Kevin Kishel

President & Founder 

of Kishel's Scents & Lures

Kevin has spent his entire life in the outdoors.  He has hunted and trapped throughout the United States and Canada.  He has a love for deer hunting, turkey hunting, trapping, predator calling and along with all of these activities he manufacturers Kishel's Scents & Lures.  And if you don't find him doing all of the above he conducts numerous seminars on hunting, trapping and predator calling.

Picture taken in the hills of New York

2004

Van Simmons

          My name is Van Simmons. I have been happily married to my wife for 15 years. We have been blessed with 3 beautiful daughters whom, I love to take hunting with me.

I have lived in Tennessee most of my life so I grew up around a lot of outdoorsmen. I went hunting as a kid but didn’t get passionate about hunting until the first Christmas with my wife. She bought me my first bow, one that had not been borrowed or handed down. Since then I wake up thinking about hunting and go to bed thinking about hunting.


I feel it is a gift from God that allows us to enjoy the great outdoors and his magnificent creation. His blessings are poured out into my life as I am privileged to travel across North America and Canada to pursue some of my dreams and passions. I am also on the Mothwing Camoflauge Prostaff which allows me to meet a lot of individuals with the same passion for hunting that I have. I do believe and practice trophy management. Through this I have been blessed to have harvested numerous Pope and Young animals. However, it’s not just the size of the rack or number of points, but also, the hunt and who you were with and how you were able to influence their lives, and they yours.

This passion has sparked other hobbies as well. I started doing taxidermy work a few years ago. So I get to spend a lot of time in the off season looking at trophies that others have been blessed to have harvested.          



Best Regard,    Van Simmons
 

LEW SAUDERS

The year was 1960 when the minimum wage was $1.00, and the year that I turned 12. That was when it all started. The “it” for me was the beginning of my hunting career. Along the way, God has blessed me with many opportunities to enjoy his creation. The first few years my father concentrated on teaching me the “ins and outs” of Pennsylvania hunting. That first year carrying a .410 shotgun and harvesting a beautiful male pheasant in an Amish man’s field east of Lancaster was the highlight of my season.  In the following years, I progressed into whitetail and turkey hunting. Unfortunately, my father passed away in 1967, but he had ignited a passion within me that still burns today. While I have hunted with most weapons, my passion has revolved around archery gear, first with a recurve, then a compound and now a crossbow.

The hunting is my passion, but the most important "thing" in my life is my family.  I have a son and daughter who are both married and they have blessed Carolyn, my wife of 40 years, and myself with four wonderful grandchildren.  While the grandchildren are a little too young to hunt, they are getting into fishing.  I hope to be able to equip all of them with their first bow and .22 rifle.

My hunting experiences have led me through a number of eastern, southern and western states, as well as several Canadian provinces after turkey, waterfowl, whitetails, antelope, mule deer, elk and bear.  One of the most challenging but yet rewarding hunting opportunities that I have had was a trip to Alaska to hung caribou and brown bear.  If you go to Alaska to hunt, ther are several things to remember.  One take at least 2 good rain suits, because it rains most of the time. Two, make sure that you are prepared to take care of yourself just in case something happens to your guide. Three, you are not at the top of the food chain, those bears with the 5" claws take the top spot. It is hard to imagine the excitement that you feel when and 800 pound brown bear is walking along a narrow lake shore and getting closer to you with every step.  I wish each of you sometime could have the opportunity to experience how that feels.

In the past few years, I have had the opportunity to bow and crossbow hunt in South Africa. As a North American hunter, we have all learned to recognize the North American animals. What an interesting experience it is to suddenly need to learn a whole continent of new animals. Things like a zebra, a red hartebeest, a blue wildebeest, a kudu, an impala, a nayala and so on. If you ever get a chance to go, do not even think twice about it. Do it

When I am not hunting, I have been involved in teaching the bow hunter education class in Pennsylvania for the past 20 or so. My specialty in the class is to teach tree stand safety. I am on the pro-staff for Summit Tree Stands, so talking  about  hunting safety from 16 feet up seems to come naturally. If you hunt from a tree stand, please wear a full body harness and use a safety rope from the time you leave the ground until you return to the ground. If you do not know how to do this, please contact me and I will be most happy to show you how to do it. A few years ago, arthritis in my shoulders forced me to move from a compound to crossbow. I have been fortunate to have joined Ten Point Crossbows as a pro-staffer. This gives me the opportunity to spread the word on how to safety hunt with a crossbow, and to dispel some of the myths that exist concerning crossbows.

I am looking forward to helping Kevin promote the Kishel's line of scents. Many people have discovered the effectiveness of the Kishel's products, and I am going to spread the word to as many as I can. When you find a product that is at the top of its category and actually performs as the manufacturer claims, it is a pleasure to use it and promote it. Kishel's products are in this category

So, good luck to you in the next hunting season, whenever that is for you. Shoot straight, hunt safely and introduce a young person to your passion.
 

Johnny Kennedy took this Axis buck at 48 yards in Texas using Golden Rod Cover Scent.

Johnny Kennedy - 2005  - Louisiana
 

Kevin ... I used a bottle of Golden Rod Cover Scent and had as many as 8 deer under my stand with north wind dead in their face and never smelled me. That made it too bad for the one in the picture.

Johnny Kennedy

Nikon Sport Optics - Archery Prostaff Manager

- Louisiana --

Johnny is from Louisiana and is involved in many archery related activities.   He is the ProStaff Manager for Nikon Sport Optics, a staff writer for Women Bowhunters, a Professional Archery Range Designer, A.S.A. Lifetime Member, Senior Pro A.S.A. / IDO Circuits for 7 years and a Level 2 AA Instructor.   When he is not busy with all of this Johnny is a Elk and Mule Deer Guide and has instructed over 7500 kids in schools on hunting over the last 2 years.

2007 Season for Greg Yarbrough

Buck was taken during the rut in Southeastern Pa. He was lured in with Buckthrasher I. A 20 yard shot took him down. He's a nine point roughly 150" and weighed in over 200 lbs. The Golden Rod cover scent kept him from detecting my scent.

2007 Trapping Season

Kevin .... I gotta tell you, your products are just down right amazing. What an awesome day on the trap line today. With just a small line out right now, I took 7-red fox, I opossum and a big boar raccoon. The Triple Dig-it and Crossbreed Call are just kicking some royal butt. My catch percentage is running about 30%. As one of your pro staffers I couldn't be happier that I made the switch to Kishel's products. The success truly is in the bottle and I'm looking forward to many more successful days on the line. Thanks for offering such outstanding products. I'll have some pictures on the way.

Sincerely,

Greg Yarbrough
Kishel's Quality Animal Lures & Scents Pro-staff

    

Kevin, today is probably the most awesome day of my trapping career.  I caught my first coyote today.  This is significant not only because it is my first, but because they are rare in the area where I live.  It is a big beautiful female.  I caught her on Triple-Dig-It.  Thanks for the awesome products.  Like I said .... Kishel's Rules!!  -  Greg Yarbrough - November 2005

“Did somebody say Kishel’s”  Well this big boy must have heard it because he came right in on Doe Passion.

With Kishel’s deer lure it just doesn’t get any better!

Greg Yarbrough - 8 Point
2006 - Taken in PA
 

Greg Yarbrough

-- Pennsylvania --

Greg's 2008-2009 Season Comments:

Kevin, I hope all is well and I hope you had a great season this past year. Our trapping season is still open for a couple weeks but I have concluded my season at this time. Kevin, it has been an awesome season to say the least. The success I am having with all of your products I have been using just keeps getting better and better. I think the more a hunter/trapper uses a Product line, they become more aware of the effectiveness of the products and the various ways of effectively using the products. I have never been this pleased with any other product line. 

The trapping season was nothing less than incredible for me this year. I run a modest sized line each year and for the amount of set locations I operated, I enjoyed a 30% average throughout my season. There were some days my catch was as high as 50% and one day in particular I had a catch at every single farm. On that day I had 14 farms set up and caught 7 red fox, 3 raccoon, 1 coyote and 3 opossums....... an animal at each farm.

On my canine line I used Triple Digit and Trigger exclusively in the first portion of the season, then switched to Crossbreed Call for a change up. Things ran pretty much 50/50 with the Triple Digit and Trigger which told me that the two are a deadly combination. I use two sets at every location. I lure the set on the left with Trigger and the set on the right with Triple Digit. There's just no deadlier combination. As things began to slow up a bit, the crossbreed call started filling up the sets again.

I ran fewer traps than I usually do on my water line this year. The success on big boar coons in my land sets was so good, I put more effort into the land sets. The water line did however produce very well with coon mink and muskrats. I feel I had a very rewarding trapping season overall.
 
In summary, I think my my group did very well using and promoting the company products this year. We did very well doing our part in field testing another outstanding Kishel's deer hunting product and provided some nice photos and testimonials, that , combined with some nice catch and location photos on the trap line, and our usual sharing of success stories with countless other sportsmen, made for a great year promoting the Kishel's line of quality hunting and trapping products.

I hope you are pleased with my pro staff efforts from this past season. I take great pride in using Kishel's products and sharing the product with others. I have seen many success stories unfold as a result of other hunters and trappers using Kishel's products for the first time. I'm sure I'll never know just how far our efforts in promoting the product really go. On the way home from our opening day deer hunt this past year, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner and attracted quite a mass of hunters who saw our deer on the rack on the back of the truck. It was a great opportunity to share our testimony about the new Spiked Deer Urine and other Kishel's products. We'll never know how far our words will reach as a result of just that one of many other encounters with other Sportsmen. The neat thing is, the proof was right there for all to see and we were more than glad to tell them why we have the kind of success we have.

I hope God blesses the Kishel's company in the same manner the companies products have blessed countless sportsmen all over the country.

Kind Regards Kevin, have a great 2009

Greg Yarbrough
Pro-staff Kishel's Quality Animal Lures & Scents

Greg Yarbrough is the executive producer for Brandywine River Productions.  Brandywine is a Pennsylvania based video production company and is a leader in the industry of outdoor video productions. Greg has produced 10 top selling video productions over the last 10 years featuring archery hunting for white-tailed deer in several states in the north and south east.  Greg has accomplished sponsorships with a number of companies such as Golden Eagle Archery, Browning Archery, Easton Aluminum, Lacrosse Footwear, Rocky Mountain Broad heads, ASAT Camo,Wildlife Research Center, Thunderwood Game Calls, and more. Greg also served on the advisory staff for Arrow Adventure Magazine and is an accomplished outdoor writer and photographer. Greg has been featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles and has made several television appearances on outdoor programs.  
As a trapper, Greg has been putting fur on the stretcher for over 25 years taking Raccoon, Fox, Mink and Muskrats. Greg brings 24 years of deer hunting and trapping experience to the Kishel's Pro Staff.


 

Personal comments: "When I head out on the trap line or climb into my favorite deer stand, I like to have a number of options to put fur on the stretcher and horns on the wall. When it comes to bait and lure products, I want the best I can get my hands on. I look foreword to a successful upcoming year using Kishel's complete line of products for all of my hunting, trapping and photography needs".

NewYork - 2003

Montana - 2005

Jeff Rettig

-- Pennsylvania --

Jeff is a Hunter, Trapper and Fly Fisherman.

Jeff operates the website for Kishel's Scent & Lures, Inc.

Contact him at woodsman@zoominternet.net

 

www.kishelscents.com 

As long as I can remember I have been involved in the outdoors either camping, hunting for small game, Fly -fishing for trout and ultimately the pursuit for Whitetail Deer and Turkeys. There was a big learning curve for me as I had no other family members involved in the outdoors and that has fueled my passion for the outdoors even more. I became a licensed guide for NY in 1999, focusing on Archery and Muzzleloading hunts as well as Fly-fishing so that I would be able to help others with their passion for the outdoors.

My guiding career has lead me to become a Thompson Center Pro Staff Member and a staff shooter for Mathews , as well as  being involved with Orvis and Simms on there guide programs on the fly-fishing side. Working with Bristol Hills Outfitters has given me the ability to learn a lot about habitat management as we have worked closely with products from the Whitetail Institute on our own property. I have applied this knowledge and consulted with other land owners to help them develop a proper plot management plane for there own land for increased enjoyment.

Except for my family there is nothing that gives me such great joy as being in the outdoors. I am blessed to have a very understanding wife, who puts up with my addiction for the outdoors, and 2 daughters 12 and 10, and a son 3, who are well on  there way to becoming stewards for this great sport as they are able to see that there are more things to do than play video games for entertainment .

I have enclosed a few pictures as both deer were harvested using Buck Thrasher II and coming from fields of Whitetail Institute Chicory Plus.

2005 - New York

Owen Haers

I have been in the outdoor industry since 1995 working as a videographer for Kishel's Scents & Lures, KITS Turkey Calls, Skyline Hunting the Horizon and Ron Tussels' True Woods Outdoors.  I am presently on Pro Staff for Kishel’s Scents & Lures, KITS  turkey calls and Skyline Camouflage.

Working for these great  companies has opened many opportunities for me. I have traveled throughout the majority of the U.S. and Canada -  hunting, trapping and videoing many species of game animals.  I have been from Maine hunting sea ducks to Colorado hunting elk, from Manitoba on black bear hunts to Oklahoma turkey hunting, mostly as self guided hunts.  Most of my younger years was spent hunting in the state of Wyoming, where I harvested many trophy antelope, mule deer and a few nice whitetails.  Still, one of my favorite seasons to remember is the muzzleloader season in New York, when I harvested one of the state’s biggest muzzleloader bucks on record: gross scoring just over 170.

In 2003 I became a Licensed Guide in North Dakota, working for Harvey Biber of North Dakota Outfitters, spending most of October out of state.  With very little time for scouting I always manage to get out long enough to fill my freezer thanks to Kishel's products. 

Since the passing of my father in 2002 the fear of losing my knowledge and skill of trapping has pushed me back into the fields and water where I followed my dad as child. It was hard to get back in the groove after not running a trap line for at least 11 years, but with the guidance and encouragement of Kevin and a few bottles of Kishel's scent products I got the job done.

2009 Buck - Canada



Todd took this bear using Kishel's Bear Scent with a bow.
 This 375 - 400 pound bear in Ontario, Canada was 6' 4" from nose to tail.

2005 - New York

Todd Imiola

Todd brings in a wealth of experience and knowledge of the outdoors. Having spent the better part of his young life in the woods, Todd knows first hand that a quality scent can make the difference between success and failure. He has hunted numerous states around the country with bow in hand with success. 

Todd also serves as pro staff for Primos Hunting Calls, PMI Cover Systems, scores for The Northeast Big Buck Club, is a staff writer for The New York sporting Journal and writes numerous other hunting articles, conducts various seminars and in store events. In addition he has 9 Pope and Young Bucks and 1 Boone and Crockett under his belt thus far.










Todd took this Elk in 2007.

Eric York - Wildlife Biologist - California     

In Memory of Eric York - May 2, 1970 - November 2, 2007
Wildlife biologist Eric York died on Friday November 2nd, 2007 at his residence in the Grand Canyon.

The link to the Memorial Page is below. http://felidaefund.org/about_us/memorial.html

From Erick York - I started hunting and trapping while growing up on a small farm in western Massachusetts. I received a B.S. in Wildlife Management from the University of Maine and a M.S. in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Massachusetts. While at college I began trapping for research studies and since then I have captured and studied a wide variety of species from around the world. Most of my work involves capture of small carnivores for radio-telemetry studies. Here in the States I have studied fishers, martens, coyotes, and lynx in the Northeast and coyotes, bobcats, gray foxes and badgers in the Southwest, where I am currently working. Recently I have been fortunate enough to travel to different countries to capture different carnivores for biological studies. I have been to Nepal to catch fishing cats and civets and to 3 regions of Chile to catch South American foxes and small wildcats. Overall my work has allowed me to capture 20 species of carnivores on 3 continents. Though I do not get a chance to trap recreationally much, I still enjoy trapping to harvest fur when I can. When I'm not working and traveling I enjoy hunting in whatever areas I'm working in or back on the farm in Massachusetts.

This message was received from Eric York on 6/15/03: .......... Hi Kevin ..... Just thought I would drop you a line to say hi and give you an update.  I'm still in southern California looking for mountain lions. Unfortunately, I spend a lot more time looking than catching. We still have only two lions collared in the Santa Monica Mountains, and after covering the area pretty well over the last year, I think these may be the only 2 left in the mountains. I have just moved my trap line north of the 101 freeway for the first time and have found sign of a female lion there. I'm putting all my effort into catching her now. But with the large area she covers it may be a while before she gets back to my traps.  This July / August I will be heading to the Grand Canyon to catch mountain lions on the South Rim. Hopefully there will be more cats to be had there than here.  After that I will head back to California hopefully find more cats somewhere.  There is a short article on our project at:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0521_030521_tvmountainlions.html

2004 - Kevin .. I'm still busy out west working with mountain lion, both in Arizona and in southern California. I'm slowly getting sample sizes up to where we are finding out some interesting things.  In southern California we are learning how the large cats are surviving in and amongst all the people that live and recreate there. All with rarely be seen or detected. They really can be elusive even in a very developed landscape.  I'm sure they see and hear people and pets every day and the still just eat deer. The lions in our study don't bother the people at all, unlike some other cats not to far from our study area.

In Arizona we are learning how they use the rim of the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas. We seeing a lot of movement of young cats (as expected). One younger male traveled about 70 miles south to the Flagstaff area and took up residency there. There are plenty of deer and elk to prey on throughout the area.  These two studies keep me pretty busy but I had some time to hunt a bit this year and made it back to Alaska to get a caribou and got some time to shoot a nice 2 x 3 blacktail in southern California. I haveattached some photos of them.
Hope you are well, and trapping and hunting seasons
have been good to you.  ..... Eric

2005 California Blacktail
This Blacktail was shot at about 8000 feet in the southern Sierras. Not a bad deer for that area. After packing him out 2 miles and down 2000 feet I was glad he was not any bigger.

Hope your fall is going well also .... Eric





2006 - I did shoot a small fork-horn in California

Eric York

FYI - Here is a quick list of the species I've caught for research:   Using Kishel's Scents & Lures.

USA: coyotes, red fox, gray fox, bobcat, lynx, fisher, marten, badger, striped skunk, spotted skunk, raccoons, deer, blacktail, sheep.

Chile: Culpeo fox, South American gray fox, Darwin's fox, guigna, hognosed skunk.

Nepal: Fishing cat, small Indian civet, palm civet, Indian mongoose.

Pakistan:  Snow Leopards

2002 - I'm still in Southern California. I have started working on catching mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains. The big cats are in the same areas as the coyote/bobcat work I have done here. As with the smaller species they are having to adapt to the freeways, houses and people here. It is really interesting seeing where they go. The few we have radio-collared travel in and around the houses and roads without a problem, often hanging around unseen right outside of the estates in Malibu. It exciting to catch a lion, we are using foot snares, its a little trickier drugging a 140 pound (and very angry) cat than it is a 30 pound bobcat or lynx.

2003 - Hi Kevin ..... Just wanted to send a few photos of our latest California lion. Caught him last week just in time to head to the Grand Canyon this week to start work.  He's a small (85 pounds), young male, that already has traveled a long way from where we caught him. It will be interesting to track his movements in and around the urban areas where he lives.  Will send more photos from the grand canyon. ...

2006 - Well this has been a busy year. Lots of mountain lion work both in California and in Arizona. I moved to Arizona and now am based at the Grand Canyon to head the mountain lion study there. I'm also involved in a bighorn sheep study along the Colorado River in the Canyon.

This fall I also got to do some coyote trapping for research in southern California. As with some other states footholds have been banned there but I was able to use snares for capture work.  I still used my favorite Kishel's lures to draw the coyotes through fence lines, and down trails where I had snares hung. Coy Dog II and Triple Dig-it were very effective at bring coyotes off of roads and into the snares.
 

My biggest adventure this year came with a trip to Pakistan to catch and collar snow leopards for the International Snow Leopard Trust. I spent 6 weeks in Northwest Pakistan (Chitral Gol National Park) setting snares to radio-collar snow leopards to learn movements and biology of these big cats. The work was at the western end of the Himalayas, just south of the Hindu Kush Range, we worked at 6500-10,000 feet but the mountains ranged up to 21,000 feet there. Very steep country. Lots of snow this time of year.  It was a great place to work.