I was on a new piece of private property that the owner reported was over run with predators. He has not seen a rabbit, grouse or squirrel on his property in the last 5 years. One job he does is deer processing and there was a bone pile out back. Every predator known to be in the area headed for the bone pile. He asked me, how many coyotes I could catch in 2 weeks? That is very hard to say but, I told him 4-6.  Why so few? Because the coyotes up here are on a 7-8-9 or 10 day cycle. In this case it proved to be an 8 day cycle.

What is 8 day cycle ? That means the coyotes are hunting through the area once every 8 days. They hunt through meaning you have one chance at them every 8 days. This is why coyotes are so hard to trap. If the animal just ate a meal before he/she enters the area you are trapping they may walk right passed your sets. Anyways, I set up on the property making sure any set is 30 feet from the bone pile to insure I don't catch a bird of prey.

First check was a huge 32 pound coon. He was so large I had to put him on a coyote stretcher because he would not fit on a regular coon stretcher. Interesting thing I discovered skinning the coon was he had coyotes bite marks on his side. Some poor coyote must have thought this large coon was easy prey. I would have loved to seen that fight. Obviously the coon won. But, this also explained why there was no other coons in the area. The smaller coons would have been killed and ate by the coyotes.

The next check was on a Tuesday and this produced a beautiful double on silver coyotes. The owner was very happy and smiling from ear to ear. The previous year another trapper in the area had quit as soon as the temperature got below freezing. He didn't know how to freeze proof his sets and he didn't catch any coyotes, either.

The following Wednesday was the next time the area produced.  The first trap held another beautiful silver coyote. The overcast day left a haze that changed the look. It looks like rain and snow. I approached the last set by the bone pile and saw the bobcat. A beautiful silver cat that let out a low growl and hiss warning me to stay back.

I was thrilled to catch another bobcat because we are only allowed 2 a year. The owner was thrilled beyond belief. That was one of the bobcats that had wiped out the rabbit population in the area. So, in my 2 weeks I had taken out 5 predators. 3 coyotes, 1 bobcat and a huge coon. Coon a predator? They sure are, they will chase grouse off their nest and eat the eggs. The next week and on Thursday I picked up the 4th coyote. There was snow on the ground and the lone coyote came in for the last time. The owner thought the pack was larger but, it looks like that was the whole pack. The only way to know for sure is to wait until next Friday's snow. That will tell the story.

Trapping is a never ending learning experiences. You must learn how to pick locations, use good lure and bait and most important start with good equipment. Added the next Friday produced nothing. No tracks in the snow and only birds of prey had touched the bone pile. Funny how the owner thought there was 20 or more coyotes coming in that turned out to be 4. This is common, non-trapper's very rarely have any clue as to the numbers of animals working an area. I have seen it both ways where the owner reports huge numbers of animals that turns out to be 1 or 2 and other times owner's reported only 1 or 2 and you hit the jack pot.