Coyotes

[slabz]

Hey everyone, this winter I want to do a bunch of coyote hunting in the area since I will be kinda deprived from ice fishing everyday like I was able to do when I went to school in Brainerd. I've duck and goose hunted in the area before and saw a few dogs around, I was just wondering what the coyote population looks like around Crookston and if anyone does a fair amount of hunting for them? Thanks, slabz

[CANOPY SAM]

I can't speak for the Crookston area Slabz, but I do know up here in TRF there are too many dogs runnin' around late winter. So many in fact, that many area farmers and deer hunters were complaining last year that there were very few fawns to be seen due to predation by yotes and wolves.

I've only hunted em' a few times, with no luck, but I have several good friends that knock em' down all winter long.

[Matt Breuer]

Always a fair amount of pups around that area. We used to do a lot of fox and 'yote hunting between RLF and all the way up toward Roseau, and always got some shooting in. Could be a tougher year, with predator numbers on the downside of their cycle. Low rabbit and grouse numbers = low predator numbers...

[Musky Buck]

Low predator numbers maybe in that area Matt, but the highest many of us have ever seen in our area(s). I hear them every night and many different groups of them same as last year and 51 of them were harvested in our section and the neighbor sections, I think there's more this year than last. Talking coyotes. Got a ? for you Matt, we really need to thin em, haven't seen a rabbit in 3 years, they are looking at our cats in our driveway now etc. They start howling about an hour before dark in the standing corn across the road, yes I could easily shoot or shoot at a few anyway, but would trapping them be a better way to go to get more of them, would the gunfire scare them off more or not ? Figured several traps could maybe do better than cranking at them with a heater ?

[Matt Breuer]

It should be state-wide... it's your classic predator/prey model. There's a no food, so there's fewer predators. Likely the reason you're seeing more, is because they have less to eat, and are more common in populated areas because they have to come closer to find food....

Low grouse numbers, pheasants have plummeted, and rabbits are almost non-existent = less dogs.

Either way you choose to go after them, it would help what you're experiencing. If you shot one, and scared the rest, wouldn't that be mission accomplished as well? Trapping could result in more though, I agree.

[Musky Buck]

Thanks Matt yes that makes sense, they can't be finding much to eat out there, mouse diet maybe, they are as close as they can get, would they I doubt it but would they resort to eating corn ever ? All weekend they were in and out of it, they've really been in there tons, few grouse is right, pheasants pretty lean, rabbits it's been 3 years since we've seen 1, I think when this weather breaks Wednesday I'm going to set up where they seem to come to the edge of the corn and rifle through the pasture and back and see what happens, 30-06 is it. Hoping a pack of wolves runs through the area again, that shuts em up for a few days usually.

[Musky Buck]

Bring back the coyote thread, mercy there's a lot of them the past few years, hoping for mange almost, 2 winters ago no one hunted them hardly, last winter they got 51 of them in our area and hunted hard almost daily as guys are laid off or farmers etc., so this year I expected it to be a bit quieter but wrong, hearing way more coyote action this year compared to last. They really need to be knocked back down to size some, here's to waiting for snow and a full moon, got a plan, hope it works.

[boXCar JiggY]

ill be hunting outa my yard this year for deer as they are seeking refuge from the yotes, far to many when the deer start doing that..... in town!

[Musky Buck]

Wise old farmer to our area said the yotes are really tough on the fawns, more yotes means more noses and more eyeballs searching for food, then he said once grown up some the wolves destroy em as wolf numbers have never been higher in our area and I see in the CO's report lots of cattle depredation in the area. November 9th is near, I'd hate to be a deer in our area here, if we don't get em wolves will and or they will try hard to get them. Man there's timberwolves my word, cmon DNR Montana wants 500 because they're massacreing elk near Yellowstone, why on earth do we need to try to carry more than Montana with all the wolf food out there, cmon.

[archeral566]

Crazy how Montana wants a wolf population of 500 and Minnesota wants 1600 when Montana is almost twice the size of Minnesota. Seems to me like the DNR needs to do some thinking.

[larson311]

Good News: I know two groups between Middle River and TRF that have shot 130+ coyotes. It's crazy how many are around!

[CANOPY SAM]

That is good news! We had a really big Red Fox run thru our backyard the other night, while the dogs were outside running around in the yard!