What is your longest "dry spell"?????

[galiuro mountain man]

There are a few things that are affecting the dry spells this year. Drought, more people educating coyotes, and E callers (goes with the more people educating).

 

First is the drought, the pup crop hasnt been as good the past couple of years due to drought. I have talked to gov. trappers who also say their #'s are down from previous years. I am always out messing around in the hills and I have also seen a drop in young dog numbers the last couple of years. Drought also affects feed, think back five years ago, I remember a lot more cottontails and jackrabbits where I live, now I wont shoot them at all so the is some breeding stock left. This has a huge effect on coyote #'s for a given area. If there is not enough feed #'s will drop. I feel the ongoing drought is most to blame for this. This drought is pretty bad where I am, tanks that I know, that I have hunted since I was a child, that I have never seen dry, are dustbowls now, and have been for a couple of years. This is why there have been more coyotes in the suburbs lately. They have water, people watering grass all year, and feed, little fluffy things on a leash for them to eat. These coyotes have learned for the most part they will live unharmed by people and they have everything they need.

 

The second and third are kind of the same thing. Since E callers have become so popular I regularly run into people out calling. A lot of them have asked me if I know how to set up for coyotes and such because they just started because they dont have to know how to use a call, the magic box does it for them. Now everywhere I go there is someone out with a distress sound going, and I live in very rural part of AZ, about 1000 people at max in area (3 small communities). A lot of these guys have just started and are just learning and make a lot of mistakes that make the dogs smarter, and some dont even realize the mistakes made, which is fine, because everyone has to start somewhere. Then on top of that is the people that dont even shoot their rifle all year, then try to take down coyotes, educating them more.

 

But, there is hope, even if there are a lot of newbies to calling (we need them to keep this sport going), and no rains. Everything cycles, rains, animal populations, peoples interest and so on. For my area, we need some rain at the right times of the year, and the rabbits and other small critters will come back, which in turn will bring back coyote numbers. Be patient, it will happen and there will be more coyotes than you know what to do with.

 

As far as dry spells, in 07-08 winter I shot over 60 coyotes myself and a couple other guys I know got in the 40's. It seemed like an endless amount of dogs. The next year we didnt hit it as hard, but still found a few. Last two years have been rough. I dont even hear them around my house like I used to. This year has been my dry spell, havent called a single coyote in (I have tried), but I have shot 3, right out my back door.