An Outdoorsman’s Journal

By: Mark Walters

After Dark Coyote Hunt

Hello friends, I spent 3 nights chasing coyote in Fond du Lac, Columbia, Dodge and Winnebago counties with two very avid outdoorsmen, Brian Ball and Tom Hoinacki both of Waupun.

Sunday, February 23 High 40, low 29

We actually started our adventure fishing walleye on Lake Butte des Morts but that’s another story and while fishing I had plenty of time to shoot the bull with Brian and Tom and started to learn a lot about what life long, hardcore and very successful outdoorsmen both of them are.

Brian and Tom made sure we had all of their gear loaded in the truck for tonight’s hunt as we would be hunting Winnebago and Dodge counties on night one. I would be an observer all 3 nights and learned from minute one about the importance of not slamming truck doors, making sure your phone is off, and not talking or moving while on a set up. After hiking anywhere from 75 to 300 yards, a FoxPro electronic call is setup and in each hunt, wind direction is always a major factor. Brian shoots a Daniel Defense M4 with a Griffin Suppressor and an ATN night vision scope. Tom uses a Colt AR 223 with a Banish Suppressor and a Pulsar scope. Both Tom and Brian also use thermal scanners that in short, make it so you can see anything with heat like a deer, cow, raccoon etc. in the dark. I might add that tonight, there was deep snow, and it was very windy. One is work, the other is not good for hunting. So here is the scoop, I also learned how to use a scanner and from my first look on night one, to my last look on night 3, I saw raccoon and it was literally unbelievable how many there were. Seemed like they were either roaming fields or hanging out in trees.

Monday, February 24 High 48, low 29

We have gone from deep snow to plenty of mud in 24 hours and tonight we are hunting in Columbia County near Columbus and Randolph. A bit about Brian and Tom, they are both retired and from 1990 to 2010 they fished the Masters Walleye Circuit and the Midwest Walleye Series as a team and these guys kicked hiney. It was very cool to listen to their stories. Like last night, not only did we see at least 5 raccoons on each of our 7 set ups, we saw deer almost constantly and it is really neat to watch them through the thermal optics.

We only saw one coyote. I was the only one to see it and it was about a 5 second experience. The drive time from Waupun to my house is exactly 2 hours.

Thursday, March 6 High 49, low 26

I am starting to get the hang of this and let me tell you, any direction from Waupun for at least 40 miles is loaded with deer and raccoon. Here are some interesting facts. Tom and Brian actually have farmers request that they hunt their land at times as they have problems with coyotes stressing out their calves that are sometimes in pasture or in calf hutches as well as chasing cattle that then bust through fences. Brian makes mittens, wall hangings and does taxidermy and until the fur market fell apart, a coyote hide brought a healthy dollar.

Tonight we would hunt within 20 miles from Waupun. On our first setup as soon as Brian started working the call, Tom spotted two coyotes that gave us a great show but did not get close enough. We kept doing hunt after hunt and as usual the coon and deer were everywhere. We had a very close call on another coyote and then watched a large coon attack the call which was pretty cool as we could see it stalking the call across the field.

On our last hunt we had one final experience with a fox or small yote and before I knew it, I was driving home with some excellent memories while watching a couple of top notch outdoorsmen do what they love to do.

Hunt til you can’t! Sunset

This is an excellent setup for hunting coyote after dark.

Brian Ball and Tom Hoinacki after a successful coyote hunt.

Good friends, left to right Tom Hoinacki and Brian Ball do a lot of hiking for each coyote setup.