Baiting


Uncle Mike, good luck with the hunting. You setup sounds as good as anyone's at the moment. Hope to see some coyote photos soon.
 
Since we are in such geographically diverse regions, some of our experiences will probably be quite different. For instance several of this group recently have remarked about how the absence or presence of crows seems to be an indicator. If you are in snow covered territories where coyotes may be highly likely to show during daytime, I can see where that could very well make a difference as a confidence builder for the coyotes. But where I'm located, coyotes almost never show until darkness sets in. Crows have long since gone to roost here before coyotes would arrive, so I shoot every crow that hits the bait to keep them from wiping me out. I'm generally using smaller chunks of deer, table scraps, and dry dog food mixed with grease or gravy of some sort in order to avoid attracting buzzards that would also wipe out the bait constantly.

I keep a light shining on my bait all night. The light is on the back shelter of my shop and is located about 60 yds from the bait. I shoot from the house which makes it 145 yds to the bait pile for a shot. I have three trail cams and 2 alert sensors located at the bait pile on 2x4 poles. The coyotes will occasionally be spooked by the IR lights on the cameras when they come on if the coyote happens to be looking at it as turns on. They can see the IR source (led's) light up, but I don't believe they see the IR light itself. Sometimes I think it is actually the click which some cameras make that causes them to look at the IR lighting coming on. Usually however they pay no attention at all to the IR lights and I've never observed them being spooked by the spot light from the shop.

Also I haven't observed any reaction to the sensors, but I keep a piece of tape over the little red led light.

The first year I killed 14 in 4 months from Sept. to Dec. with this setup. Then I went a long time until March before I saw any and finally killed two more. The next year I killed 5 and was surrounded by soybeans during summer and fall until late Oct. The first year I was surrounded by corn. This year 2013, corn surrounded me again. I've managed to kill 5 off the bait again, but had a couple of mess ups and didn't get shots at two other which I should have gotten but never showed for another opportunity. However, I called and killed 4 at night from my yard during that time. Maybe they would have eventually made it to the bait pile, but they just haven't seemed to be as interested in bait this year. We do have a lot rabbits around this year, and maybe that has given them plenty of food without needing to hit the bait here.

I'm just trying to explain what I've experienced both good and bad. I have a friend who believes the coyotes get to where they smell death when so many have killed in one place and it takes a long time to wash away that scent. I do know that most of us experience an initial flurry of activity and then it falls way off. Maybe that is just a result of shooting most of the easy ones out of an area.
 

Good info DoubleUp. It is a mystery to why the bait sites are not producing as they once were. And, it seems that it's wide spread from one region to another. It's not just me. My site has never yielded the amount of coyotes that yours has, but it was definitely better in the beginning. Now it's as if there are no coyotes around at all.

I did have one coyote (the last one) come the the bait site and then leave. It never touched the bait. That was a rare day-time (morning) coyote. Like you, most of my coyote activity is at night. It's not often that I see one in the daytime.

Whoever said baiting is a piece of cake just hasn't baited much. It has turned out to be a lot of work, trial-n-errors, with some frustrations thrown in.
 
Doubleup i think you maybe on to something about the sent of dead coyotes --- that is why my bait site is called -- The Graveyard. Any friend or family knows what and where i am talking about when i say "down in the graveyard".

I have also gone through this winter dry spell you discussed-- but it usually turns around closer to spring as you mentioned .. I just hope it holds true this year my finger is getting itchy.

Years ago when I would ocassionally bait for some guys that had dogs and I was not even shooting at them at that time. I had 5 coyotes at 7:10 one morning -- never forgot the time because I was just getting ready to take the kids to school. I called one of the guys that had the dogs -- he told me don't shoot I will be right there and before I could get down the road with the kids I met him coming to my house and he lived 4 miles away.

As you say 6mm06 whoever said baiting was easy... plenty of work.... but still lots of fun and loads of great experiences nobody can take away from you.... all we can do is enjoy it together.

good luck --dd
 

I think I need a mobile hunting cabin, one that I can roll to a new hunting site. Maybe that would give my current site time to cool off a bit.

If the smell of death at a site is the problem, wonder how long it might be before it's up to snuff again?
 
6mm06 we have discussed this before and I have an old hay trailer in my yard that I have been considering converting to a mobile camp. Saw one video on a pretty nice one on an old hay trailer -- it got a little pricey. Then i started thinking about converting a small old camper trailer. I have some propertys in mind that i could get it on and off of even in the snowy winter season. I just have to find the right trailer. Can't be to nice the whole family might want to use it for summer camping and then I would have to look for another one... I just need to take the time to look for one.

Also, doubleup mentioned about covering up the red light on the camera .. I have never covered it up.. but I may if it helps bring yotes back sooner. The pic I posted this fall with 3 coyotes was with red dot on the camera flashing. I since shot the 2 females and missed the male. I guess I need to train a fresh crop of rookies moving in.
 
I went out to get wood around 8:30 tonight and I heard a coyote howling.I hadnt even seen a track for a while so was nice to hear.I got my howler and did some howling hoping maybe they will come close enough to smell the bait.at least I know there are some around.My alarm went off at 8:30 this morning getting me exited but it ended up being a neighbors visiting friends fluffy dog.Oh well better to have a second of excitement than none at all.
 
My cousin and I got another one on the bait pile early this morning. This one looks way different than the other coyotes we have shot over the past couple of years. This one looks like a traditional western coyote with very pointy ears and nose not like the one in the previous pic I posted.
 
Good work Scott. Certainly it doesn't look much like most of the coyotes from this area.

I am in my shack now. Beautiful bright sunny but wicked windy day. It was 1F when I got here earlthis morning. Up here we have a saying that your not having fun unless your nose is running. Lol. I lost a track off my ATV this morning 9 1/2 miles from camp. Had to snowshoe the rest of the way in. This set up has been full of aggrevation since day 1. Been watching the same 2 ravens flying off with bits and pieces of scraps since 6:30 this morning.
 
Sat 12 hours. Saw 2 Ravens and 2 Bald Eagles.
Saw coyote tracks in my tracks from this morning less than a half mile from my bait. They moved during the day but I didn't see any. Very soon I am gonna switch gears and go back hound hunting if things don't pick up. My buddies killed 4 today just North of me.
 
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This is the snowiest winter I can remember 5 inches of snow last night, a couple days before that 2 more inches in 2 days are predicting 8 to 12 inches. I was plowing out a friends driveway a few miles from here and crossing the middle of the road there was a coyote. can you believe it. I checked for tracks after I plowed and the coyote was using a deer runway to travel. Dreamer
 
There predicting 12 in of snow here Thursday. I sure hope it dosn't come. It seems like all I do is move snow.Man are we going to have winter kill on deer and turkey.
 
Well things are finally happening for me ....went to my camp Friday and at 930 the alarm went off only to find I had a large owl raiding get my bait
Saturday started with a bang....Red fox came in and it was bang flop. Later 2 yotes came in 1st I only noticed 1 right at my bait I shot and it instantly started doing spins then at the top of my scope I noticed the other one hauling [beeep] out of the field and I took a hail Mary shot at the second one and it was another bang-flop....@180yds running flat out
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. Ended up being a male and a female and the red was a small male.



 
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