Chasing Predators For Fun And Profit

Chasing Predators for Fun and Profit

By Freddie McKnight

Winter can be long and frustrating for the sportsmen. For the most part hunting seasons for big and small game alike are over for the year. The next thing to look forward to on this list is the spring gobbler season, which is a long time away. Fishing can be a good alternative, but there are certain weather conditions that make this part of the outdoor experience not practical at all times.

Fortunately for the sportsmen, there are a couple of critters roaming the woods that are a perfect fit during this time period, and it just happens to be the best time of the year to get out after them. They wear both fur and feather, making action ideal for those who prefer scattergun and rifle. Aside from a call, you probably have all of the necessary gear to go from other hunting endeavors.

Coyotes, crows, and fox roam the hills of much of the east. With winter having settled in, all of these predators will be on the prowl searching out an easy meal to get them through the cold spell. The harder the winter, the better the hunting can be as food tends to be scarce the harsher the conditions. A hungry predator can become and unwary predator.

Calling these critters can be accomplished using the same calls. I prefer to use a cassette playing call, the most popular of electronic calls these days. Playing the popular rabbit in distress tape is a hot ticket in drawing in the predators. The neat thing about this option is if you are keying in on fox and coyote with little or no action, it is simply a matter of switching your eyes to the sky and having your scattergun on standby to take part in the crow hunting action that is sure to descend on your location.

There are specific time periods that are better for some predators than others all through the winter months. If you would like to put a prime coyote pelt on the wall, then stick to hunting the first few hours of the daytime for best results. A coyote that has spent the night looking for a meal unsuccessfully will often come running to the call without hesitation looking for an easy meal. Fox are best hunted at night, with the first half of the night being the best suited for action. Crows can be called in best during the midday hours, especially if there is a slight warming trend to the day that softens up the snow on the fields.

If I am keying in on these specific time periods for a certain critter, I will switch my call selection to tailor more towards that animal. For coyote, a now popular wintertime critter to chase, I still prefer to use distress calls during the month of January, then start leaning towards to locating and challenge calls from about mid-February on as the breeding season starts to grow. My best tapes for calling coyotes have been the housecat in distress and pig in distress tapes. In some of the areas I hunt, you could not find either animal for miles around, yet these sounds are attractive to the song dogs. Of course if I were running on an empty stomach, there are foods that I would eat that I much don’t care for too.

For chasing fox, my call selection depends on what species of fox I am chasing. Much of my hunting area holds grey fox. I will call in fifteen or twenty greys for every red I call in, so instead of hoping to call in red fox, I play the sounds the greys like. The grey fox pup in distress is my number one choice for this, with woodpecker in distress and rodent distress my most often used change ups. Keep in mind that grey fox will tolerate harsher conditions than their red cousins will. I have called in greys during the height of a snowstorm that I am sure had the red fox holed up.

Crows are the most plentiful and easiest of the three predators to call in. Keying in on farm fields that have a fresh coating of manure spread on them is the place to hunt around if you have access to that type of territory. Trust me that farmers are glad to see you. Crows cause all kinds of crop loss, something that the farmers don’t need at all.

When calling just for crows, a crow fight tape is a great one to start with. Decoys added to the setup will help to draw these birds in even closer for you. Many hunters don’t give this bird much credit, but I believe they have some of the sharpest eyesight of any critter in the woods. One thing out of place any they will quickly flare off for safer places. Keep yourself and your gear camo’d up. This means a good camo pattern in the dark timber and white when you are in the open places with snow cover.

Instead of spending those long winter months indoors wishing you were out in the woods, get out and get after these predators. The action can be fast and exciting, and even if it is an off day, it allows you to be outdoors and stay in touch with nature. During your travels between calling locations, you will often see sign of other game animals. Keeping tabs on these critters will often allow you to key in on new areas for future hunts as well as finding new areas to call predators. One of the biggest mistakes I seen new predator hunters making is to go back and call from the same place each time they are in the area. That is bad enough, but they tend to use the same exact call when doing so, which only educates the animals even more.

Get out and give these predators a try. They will keep your hunting and shooting skills sharpened, while helping get you through the snowy months of winter.