Of course in the spring just about every sportsman is thinking about either trout fishing or spring gobbler hunting, or running ragged doing both.

Not meaning to try to stretch anyone too thin, but there is another great hunting game in the local forest, Pennsylvania’s third big game animal, the coyote.

Since coyotes can be hunted year around, this might not seem to be a special time to hunt them. It is special, though. Anything good done outdoors during spring is special. The sun feels great on the back of the neck. New vegetation sprouting, leaves, plants, even the first wildflowers of the season, are so very, very welcome, especially after the bitterly cold and long winter we just endured.

Lest any hunter be overly concerned about leaving coyote pups with no adult to care for them, though few area hunters have pity on these deer killers, what many call a pack of coyotes is an extended family unit. An adult will be there to care for them.

If you have followed the results of coyote hunting contests over the past few years, you may have noticed that they trend to be dominated by hunters using hounds. While that appears to be a lot of fun, I have never had the opportunity to try it. And then, I do not feel slighted one bit by hunting with calls, either mouth calls or electronic calls. This has become my favorite local hunting sport even though the odds of success are long.

Hunting coyotes in the big woods is extremely challenging. Most coyotes that come to calls will sense the hunter and flee before the hunter sees any coyotes. In my own experience, most of the coyotes I have seen while calling in the big woods were only fleeting glimpses of the animals running through the trees. That is not a shooting opportunity.

Coyote hunting partners would do well if one carried a rifle, while the other carried a shotgun using specific loads intended for coyotes. Nonetheless, my usual coyote hunting partner, Mike Stimmell, and I almost always alternate with one holding a rifle and the other running the call.

One important thing to know about calling coyotes is a variety of calls will be more effective over the long haul than sticking with just one, or two, calls. I will add that coyote howls of one kind or another, have lured more coyotes to Stimmell and I than any other kind of call. But then, we use them most often.

Most electronic calls are equipped with several different kinds of calls such as squealing cottontail, distressed hare, distressed fawn, distresses coyote pups, coyote howls, and distressed woodpecker. Most of the higher priced models have several more than this. One thing I feel obligated to pass along, however, is that the two rather expensive digital predator calls I have owned called in coyotes well, but neither was durable, lasting less than three, years.

A couple of compact, much less expensive digital calls I own have proven much more reliable, one a Flextone Model # eH1, the other a Predator Mini Caller from Western Rivers. Both, if memory serves me correctly, I bought on impulse at an area general store.

Mouth calls, not surprisingly, are most reliable, once the hunter leans how to use them.

After several years of fairly successful coyote hunting, my partner and I became a bit complacent and lax. Because we do the majority of our coyote hunting during winter, we have sat on camouflaged plastic buckets. But as of late we have neglected to use our camouflage netting. Earlier this spring it occurred to me that neglecting to wear a face mask and gloves was sloppy coyote hunting. To press the point, I have seen a couple of coyotes running through the trees at reasonably close range, apparently which saw, heard or smelled me.

So, I bought a camouflaged ground seat which has a padded back and seat, and though I already have several, a new face mask. I may have to buy lightweight camouflage gloves if I can not find any among my hunting equipment. And I already have different brands and types of masking scents and scent eliminator sprays. Odor is probably the most common reason for being detected by coyotes, as long as other things are done right. Coyotes typically circle, at least partially, before getting close.

Coyotes are strange critters. They likely are, by far, our most intelligent game animal. Yet at times they show almost no concern for people.

On one occasion while howling without a firearm from inside my pickup, a lone coyote cane within 5 feet of the door where I was sitting.

Another time while using an electronic lone coyote challenge call, several coyotes came within 40 yards of my wife and I while we were in same pickup.

My first close coyote encounter occurred while on a crappie fishing expedition with my late brother, Greg, in West Virginia, a coyote raided a grease-filled frying pan on a compact charcoal grill and steak bones still on our paper plates, within 15 feet of the open side doors of my van while I was sitting with my feel hanging outside the doors. It stayed for several minutes while my brother and I talked.

You probably already have a firearm well suited to hunting coyotes. It does not take a lot to drop one. One I took, which dropped immediately in its tracks with a broadside chest shot, with a .17 Mach II. I have three rifles specific to coyote hunting, two .22/250 rifles, one a heavy target version, the other a lightweight model, and a .22 Hornet. But do not let the lack of a smaller caliber rifle deter you.

Get out there and try a different kind of hunting fun this spring.