Tracking year over year data (specifically trapping)

Hines

Spike
Any of you guys keep a log year over year of your trapping sets? Such as trap location, trap type, lure type, bait type, etc, etc?

Working on a spreadsheet to log stuff with my father-in-law. He enjoys tracking everything from turkey sightings to bat sightings. Figured this would be a fun way to look back 5 years from now and see what trends have developed with our trapping (what works, what doesn't, etc)
 

Steelshot

Eight Pointer
Best way to learn what works and what don’t during certain time frames. Great tool. One thing that I always do is detail the weather and moon phase just as much as anything else. That stuff is more critical in my opinion
 

Hines

Spike
Steelshot, great idea on moon phases! I never thought of putting that on the sheet. Right now I have trap location, trap type, set type, cover type, attractant, lure type, bait type, bait holder, and now moon phase.
Typically when we trap up in VA, we only trap a solid week straight--usually twice per year. I'm considering some sort of weather and temperature column as well.
 

RPD689

Spike
You are making this way too complicated. Worrying about every little thing is time consuming and takes your focus away from the reason that you are in the field- catching coyotes. Most of it dosen't matter anyhow. Keep it simple and work hard. Coyote trapping is setting and checking. The coyote will tell you what works.

I do keep track of where sets are, type of set and bait/lure by making simple abbreviated notes in a binder with a crude diagram of the location. I may have 100+ sets out over three counties. I cannot remember it all. The diagram would aid someone who may have to find the sets in case I am unable to get back to them.

Spend your time studying the coyote and how he behaves. Once you get a handle on this, you can then pick appropriate set types and better chose set locations. Let me know when you figure it out as I am still learning.

But, what do I know, I just catch a few dumb ones.

Jimmy
 

Hines

Spike
Hey Jimmy, thanks for the thoughts! I'm not trying to make it complicated, we just enjoy data. I read books on coyotes, go to seminars, watch videos, guess & test with trap sets, etc. It's all part of the fun for me. At most, we might have 20 leg holds out at a time when we trap. however this year I have some folks that want me to trap their land. My trapping days might go from around 200 to over 500 this year. I count a trapping day as having 1 trap set for 24 hours (so if I have 20 traps set for 10 days, that's 200 trapping days)
 
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