Read the Coyote

SnowmanMo

SnowmanMo

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Staff member
Here we go again.

I have another hunt/calling scenario.

Here's the area of interest:

fur friday stand by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

I thought that this area had a lot going for it.

Now we have the wind coming from the south, and we have a road and fence line in yellow. We can't hunt the area to the northwest...we can just drive down the road.

fur friday stand 5 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr




So what do you think we should do and why? We'll see what you come up with and discuss how to read this area and how you thin we should call it, no wrong answers as usual...

Mo
 
How strong is the wind, can you overlay elevation and are any of the cropland/property private? Can you give us distances of the property shown.

The color change to the west of the road, is it an elevation change?

if those crop fields are a 1/4 mile each across the bottom and the wind is strong enough. I'd do three stands here.

1.missed reading the none hunting area, I'd have really like to call here. again for the cover to the west and stock tank if that is what the dot is.

2. at the south east corner of the field The field while down wind will act as a blocker and give me the land east and south to pull out of.

3. at the corner of the road I'd hike straight south and then west to the color change. The light area seems to be open again and not a place I have to worry about having a coyote come in from behind me plus I've already called into a lot of that area. My sounds would reach into the cover around and behind the stock pond.
 
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Without a scale bar it is hard to know exactly how much land I am looking at. But the area you cannot hunt appears to have a 160 acre tract in the South East quarter. I would try to park somewhere along North East corner of that quarter section and walk straight east skirting the South edge of that open field. I would definitely target that group of trees along the south edge of that field first; it just looks like a perfect area for a coyote to bed down in during daylight. it has cover to retreat into should he catch danger scent from upwind and an open view of any danger approaching down wind. Even though I am approaching my stand into a cross wind my scent is being thrown across that open field.

The green arrows show where I would look for points of vantage to set-up and the red arrows show areas I would try to find a place to set my call. After that first stand I would continue east shirting the south edge of that field to the South West corner of the field (if I am interpreting the scale of the map correctly that would place me a half mile in from my truck), there I would look for a place to set up anticipating any approach from 12 o’clock to my 9 o’clock. After those 2 stands I would head back to the truck and head South to the South East corner of that corner section (bottom right corner of yellow line). Again I would head East into the crosswind throwing my scent into the area I have already called into. It is hard to tell without a ground eye view but it looks like you could find elevation to setup and lower open areas to place the call. That second stand furthest East looks to be more open ground but the area shows a lot of fence lines that could provide wind breaks for them to bed down (other factors to take into consideration regarding fence lines), I would anticipate shots at a further distance.

After those two stands I would turn around and start heading back West, probably just plan on leaving my truck where it is and continuing West on foot. It is hard to tell from the aerial without contour lines if the elevation changes from uphill or downhill. I defiantly would have driven the road first and looked for elevation and terrain features from ground level and tried to drop pins on the map of set-up areas. But I would defiantly target that thick group of trees around that pond. It appears there is a hard break in thickness of cover, so I would look for a place with enough scrub brush to let that coyote feel safe leaving the wood line but clear enough to provide shooting lanes or I would look for a place close enough to draw them to the edge for a shot while they look out over the open ground. Then I would continue West walking straight down that road then hooking back South to that next opening and target that next area of thick cover on the West edge of your aerial, with the same tactics. Then I would plan on heading south along what appears to be a fence line again with the similar tactics.

All this would be a basic plan on how I would traverse across the area hunting it but I would stay more than flexible to deviate, depending on the actual terrain I see from ground level, changes in wind direction, sightings or responses to my vocals.


jpg upload
 
It's flat...no elevation change...dark areas are brush...from the big watering hole to the west to the corner of the road/fence is 3/4 of a mile...winds were about 15-20 mph...
 
Ok folks, let's continue...

First off I appreciate the input on this stand so far. The insights that you have shared are spot on.

So here is what I saw that really attracted me, so let me share with you my insight.

fur friday stand 6 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

As most of you said, location 1 was VERY attractive, but it is a no hunt section. We could use the road along the fence line that runs North-South but we can't venture into that section. So as much as I would like to call it, that was off the list.

Location 2 looked good with the fields to the North, but with the wind coming up from the South and our approach from the West, we decided against location 2.

Location 3 and 4 suffer from the same problem, the wind is wrong.

That left location 5...with the wind and our approach it works...it has a nice BIG water hole...there is also a pretty nice line of brush that would allow a predator to think that it is approaching "unseen."

fur friday stand 8 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr


So we drove in on the two track and parked the truck in behind some larger brush. That would keep it out of sight and out of the prevailing wind. So we dropped the truck and slid underneath the fence and approached from the East.

fur friday stand 7 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

Coming in from the East we spot a pretty good group of larger bushes that we can hide among.

fur friday stand 4 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

So we placed the caller out ahead of us, my partner Joe, marked with a "J" and myself marked with the "M". Joe is primarily responsible for watching out ahead of the caller and to the South while I watch ahead of the caller and off to the North. I always look for brush to help break up our outlines. I placed the caller out in the bush ahead of us with the speaker up to the sky.

We are about 5 minutes into the stand when we see a coyote coming out of the area of the large water hole to the West straight in line to the West of the caller.

Any ideas as to what the coyote is going to do?

Stay tuned...Mo


 
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