First time Coyote Hunting need help ???
10-23-2012, 04:49 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 111
First time Coyote Hunting need help ???
Ok. I killed one behind my neighbors house Sunday. There is a 14 acre wooded area that I have permission to hunt them. I think their Den is in that patch of woods. What would be the time of day should I watch over some bait ? And what bait should I use ? I guess I was thinking Alpo dog food. I appreciate any input.
10-23-2012, 05:56 PM
#3
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 111
So I was thinking of setting up about 100 yards from a pile of dog food in the morning. Assuming they hear me coming in when I'm heading in there to set up or they are 1/4 mile away sleeping. Would they smell the food, wake up and head in ? It sounds too easy. I'm use to Deer Hunting and it not being that easy. 
10-23-2012, 06:58 PM
#4
Typical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Downwind, New York
Posts: 578
Easy? Not at all.
They will most likely visit the food under cover of darkness. I've baited them here in the northeast for a few years. I wait til' we have snow so I can see them. It can take long hours in the stand.
It's a good idea to get your bait pile established early and let them get used to feeding there. Use a trailcam if you have one so you can figure out what time they visit.
Make sure baiting is legal in your state.
They will most likely visit the food under cover of darkness. I've baited them here in the northeast for a few years. I wait til' we have snow so I can see them. It can take long hours in the stand.
It's a good idea to get your bait pile established early and let them get used to feeding there. Use a trailcam if you have one so you can figure out what time they visit.
Make sure baiting is legal in your state.
10-24-2012, 05:53 PM
#5
Fork Horn
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Hamilton, OH
Posts: 456
I use a raw chicken and a rabbit decoy with a distress call. The problem with yotes is that they circle downwind before they come to investigate. They normally smell you before you see them and wont come close.
But... I tend to do best early morning and late evenings, just like any other hunting. My set up now is from a tree stand and 100 yards with my Muzzle loader.
But... I tend to do best early morning and late evenings, just like any other hunting. My set up now is from a tree stand and 100 yards with my Muzzle loader.
10-24-2012, 08:32 PM
#7
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location:
Posts: 5,130
Catch them out in the field where the cows are giving birth.
They wait for still borns and they LOVE the afterbirth !
Dawn and dusk are your best times.
Set up in good cover near there travel routes to and from the pastures.
Good hunting !!!
They wait for still borns and they LOVE the afterbirth !
Dawn and dusk are your best times.
Set up in good cover near there travel routes to and from the pastures.
Good hunting !!!
10-25-2012, 07:35 AM
#8
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,905
There are a lot of theories about baiting, most work, some are only theories that sound logical, but coyotes are instinctive, not logical, so you need to prey upon their instincts...
For what it's worth, it'll be dang expensive to use wet dog food to bait coyotes, and I'm not 100% sure that coyotes will be readily attracted to it (they've never eaten it, it doesn't really smell like meat, they'd have to LEARN to associate that smell with food). Personally, roadkill is a very cheap solution, or frozen blood-pops (waste meat and blood frozen in a ziploc bag, remove the bag, instant bait), barrens or deads from local poultry farms also work very well. My FAVORITE BAIT I have ever used was dead piglets from a hog farm I used to live and hunt nearby, they were always plentiful, and were like bacon flavored crack cocaine to coyotes.
If you want to bait, you need to start patterning those coyotes. Throw some of your bait out there a few times a week even when you won't be hunting so that the dogs start to associate that location with an easy meal (some guys will argue that they'll also associate your scent with food, making your scent an attractant. I don't like that theory, as I don't want coyotes looking to humans for food. Not really as worried about predation of humans, but desensitization of coyotes so they'll get more uninhibited about coming into close quarters with humans).
The dogs will be moving dusk to dawn primarily, and depending on your state, you might be able to hunt them legally at night, might not. If it's legal, it's a blast. if it's not, then twilight hours at the bookends of days will work just fine.
You can also hang a game camera over your baiting locations (which you're baiting all week long) to pattern when the dogs are coming to the bait. If you need to adjust when the dogs are coming into the bait, you can leave less and less bait gradually (works about 1/10 times for me), which will make them more eager to get their early before someone else eats it, even their own family members.
After you shoot a coyote on a bait pile, bait it heavily with good meat mixed with rank half-rotted meat (ensures there's a ton of scent) for a few days, and take off the hunting pressure for a week or more. Let them build confidence. Coyotes instincts will tell them they NEED to come to that bait, but on the other hand, getting shot at twice within a week will trigger their instincts that a certain place is no bueno, no matter how good it smells. It also gives NEW coyotes time to come in and replace the last one you shot. Leave a lot of food scent and someone will come to the buffet. Sure, a dominant male and his family might have kept others off a pile while they were alive, but once you clean them out, it leaves a void for others to fill. Baiting heavily will help fill that void faster.
I also tend to throw smaller chunks of blood-pops or roadkills out away from the main baiting site to help build confidence. If the animals get a small taste that won't sate their appetite, and there's more food close by, they'll come.
Another good trick, to maximize the life-span of your bait pile, is to hang it from a tree out of reach of coyotes. Give them a little to keep them coming back, but the big stinking carcass will be a magnet, and dogs will waste half a night under a hanging deer trying to figure out how to get a piece of it.
I'm sure that's enough to absorb for now, hopefully it's a few new tricks that will improve your bag of tricks to put some fur in the dirt. PM me if you have other questions if you like.
For what it's worth, it'll be dang expensive to use wet dog food to bait coyotes, and I'm not 100% sure that coyotes will be readily attracted to it (they've never eaten it, it doesn't really smell like meat, they'd have to LEARN to associate that smell with food). Personally, roadkill is a very cheap solution, or frozen blood-pops (waste meat and blood frozen in a ziploc bag, remove the bag, instant bait), barrens or deads from local poultry farms also work very well. My FAVORITE BAIT I have ever used was dead piglets from a hog farm I used to live and hunt nearby, they were always plentiful, and were like bacon flavored crack cocaine to coyotes.
If you want to bait, you need to start patterning those coyotes. Throw some of your bait out there a few times a week even when you won't be hunting so that the dogs start to associate that location with an easy meal (some guys will argue that they'll also associate your scent with food, making your scent an attractant. I don't like that theory, as I don't want coyotes looking to humans for food. Not really as worried about predation of humans, but desensitization of coyotes so they'll get more uninhibited about coming into close quarters with humans).
The dogs will be moving dusk to dawn primarily, and depending on your state, you might be able to hunt them legally at night, might not. If it's legal, it's a blast. if it's not, then twilight hours at the bookends of days will work just fine.
You can also hang a game camera over your baiting locations (which you're baiting all week long) to pattern when the dogs are coming to the bait. If you need to adjust when the dogs are coming into the bait, you can leave less and less bait gradually (works about 1/10 times for me), which will make them more eager to get their early before someone else eats it, even their own family members.
After you shoot a coyote on a bait pile, bait it heavily with good meat mixed with rank half-rotted meat (ensures there's a ton of scent) for a few days, and take off the hunting pressure for a week or more. Let them build confidence. Coyotes instincts will tell them they NEED to come to that bait, but on the other hand, getting shot at twice within a week will trigger their instincts that a certain place is no bueno, no matter how good it smells. It also gives NEW coyotes time to come in and replace the last one you shot. Leave a lot of food scent and someone will come to the buffet. Sure, a dominant male and his family might have kept others off a pile while they were alive, but once you clean them out, it leaves a void for others to fill. Baiting heavily will help fill that void faster.
I also tend to throw smaller chunks of blood-pops or roadkills out away from the main baiting site to help build confidence. If the animals get a small taste that won't sate their appetite, and there's more food close by, they'll come.
Another good trick, to maximize the life-span of your bait pile, is to hang it from a tree out of reach of coyotes. Give them a little to keep them coming back, but the big stinking carcass will be a magnet, and dogs will waste half a night under a hanging deer trying to figure out how to get a piece of it.
I'm sure that's enough to absorb for now, hopefully it's a few new tricks that will improve your bag of tricks to put some fur in the dirt. PM me if you have other questions if you like.
