Skye Goode: January 2014

One of my favorite animals to pursue in the long winter months of Wisconsin is coyotes. Winter coyotes are much more intelligent than the new pups in August, and require more work. The numbers in Wisconsin are not as populated as Ohio or Indiana, but there are still plenty of coyotes that need to be kept in check to balance the turkeys and fawns. Many hunters run hounds on coyotes which can be very beneficial in large areas of land. Another common technique for calling coyotes is the use of e-callers like FoxPro. My article will strictly cover mouth calls and setups without the use of dogs.

I always setup with the wind on my face. High winds can be difficult to get the sound out there, but scent is the most important thing and a coyote’s nose is a make or break versus its hearing. Anticipate that coyotes will work downwind to catch the scent of prey or whatever is causing the animal to be in distress. When calling for territorial purposes, wind is not so much of a factor because coyotes aren’t worried about winding another coyote and more concerned with defending their territory in a timely manner. Try to set up on higher elevated landmarks that offer a camouflaging backdrop for farther vantage point; field edges or bluffs can offer a longer range for spotting coyotes coming in.

Deep snow means your sits need to be longer.

I tend to avoid areas that snowmobile trails run through, and scout in advance for fresh car kills or scrap bait piles from deer hunters in the fall. If it’s been a harsh winter, such as this season in Wisconsin so far, it’s difficult for all animals to find a food source and they expel a lot of energy traveling through the deep snow and negative temperatures. In these scenarios, it’s important to call near cover, so locate thick pines, swamps, or wherever the deer are yarding up for the winter. Deep snow is an important factor, so during setups where I am calling more than 300 yards from where I believe the coyotes are, I tend to sit for more than 30 minutes to give them time to get moving and navigate through the deep snow.

My calling sequences are pretty consistent between sits. The only variations I use are the time of year. November through December, animals are in predator mode and looking to consume as much food as possible. My standard sequence is to start off with a rabbit or bird distress on any standard distress call, open or closed reed, even mouth diaphragms, such as a turkey call work well. Many hunters might experience calling in coyotes in the spring months while turkey hunting for this very reason. I keep a fluid rhythm: calling for 5 minutes straight, then resting quietly for 10 minutes, then repeating the sequence for 30 minutes maximum. If anything were in the area, it would have hear the calls and been into the vicinity by now if interested.

Winter months and the breeding season vary from region to region for every species of game. The coyote breeding season in Wisconsin runs from the end of January to early March. Coyotes are paired up and become eager to defend their territory by fighting off any intruder. Much like a rutting buck, coyotes can be difficult to call in with the usual distress calls because they are focused on mating. My breeding season calling sequence usually looks like this. I begin with a few female estrus barks, which are short, high-pitch howls that end abruptly. I do 3-5 of those howls in a row. These are the invitation calls that tell males in the area that the female wants to get bred. Sometimes males will come to this call, and sometimes another female in the area will come in to fight the new female away from her males and her territory. Often I will simply do these estrus howls for several minutes, then just sit back and relax for 10 minutes or so. To set the scene of a breeding event, often times I will call back with a deeper, male return bark. After several minutes, making whimpers or high-pitched distress barks on the Primos Sound Dome mouth diaphragm simulate two coyotes mating, which often involves biting and aggressive behavior.

Sometimes I wonder how many coyotes I miss coming in at a distance because I'm lost in these types of sunsets.

At the end of every sit, I always do one long, locating howl and wait several minutes for a response. Coyotes are sociable and just like using an owl locator in the spring for turkey gobbles, coyotes will return long howls to let the first howler know where they are. Sometimes letting out a long, friendly howl after a series of prey distress calls will tell wandering coyotes that you just killed a meal and are willing to share, so come join. If coyotes are located by sound but not seen, and they bark or howl in response to your calls, call back and mimic whatever calls they are throwing at you. Because they are so sociable and territorial, letting them know you are another coyotes will spark their curiosity and any alarming behavior will subside.

When a coyote is spotted to be coming into your calls, stop calling. If the coyote crosses your wind, you must take the shot when it begins to look nervous or turns. If a coyote hangs up within sound distance, but has yet to wind you or look concerned, utilize the mouse squeaker: short, barely audible squeaks will entice the coyote to come in closer. These squeaks also work well for calling in shyer furbearers like fox.

Coyote decoys, lifelike or cardboard, if placed at the right angle and used with appropriate calling techniques, are proven to be effective. Just like the Whirling Bird or Quiver Critter, motion decoys will take attention off the caller and focus the coyote on the movement. It’s important to remember that coyotes will always circle downwind of the decoy or where they suspect the distress call is coming from, so remember this when placing decoys on your sets. A rule of thumb is that you want the coyote looking past you when his eyes are locked into a decoy. Keep track of the number of sets you complete in relation to coyote called in to get a good ratio of how often you should be calling in coyotes, and remember that every time you call in a coyote and miss the shot, that coyote is educated on calling in the future.

Both of these pups came in to the Primos Double Whammy.