Is it just me??

Wiley E

New member
I don't know why, but I never seem to have as much luck calling during the last light (after sunset) as I do in the morning. In the morning they just seem to be more active and less cautious. I have had coyotes answer me and not show any interest in the evening. I sometimes wonder if they are not more alert before they start moving in the evening and they spot you and / or hear you approach your stand. I hate calling during the last light after the sun goes down. Before that time I have pretty good luck. Your thoughts? I keep thinking that it is coincidence but it never seems to change. Wiley E
 
Wiley E

I have good luck on calling coyotes the last two hours of the day. For me, the biggest problem I have in late afternoon calling is waning light. Your more apt to get in a poor light situation in the afternoon than in the morning. If I had a coyote that I knew i had to put down, I would work him in the morning under gaining light rather than in the evening when I knew i'd be losing light.

I heard of one ADC man who will not call coyotes,in the late afternoon, for the same reason.

Greenside
 
Wiley E,
I agree with you about the end of the day, and I absolutely love first light in the morning. What I've noticed is that from daylight till about ten is great, then things can really cool off, but for some odd reason in cool weather I really do well right after lunchtime. About 1 in the afternoon I have killed alot of coyotes. I never really noticed this till I started entering some contests where you get out and call all day. Have you experienced this??
 
Wiley--you may be onto something there about coyotes spotting you as you are setting up because they are rousing from their afternoon nap with a hungry belly and being more alert as the sun starts to set. Almost everywhere I have called coyotes, I have had responses (coyotes coming to the call) at all hours of the day. However, I would have to say that the morning hours and two or three hours before dark have been the most productive.

On January 16, about 15 or 20 minutes before the sun set, I set up on the edge of a gravel pit with about 25 deer a couple hundred yards to the SE of me and another 25 to the north of me. I used the Tally Ho for the first several series. Then I switched to the Bill Austin Howler. After a couple of series on that, I had what sounded like two or three groups of coyotes answering back from the west and southwest. I finally spotted one family of three coyotes to the SW of me and watched them through my scope as I worked them with the howler. They were almost totally disinterested until it got to be almost dark. They started to come in and when they got to a creek running through the section SW of me, they started to head along that and in a direction that would take them away from me. It hit the Tally Ho with a few fain plaintive screams. The lead coyote stopped, did a 90 degree turn and headed right toward me. His mates followed. By now it is getting so dark I am having trouble keeping track of all three coyotes, so I concentrated on the lead one. I finally got him to come straight in to me with some lip squeaks. It was plumb dark when I pulled the trigger. I guess my eyes had become accustomed to the waning light and with lots of good white snow on the ground the coyote I did shoot was easy to see.

I didn't like that situation, but when I got them to start coming, I wasn't going to let darkness stop the fun. I will usually not set up to call unless I have 30 to 45 minutes of fairly decent daylight left for calling. I think I was very lucky to see these coyotes and work them into a position to get one. I was also very lucky that my eyes became accustomed to the low light situation.
 
Cal, I had never noticed the noontime thing until I started guiding, and had to hunt all day. It became so noticeable that I call it the "noon phenomena". Often I will put off stopping for lunch until after 1 pm to take advantage of it.

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Critr
www.SaguaroSafaris.com
 
Yeah Wiley from all of the responses I think it is pretty clear that it is just you.
I mean how can a person claim to have good luck in the morning and not in the eve?
You just probably havent had enough experiance calling coyotes to overcome this little problem.

GOT YA!

Just couldn't resist yankin your chain a little.

I have noticed pretty much the same thing as you say,and have drawn my own conclusions about it actually.
Probably wrong but they satisfy my little mind.

I think that coyotes in the morning have been up and hunting for some hours already by the time we enter the picture.
They are fully into the hunting mode and even though they have excellent night vision the morning dawn can do nothing but help their hunting success. Perhaps this is also a reason, a coyote is a glutton. He wants to fill his belly till it bursts and then go lay down to digest it. Keeping their tank full of gas is an instinctual thing I believe. And I bet that if they havent reached that point before sun up , which they sedlom do , they are especially eager to get what ever they can before the little critters stop moving around. I think that this puts them in a more aggressive attitude towards responding to a call.

In the early afternoon there are many coyotes that have been laying around after their night hunt and are now wanting a midnight snack . Only in reverse obviously since they are primarily a nocturnal animal.

Now along comes evening, they are starting to think about all of the little critters that are going to be up and about soon and are starting to get into their hunting clothes so to speak.
Yet they have been lounging around the house in their pajamas for a few hours taking a little siesta and have just not got their hunting face on just yet.

I know that this sounds korny , yet I think that there is a little grain of something here.
And in lieu of anything better it is my story and I am sticking to it!!

Take care Wiley and happy huntin. Craig

Had to edit this thing , seems I called you Steve at least twice for some reason! Must be the drugs I am on for my back. Dam horse fell over on me last night. Man that smarts.


[This message has been edited by Craig Hamilton (edited 03-30-2001).]
 
Wiley--Py choli I tink dez guis arr rite,not! Cus I jes tink u neet to pragdice yett moar one tim unce, not! Ten u caan shoat da kayoteees az juzt goot az dez guays can agan, ya shure, not!
 
Steve--this is getting scary! I think I can actually understand what you wrote?!?!?
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Craig,

Been there done that. One of the worst wrecks I was ever in was when I tried to rope a deer while ridin a mule without britchin.

When everything quit rollin I was sittin on the ground on the saddle, both the saddle and I lost a bit of hide. Missed the deer too.

Ken
 
It's funny how things are a matter of common knowledge. Maybe it's a carryover from deer hunting right at twilight? Those animals that are bedded down all day, for the most part, get up and move to feed as it gets dark toward evening.

However, I have always been a little disapointed in the action right at the tail end of shooting light. Just doesn't jive with conventional wisdom. Those coyotes are supposed to be active in the late afternoon, right? Actually, I don't think so. At least in the desert Southwest. You can get them up and moving to a call, but maybe they are getting some good sack time as it cools off, and left to their own devices, they wouldn't roll out 'til well after dark.

In my experience, the first three hours of the morning are the finest predator hunting you will ever see. I slug it out when on an important hunt, and get some response all day long, but nothing like that early hunting. Summertime, I admit, it can be real slow during the heat of the day. You will still snag a few, if you are calling in the right places. So, late afternoon seldom lives up to expectations. It's better than the heat of the day, but hardly Katie bar the door.

There will always be exceptions, usually because of weather conditions, or moon phase. You can't say that afternoons are a waste of time, because they aren't. They produce. Right off the top of my head, perhaps half as good as morning hunting....something like that? But, it's interesting, nonetheless. Seems like your anticipation is way up there for those stands made at dusk, donut?

So, I have to agree with Wiley E; it ain't just him.

Of course, it may be that neither of us knows what it takes to get it done in the afternoon. Is that possible?
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Nah.

Good hunting. LB
 
I have to agree that my success calling in that last hour before dark has not been all that good either; certainly nothing like in the first hour of light in the morning. Also, I don't recall anything from the coyote radio telemetry work we did that would have indicated calling response would be negligible in the late evening.
 
Give me the mornings for coyotes, every time. I have called alot of them in in the afternoon, but nothing like the mornings. I have found that at certain times of the year, I get good responces in the late afternoon, especially right now. Most of the year though, the mornings work the best. Now cats and fox are another matter! That last hour before dark is some of the best for calling fox. For bobcats, it would be the mornings first, then 2pm to dark. I have called alot of bob's at 2 to 4pm. Could be that I get in their bedroom at those times and I believe they are easier to call then. Response times are very short as well. For lions, I have found that there is no better or worse time to call them. They come just as good at dark as the do in the mornins for me.

Well, I ended my lion calling year with numbers 24 and 25 last week. It starts over tomorrow. I was glad that I broke last years mark of 19. As I write this I just got a call from a rancher that has 5 calves missing, and he thinks it is lion. So tomorow I start over again. We also have a black cat in the area around my house. She has 2 cubs that are normal color. She will be fair game this year as the cubs will be 2 year olds this spring and able to be out on their own. We will see what happens.
Steve

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www.azpredatorhunts.com
 
A while back wiley had mentioned this anomally until that time i have never really payed that close attention. But since that time I have only called in one during the last few minutes of light. I couple of times we had perfect afternoons meaning we had seen action at every stand until the last one before sundown. Until Wiley E had mentioned it I had always assummed that the last stand of the day was the best one. Now i'm not so sure.
 
But you know what? I think I'll still stay out as long as I can see. In that magic time as the light fades, I always see a few bobcats, one or two lurking under every bush, and maybe a couple lions slipping in. I love it!! Magic time.
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Critr
www.SaguaroSafaris.com
 
Awhile back I posted a question on another board asking what time of the day the hunters were calling in game. I had noticed that very often I call in something just before or after I break for lunch. I didn't limit the question to coyotes, but referred to all kinds of predators. It was surprising how many people agreed with me, and were calling in the majority of their game from 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM, right in the middle of the day.
 
Wiley,I think your right.I have seen the same thing.coyotes definitely seem to be more coopertive in the morning than afternoon.I have not hunted as much in the afternoon as the morning so I don't know if that has played some factor in my success rates.Plus,as was also mentioned I love calling when the sun is just risin over the horizon,nothin quite like it...
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[This message has been edited by UTcaller (edited 04-02-2001).]
 
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