serve to guide the coyote's foot toward the center where the trap is bedded. Or if you have a piece of firewood with a fork at one end, this will create a curve that will serve to guide the foot toward the trap.
 

mpwarrak

Senior Member
Well, call me crazy, but my experience is a lot of that stuff is just too complicated and not worth the time to do it. It's more appeal to the trapper than the critter. Kinda like fishing lures are made to catch fishermen more than fish... I'm no pro, but I've snagged about 20-30 yotes in the few years I've trapped. I really don't bother with visual appeal too much because they are coming at night anyway. They go 95% by scent. Maybe a few feathers

I started out doing the flat / post, charred wood stake, angled / drilled lure holder, cotton ball, goofy backing stuff (skulls, antlers, eetc) and a whole other bunch of funny stuff that I read online that people do...

What did I get for all that? Nothing. Not the first yote.

You know what I found works? 4 things that are important when trapping coyotes. Throw the whole rest of the trapping book in the garbage.

1. Scent control: rubber boots, rubber gloves, don't touch the dirt or anything with bare hands, and don't touch yourself with rubber gloves! And just as important, spend as little time as possible setting the trap, and get out of there. The coyote will still know you were there but the less and more faint of human scent the more comfortable they will be.
2. Location! You won't catch them if they don't frequent the area. Roads, trails, field edges are great, but I have been catching lots in the woods near thick stuff where they hunt rabbits.
3. Guide that foot! Granted I trap mostly in the woods, most people tell me I use too much guiding. I don't think so. I use sticks, as well as leaves, pine straw, and whatever else is around to guide. The trap pan should be the lowest, quietest spot to step and they basically don't have a choice but to step there.
4. Be patient. I've had traps set for 2+ weeks with nothing, only to go out and have double coyotes in one night. Coyotes move around quite a bit, they may be out of your area for weeks, then the pack moves in for a few days and you catch several

I used to agonize, what am I doing wrong?? Do I need to adjust, fine tune my technique? Nope. When they are in the area, I've caught them on the sloppiest remakes again and again.

So I'm down to k.i.s.s., keep it super simple. Take this year for example. I dug a hole with a shovel and laid a dead chicken in it. Set a trap about a foot in front of it. Had a coyote next morning. She tore up the whole set with a catch circle. In a hurry, I sloppily reset the trap and had another in a few days. Then I set a bunch more traps but caught 2 more in the same torn up set with hardly any chicken left in the hole! All I did was reset the trap and guide guide guide with sticks and leaves, and they stepped there to go sniff the chicken hole.
I've trapped plenty though with commercial baits and lures, but never had more success than a regular dirt hole, couple inches wide by 6-12 in. deep. Grind your food based bait around in the hole with a stick, put a drop of gland lure above the hole somewhere. Not saying flat sets don't work, just that if they miss the trap the first time the walk up, with a dirt hole they may linger longer and try to dig up what's in the hole and get one of their back legs caught.

It has taught me especially this year that all the other crazy stuff I was doing mentioned above was useless and took too much time and effort. Don't overthink it! Just do the 4 things I mentioned above, and you will catch coyotes. Oh, and use a screen pan cover and bed SUPER thin. As in barely cover the screen with dirt.

Wow, that got long, sorry for the rant!
 
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SemperFi

Senior Member
I play around with charred wood some. This set was a piece of firewood I put in the ground and then put some pine straw around it and lit it on fire. I put it out with yote urine. If I have some good pieces of wood in the fire pit come trapping time I’ll take some out with me and use for backing. I’ve caught fox and coyotes with it. Does it help out? I don’t know. As stated above I think setting on sign is more important. Next would be a solid bedded trap.
 

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Well the pros say that coyotes are curious and many times they will investigate things that arouse their curiosity, which is why visual attractors can be useful. And I believe this applies even at night; the game camera photos/videos I have of coyotes indicate they have no problems seeing at night. But I do agree with you on the 4 things you feel are most important; in fact I will list your 4 things again for emphasis for any new trappers reading these posts. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
"1. Scent control: rubber boots, rubber gloves, don't touch the dirt or anything with bare hands, and don't touch yourself with rubber gloves! And just as important, spend as little time as possible setting the trap, and get out of there. The coyote will still know you were there but the less and more faint of human scent the more comfortable they will be.
2. Location! You won't catch them if they don't frequent the area. Roads, trails, field edges are great, but I have been catching lots in the woods near thick stuff where they hunt rabbits.
3. Guide that foot! Granted I trap mostly in the woods, most people tell me I use too much guiding. I don't think so. I use sticks, as well as leaves, pine straw, and whatever else is around to guide. The trap pan should be the lowest, quietest spot to step and they basically don't have a choice but to step there.
4. Be patient. I've had traps set for 2+ weeks with nothing, only to go out and have double coyotes in one night. Coyotes move around quite a bit, they may be out of your area for weeks, then the pack moves in for a few days and you catch several"
 
I forgot to add that I agree with you about using chicken/chicken scraps for bait, it works. And you are right: re-setting a trap after a catch is super effective, all that scent from the previously caught coyote is irresistible to other coyotes. I also agree with you about using a pan cover. For any new trappers reading this, the screen referred to for use as a pan cover is window screen available from a hardware store... some use metal screen while others use the fiberglass type, a pair of shears or scissors is used to cut it to the right size to fit over the trap pan, or pre-cut screens are available from a trapping supply house. And if it has recently rained when you are setting your traps it is hard to use wet dirt to cover the trap because it won't go through the sifter well. So some trappers bring a bucket of dry dirt with them, or bring some peat moss they bought from the local garden supply store. Best to only use peat moss over the trap and not get any under the trap as the spongy quality of the peat moss makes it hard to bed the trap solid if you get it under the trap. Then the peat moss can be covered with a very thin layer of pine straw, or grass, or leaves or whatever ground cover is nearby. Use shears or scissors to chop up the grass/straw/ leaves somewhat; otherwise you might have a large clump of it gum up the trap jaws so they don't close enough and this might allow the coyote to pull his foot out, smaller pieces are less likely to cause a problem. That's my two cents of additional info.
 
concrete block attractor/backing/rainproofing

One of the most effective sets for coyotes that I know of uses a regular 8"x8"x16" concrete block for a visual attractor and backing and rainproofing. Since a block is heavy, obviously this would be something to try in a location you can drive to with a vehicle such as along a field road or ATV trail (where two roads or trails intersect is ideal). It is sort of a modified dirt hole set. Dig a little slit trench about 2-3 inches deep, 2-3 inches wide, and about 5-6 inches long; if you have a Sodbuster trapping hammer it takes about 3 seconds and 2 swings of the digging side of the hammer to dig the trench which is generally faster and easier than digging a deep dirt hole. Then put your bait in the trench. If using commercial bait from a jar, use a little stick to get a gob of bait out of the jar, put the stick with bait in the trench and prop the stick up so the bait is up off the bottom of the trench in case any rainwater does run into the trench. If using home made chunk bait put a couple of small sticks or rocks in the bottom of the trench to keep the bait off the bottom of the trench. Then set the concrete block down on top of the trench with the flat side of the block covering the trench like a roof, AND with the long edge of the block right at the edge of the slit trench so when you (or the coyote) look at it there is a little crack or crevice visible under the edge of the block, kind of like a dirt hole. About 9-12" back from the crevice, bed and cover your trap just like you would with a dirt hole set. Or depending on the surroundings at the set, you can blend in the covering over the trap using the surrounding ground cover of leaves, grass, etc. With the concrete block on its side, the flat solid side of the block covers the slit trench so that rain doesn't run in and drown the bait, and with the block on its side the two big holes in the block create another covered rain-proof area where you can rub some lure on the block and sprinkle urine. Obviously you don't set this on a steep slope where a lot of rainwater WILL run into the trench. This set works, if you don't believe it... dig a little trench, throw bait in, cover it with a block, and a week later check for any signs of coyotes digging to get at the bait. You will be pre-baiting your set so coyotes get comfortable working it, then you can set a trap after they have become rewarded by a free meal and are less suspicious. In fact , it is a good idea to choose 2 or 3 good set locations and bait them with table scraps or other bait 3 or 4 times during the year or a couple of times a few weeks before setting traps. This strategy recognizes that coyotes roam over a large territory but you want them to, whenever they are in your part of their territory, ALWAYS check out your specific locations because they know that occasionally they find a free meal there. Choose a GOOD location such as a road intersection or trail intersection and bait it occasionally so that it becomes a "must visit" location when coyotes are in that part of their territory. Then when the time comes to actually set traps, don't just put out one set there, put 2 or 3 sets at each location, maybe a dirt hole set, flat set, and post set, or whatever you like... remember the saying "If it's a good enough location for one set, it's good enough for two". Then you have a chance of catching more than one coyote there in the same night since they sometimes travel together. This is my two cents based on what I have seen work, and I would love to hear from others about their experiences, tips, tactics, etc.
 
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