Coyote: how many catches per 100

[buckpasser]

I was listening to a podcast with Mr Zagger and he stated that he expected around 7 catches per 100 sets. So I suppose theoretically if he sets 100 traps on Monday he expects to retrieve 7 pelts on Tuesday. I am only in possession of 10 footholds. I did the math and I had exactly 100 “sets” (by calculating it at one trap for 24 hours equals 1 set) when I finally caught my first coyote.

I’m curious, how many sets do you average to catch one, or how many catches out of 100 sets would you expect. Also, how many traps do you experienced guys run? I think ideally I’d like to get to around 25 at some point, maybe more. The ground is soup here, so I’m not too hopeful of finding any treasures in the morning, but I’m trying to learn all I can anyway.

 

[mossyoakpro]

I think it depends on the population of the coyotes in the area you are trapping....some places are covered up with them and some are not. I trap a rather small section of our farm and have caught 26 coyotes with 10 traps in the ground on a section of road about 300 yards long. I can go there right now and it looks like those 26 have brought 26 of their friends for a block party. I obviously found one of their favorite places to hang out.

At present I have over 50 traps in the ground and have caught 1 coyote in 9 checks....that's just my opinion on the matter. Tight chains!!

 

[furtaker]

Some places are definitely better than others. And some years your catches will be way higher than the previous year in the same locations.

 

[buckpasser]

I think it depends on the population of the coyotes in the area you are trapping....some places are covered up with them and some are not. I trap a rather small section of our farm and have caught 26 coyotes with 10 traps in the ground on a section of road about 300 yards long. I can go there right now and it looks like those 26 have brought 26 of their friends for a block party. I obviously found one of their favorite places to hang out.

At present I have over 50 traps in the ground and have caught 1 coyote in 9 checks....that's just my opinion on the matter. Tight chains!!

I can’t say that I know of any really high population areas. The farm I manage appears to only have one small pack in the middle of a few thousand acres. I’m sure there are more, but all the sign I’ve found has been relevant to one area.

There is much more sign at my house on this 180 acre farm and sure enough, that’s where I caught one. I had a near miss on a double that night with one stepping just beyond the pan. That would have been a 50% success in one night which would have been cool.

 

[Doug B.]

I think if there is one good pack on X amount of acres that it is possible to over set the population. In other words, you set at one location that has good sign maybe 4 to 6 traps. You move maybe a quarter to a half a mile and see more good sign and set another 4 to 6 traps. So then you have as many as a dozen traps in a relatively small acreage which means you have way more traps out than animals you are going to catch. You are trying to catch the same coyotes. Your percentage goes down. Now I know most of us don't do that but it is easy to still do that on a smaller scale. Your percentage still goes down. I do try to pull non-productive sets as soon as possible to help my percentage go up. I do think there are a lot of variables to our percentage.

 

[280 Man]

I'm with Mossyoak, IMO it depends on the coyote population in a given area. IMO, There's two types of yotes. Those that "live" in a particular area and those that are "interlopers" in and out of areas. I believe the yotes I catch are the interlopers due to I don't catch many in a given year due to the population not being high in my area, which I'm thankful for!

 

[jakebuddy]

I was taught that 10 percent success or catch rate was good but that’s not just coyotes, my coyote catch rate is much less as are most.

 

[Koltan]

Don’t get caught up in success rates, %’s, # of catches/sets out. Bottom line is some places produce better than others. Set on good sign, and don’t over set small acreage. Every time Wiley coyote sees a set. He gets a little wiser.

I had 5 traps on a power line. They all caught. And I took 6 coyotes there. By percentages that makes me better than Zagger. ?

There is a big difference in long lining. And trapping smaller acreage for predator control. Long lines target as many different family groups over miles and miles of land. As a hobby trapper I can’t do that. The more different groups of coyotes you can target the better your catch rate will be.

That’s a long post to say this. If it takes twenty traps to catch 1 coyote. That’s still one coyote caught. And that’s a win for me.