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Rewind
features articles I have published over the years in various
trapping magazines. The articles have been updated with "Fast
Forward" information as different perspectives
have emerged since the article was published. -- Hal
Count The Coyotes
by Hal Sullivan
(This article was first published in "Fur-Fish-Game" December, 1992)
 As
we left our truck and started walking towards the woods, a flock of buzzards
erupted from a large sycamore in front of us. It was a warm September
afternoon, and the green foliage on the tree had secreted a number of these
carrion eaters. They flapped and squawked their way to safety in numbers
greater than we could count.
I already knew
what the attraction was for these birds although I had never seen them here
in such numbers. We were on a large dairy farm, and the tree stood on the
edge of a gully that served as the "graveyard" for deceased bovines. We had
to pass through the graveyard on our way into the woods to hunt squirrels.
We didn't tarry long because in the hot afternoon sun, the stench was nearly
unbearable. But I didn't have to study long to determine that buzzards were
not the only carrion eaters feeding on the dead cows. Coyote sign was also
quite evident.
About two months
later, we were on our way back to the graveyard. It was November, trapping
season was now open and the landscape had changed considerably. The leaves
and buzzards had both departed for the season. The surrounding fields that
had once been corn and soybeans were now barren, plowed ground. Now the
graveyard had become a primary and vital food source for the coyotes. It was
hard to tell how many coyotes were dining here, but the numbers seemed
sufficient to classify it as a pack.
There is nothing
unusual about a pack of coyotes feeding on dead cows, but somehow I couldn't
help feeling out of place. I am a lifelong Ohio resident, and I was raised
on the notion coyotes are an animal of the western plains. In the period
covering the last ten or fifteen years, that geographic limitation has been
invalidated. Coyotes proliferate in the eastern half of the country, and I
could scarcely believe that I was standing in my native Ohio, contemplating
putting irons on a pack of coyotes. Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz summed it up
best when she said "Gosh, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Coyotes will be a fact of life for the next generation of Ohio trappers, and
I had one along with me who was bound and determined to catch a coyote.
Although he just broke into the rank of teenager, my son Eli is a fairly
proficient trapper. We had already put out a few sets before we got to the
graveyard. I had done some coaching and offered a little advice, but he was
pretty much on his own at this point.
A tractor road
led across the barren fields to the graveyard and sign showed this was the
main travel route for the coyotes. We stopped the truck a hundred yards out.
I knew it would be unwise to set traps right among the carcasses. We could
probably catch a coyote there, but doing so might frighten the others away
from the site.
I walked the lane
and picked out locations for four sets. At the graveyard, I picked up a
bleached vertebra from an adult cow. We walked back to the truck, got two
traps each and started putting in sets. Eli put in the first set right
beside the truck. You must remember this lane was often traveled by farm
vehicles, and the coyotes would find nothing unusual about our parking spot.
Using the cow
vertebra, Eli put in a flat set. The ground had been broken with a chisel
plow, but on exiting the field the tractor wheel had packed down a narrow
path that paralleled the lane. Eli picked out a relatively clear spot along
this path and bedded a #1.75 coil in place. "Fox or coyote?" he asked from
force of habit as we had been making sets for different animals at different
stops. "Oh," he said sheepishly, "coyotes, right?" I nodded in agreement.
To finish his
set, he stuffed some wool in the center of the vertebra and let it suck up a
few drops of coyote gland lure. He studied the position of his trap and
placed the vertebra about twelve inches from the pan of the trap. Had the
set been for fox, he would have placed the attractor about eight inches from
the trap pan. "How's that?" he asked. "Pretty good," I answered, "but a
coyote might pick up your bone and run off with it." To preclude this, Eli
got a large flat rock from the field and laid it on the bone so that any
prospective bone snatcher would have to go around to the proper side of the
set before it could get to the prize.
We went about
twenty yards closer to the graveyard, and Eli stopped to build a dirthole in
the grass on the opposite side of the lane. I continued down the wheel mark
to a large rock that stuck up prominently above the plowed ground. I
hollowed out a small hole underneath the rock and dumped in a shot of food
lure. Making sets in plowed ground was very easy because the dirt was loose
and dry. Staking can sometimes be a problem under these conditions, but I
don't have any trouble. All my canine traps are equipped for double staking.
There are very few if any conditions under which crossed eighteen-inch
stakes will not hold a coyote. In solid, firm, ground crossed twelve's will
work.
Eli was still
working on his dirthole, and I crossed over to his side of the lane. The
last set at this location would be a post set. I picked up a ten-inch piece
of corn stalk from the plowed field and planted it just off the edge of the
lane. I put a trap about twelve inches out from the corn stalk and
rearranged the ground cover so it was back in its natural state. I gave the
corn stalk a shot of coyote urine to complete the set.
We now had four sets that zig-zagged across the lane leading into the
graveyard. As viewed from the approach, the first set, the flat set with the
vertebra, was on the right. Further on and to the left was a dirthole. Next,
on the right, was the big rock set. The set closest to the graveyard was the
post set, and it was on the left side of the lane.
The other end of this lane intersected with the main north-south lane
running through the farm. We turned on this lane, and drove about fifty
yards to a spot where a low ridge crossed the lane. I was fairly certain we
would catch the attention of any coyote entering the graveyard or traveling
that lane. But I also considered the fact that some coyotes might cross the
farm and not head directly for the free lunch. This north-south lane was a
natural travelway from a river to the hills about a mile to the north.
The low ridge that crossed this lane provided an unusual feature in the
landscape which made it a good location for a set. One side of the lane
boarded the same plowed fields adjacent to the graveyard which we could see
in the distance. On the other side, was a low cropped hay field. The ridge
also offered an added attraction as a shortcut across the hay field. Eli put
another dirthole in the hay field. On the opposite side of the lane was a
small tangle of corn fodder left by the plow. I improvised a set in by
scratching out a notch in the pile to hold my trap, and hiding a few drops
of lure in the fodder at the head of the notch.
Anticipation
always runs high the first few days on the trapline. When we left home to
check traps the next morning, all Eli could talk about was coyotes. I
figured over the next week or so, we might catch a couple of these gray
dogs, and it was entirely possible that we might nail one overnight. But
I've been at this a while, and I was quite prepared to check empty traps
that morning.
The dairy farm was in the middle of our schedule, and it was mid morning
when Eli opened the gate so we could get in. It was quite a drive across the
farm to where our traps were set. We weren't half way there when we spotted
someone, or something, headed down the lane toward our traps. Eli picked up
the field glasses, and I pressed down a little harder on the accelerator.
"What do you
see?" I asked.
"I..., Uh...,
Can't..."
I glanced over at
Eli. We were making a pretty good clip bouncing down the farm lane. Eli had
a death grip on the field glasses. But with no hands to steady himself, he
was bouncing up and down on the seat with the rest of our junk. Needless to
say, this made it very difficult to focus binoculars on the distant object.
Finally, as we drew closer, he ascertained it was a human form. We crossed
the north-south lane without even bothering to glance at the sets on the
ridge and made the short jag that put us on the lane to the grave yard. By
now, I could tell it was someone walking toward our traps, and I thought I
could make out some movement in the plowed ground. "I think we've got
something," I told Eli.
"Then you'd better hurry up," Eli said still fumbling with the binoculars,
"He's got a gun." Eli trained his attention on the sets. "Yeah," he said
between bounces. "I think we've got a fox."
By this time, I
could definitely see a critter in the first trap. It started moving around
as the man with the gun got closer to it. It did resemble a fox, but it was
way too big. "We've got a coyote," I told Eli. But the words had not left my
mouth when I saw a second coyote jump up in one of the sets beyond.
It was Saturday,
and I assumed a rabbit hunter had spotted our coyotes. Although I assumed
there would be no dispute over possession of the animals, I was not
particularly enthused about skinning coyotes that had been dispatched at
close range with a shotgun. But as we got closer, I recognized the figure
walking down the lane. It was Randy, the fellow that runs the dairy. He has
shot a couple of coyotes on this farm. I knew his caliber of choice was
30-30, and on a trapped coyote this would be no less effective than a
shotgun. But when he saw us coming, he stopped to wait.
Eli had caught
one coyote in the flat set with the vertebra. The middle two sets were
undisturbed, but the corn stalk post set nearest to the graveyard held a
second coyote. Although Eli and I had to gang up on them, this was a
sure-enough double. I was more than surprised; Eli was berserk.
"I thought we
might catch a coyote here," I joked with Randy, "but I didn't think we'd
catch two."
"Three," he said.
For a second, I wasn't sure Randy had miscounted the coyotes on hand, but
then he continued, "You've got one on that ridge up there," he pointed to
our sets in the other end of the field on the north-south lane. "I already
killed it."
We were prepared
to catch coyotes. We made sets targeted to catch coyotes. We expected to
catch coyotes. But we weren't ready for this. Had Randy not dispatched the
coyote in the ridge set, from a point somewhere about halfway down the lane,
we would have been able to see three coyotes at one time in sets that were
less than twenty-four-hours old.
We dispatched the
two live coyotes at the graveyard and remade the sets. Randy rode back to
the ridge top with us where we retrieved the third coyote. I was pleased to
find that Randy had not shot the animal but instead had stunned and
asphyxiated it. The coyote had found the dirthole Eli put in the hay field.
I might be able
to make the case that this was a triple on coyotes. We could see all the
sets from one spot, but we couldn't have possibly got them all in one
picture so I won't argue too strongly. But still we caught three coyotes at
this farm on our first check, and that must count for something.
I'm also willing
to throw in a dose of good luck to account for these coyotes. But it’s not
all luck. One thing that tipped the odds in our favor was targeting the sets
for coyotes. A lot of eastern trappers are catching incidental coyotes in
fox sets, but if you are trying to catch coyotes, you'll have better success
if you make coyote sets. The sets we used were standard canine sets we
simply adjusted the trap placement to accommodate coyote. For fox we place
the trap pan about seven inches from the attractor. For coyotes we use a
placement of twelve inches. Also, we used coyote lure or coyote urine at
most of these sets, although the coyote on the ridge went for a baited
dirthole with red fox smells.
Fast Forward -- Today I rely more on foot
guides than I do the actual measurement of the traps from the attractor. But
I still place a trap targeted for fox closer to the attractor than one
targeted for coyotes.
We
also increased our odds by offering a variety of sets, and setting a number
of traps. Each coyote was caught in a different type of set. That doesn't
prove anything, but at the graveyard we had a coyote in the first set and a
coyote in the last set, which means that one of them walked by and refused
two sets before it got caught.
As we left the
farm, I was still having a little trouble believing what had just
transpired. A triple on coyotes just doesn't happen in the Buckeye State.
Things like this can cause a man to talk to himself. I guess Eli must have
caught me mumbling and snapped me out of my trance when he said, "Kansas? No
dad this isn't Kansas, this is Ohio. And who's Toto?"
###
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