Where the yotes are!?

[MarkA]

Where the yotes are!?
So tonight, we tried again! SIL and myself have several sections of ‘kin folk land’ to hunt 10 miles east of Patricia, Texas. We get there at 4 pm and visit with the kinfolks for an hour. Every morning they get up and the yotes are there, wake them up at night, and cannot keep a cat. At 5pm off we go. We are gonna get’em this time. We have our Cass Creek call with the new electronic amp and speaker. We are totally camo’d. We have prime land, some open space, some trees, heavy cover along the draws. We make three stands until dark with no results, but no matter, after dark they are ours. We make three stands after dark and call until 9 pm and pack it in with copious amounts of grumbling and cursing.

Here is the kicker! On the way, home we stop at the intersection of 349 and 176 where yotes hang. Jump out and walk across road. SIL has mouth call and squats down, I just kinda sorta lean against the fence, and we’ve been BS’g and all. He starts calling and in 3 minutes, ‘Here’s Johnny!’ What is up with that? What are we doing wrong?

Some theories. The only time we have called anything in is away from the truck. It is white. Are the yotes in the intensely farming areas just not out until much later when the people are asleep? We are trying HARD, camo, no lights, no talking, and some scent killer, red beams on everything with decent calls. We cannot get anything in! Why? We stop at an intersection that is LIGHTED and has cars going by always and call one up in three minutes.

[TommyJohnson]

Mark you gave some good info but its hard to nail it down on the computer. We all start banging our heads. Let me run down the list, you may know all this but then again something may stand out.

In the daytime; total concealment (hands, face, gun) is critical. When I started I wore camo pants and shirt only. Scent free is good but you cannot 100% get rid of it. You can buy Walmart out of scent free q-tips but your not totaly eliminating your scent so dont go all out on this one. If you hunt with a partner (two people is optimum in the daytime) try to get 100 yrds apart to maximize ground coverage. Wind direction isnt as big of a factor as glistening in the sun, try to call with the sun at your back. Any distress calls will call in a coyote. BUT some do a better job. And how you man it has an influence to. Young coyotes dont take much but older ones need a little more realism to come in. Call in short sequences and keep the volume realistic. Coyotes are going to come in from within earshot range. Ive seen them come in from within 3/4 to a mile and a little further over open ground. If numbers is your game, call for 15 minutes and go to the next. If getting a single or certain nuisance yote is what your after, stay up to 25-30 minutes. They will only come from a range that they can hear. 15 minutes is enough time for a hungry yote to travel a mile.

At night; Use red lights and forget camo. Try not to shine the truck, your buddy, a gun, or make any shadows. I have seen coyotes bug out on this one alone. And of course scent isnt a big factor here because of course your in a truck. Keep the light on the WHOLE time. Move it at a moderate speed. The key is to spot them first. Once spotted raise the light and "halo" them until shooting time. Load their butt up and move on.

You may know all of this but each ingredient is critical. Ive hunted with guys that do everything but one of these. And wonder why they dont kill anything. I hunted with 3 guys one night that were somewhat seasoned at calling. On the first stand I started calling from the driver seat and they were up top. I didnt see and lights moving. I said "is everythththing alright up there" and they replied "yea we're just waiting". I said waiting for what "a man in a Santa suit". Needless to say this one key trick was what was killing their success. We called in 3 coyotes, 7 cats, and 3 sets of unidentifiable eyes. They never killed as much stuff until that night. This was their land and I was the invite. They had awesome cat country and didnt know it. It just took a little guidance and they were in awe.

Other than that it just takes persistance. And fine tuning. You cant make em come in, but you can make it enticing.

Now learning coyote behavior is a whole nother sermon. ;D

Hope this helps.

[slammy]

Amen.