By Chad Belding

There is no doubt in my mind that there are more important parts that go into being a successful waterfowl hunter than calling. There is location, bird population, and concealment, but where does calling fit into this picture? In my opinion, there is not a complete hunt without verbally communication with the ducks and geese. A hunter can communicate with birds with the look of the decoy spread, flagging, and motion decoys but it is my opinion that the hunt becomes complete when the verbal communication influences the birds to finish. Consistently calling ducks and geese into decoy range is one of the most rewarding efforts that an outdoorsman can make. It takes a ton of practice and willingness to become a sponge and soak in all of the different sounds and rhythms that ducks and geese make. After you begin to get the hand placement, tongue operation, larynx mechanics, and pressurized air, then you can begin mastering the vocabulary of these awesome birds. Then when you think you have it all down with the sounds, you have to gain the knowledge of timing, calling big Canadas compared to calling lesser Canadas, knowing how loud to call and when to stay quiet on the call, and when to put the call down and let the rest of your arsenal seal the deal. There will be times when you can call them all the way to the ground or water and there will also be times when you can let your flag and decoys finish those big honkers after you called to them and they are ready to commit. This know-how will come from only one thing and that is becoming a student of the ducks and geese and letting them teach you what they want to hear, when they want to hear it, and how much they want to hear.  No matter what your age is, if you are an experienced caller or a rookie, there is ALWAYS something to take from the field each and every day.

When a group of geese is spotted at a distance, there are a couple of things that a hunter can do to get them headed his way. Visually, it is always a great idea to flag at the flock until they begin their approach towards your spread. The other thing that I believe in is that picking up your call and hitting them with high pitched hail calls and clucks is as an effective way to get their attention. A good test of this is for the hunter to have a buddy go out one hundred yards, and then two hundred yards, and then five hundred yards and listen to the sound and pitch of the call. Short reed goose calls can be heard from very long distances and trust me, if we can hear them, a flock of geese can for sure. After you have the flock headed in your direction, now it is time to put all of your preparation and practice to the test. The next couple of minutes of your hunt will be decided on how you control this flock with your call, flag, decoys, and concealment. All of the pieces are in place now and you finally have a flock of geese headed right to you. Be confident in all of the sounds you have learned during the off season, stay realistic with your timing and sounds, and always remember to never run before you walk. If you have a great cluck, moan, and honk in your calling arsenal, then stick to them and do not try and get to fancy. Don’t get me wrong, geese and ducks make a ton of different sounds and when a hunter can learn them all and put them all into action, then the hunt will be that much more complete. Now back to the incoming flock. They are now about a hundred yards from your group and it is time to finish the task. It is always a good idea to set the flags down and only use them in slight up and downs to replicate birds shaking their wings. Your decoys are in sight of the birds and the final thing they need now is some realistic sounds to put their toe nails in the dirt. It is very important to be able to listen to the birds while at the same time you are watching their body language. When they get more vocal and excited in the air, then pick up your tempo and talk back to them. If there are only a few birds in the flock who are talking, then try and replicate that. Mix in your cluck and moans in different tempos that tells the birds in the air that there are more than one bird talking back to them. This is all done with hand and tongue placement and trust me, it will separate you from your competition in your hunt area. A short reed goose call has so much range, response, and versatility that you can easily talk to geese in any format needed. This means that whether you are calling honkers or lessers, you can get those sounds from a short reed goose call.

Duck calling follows the same guidelines as goose calling does. The tones, pitch, volume, timing, and cadence are all very important aspects to being able to get wild ducks into your decoys for nice harvestable shots. I feel that it is harder to learn from listening to real ducks than it is from geese but that does not mean that you should not try and do so. Ducks do not talk as much as geese do in the air or on the ground but knowing when and how to call ducks can be devastating to a flock of mallards. There are so many pretty sounds you can do with greeters, quacks, come back calls, feed chuckles, double cuts, etc. that when you have them all mastered, you can sound like an entire refuge full of ducks. I would tell anyone who I was giving lessons to, that hand placement and tongue placement are the most important details in sounding like real mallard hens. Then I would talk about timing of when to hit that duck with the correct sounds and cadences. I always hit them on the corners and when they are going away with me. I like to use single quacks or I will say nothing at all when they are over the top of me. If I am in really shallow water where I have noticed ducks feeding, I will use powerful feeding sequences with quacks and short greeters mixed in. Then when I want to get real fancy and there are a ton if ducks in the area, I will get on a refuge sequence where I mix feeders, bouncing hens, greeters, and quacks all together to give the flock no other choice but to set their wings and finish down my barrel. Again, consistency and persistence in practicing are going to make you the very best caller you can be. I mean practicing all year and not just picking up your call three weeks before opening day. With that being said, make sure that you practice the correct way. It is like they say, “perfect practice makes perfect execution”.

I am not going to get into teaching in this article because I believe that it is impossible to teach someone how to operate a duck or goose call on paper. The very best way is to listen to the real thing and to get with guys who know the correct way to use their calls, and learn from them. Form a weekly calling session with different waterfowl hunters in your local area and learn from each other. Again, it is always a good idea to absorb as much information and different techniques from others as possible, and then pick and choose what you want to keep in your arsenal. After you do this, you will be able to develop an entire arsenal that you can call your own. If you do want to get information from our team, please use the CONTACT US tab on the website listed below and hammer us with all of the questions about calling that you have. We will be more than happy to email you back with answers.

There are a ton of great instructional DVDs on the market that will give you the ability to learn as many different sounds and theories as possible. After viewing many of these DVDs, you will be able to come up with your own theories and thought processes in developing your calling techniques. We have a new set of duck and goose calling instructional getting ready to hit the market and we feel that they will add a new dimension to learning the vocabulary of waterfowl. The Goose Gospel for geese and Training Day for ducks will be released soon so please look for them at your local dealer or on our website at www.thefowllife.com. I hope that you are enjoying season two of The Fowl Life and that you are able to take something away from each episode. We want to develop shows that you all can look forward to being entertained from while at the same time learning new methods. I will be back with you next month right here at The Sportsman’s News with another article on living the fowl life.  I truly hope that you all have a solid 2010-2011 waterfowl season. Please hunt safe and remember to try and introduce somebody new to this sport whenever you have a chance to.