New caller

[Kerrywhite30]

So how do you know when to call? And how much to call.... Do you call when you don't see birds at all, to kinda give them a idea where your at? Or only call when you spot the ducks??

[Goldfish]

The best answer, it's different for each scenario.

Sometimes the birds want to hear the call. Other days it'll send them packing for the next state. Also if you are where the birds want to be, or if you are just close by.

Unless you see the birds responding to the call, I go with the less is more approach.

[Rick]

Here's my canned response to your question as written for another board some years ago:

At its tactical core, calling ducks is about momentum: creating it, breaking it, maintaining it and, sometimes, just not getting in its way. So I take my calling cues by paying attention to the birds' momentum.

If the location and decoys are doing my job for me, and the birds want to come to the guns, I'll let 'em. Calling only enough to keep them coming if they waver and/or to put them "right there". Not getting in the way of birds that want to work was little doubt the inspiration for the old saw about calling only to tail feathers and wing tips.

By the same token, if the birds haven't shown me their intent, I'll call just enough to get our hat in the ring. And if they jump for it, chances are they can be finessed the rest of the way by tickling them "on the corners". Again letting the birds' momentum do most of the work.

But if birds blow off a simple greeting and drive on toward parts unknown, I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by hitting them hard with the call. Here again, if they're quick to turn to it, they'll probably do most of the work from there on in.

And if they don't turn to, I really amp it up, watching for any little wink or blink of a wing suggesting the jackhammer will work if I can just crank it up a little louder and longer. When I can't get anything to flirt, I'm only out some wind. But when something will wink or blink, and I don't run out of wind, our chances of getting shooting out of it are excellent.

Wasn't always so, however, because when I'd worked that hard to break something off a flock or turn the bunch, I worried about over calling and backed off as they headed to us - only to lose them when I did. Took me a lot more such losses than I'm happy admitting to realize that even when I turned the whole flock and not just a bird or two from it, the real momentum was still headed toward whatever was drawing them away in the first place and might well stay that way. Many such birds are either coaxed all the way to the guns or lost, presumably to their prior destination.

If there's a "rule" to such things, it may be that the harder birds are to turn in the first place, the more likely the need to call to their faces until you call the shot. "Tails and tips" be damned.

Very often, too, we'll see that birds within hailing range appear deaf, because they're zeroed in on another nearby spot, and our best efforts aren't turning them. We can't break the momentum toward that location within their view, like we could toward a distant, perhaps less tangible, goal.

But it's often the case that we can then use their own momentum against such birds by letting those apparently locked on such a spot go to it, break down for it, and then, when their circling heads them our general direction, calling to their faces to keep them headed our way, perhaps thinking there might be a better deal just a little farther on. Or just caught up in the call.

Again, though, don't let up as they approach or pass a good shot hoping for a better one, because they've already shown that what they really want is over yonder.

And that's more than enough of that for a while. Lots and lots of other tactical stuff, including gosh knows how many under the label "most important thing" or "secrets" that probably aren't. But I think a fellow who really pays attention to momentum and calls accordingly has a far better foundation to build on than most.

[Kerrywhite30]

Thank y'all a lot for the help! And exspecially taking the time
To elaborate so much!

[Flyway Stalker]

Ricks canned response says it pretty well, the only thing I would add is since you're new to this, don't be afraid to belt out some calls now and then when there are no ducks in sight, (I wouldnt get to crazy though). Doing that will give you a chance to practice and get a feel for how you sound, it also helps with keeping the call clear from freezing up and may get the attention of some birds you can not see.

[Kerrywhite30]

Ricks canned response says it pretty well, the only thing I would add is since you're new to this, don't be afraid to belt out some calls now and then when there are no ducks in sight, (I wouldnt get to crazy though). Doing that will give you a chance to practice and get a feel for how you sound, it also helps with keeping the call clear from freezing up and may get the attention of some birds you can not see.

So sometimes calling without seeing any birds can
Be effective? What you see the birds land in a distance, can along alp
To get them up from where they are and fly to you with calling?

[Flyway Stalker]

Ricks canned response says it pretty well, the only thing I would add is since you're new to this, don't be afraid to belt out some calls now and then when there are no ducks in sight, (I wouldnt get to crazy though). Doing that will give you a chance to practice and get a feel for how you sound, it also helps with keeping the call clear from freezing up and may get the attention of some birds you can not see.

So sometimes calling without seeing any birds can
Be effective? What you see the birds land in a distance, can along alp
To get them up from where they are and fly to you with calling?

Highly unlikly you will pull a group of birds off the water to come sit in your spread because they like your sound, but just occasionally letting them know you're there may get them to check you out when they do decide to get up and move around.
Also, there are many singles moving around that you may not see who are looking for a group to join up with and may hear your call. When I say it's OK to make some call when no birds are in sight, I'm talking about a few quacks, not a big routine of hail calls.

[Kerrywhite30]

Ricks canned response says it pretty well, the only thing I would add is since you're new to this, don't be afraid to belt out some calls now and then when there are no ducks in sight, (I wouldnt get to crazy though). Doing that will give you a chance to practice and get a feel for how you sound, it also helps with keeping the call clear from freezing up and may get the attention of some birds you can not see.

So sometimes calling without seeing any birds can
Be effective? What you see the birds land in a distance, can along alp
To get them up from where they are and fly to you with calling?

Highly unlikly you will pull a group of birds off the water to come sit in your spread because they like your sound, but just occasionally letting them know you're there may get them to check you out when they do decide to get up and move around.
Also, there are many singles moving around that you may not see who are looking for a group to join up with and may hear your call. When I say it's OK to make some call when no birds are in sight, I'm talking about a few quacks, not a big routine of hail calls.

I appreciate all the advice, on all the different questions!

[Flyway Stalker]

If you hav'nt already, go online and join Ducks Unlimited or Delta Waterfowl. The're magazines are both packed with a lot of good information and tatics. Just be careful not to get caught up with all this duck warrior bullshit the manufactures are trying to hype everyone into these days, they will drive you broke with buying all their high dollar crap.

[Goldfish]

Ricks canned response says it pretty well, the only thing I would add is since you're new to this, don't be afraid to belt out some calls now and then when there are no ducks in sight, (I wouldnt get to crazy though). Doing that will give you a chance to practice and get a feel for how you sound, it also helps with keeping the call clear from freezing up and may get the attention of some birds you can not see.

So sometimes calling without seeing any birds can
Be effective? What you see the birds land in a distance, can along alp
To get them up from where they are and fly to you with calling?

I've gotten birds to swim over to my decoys by calling sparingly, but enough to keep them interested

[Rick]

The best thing to do when ducks are trying to land too far out is raise a calling ruckus that either picks them back up before they get wet and gives you another shot at tolling them or bumps them clear out of the area so they'll not be live competition for the next bunch. If they lit despite your best/loudest efforts, I'd just run them off with gunfire before I'd fool with trying to call them over.