A Day in The Life of Angie – Make That Call Sing by Angie Kokes

Posted By maggie on Mar 11, 2017

Growing up in a hunting family I always had access to help and the equipment I needed, but tirelessly found my mind yearning to do everything myself.  I didn’t want to be the girl who had to have her hook baited or birds cleaned by anyone but me.  And my stubbornness to do so has shaped me into the hunter and angler I am today.  I like to call it the self taught by trying all the wrong ways first and then figuring out all the right ways later…chalking that up to my stubborn streak.  However this worked well for me over the years accept in the goose blind. Goose hunting was something that was always done with my dad, brother and their friends and eventually my husband. Since there is a lot of work that goes into goose hunting, blind building, setting decoys, etc., when you’re allowed in the blind the last thing you want to do is screw the hunt up for everyone else, and so I never blew a call.  Well not exactly never, but the few times I did attempt it I was met with unfavorable looks from the other hunters,  and comments like, “you sound like a dying rabbit, you need to go home and practice.”  So I would just sit back and let the masters work the birds and when they brought them down I was the hunter who would shoot and not be heard…at least not heard blowing a call. Fast forward dozens of seasons to my having my own blind.  I still had experienced callers out to hunt several times but on one blustery day with a blizzard starting to howl my husband, brother in law and I gave it a go on our own, all of us basically non-existent in the skills of calling geese department.  By mid morning we had no birds and the guys decided they better stop playing and get home to feed the cattle.  I opted out of actually being responsible and decided I wanted to stay and hunt, I just knew in my heart this was going to be a good day for birds.   They shrugged their shoulders and left mumbling some sarcastic form of good luck with that. I’d been secretly wanting to goose hunt on my own for some time, and now was as good a time as any to let that call screech!  I let the boys get well out of range of any sound I was about to make before I started my  “it’s about time Angie learned to blow a call session.”  Rummaging through the calls I picked out a couple...