Hunting Guide Wins Michigan State Goose Calling Event

Standing in the rain outside of the family charter fishing company, Hunter Engel lets loose with a blistering rendition of the 90-second goose calling routine that made him the state champion last weekend.
The 22-year-old hunting guide from Saugatuck and competitive goose caller won the Michigan Goose Calling Championship at the Saginaw Bay Waterfowl Festival. He took the Grand Champion title in the Masters division. Winning the pro division is a dream come true.
"I've won the Michigan state juniors twice and the novice division before taking a second and third in the pro division," he said. "I finally got that monkey off my back and won it."
Engel has also won or placed well in other contests, including a win at the Chicagoland Open Goose calling contest, and a second in the U.S. Open Goose Calling Contest. Engel proudly sports a neckband full of duck and goose bands he calls, "my life's work." The bands are from the ducks and geese he has killed over the years.
His skill as a caller has evolved over time with coaching from Shawn Stahl, an Allegan caller who won the 2000 world goose calling championship. "He's straightened me out a lot," said Engel. "He told me I needed to improve and update my routine."
Competitors at the Michigan championship had 90 seconds to execute a series of lifelike goose calls that simulate those a hunter would use in a field hunting scenario. The routine consists of "hail" calls to get attention and "come back" calls to get get geese to return if they lose interest. "Aggressive calls" are used to keep their attention and "laydown work" simulates the sound of geese on the ground, or landing.
A new routine also keeps the judges interested, said Engel, who plans to compete in the World Goose Calling Competition in Easton Maryland in November. Having a new call also helped. Engel blows a Foiles Migrator, made by Jeff Foiles, of Pittsfield Ill., his sponsor. "It's got a shorter barrel and is not only easier to blow, it is more powerful. You get more goosey sounds out of it," Engel said.
Hunter's father, Dave Engel, a three-time winner of the Great Lakes Goose Calling Championship, was proud of his son's performance. "We all blow flutes," he said, referring to goose calls. "It helps our hunting business when we can all be out there mixing it up."