Cox Cypress wrote:A duck call lanyard tells a story, sometimes several stories about its owner.
The unseemly way mine clanks these days says I'm a greedy bastard who wants to toll 'em all.
Was a time, though, when I made do with as few calls as possible, with each on its own hank of decoy line, largely as a "dress for the job you want," "old pro" fashion statement. I got pretty good at squeezing multiple birds out of a single duck or speck call, learned to get a passable Canada and wood duck out of the speck call and could do what little peeping I was inclined to on the dog's whistle. So those were the three strings around my neck.
Then greed set in, and my hunger to toll more birds led to the knowledge that some responded better to tones beyond the range of any single call of their genre, and pretty soon there was a pouch full of strings with high pitched calls, low pitched calls, loud calls, quiet calls, and special purpose call. Those, and an experimental call or two still under consideration for this capability or that which none of my proven calls could match. On the easy days, a single duck and/or speck whistle might be all that joined the omnipresent dog whistle around my neck. But on the tough days, it could be a challenge to single out the desired call from the wad at the bottom of the bird's nest of decoy cord around my neck.
I finally threw in the towel and purchased the well designed six loop lanyard I've used ever since. On it there are loops for two duck calls different enough to cover the spectrum of what I've found the most useful tone and volume ranges as readily as any I've found (to date...), yet share the same handling characteristics in terms of air presentation, and two speck calls offering those same advantages as well as any I've found (to date...). Then there's a whistle loop loaded up with the best 6-in-1 bird whistle I've found (to date...), the best blackbelly and fulvous whistling duck whistle I've found (to date), and the best dog whistle I've found (to date...). Though the last loop very often just carries a relatively seldom used Canada/blue call, it may be the most important of all, because it's also where new calls I think show special promise of outperforming one of my others get that chance.
Anyway, it's a lanyard so loaded I'm quite literally embarrassed to wear it. But the tools of my trade are always at hand and organized for use at a moment's notice.