Fink wins 4th state turkey calling title

MANCHESTER – For some fathers, supervising an active 5-year-old son while competing in several turkey calling contests might have been a distraction.

For Jim Fink of Rockford, who won his fourth Iowa State Turkey Calling Championship on Sunday along with two other titles, it was not.

“I was just glad to have Mike here with me to share this memorable day,” said Fink, who beat 10-time state champion Rick White of Cedar Rapids in both the state contest and the prestigious senior open, which featured competitors from six states.

Fink, 43, has seldom sounded more like a turkey than he did Sunday, even though a busy schedule kept him from practicing before the 2010 competition.

Fink, a member of the Hunter's Specialties calling team, edged White, a member of Hunter's Specialties national pro staff, by two points in one of the closest state contest finishes in memory. Curt Goettsch of Elkader finished third.

Both Fink and White said they concentrated on short, simple, mistake-free routines.

“For me, it's all about sounding as much like a real turkey in the woods as possible,” said White.

Fink said he thinks he's “better off calling clean than showboating with a lot of extra notes and embellishments.”

Fink said Sunday's contests gave him plenty of opportunity to showcase his strengths in the soft, quiet calls such as the cluck and purr, the tree call and the kee kee run.

Fink also said he derives extra satisfaction in outscoring White - who works full time promoting the H.S. Strut line of turkey calls and accessories, as well as other hunting products made by the Cedar Rapids-based Hunter's Specialties - not because he doesn't like him but because he has dominated Iowa turkey calling for the past 15 years.

Besides winning the state and senior open contests, Fink won the owl-hoot competition and placed second in the friction call competition behind Scott Wilhelm of Chippewa Falls, Wis., and just ahead of third-place finisher Neal Hermann of Barron, Wis.

Fink, who uses only his unaided mouth to replicate owl sounds, said he had his “hillbilly mojo” working for him in the owl-hooting contest.

Doug Herman of Hoskins, Neb., finished second in the senior open, followed by White.

Shane Simpson of St. Paul, Minn., won the hunter division, followed by Joe Kuechle of Collinsville, Ill.

Jacob Kuechle of Collinsville, Ill., won the junior division, followed by Evan Deutmeyer of Edgewood. In the intermediate division, Joe Kuechle and Jacob Kuechle, both of Collinsville, Ill., finished first and second, respectively.

The National Wild Turkey Federation-sanctioned event was sponsored by the organization's Maquoketa Valley Struttin' Toms chapter.