Seven things to remember when you’ve got birds working your spread
In my 20 or so years of chasing webbed feet, I’ve shot many a duck and have often enjoyed the company of duck callers far better than I. Here are seven things you should and shouldn’t do with a duck call.
DO: TAKE A LISTENING WALK Go to a local duck spot with some calls hanging around your neck. Don’t bring a gun; simply spend time listening to the birds. My favorite time for a listening walk is during the spring migration, when birds make a lot of noise and their jabber won’t be interrupted by hordes ‘of hunters. Head out in early morning when ducks are most vocal. Pay close attention to the birds’ distinctive enunciations and practice mimicking them. Intentionally spook birds to learn what their alarm calls sound like–that way you can avoid using such calls when hunting.
В
DON’T: SPEAK ONE LANGUAGE A friend of mine who teaches high school French loves this joke: What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. Two languages? Bilingual. How about someone who speaks only one? An American. This joke also applies to most duck hunters. Just about everybody on the marsh sounds like a hen mallard. Learn to mix in some drake sounds, a few high-pitched teal quacks, wigeon and pintail whistles, wood duck squeals, or other sounds to match the ducks in your area. Remember, not all ducks are quackers. Become multilingual and you’ll score better on a variety of species.
DO: GET THEIR ATTENTION Many top duck hunters feel strongly that decoys are a more critical part of the duck-hunting equation than calling. In fact, the most important task of a duck call is to turn the heads of distant birds so they will see your decoys. For that you need to carry at least one loud mallard call. Learn to produce a good, strong hail (or “highball”) with it. The hail is simply a series of five to seven loud, bossy quacks, descending in volume. If you learn only one call, learn this one. When you hunt flooded timber, splashing with your feet can add both sound and movement to your spread to attract circling birds.
DON’T: TALK THEIR EARS OFF Let’s say you’ve belted out a good highball, and the birds have turned your way for a look. From this point on, don’t become too enthralled with your own calling. If you’ve set out two dozen decoys, don’t make enough noise for a hundred. Keep your calling low-key, mixing quiet quacks and chatter with occasional whistles. Moderate calling is especially important as the day wears on. If you observe real ducks, you’ll recognize that they’re at their most vociferous in early morning. At midday, they usually rest quietly.
DO: SCOUT Do the legwork necessary to find places habitually used by ducks. Even a champion caller will see scant results in a spot where birds simply don’t want to be. Calling is not a shortcut to success. The guys in hunting videos may seem to be successful because of their calling, but remember that they’re often selling duck calls for a living. Good calling will increase your bag, but at the end of the day the guys peddling tapes succeed because they are excellent hunters who do their legwork by scouting thoroughly.
DON’T: BLOW “Blowing” a duck call is a misnomer. To produce realistic sounds on a call, don’t blow air from your lungs as if you’re blowing out a candle. Rather, try to grunt air up from your diaphragm. To quack like the real thing, bring the air up in short bursts, cutting each burst off abruptly with the back of your throat. This will produce greater rasp and complexity of tone and prevent the tinny, artificial sound of a lung-blown call.
DON’T: CALL FOR THE JUDGES I’m always impressed by the ringing, dozen-note highballs and machine-gun feeding chuckles of great competition callers. The real professionals can create the illusion of an army of ravenous, noisy ducks in the marsh. But I’m equally impressed by the utter absence of these sounds on my listening walks. A real hen mallard would surely stand no chance of becoming a world champion caller; she’s much too quiet. Contest callers themselves often admit, in fact, that their calls in a blind are different from their calls on the contest stage. Real duck banter is less polished and more relaxed than on the stage at a competition.
By: Mason, Chad, Outdoor Life, Oct2006