Calling

[rebelp74]

This morning? Poach much?

[Rick]

Rick, do you ever use a teal call? I don't use one to work them but I will hit it every now and then just to put it out there. Seems like once they see your spread they will at minimum bomb through it and more often then not crash land in the middle of it.

Been my experience that a whirligig is the best teal call, as they're more like divers than most other puddlers in terms of being much more visually than auditorily oriented. I can often turn teal and sometimes steer them a bit with calling, but they don't give me that "on a string" feeling of almost physical connection that mallards so often afford. Before spinners were available to attract them, we used much bigger spreads than I'll set for teal now and "kacked" loud as we could, mostly just to help gain attention, while the spread did the real work. Now, spinners do most of the attention getting, and perhaps ironically, calling seems most useful with teal that have been hammered over enough spinners to shy when they get closer to them. Most so-said "teal calling" I've heard, however, is so horrible in cadence, tone and timing that what birds get shot are surely in spite of, rather than because of, the racket and further evidence of how little attention teal pay to what they're hearing when they see something they like.

In any event, I use a dedicated "teal" call during the September season, when there's no reason to carry more than one call, anyway, and squeeze high, squacky kacks from a regular mallard-tuned call during the big duck season for the convenience of not carrying another call. Lots of folks will argue that what call one hits a teal with doesn't make a rat's ass, and I'd agree with them most of the time, but there are days when getting shooting at most of what comes by won't fill the strap, and I want my very best chance of tolling everything that does.

[Goldfish]

How do you get over being a giddy school child when you see ducks to be able to actually pay attention to them?

[R. Chapman]

Thanks Rick, some very helpful stuff in here. This should seriously be a sticky.

[aunt betty]

How do you get over being a giddy school child when you see ducks to be able to actually pay attention to them?

I know exactly what you mean. The first time I went alone on my own with my own decoys etc. I was so shocked when two ducks just landed in my decoys. ..sat there in disbelief rubbing my eyes, then they flew off because someone else in the marsh shot.

With experience...them damned ducks still manage to sneak in on me sometimes.

The sound of their wings is what alerts me many times. Hard to describe that sound. Little knives ripping thru the air then putting on the air breaks.

[Goldfish]

How do you get over being a giddy school child when you see ducks to be able to actually pay attention to them?

I know exactly what you mean. The first time I went alone on my own with my own decoys etc. I was so shocked when two ducks just landed in my decoys. ..sat there in disbelief rubbing my eyes, then they flew off because someone else in the marsh shot.

With experience...them damned ducks still manage to sneak in on me sometimes.

The sound of their wings is what alerts me many times. Hard to describe that sound. Little knives ripping thru the air then putting on the air breaks.

while this is all true, doesn't help me one bit, lol

[ducks~n~bucks]

Rick, so let me see if I got this right... What you are saying is, I should try calling each individual group of ducks aggressively, and if they are responding well to that, stay aggressive the whole way through, and hammer them even more if you lose there attention.

[NuffDaddy]

Finally had a spare minute to read through your posts Rick. Tons of great information in there. I think I read the story about the 2 father/son groups somewhere else a while back.
I'll have to remember to read through this again before next season.

[ducks~n~bucks]

Rick, so let me see if I got this right... What you are saying is, I should try calling each individual group of ducks aggressively, and if they are responding well to that, stay aggressive the whole way through, and hammer them even more if you lose there attention.

Nevermind. I need to reread this thread, and my comrehension skills were lacking before.

[Rick]

How do you get over being a giddy school child when you see ducks to be able to actually pay attention to them?

For several years, I had a marsh across the road from my front porch and a rice field across my backyard drain ditch, and for what's become three decades I've tended to do things like work the dogs and even deer hunt in places better suited for duck watching than my ostensible purpose, just because watching the birds tickles me so. So I ought to be pretty well acclimated to seeing them, but I'm still quite capable of getting too focused on what's not happening when I try to work them to pay real attention to what really is happening. That, or maybe I'm just giddy.

[Goldfish]

I just get all excited when I see them coming and all logic goes out the window. I can tell you that now, but think I can remember that while out hunting to calm myself? Not a chance.

[Rick]

Rick, so let me see if I got this right... What you are saying is, I should try calling each individual group of ducks aggressively, and if they are responding well to that, stay aggressive the whole way through, and hammer them even more if you lose there attention.

Nevermind. I need to reread this thread, and my comrehension skills were lacking before.

I find it extremely useful to think of calling not just as a communication tool ("Come here big boy." "Check out this buffet." or "Party!") but also, if not more so, as a lever for inducing involuntary responses in your favor. Needless calling won't only give birds more chance to hear something they don't like or pick out its source but can cost you leverage in much the same way we tend to pay less attention when someone who is always cussing up a stream does it than if the preacher swears. So there are times to be aggressive to change or maintain birds' momentum, times for finesse, times to STFU and not get in the way of birds already wanting your spread, and times to use calling sparingly, much like trying to illicit a shock gobble from a turkey.

When birds work your spread but push off because something bugs them, for instance, it's often best to hush the heck up, let them leave and air out a bit, then shock them into turning for another look by switching to a more aggressive call or using what's in hand more aggressively than you have been and staying on it to elicit what's hopefully a "close enough" pass before they reconsider and leave for good. By the same token, if working birds hang up and circle several times just out of range, not buying into finesse type calling, continuing to try it is likely counterproductive. Better, again, to STFU for a bit, wait for a circle to bring the birds as close as it will, then hit the birds assertively to shock them into a turn to that gives you an extra fifteen or twenty yards that may afford shooting.

Same sort of thing can also be useful when "local" birds programed by experience to know how close they can come without drawing fire cruise by. When you suspect that's the case, it often pays not to make a peep until their course has brought them as close as it will before surprising them into a reflex response they may wish they'd not had. And, hell, staying quiet may even convince them the noisy yo-yos aren't there that day and pass right over the blind.

In any event, aggressive calling is a tool you'll want to use judiciously and try not to dull.

[Rick]

I just get all excited when I see them coming and all logic goes out the window. I can tell you that now, but think I can remember that while out hunting to calm myself? Not a chance.

We wouldn't do it, if it wasn't exciting.

[Bootlipkiller]

Rick, so let me see if I got this right... What you are saying is, I should try calling each individual group of ducks aggressively, and if they are responding well to that, stay aggressive the whole way through, and hammer them even more if you lose there attention.

Nevermind. I need to reread this thread, and my comrehension skills were lacking before.

And, hell, staying quiet may even convince them the noisy yo-yos aren't there that day and pass right over the blind.

In any event, aggressive calling is a tool you'll want to use judiciously and try not to dull.

This is very true In the valley D&B, particularly during stagnant weather periods of high pressure. Most people will only hunt for a few hours in the morning or evening and they leave their blind or refuge pond unattended all mid day. Almost every season there's a couple weeks of the season when hunting from 11 to 3 will yield the most activity and STFU is the best way to get them in gun range. Figuring out when conditions are right for the midday "act like no ones home hunt" just comes with experience and paying attention over the years.

[gila-river]

Just read through this thread. Rick, thank you for imparting some of your wisdom and experience here. I really enjoyed reading your posts. I wonder what your thoughts would be on my quandary. I am confident in my calling. Maybe even more confident than competent:lol:. That being said I all but put my calls away since moving here to Arizona. Growing up hunting the mid willamette valley of Oregon I took to calling more than any of my hunting buddies. I also got good results. Making myself a commodity among my peers granting me access to some hunts I probably would have been left at the dock for had I not been one of the better callers among us. I just do not see the same results here. My only thought is that the birds we see here in the desert have heard every call all the way down the flyway, probably a lot of callers better than me as well. It's almost as though all of the birds I see are late season educated birds. Watching fowl work and react to sounds I am making is one of my favorite aspects of hunting. Right behind watching a good dog work and lately seeing my sons watch the sunrise from the blind bench so it is disheartening seeing this aspect all but disappear from the events of a duck hunt. What are your thoughts on this if you don't mind sharing.

[Rick]

Don't know what's happening in your situation. Do know I got my own hot spit Ohio Valley calling self pretty badly burned when I moved to the Gulf Coast. Wasn't that I couldn't call some ducks here, but my birds seen to birds tolled ratio took a humbling hit. Even remember some no doubt Northern writer/biologist for DU rubbing salt in the wound with an article on how ducks become easier to call in the South because they're pairing there. (Which hardly explains why they're easier to toll here early on or why species like pins and wigeon with gosh awful squacky quacks are such suckers for mallard sounding calls.) Bugged heck out of me.

But the good news was that while pressure was flat intense here on the wintering grounds, I not only saw enough more ducks here to much more than make up the difference in hand but enjoyed far, far greater opportunity to experiment and eventually up my averages substantially. Still don't toll them all, but I've gotten to where I can at least cop the attitude, if not entirely believe, that there's a way to toll everything within hearing - I just haven't found it, yet.

Some of the guys here have spoken of areas without mallards where they've found mallard calls ineffective, and that could be the case in your region. ( I've not hunted such a place, but I'd not rule out that the much higher percentage of mallards in my old Ohio Valley haunts contributed as much to my strong "seen:tolled" ratio as the relative lack of gun pressure the ducks had experienced there.) So maybe you're cursed with an area so far removed from mallards that the birds have forgotten what they sound like and/or that dang near everything that's sounded like a mallard has shot at them.

Or maybe your birds are just, as you've suggested, more beat up, in which case you'll hopefully find ways to stand out from the crowd and trip them up.

In any event, I wish you the best with it.

[ducks~n~bucks]

Rick, can I pick your brain with this question? So when you have multiple people in a blind, and all of them have calls, should they all call (the more the merrier.) Or should all of them STFU and let one guy (the most skilled) do the calling?

[Rick]

One of our camp's hunters told a guide friend of mine that his buddy once asked me if he could help me call, and my response was, "Sure, just let me handle them the last half mile or so." Don't remember ever actually saying that, but I might have...

As noted earlier, real leverage can depend heavily on invoking reflex responses and their timing, and multiple callers too often negate that advantage. So the rule of thumb in my circle of friends is that he who has the spot does the calling or decides who does it, and others stay out of the caller's way unless asked to kick in. For instance, we might all raise cane to get break something way the hey out, but then back off and let the lead caller bring them on. Or the birds may stale on what the lead's shown them, and he may pass the torch to someone with a very different sound or style.

[aunt betty]

Agressive Gang calling works great where I hunt but before the hunt we have a meeting and decide who the lead caller is.
The leader calls and the others back him up.

[GadwallGetter530]

I need any advice I can get on calling. I can get my call to have a ducky "sound" I am just asking about a ducky "strategy". Like, calling only on corners, or flying away, not while the bird is coming straight at you (not sure if this is good advice or not) or using alot of single quacks istead of feeding chuckle, or vice versa. That kind of stuff.

With my experience. I have a certain style I run with on most mornings. Aggressive the first hour then get much more relaxed as the sun rises. Generally around here I've found limited success with super heavy chatter and cutting feed calls later in the day. Fast comeback calls, little realist clucks quacks and the money maker for me anyways is the lonely hen. But get past the mallard call for a bit. Know what species you are calling to and sound accordingly. .... I mean learn all the sounds that particular speices makes stop mallard calling at everything. Know what the hens and drakes both sound like. Most hunters get caught up in the basic sounds and don't realize how much more vocabulary a duck has going on. It'll give you an edge especially on stale birds that have been around awhile. All sounds can be achieved with your two basic calls around your neck your whistle and mallard call. You want an education on duck sounds? Next time you are in the valley drive the loop at the Gray lodge closed zone in December. Listen to a million or so ducks all around you. Tell me how much mallard calling is going on even though they are in the mix out in the ponds.

[aunt betty]

Different ducks in different venues will certainly require multiple calls and techniques. The venues I use are all green therefore my calls and style are limited to mallards . Whistle?
I have one for the dog and it doubles for emergency use.

[jarbo03]

I need any advice I can get on calling. I can get my call to have a ducky "sound" I am just asking about a ducky "strategy". Like, calling only on corners, or flying away, not while the bird is coming straight at you (not sure if this is good advice or not) or using alot of single quacks istead of feeding chuckle, or vice versa. That kind of stuff.

With my experience. I have a certain style I run with on most mornings. Aggressive the first hour then get much more relaxed as the sun rises. Generally around here I've found limited success with super heavy chatter and cutting feed calls later in the day. Fast comeback calls, little realist clucks quacks and the money maker for me anyways is the lonely hen. But get past the mallard call for a bit. Know what species you are calling to and sound accordingly. .... I mean learn all the sounds that particular speices makes stop mallard calling at everything. Know what the hens and drakes both sound like. Most hunters get caught up in the basic sounds and don't realize how much more vocabulary a duck has going on. It'll give you an edge especially on stale birds that have been around awhile. All sounds can be achieved with your two basic calls around your neck your whistle and mallard call. You want an education on duck sounds? Next time you are in the valley drive the loop at the Gray lodge closed zone in December. Listen to a million or so ducks all around you. Tell me how much mallard calling is going on even though they are in the mix out in the ponds.

Very good advice. I will add that a hard loud mallard comeback can and will normally turn most any species of bird. Then go back to specific species calls to finish them, along with a few mallard quacks, as they are the prominent bird in this area.

[GadwallGetter530]

I need any advice I can get on calling. I can get my call to have a ducky "sound" I am just asking about a ducky "strategy". Like, calling only on corners, or flying away, not while the bird is coming straight at you (not sure if this is good advice or not) or using alot of single quacks istead of feeding chuckle, or vice versa. That kind of stuff.

With my experience. I have a certain style I run with on most mornings. Aggressive the first hour then get much more relaxed as the sun rises. Generally around here I've found limited success with super heavy chatter and cutting feed calls later in the day. Fast comeback calls, little realist clucks quacks and the money maker for me anyways is the lonely hen. But get past the mallard call for a bit. Know what species you are calling to and sound accordingly. .... I mean learn all the sounds that particular speices makes stop mallard calling at everything. Know what the hens and drakes both sound like. Most hunters get caught up in the basic sounds and don't realize how much more vocabulary a duck has going on. It'll give you an edge especially on stale birds that have been around awhile. All sounds can be achieved with your two basic calls around your neck your whistle and mallard call. You want an education on duck sounds? Next time you are in the valley drive the loop at the Gray lodge closed zone in December. Listen to a million or so ducks all around you. Tell me how much mallard calling is going on even though they are in the mix out in the ponds.

Very good advice. I will add that a hard loud mallard comeback can and will normally turn most any species of bird. Then go back to specific species calls to finish them, along with a few mallard quacks, as they are the prominent bird in this area.

Yup. For sure. I do the very same thing to drag the birds back. If I'm calling mallards I had a lot of luck doin a litte Gadwall calling especially when they are on the down wind side of the last pass. Keeps them keyed in and online. Just some stuff I've messed with over the years. Gaddys are vocal around here all day and not alot of guys make the sounds. Trying to have the birds think their is a group of mallards in the hole and gaddys are in the grass and tules feeding and sitting around the edges. On new birds that just showed up I try and get overly aggressive. You can almost force them to get in the decs. Thats fun mornings.

[Flightstopper]

You use one of those Gadwall calls?

[Rick]

It's so easy just to chip quick little "deep"s through a mallard call that there's not much point in carrying a "gadwall" call. Of course, some mallard calls do a bit better drake "deep" than others, just as some mallard calls do a better rendition of a gaddy hen's squacky quacks.

[Flightstopper]

It's so easy just to chip quick little "deep"s through a mallard call that there's not much point in carrying a "gadwall" call. Of course, some mallard calls do a bit better drake "deep" than others, just as some mallard calls do a better rendition of a gaddy hen's squacky quacks.

Will have to play with it more, couldn't quite get it right playing with it the other day. We shoot mainly Gadwall where we hunt and I tried the DC Gadwall call last year for the heck of it. Would make a great "call" to keep a kid interested.

[GadwallGetter530]

You use one of those Gadwall calls?

Naw I dont, just use one of my mallard calls. Has a nice tone for it. Buddy of mine uses his sprig whistle to do the "dat dat" sound and throws in the whistle sound they make mix into it. Works great.

[duckdreamer]

I used to guide too. I had a couple of places where other guys guided too. A couple had scruples but one didnt. Everytime he got into mallards he would come back to the trucks and put tail feathers under our windshield wipers. Funny unless he did better than you and your clients saw this. We used to make his life misearable whenever we could. I hunted with a couple of cajuns for several yrs. One paid his way through LSU guiding. They used olt keyholes with the toneboard filed down and they would scream. I have seen them take ducks away from good callers. I know how guys like the raspy low calls but these guys liked them higher on the highball and loud. Said ducks can hear the high pitch better farther away. Evidently, cause I kept my call in my pocket the first yr out. I used a chick majors call and it broke bad. Theirs was still raspy on the quack. I bought a little french caller duck(yeah, yeah, i know) and kept her till I couldnt stand it anymore. She called constantly. Learned a lot from her. And the cajuns did something else. they called till the ducks either left or landed. They never shutup either. And those guys sure could call and kill ducks.

[Cox Cypress]

I'm late to the dance on this but keep things simple. You want to sound like a duck. You don't need to be so concerned with learning this call or that call just sound like a duck. Take a look this video----that's what you're shooting for. This is all I do and it works.

http://youtu.be/TFl_d8B0kck

[Rick]

Welcome to the forum, CC. Sounds like you might also enjoy the examples found in the scads of sound files at these links: http://macaulaylibrary.org/ and http://www.xeno-canto.org/

Just type the species you'd like to hear in the search box.