I used my Leatherman Wave to do the work in fashioning a hook. The walls of the wishbone are thin but usually one side of the bone is a little thicker so you will want to favor that side when cutting away the material to form the point of the hook. Although the portion where the two sides meet is important for strength, it needs to be reduced in size to slip bait over it in order to be secured to the hook.

In order to fasten cordage to the hook I ruffed up the upper shank area to produce some friction on the smooth bone surface. I use plain dental floss as the cordage to fasten to the hook using a whipping knot normally used to secure rope ends. This knot provides a lot of surface area on the roughened area and is very tight and secure.

As with conventional fishing hooks it’s important to match the appropriate size to the type of fish that you are angling for. I have made hooks from chicken bones for use with smaller fish. When I mount the worm bait I skewer it lengthwise past the hook’s bend then poke the point through the the side and pull the pierced area down to the middle of the hook. For other bait I poke the hook through the side and slide it down to the bend.

Although you can use a fishing pole I like to hold the line in my hand when fishing off of a dock. There’s something unique and exciting about hand fishing. Because the hook is barb-less you need to know when to pull the line to keep tension long enough to land the fish on the dock or the bank. A barb could be fashioned but I question the structural integrity of the bone’s point and its subsequent durability.

If you haven’t made a hook in the past, now is a good time to try. If the bone should break, you can always use it for a fish gorge… that works too!

I was sent a PDF copy to review before it was published. For me, reading is a laborious task and I’ve always been a visually oriented person, having a career as a corporate photopgrapher, videographer, and web master, but once I started to read this book I was captivated from the start. The author, Ronald B. Housel, has an easy-to-read writing style that got me hooked from the start and his passion for his craft held my interest throughout it’s 14 chapters.

And what a diversity of topics! It is a very complete work from a very experienced hunter that not only inspires want-to-be turkey hunters to pursue this field but also has many helpful insights for those seasoned hunters that want to continue honing their skills. The recipes are mouth-watering and the candid stories at the end had me rolling with laughter. I would recommend this book to any hunter who is contemplating or actively engaged in the pursuit of the elusive wild turkey.

You can learn more about The Black Ghosts of Autumn and the author Ronald B. Housel on Facebook.

Recently at one of my demos a gentleman introduced yet another call from a most unexpected source: a coffee stir straw. These straws are very thin, measuring approximately 1/16 inch in diameter and about 7 inches in length. Without any modifications you can place the end of the straw to your tightly closed lips and begin to suck at the tip, similar to the squeaking sounds that you might make to call squirrels or small game. I do give it a small pinch at the tip before I make a call. With a little practice you can make some remarkable sounds with surprising volume. If you like, you can also cut the straw shorter to make a higher pitch sound.

So if you find yourself without a commercial turkey call and need one, stop by a fast-food stand and grab a coffee stir straw and give it a try. Alternatively the straws included with children’s juice boxes work well too. Check out the video to see the technique and hear the sound.

Primitive crafts traditionally use primitive tools, materials and methods, but if you understand the construction process, you can speed up the process with modern day counter counterparts. This is the path that I chose while constructing the wing bone turkey call that is illustrated in the photo.

I used the cooked bones from my Thanksgiving Dinner turkey. After cleaning off the meat, I used a band-saw to cut the knobby ends off. I suppose that a hacksaw or multi-tool saw would work too. Next I cleaned out the bone marrow using a break-off blade utility knife and a “Hercules hook” that is used for hanging objects on drywall material. The hook has a sharpened point on a log shaft that works well in the narrow bone.

The three bones of graduated diameters will nest in consecutive fashion and may need to be trimmed to accommodate bone circumference irregularities. I chose epoxy putty to seal and glue each joint. A primitive approach would be “abo epoxy” made of pine pitch mixed with carbon ashes.

To operate the turkey call place your puckered lips on the tip of the small diameter bone and make a sucking squeak sound similar to the sound that you may make to call a squirrel or small pet. The graduated bone segments act like a megaphone and amplifies the sound so that it is remarkably loud.

If you would like to pursue making one of your own calls, Click HERE to view detailed instructions that are excellently written and illustrated by Bernard Dunn.

One of the things that he showed me is the bracket fungus known in the U.S. as “Turkey Tail”. In Japan it called “Riverbank Mushroom” which was appropriate in this case. It’s technical name is Trametes Versicolor. Some folks consider it non edible because it can be too corky & tough, but they are not toxic and my friend has boiled them on many occasions for dinner.

They generally attach to decaying logs along the back edge of the fan and have no discernible stem. It is an annual rather than perennial and can been seen throughout the year, but my friend says that they are most fresh in the Spring. Like many other fungi, they are also said to have medicinal benefit in reducing tumors.

So, if you get stranded in moist woodlands or along their rivers, you can find an edible fungus to stave off your hunger.