# After the first catch



## 503MD (Jan 23, 2017)

New trapper here. So I've caught a couple grey foxes and a possum now. Weather is rough with a lot of snow on ground. Snow is starting to melt so it's wet also. So I was wondering does all the scent from previous catches hurt or help you? Just curious if it distracts the coyotes from where the bait smell normally is to making them want to dig where the trap is located due to all the new scent. I'm assuming I just reset where Trap is currently located but with the snow, mud, and scent make resetting the trap much more difficult I think. Thoughts?

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## MidMoTrapper (Feb 14, 2017)

Im still pretty new myself. Did you catch them on the same set? Both of my foxes came out of the same set about 10 days apart.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

I have been holding back on posting for your "Leave the Trap" post" and this one. because I talk enough! But since nobody is chiming in let me tell you my 2 cents bout both.

1) Leaving the traps at a good set location

Spring the trap and leave it. Many of us wolfers from old timers like O'Gorman to Andy Weiser leave many a trap hitched to the steak ready to set next season especially if its a hot set area. All we do is wire brush the pan, trigger hinge and dog (if not dogless) and its ready when we return. Remember these are just dogs they don't know that steel trap from a barb wire fence. They just are not that smart, however they can be conditioned to avoid or accept if pain food or sex is involved. But I have never seen a yote conditioned to a trap...your more lilkely to get one conditioned to a lure or bait then the trap itself.

To prove this point look at this yote. It was caught in a brand spanking new Bridger #2 dogless, taken right out of the box. Yes it still had machining oil on it from shipping! And to emphasis the point about steel scaring yotes I set it right next to this tank with all that steel trash in it. Now tell me how steel scares yotes? With regret I had to pull this set location because the rancher moved cows here.









2) Remakes. Nothing can improve a set better then catching a coyote or fox in the lower 48. Why? the real-deal fresh scent is every where. Just does not get any better than that!

Here;s how it gets there;when they struggle glands in the hind legs are putting out scent. They are peeing constantly as adrenaline pushes all muscles to the max including internal organ muscles, They are crapping in between breaks during the struggle to free themselves. All of this is getting rubbed into the catch circle dirt! Its just a perfect...nothing is better than fresh scent period.

Think if that yote you dispatched smells bad (the smell of money) can you imagine what that soil smells like after 1-14 hours in a trap? It smells just like the yote...does not get any better!

No exaggeration the catch circle after three remakes smells like a yote or fox den. Put you face down their and smell it. I have allot in wet and dry conditions and its the smell of money! And nothing relieves that edge on a yote or a fox then scent from the same. Nothing except a yote or fox den has this kinda draw, Even fresh urine harvested from a dead yote cannot beat a caught critter. I know I go through 4-6 gallons of fox or yote urine per season plus I manage to harvest about 1/2-3/4 gallon of super fresh from catches.

As for numbers Ill leave you with this seasons results on remakes...these are not my total numbers as I don't talk total numbers. My logs reveal I had averaged 2.78 yotes per set on remakes the first part of the season Nov 27th through Dec 19. Example: 13 re-made sets would yeild ~ 39 yotes.

Be mindful after the second remake and if the first two were bait hole's you'll should to change up probably and go to a walk through as the area is a mess with scent. So give them a different scent and visual attractant ...none the less all that scent makes that set one huge draw, which then allows you a smaller area to get them to the trap pan.

Just force the yote to take a new route...instead of stepping up to a dirt hole which he may miss with all that other scent. ...let it walk through a couple pieces of natural trash which he can see. (here I used dried cow pies). Add some scat from the catch circle to one of the trash objects, soak it with urine and then put some bait under the opposite. Its simple!

Here is a remake before and after two catches. Note I changed to a walkthrough...

Before









After


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

Great advice Larry

Just remember guys if you're trapping Fox wash your new traps...let them rust a little... Dye your traps... Wax your traps ( foothold traps ) and try to keep your sent off the Fox traps ( store them separately ). A pair of gloves just for setting Fox traps doesn't hurt, just take them off when baiting and using lure... Do this and you'll have less traps dug up.

Now if you are trapping Nebraska coyotes ????, Larry swears they don't care about human sent/oil on the traps, and he does catch a but load...

Two of the five bobcats I have caught so far were in the same cage as I caught one in the previous day.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

I would also recommend for fox buying a " Atkins - Fox Trapping 50 Years On The Line" from Dick Atkins the current living king of the fox men. Dick has become a personal friend of mine through e-mails and phone. Get a hold of him and tell him I sent you,,,this is a good video, Ask for his book also.

Please note trapping and big numbers comes from years of learning on the line, There are a few high number men that happen to get in a high population and do well for a few seasons, but unless their numbers stay high for after 4-6 years I would ignore them. High numbers is 75-1000 for fox and 150 and above for coyotes. Again not one season but constantly each season. Also don't ignore the successful ADC trappers these guys can target a single animal and usually nail it.

Note also like on PT there are good snare man like Cam and also his neighbor Marty Seneka. These guys are a different breed then we steel jaw men. It pays to learn from them especially in areas of the Midwest where snow becomes an issue or south where rain makes it hard to maintain steel jaws those in ground .

Above all ask about trapping these days, weigh the advise and try what you like best. Its a few decades different then the 50 and 60's when no one talked much about the hows and catch rates. But I fear those days will return as social media is causing migrations to areas where men talk about their high numbers. I saw it all season in my area.


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

Remember Larry these guys are new to trapping...they are not setting 300 traps.

503MD and MidMo Trapper I want to see you catch some... Look for sign...and set on it.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Being young and virile enough to set 300 traps make;s me feel young, but those days are long gone and in actuality a good trapper can catch 300 running just 76-110.

I respectfully disagree about setting on sign Eric. That is why I said what I did ...get info from the high number guys. You have to remember the high number guys get high numbers one catch at a time. They also get high numbers because they learn to read the land and they know how their prey navigates it.

Let me explain; setting on sign works great on bobcats as the females run a short oval 1-10 miles while the Tom run all over keeping track of the females. It doesn't matter whether its a farm cat or a mountain lion. The only difference is the oval size gets larger. This makes setting for them relatively a simple chore.

But the fact is setting on sign can take weeks for yotes to return to that original area. Nominal 10 days on fresh sign no matter the country. Plan on longer for travel routes and less time for hunting & denning areas.

That is why I say Its better they learn to read the country and where to make sets without any sign. That way the trapper learn's travel patterns all yotes take and learn to use prevailing winds to draw the yote from far away to that little pan with lure or bait next to it. If you do what I say I guarantee your wait is reduced as your waiting for the next yote and not the yote that made the sign.

Read my thread on urban yotes. I targeted one to two yote's on sign and knowing their travel. I had too I was targeting a single yote or pair. It took exactly 10 days for it to come back and be dispatched. Now if I were a new trapper I would of pulled as no way it should take nearly two weeks or more to catch a yote. I would be thinking I made a bad set and I pull it or worse yet I go and start checking it close each day and maybe piling on new bait or urine while I am there. As it must be the bait, lure or urine! NOT!!! Whatever happens the set starts looking unnatural and smells unnatural. Now the set is barron for a month or more but we all know its pulled at two weeks for the new trapper.

Second most new guys cannot read the country and pay little attention to prevailing winds. They just want to set travel areas where sign is prevalent and sometimes they pick up one usually a juvenile. Even the blind squirrel will find a nut.

But normally a traveling adult yote is just doing that its traveling.* Again eyes and ears on and nose is off*. And until you learn eye appeal to stop that yote its better to read the country and set where they hunt. That way your bait and lure are effective when the yote has his nose on.

That is why I recommend getting info from the high numbers guys. They are not high numbers because they set 300 and hope to get lucky. They are high numbers because the read the land check the wind and set multiple sets in a good location. Often that location reveals a double or triple, In their videos they show you how to read the land land and pointing out to the new comers where good sets are made and why. Again Andy Weiser has a good video and so does Dick Atkins on reading the land. These videos talk country which is key to any trappers success. (If I weren't so ugly I'd make a video...it would be called "Lucky Larry sometime catches a Yote" Ha!)

No different than Can knowing to read the plumb thickets for snare placement and place his bait accordingly with prevailing winds. He sets his snares are on hillsides as he knows the winds carries scent uphill and those yotes smell the bait and on the hillside they continue to come in on smell, just before they get 50 yards or so from the bait and they go into alert mode and circle to prevent getting hurt. NOTE: Circling yotes are hard to get because they are on high alert period, they see, hear and smell all when circling. Often they stop so each sense can be used.

But a yote with a nose full of bait 75 to 500 yards away is literally running blind as his nose is leading the way. His eyes are closed because of the brush and he can't hear a thing with scrub scraping his sides.

Eric...please take no offense, I know where your coming from and yes what you say will work, but I want these two to not catch just 1-12 per year as I know they will do just setting sign for yotes and fox. I want them to learn how yotes and fox spend their time and how canines use the wind. Then make sets based on knowledge and not hope. If they do that they will be successful trappers with good numbers each season on a few traps or many.

Thanks.

Larry


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