Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Coyote, Small Game, Varmints => Topic started by: wraithen on December 04, 2011, 01:39:12 PM
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Went out this morning. Set up right before sunrise. Let everything settle about 10 minutes after I set my foxpro. Had birds circling as soon as I hit the send button. Nothing moved. Time to find another spot.
Drove around some and found out that my first stand was not where I thought I was. I was on a road right next to the C-line. OOOps!
Drove around some more and found a nice little clearing about 100 feet from the road. Hiked in, set up and waited. Tried a coyote locator first. Nada! After 2 rounds I switched to lightening jack. Nada! Let that play for about 10 minutes and switched to fawn distress. Nope! Hit the coyote pup distress for a few minutes. Nothing! Then tried the female coyote challenge. Zilch! Was tempted to try some of the cougar sounds but I don't have a tag for those and wasn't carrying my sidearm today so that seemed like a lose lose situation. I decided to go get lost in the forest driving around so I got up to grab my foxpro. I took 5 steps from where I was sitting and turned to see what it looked like. I couldn't see my rifle anymore and the ferns completely blocked where I was sitting from almost every angle in front of where I had set. Saved that in the gps :tup:
Drive around a little while and realize I'm apparently not far from chehalis. Entered by black lake. Uh oh! Time to get unlost! Made it back pretty easy. Didn't see any good looking spots on the way back so I left. I had a good time out there. Some really cool places to hide if you can get away from all the logging areas. My first stand happened to be on a hillside in some trees in the middle of a clearcut. Kinda slick walking down to the stand. Bout had a heart attack walking back up it. I don't think I'm a fan of all the clearcutting out there. It makes it harder to access areas because they push all the dead brush to the perimeter of the fields. Anyone on the west side want a yote partner in capitol forest?
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May be going out tomorrow am. Probably gonna sleep early and wake up at 2 or so and hit up the squid first. Maybe... Anyone hunting coyotes out there tomorrow and wouldn't mind an extra shooter let me know.
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Wow........That really sucks. I saw four dogs out just driving around today and I wasn't even calling. :dunno:
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Wow........That really sucks. I saw four dogs out just driving around today and I wasn't even calling. :dunno:
Yeah but where were you? Capitol Forest? I heard them early in the morning but due to me not realizing quite where I was I didn't have a good setup.
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This is my place.
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv85%2FFALFire%2FIMG_0006_2.jpg&hash=f5a0151c2ce52bdd6878c0473e8931f4d482dc91)
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Ahem... Braggart. I drove around all over looking for ranchers looking for a yote hunter. All I found was "covenants."
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I hear ya. I lived and hunted on the wet side for 27 long fricken years, I hated it. I worked my azz off and bought a place in Ea. Wa. now I am in heaven. I have hunted all over Capitol Forest, rode trail bikes and ATV's there for years so I know exactly what you are going through. But one thing you are missing is you have a wonderful supply of Fox, bobcat and many other creatures that flourish in the forests, where over here, at least where I'm at, a fox is a rare sighting and bobcats? Well you just don't find many at all and now the wolves are moving in and the coyotes are going to get scarce after a few short years.
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From what I've heard though getting the cats and foxes in can take forever and involves more skill than anything else. I will stretch my stands out longer tomorrow. Especially in my invisible place. Worst case I figure they'll get used to my scent being there and not doing anything and then get popped. Only reason I left it before an hour was up today was I got really thirsty when I was driving out. That came to bite me halfway through my stand. No I didn't water my stand, held it til I got back to my truck :chuckle:
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There's much better places to call. Rick
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Rick, I know for a fact 2 things about your statement. The first thing is you are correct. The second thing is I don't know them and refuse to ask in this forum since I generally see people getting flamed for this. Still practicing with your calls btw. I should have them nailed by next year for the bigger kitties. Still trying to get that whistle working but I'm not too worried about it.
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The CF is a tough place to hunt period. Yotes can be hard to come by, but it can be done. If it is the only place you have then make do. Don't get too discouraged.
Here are a few pics the CF.
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hunt101.com%2Fdata%2F500%2Fmedium%2FwebYote.jpg&hash=17ee22e729d48a0c4675d02e8111ff154f786424)
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hunt101.com%2Fdata%2F500%2Fmedium%2FIMG_3565.jpg&hash=92a144881056c2c1bd2204e1b744d12641176579)
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hunt101.com%2Fdata%2F500%2Fmedium%2FwebIMG_9794.jpg&hash=e976941f7ca830a3c2812a658e2f4f2c91430dcd)
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hunt101.com%2Fdata%2F500%2Fmedium%2FwebIMG_9800.jpg&hash=a45ffc59221060098593f462053f9909939e0d80)
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Billy, I'm not discouraged at all. The whining won't start for a looong time. It gets me out of the house and exploring so I don't necessarily have to make a kill right now. Just enjoying the process. Most of those photos look like they were in the clearcuts? Do they produce better? I hate walking into them due to the slick brush on the edges. Maybe it would help if I wasn't walking on steep hillside too huh? I'll make do.
My internal alarm decided for me today that I didn't need wake up early this morning. Looks like it just turned into an evening hunt :chuckle:
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If you like i can meet up with you. I can show what to look for. The edges of older clear cuts are deadly. Rick
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Rick, be careful what you offer. I may take you up on it. Did have one general question for everyone. I have a 4 year old mastiff. She's small for the breed and only 155 lbs. I feel guilty leaving her in a crate when I go hunting while the wife's out of town. Do you guys think she would scare off the coyotes or fox or bobcats if I brought her out with me? If I ever take her I will be carrying a sidearm just in case SHTF. I'll kill a pack of endangered green blooded wolves (if such a thing existed) to protect her. It will be a moot point since momma comes home saturday but for future reference...?
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I wouldn't bring the dog with you for a coyote hunt, you might get written up for coyote hunting with dogs....
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Not too worried about that respect. She would be leashed on a very short leash tied to a big tree. She likes to dart after movement and I have to use a specific "mean" LEAVE IT in order to stop her. I'm also not 100% on recall with her if she's really interested in something.
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I think this could be construed as dog baiting, or whatever they call it when coyote hunters put out a dog in view to attract the coyotes. :dunno:
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Good point. I can't afford the lawyer and will NOT lose my dog. I guess I'll leave my "Tempest in a Teapot" at home.
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Sorry you can no longer have a dog by you while coyote hunting in this state. They said it was unethical. Rick
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Sorry to be the wet blanket....
Good luck on your coyote hunting.
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Thanks guys! I have a habit of learning things the hard way. Been really lucky nobody died or was injured worse than they were from my "learning" experiences. I'm a BIG fan of learning things like this the easy way. Rick, you ever want an extra gun in the woods and don't wanna pay for gas and its a weekend, you just pm me!
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Well I got some pretty nice photos. I went to the invisible spot again and set up an entire scenario. Got a few birds interested but nothing came in... in front or to the sides of me. Behind me I kept hearing sticks snapping and ferns crunching. I had a huge tree at my back so I wasn't going to risk the movement. After a few minutes I realized the woods were completely silent. I had to mark my territory and the light was just about gone so I stopped the calling, waited a few minutes. glassed. got up and left. Kind of a creepy feeling out there sometimes. On a plus side driving back down I got a pretty cool photo of pink sky over a huge fogbank cloud with ranier in the background. Someday... :chuckle:
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Wraithen................invisible spots mean....................invisible coyotes 8)
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That's my problem! It was a pack of coyotes behind me and they checked out my foxpro and left! And that's what made the invisible birds go silent! :bash:
:chuckle:
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I wouldn't bring the dog with you for a coyote hunt, you might get written up for coyote hunting with dogs....
:yeah:
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Billy, Most of those photos look like they were in the clearcuts? Do they produce better? I hate walking into them due to the slick brush on the edges. Maybe it would help if I wasn't walking on steep hillside too huh? I'll make do.
It is not as easy as a cut wheat field since there are more place for yotes to hide but clearcuts can be great for coyotes. Sometimes I hunt older cuts, but I prefer newer cuts and am real happy if they have skidder trails or recent machinery activity.
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What does recent machinery do? If I could find skidder trails I wouldn't worry about where to step most of the time. I dunno when I'll make it out next as the wife gets home this weekend. If only I could convince her to buy a shotgun she would be my close shot. Well that and a license... and gear... Nevermind, I've got better uses for her money :chuckle:
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I like to find areas that are tore up by machinery. All kinds of critters love to check out bare dirt or dirt piles.
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hey wraithen there are lot more bobcats on the westside than you think. there not as hard to call in as you think. i called one the first time i used my spitfire. have not called in any yotes yet. ive had some answer some of my locater calls. but never came in or i did not see them. going to give it another shot now that elk season is over. my son comes with me he is starting to get discouraged i told him we will get a yote sooner or later. i use a couple calls i got from bear man ric. i would head south a little further or try fort lewis seen alot of yotes on the base. good luck
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Fort lewis is a bit of an issue. I don't have a shotgun and last time I asked, if it wasn't big game season good luck getting a rifle area opened.
