Skye Goode: Wisconsin Trapping Season 2014

I had a good first year trapping by myself.

I grew up in a family of trappers, and remember tagging along to check muskrat and coon traps with my mom as a kid before school, but never made any sets myself. This year, I decided to try it out on my own and focused on canines. All summer I got my fix in with nuisance trapping with live cages, but once October 18th came around, I was all about focusing on the coyotes that run through my backyard. I set about two dozen sets, extending about 16 miles round trip from my house, mostly private farm lands. I used 3 different kinds of sets: basic dirt hole with bait, scent post sets, and curiosity flat sets. I learned quickly to throw away my rebar stakes and invest in Wolf Fang cable stakes. I bought all different kinds of used traps from a local dealer, Trapper Art's Supply, and my stock include Duke #4s and #1.5s, Montana #2, and a few "unknown" brands that were too old to tell who manufactured them! After some modifications and a bath in Pete Rickard's logwood dye and trap wax, they were ready to go in the ground.

Below are some of my sets after I was finished and marked:

Basic dirt hole for coyote:

Scent post:

Territory crossing set:

Dirt hole with bleached bone attractor:

This first coyote was an interesting story. It was a perfect paw catch, but when I came out to check this trap, this small female was already dead; I believe this girl was a nomad just passing through, and the resident alpha female had came upon her caught in their territory and killed her on the spot.

So I re-bedded the trap in the same spot, catch circle, blood, and all, and added some of the glands from this first dead female.
Two weeks later, I caught the resident alpha female, evident by the semi-healed scars on her face. She was only caught by the toes, so I know she was a bit weery, but a catch is a catch.

Female

Male

#11 female coyote

#3 male red fox

Not every day produced, though some should have.....darn that dead spot!

I had an interest to try out dogproof traps this year for coon since I caught so many in cages over the summer, but after catching a few, and seeing that the fur won't be selling for much this season, I pulled my traps up during the week and decided to just target big boars. I bought my dogproofs from a small business, 100% made in the USA and they work great. You can order by clicking here: TrapsUSA.