Dryland Raccoon Trapping - Location, location, location.

Trapping dryland coon can be a simple but extremely rewarding endeavor on the trapline. They are relatively easy to catch and provide a lot of enjoyment due to the constant action. Whether you’re trapping a few coon to protect the game birds on your trapline or long lining road ditches, the following simple principles remain the same. Find where coon naturally travel and set the trap where they either have to work it or walk around it. In this article we will focus on finding their natural travel ways.

My mom was a real estate agent when I was growing up.  When learning about real estate from her she always repeated one important thing: Location, location, location.  Just like how be one the wrong side of the tracks can greatly affect a house value, so can being a few feet off affect your coon catch.  During most of coon season, especially early on, coon don’t need to eat your bait to survive.  This is why setting on location is so important.  

“ During most of coon season, especially early on, coon don’t need to eat your bait to survive.  This is why setting on location is so important.  ”

The good news is that coon are extremely predictable year after year.  I’ve learned this from trapping the same trails from when I was a kid.  But it was really set in stone for me when I was trapping a brand new area.  I was running road ditches and came across a coon trail so I pulled the truck over to set it.  When I was pounding in my stake dead center on the active trail I hit something metal and inch or so under the dirt.  What I uncovered was an old rusted conibear, that by the looks of it had been there many years.  And even though there was no large tree, culvert, or other noticeable landmark, the coon trail was in the same exact spot all those years later.  

This makes trapping the same area for coon year after year a lot easier.  Once you initially find and mark down the trails your line goes much faster.  The only thing you will run into is that when a crop changes it might shut that trail down for the year.  Nothing really draws a coon to a wheat field, so if there was a trail going to that field a previous year it may lay dormant until the farmer plants it in corn.  For any furbearer, there needs to be a reason why it wants to travel and why it chooses that route.

For coon during the fall, the "why” is pretty simple, they are traveling to and from food. I’m going to explain how I locate coon trails on my Minnesota trapline when trapping road right of ways, all though the same logic pretty much aways applies. We’re in a heavy agricultural area where everything is broken up into six hundred and fourty acre sections of land, mixed with sloughs, timber, and crops.  I want to find where they are crossing the road and set those trails.  I look for the

A Minnesota Raccoon taken in a coon trail leading to a river.

Four Cs of coon trapping; Corn, creeks, cottonwoods, and culverts. The majority of the time one or more of these are in play.  I rank their travel patterns as follows; Timber to food, food to food, and timber to timber.  That being said, it does vary by what time of the season you are trapping in.

I’ve found these to be bar far the best place to trap. Timber to food I believe is the best choice. The food can either consist of a stream, lake, cornfield, or even a silage pile or row of feedlot bunks where they clean up the cattle ration.  Timber to corn is a slam dunk, but when harvest is in full swing can change rapidly. Standing corn and harvested corn are effective, but once the coon figures out that the corn has been plowed it goes dead.  Corn to corn is another great option to look for.  A couple years ago in my area I set some slightly used coon trails that went across from one corn field to the other.  Other than crops, there wasn’t any real cover for a half mile or more in any direction. Those spots proved to be extremely productive and I am of the opinion that the coon will curl up in the corn field and sleep.

The last one is timber to timber, the “cottonwoods” of the four Cs.  When winter rolls in and the crops are sitting in the grain bins the coon completely change habits.  Switching to timber to timber where to coon crosses the roads will keep working as the season goes on.  If there is open water in your area now is the time to target them on that as they’ll move to the creeks to eat.  It’s amazing how fast a trapline can change during the transition into winter. Once harvest is in full swing be prepared to move traps and change your technique.  You will continue to catch coon on trails leading to harvested corn. But once it’s tilled under and the coon find out the food is gone, the trail seems to go dead almost overnight.  With most combines having chopper heads now and the tillage equipment has gotten so much larger it seems the time between harvest and tillage has been reduced significantly. In my area a lot of the bigger farmers are chasing the combines with a tillage tractor which makes it a bit more work for the trapper.

I know that some trappers say that certain trails are coon trails while others are deer trails. This is obviously true in some cases, but I think that a lot of the time coon will share trails with deer.  Just like when were looking at Google maps to figure out the quickest and easiest route to get to a destination, so are the deer and coon.  A lot of these quick and easy routes are shared so be sure to set them even if you are seeing deer tracks on the trail.

The author with coon and skunks taken on his road line.

Now that you’ve found the general location that the coon are traveling in, it’s time to dial in on where the raccoon trails are.  Coon are short animals and can’t see the lay of the land like you and I can. When they’re in deep grass they can only see tall objects in front of them to use as a guide.  This means that single trees, fence posts, and telephone poles are all great landmarks to look for.  Many times there will be a raccoon trails going right next to a telephone pole or tree, because that is what they are using as a landmark to guide their travel.  Always be aware of the tall landmarks on your trapline and watch them closely for trails.

The second thing to watch for is something that humans and animals use alike, natural and man-made boundaries.  These can consist of fence lines, windrows, pinch points, and more.  For instance, if a there is a fence row or tree line on one side of the road and a corn field on the other, there is a very good chance that the raccoons will be using that location to cross the road. Most animals want to be exposed in the open as short amount of time as possible, so look for the places that allow this.  This is especially important to keep in mind when trapping in areas that our domination by agricultural fields like the Midwest is. Other great locations using barriers could be fence or tree rows on both sides of the roads.

Culverts are absolutely irresistible to raccoon. Learn where they are on your trapline and check them for trails.  These trails will provide coon and skunks year after year for you.  Not only do they allow them a safe place to cross a road, they also offer them a good denning place.  This seems exceptionally true for skunks as a lot of times they will block the openings of smaller culverts with dirt and grass.  When you walk up the culvert you can smell the aroma of skunks living in there.  A set places right at the end they are using to access the culvert is a sure fire way to add a black and white pelt to you pile the next day.

The last location I’ll mention are drainage ditches and dry cattail sloughs.  Both of these are great coon locations.  In the drainage ditches the trail seems to be situated in the center of it.  If there is heavy grass you might have to part it so you can see the trail.  The same thing applies to setting dry cattails. The best situation is to have a road going through the middle of it with a culvert.  This pinches them down and often times the soft ground will be full of raccoon tracks at the entrance of the culvert.

“After you learn to recognize the locations and landmarks that coon use, you will be able to see coon trails while driving down the road even when you’re not looking for them. ”

After you learn to recognize the locations and landmarks that coon use, you will be able to see coon trails while driving down the road even when you’re not looking for them.  Simple stuff like culvert markers or the frost on the road showing you that a culvert is located there will catch your eye.  Or maybe the lone tree with a trail winding past the base of it.  Looking back, I’m amazed at how much fur I drove past over the years by just going to the next river crossing due to the lack of some simple knowledge.