Smart Fox

S

SuperOutdoorsman1

New member
What do you do if the fox keep stepping right around your pan but not hitting your pan? the pan is the lowest spot and i have guiding sticks but the just step right around the pan. Any advice would be helpful.
 
I read someplace u could enlarge the pan area with a piece of cardboard fastened to the pan. Might try that, or you could bed another trap close to the first. Blend it in as best you can and make it a type of walk through, as its lookin at the original set. I've only been trapping for about 3-4 years, but this is what i would do.
 

you need to be smarter...this will be a great learning experience for you as it was for me when I encountered and sucessfully outsmarted my first "smart" coyote. Evidently, he knows that the low spot is suspicious.....I use a trappers cap to bed my Bridgers, I pat the dirt around the cap with the back of my hand to firm it up, then, I pull the cap, take a paint brush and sweep back from the pan and up at a small angle the dirt, put crumpled wax paper over the pan, sift more dirt over that and make the whole set level.....now with the set level, there is no low spot for him to see, where is the pan now? narrow up his access with more side backing, if he's stepping way around the pan, add a blind set trap and put the pan exactly where he's putting his foot. last resort, put the trap bed in as before but don't put the trap in it. make it a fake. come out in front of the original and bury the trap a little deeper as above, but camoflage it to blend with the surrounding area. leave the fake trap bed exposed....
 
What i did for the one set was put a trap right next to the trap bed and covered it with alittle hay blending it in. i have been haveing this problem at alot of sets. There was a guy who trapped before me so i dont know if its because they are educated or not. But thanks for the advice i will try all of it
 
If you are haveing this problem at a lot of sites maybe you are getting sent on the traps by mistake. Do you use a seperate glove for lures/baits and setting the trap? Are the traps kept sent free before setting?
 
Try a Step Down set, not just the low spot.
Or, move the trap as close as you can to where he leaves tracks.
I recently had a Red that wouldn't go down in the step down,
Trap was fired empty, I re bedded in the same spot and next day seen where he was only coming to the edge.
Trap was fired empty again, this time I moved back close to where I last seen a track, bedded it and left UP LEVEL with surronding area and the next morning he was caught.
I've played with them before like that, and some are just plain hard to get.
 
Well i was useing seperate gloves but i was in a hurry one day so i didnt use different gloves so maybe that is why. I am trapping mostly red fox but their are some grays
 
Are you bedding the trap? Do you use a pan cover,then sift dirt over it? If the only trap covering you use is hay, you will only fool pups,and not many of them. Also, if you are using a dirt hole set,try a flat set. In my opinion they work better anyway,and most trappers don't use them much.
 
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