Picked Mike up at the park and ride west of Goodells. He had called me at 1:00 and said we could meet at 3:00PM and have enough time to do a about 6 sets. He seemed preoccupied till we got to the first farm about 5 miles north of his truck. Just a small 160 acre place owned by a old retired auto worker. Pat Jones and his wife moved to the area in the mid 1990’s and had a few head of cattle mixed breed for meat and some thing to do, Pat says to keep him from dieing right away.


They have a wood lot off to one side around 25 acres where Pat gets a bit of fire wood to supplement his heating bill. Says gets lots of early shrooms and mid summer berries.

We made our way back to the fence line about 75 yards from the woods with a wind in our faces set out the caller and decoys. Ran the piglet in distress sound, about 12 minutes in a coyote showed up working along the edge of the woods Mike fired and he had a coyote. Waited till the 30 minute mark pick up the caller, decoys then went to look at Mikes male coyote.


Get back to the truck and load it up undressed and hit the road. A short drive to a beef operation, Mike still wasn’t talking even when I asked why he had jumped on that coyote so quick. Just said didn’t want it to decide to go back in the brush. I admit I have not hunted a bunch with Mike but it isn’t like him, he has always given partners a chance to see if more coyotes would show.Every one says good things about him.


Ron Whitbeck is my age and grew up on a farm, a dairy farm and hated it. Told his dad no way he was going to be a farmer if he had to milk cows.
Was fresh out of high school when a farm near his folks went on the market a small place by todays standards but has grown to several sections over the last 50 some years.


They have a sloth in one corner with brush and most years weeds but the drought in the summer 2018 allowed them to pasture a few steers in there. Still lots of brush and it stretches for about a mile or more.

We set up in a cross wind with both decoys and callers out. Decided to run the piglet sound again and the sound of a coyote party. About 5 minutes in here comes 3 coyotes running flat out it seemed. I sign to Mike I will take the lead coyote and see if I can get on the 3d one. I fire and quickly hit the yiyi sound as mike fired the second time downing the 3d coyote.
We had got 3 females all seemed young.


Back at the truck I said to Mike did he want to continue hunting or did he want me to take him back to his truck so he could hunt the way he was feeling.
He said he was sorry and not thinking about us hunting as a group today.

Said his church thing was OK for church that is, asked his lady if she wanted to go to dinner with him. She said that would be fine so they drove to Flint and went to a Italian place. Said she started pumping him about his ex wife. He told her that it was over and if she thought he had intentions of making a new commitment she should look else where.


We reached the 3d farm dairy was done here by the Nate Turner family. We have been hunting there for a bunch of years and they had just reported Saturday morning seeing a couple coyotes slinking thru the back pasture. Also a howl fest Friday evening. Small wood lot connected to a neighbors gave several places coyotes could lay up. We ran the piglet call for the whole 30 minutes with gaps of course with no results.


Packed our gear up headed for the truck. Kept one caller up front with us then drove down the side road just off from those wood lots. Stopped got out set the caller on the back of the pick up and ran the siren. Set off a howl fest so made a note to return in a few days.


Mike is now talking about his morning. After dinner he drove to his place to show her how he was setting up to get a pond dug in the summer and a gazebo he was working on in the pole barn to move by the pond when it was done. Then took her back to the church to her car.


We made it to the next place a sheep farm. I like hunting sheep farms as they pasture the sheep year around. Taking hay out in the field unrolling it or breaking small bales for the sheep
They are always moving around, making sounds I feel the coyotes get use to and are comfortable with the sounds.

We set up in a fence row over looking a wet land valley with lots of brush about 50 yards off the owners property but we have pulled coyotes out of there before.
We had the callers both running the lamb and yappie dog sound together about 15 minutes we see 2 coyotes. Sneaking out to the edge of the brush, I half expected Mike to shoot but when I looked at him he was looking at me signing whats the plan. I signed he should take the lead and I would take the one behind even if they were to change position. He should say when, I see his finger trigger and shoot. We have two coyotes glad the snow isn’t deep or it was muddy to go down the hill to get them. Two nice females really nice fur.


We decide we would have time to hit one more place before it got to dark to see. We drive about 2 miles to reach a another sheep farm at the other end of the Valley where it opened up into a big flat plain.


Jim Zinger farm were we have hunted for years, he is who told Manny Guteriza about us when he was seeing a lot of coyotes cruising his pastures.

We set up near the top of the valley with the wind in our face. Ran the yappy dog and Lamb in distress sound here for a full 30 minutes and nothing showed.


We packed it in and I asked about Monday afternoon, said he would like to but had promised to work at the auto parts store Monday to cover for a guy to see his daughter in a school play.

So we are going to try for Tuesday.


Al