Minus nine is what the thermometer on the dash read, "we are idiots" my old man said as we put layer after layer on under our cheap neoprene waders.  I thought to myself, is there even going to be open water in this sulfur slough? 4:30 in the morning 5 inches of snow, half dead headlamps and a couple of already freezing little Debbie's in my blind bag as we walk down the hill to the honey hole that I had scouted ducks in a week prior. A ten-foot square open hole was all that was left, excited and worried that was the only emotions I felt as I stood knee deep in the icy water throwing a half dozen mallard decoys into what was left of a large slough of river that was icing up.  "There isn't going to be a duck around" I said thirty minutes before daylight.  Daylight brakes and its minus 12, freezing with a small fire going to warm our leaky boots and the sound of single wing beats over head. " Ducks!!" my dad muttered, I couldn't believe it there was actually ducks still around. A black mallard like figure circles as I fumble for my 30-dollar duck call on the double loop lanyard around my neck.  The first blow into the call and nothing, the call was frozen, but it didn't matter the duck wanted open water and we were the only choice. Dark wings cup 50 yards from us gliding perfectly to the open water. The ringing in my ears cleared from the 3-inch number 2 shot we looked at the duck floating lifeless on the water among the decoys, it was a black duck, the first I have ever shot. 

My duck hunting career started with shooting wood ducks on the fly in the swamps and marshes of Ohio in late October. Not a gentleman's hunt to say the lease but I held my own bringing down a bird or two each time I went out. Calling wood ducks isn't much fun, they make few sounds and will mostly go where they want when they want. It wasn't until i started adding members to our small hunting party when I first got into calling mallards. One guy would buy a few dozen decoys, another a blind set up adding an upgrade to the lanyard year after year. New waders, new camo, a boat here and there until we actually looked like duck hunters, you know like those guys, long beards, black face paint and look like they just crawled out of a hole some were down in Stuttgart Arkansas. We spent our free time researching, scouting, preparing equipment waiting for the phone calls and text messages Friday after work. " I found them" or as a lot of the conversations went " what are we doing tomorrow?" We lived for 4:30 Saturday morning.

Calling ducks has always been a touchy subject among hunters. Some will buy a duck call to never use it while others sound like they are playing for the Trans Siberian Orchestra.  I personally started with very little calling, mostly out of shyness, but as the years progressed and i learned how to read the ducks flight and movements i began to call more and more sometimes over calling and getting educated in the end.  Lets start with the basics, scouting, I'm not going to go into a bunch of details on scouting mainly because of the amount of information that is out there. It seems like everyone covers scouting but does not cover calling.  That's what we are here for today, calling ducks.

In my group of hunters we each share a role, the scout, they are always on the look for ducks and trying to land new properties to hunt.  They are normally always on the move spending hours and gas money behind the wheel searching for those green heads.  The wallet, this hunter plays a crucial role in the group, the decoys. We all know how expensive it is to start waterfowl hunting, but this person seems to have an obsession with the gear, from decoys to boats and every gadget in between they have it all and need more.  The experienced hunter, he might be the oldest or has been hunting waterfowl as long as he remembers, he has seen every situation a duck can throw at you, pay attention and be patient, that's the advice they will give you.  Then there's the caller, his canvas is a November sunrise over a silent marsh and his brush is his call with hand tuned reeds painting a picture of cupped wings and a barrage of gunfire. 

Lets dive right into the calls, anything from some of the most basic, cheap, all the way to the 200 dollar hand turned cocobolo and acrylic calls with professionally tuned reeds will turn a duck if used properly.  Its been my personal experience that the price of the call doesn't dictate if you kill ducks, but when you use it.  The proper hail call or quack at the right time will cup the wings on a big old green head if you can learn to read the ducks.  So this article isn't as much about learning to call, but when to and what calls will work when. 

It was the beginning of December, it was warm for Ohio this time of year, its been raining and the spot we typically hunt was to deep to walk to with no boat in option. The wind was right for our setup, I scanned the tree tops in front of us looking for spots i knew the birds would key on to change there flight patterns, a tree that was taller then the rest of the canopy, a patch of tall grass in the flooded field that acts as a natural road block to funnel the birds to the decoy spread. A good caller will know his landscape first, the natural landscape will dictate some of the flight patters a duck will take, maybe a tree line they use as a map from there roost to there morning feed, or a creek channel that they follow to the afternoon loaf because they feel safe.  Waterfowl typically follow a roadmap of natural and unnatural fetchers to get from point A to B, learning these landscapes will change your calling dramatically. Studying terrain and landscape can be one of the most valuable weapons in a waterfowl callers handbook, it can make even the most in experienced calling look like a masterpiece. 

The first string of mallards flew by seeming like a thousand yards away following the creek channel like they were on a string.  I let out the first sequence of hail calls to grab there attention, loud and strong, long and drawn out. It was enough to turn the lead ducks head right in our direction, a long sweeping circle around our decoys, high in the sky to get a good look at the spread.  They came overhead and we all looked down, except me, i stare directly into my Labradors eyes, he knows what he wants, those birds flying above him. He is focused on the ducks following them with his eyes, turning his head, every time a bird gets closer you can watch his ears moving and twitching with excitement. The decoys are doing there job, they grabbed there attention but they need a little bit more.  I let out a few sharp quacks as they cross Infront of us then they reach the end of a straight line, i want the circles to get smaller and smaller and there altitude to drop.  There it was, one duck drops about 10 feet lower then the rest right above a stand alone tree.  That's my spot I'm calling at and that's the duck that's going to bring the rest of the flock to the water.  Three circles and the same thing, some moderate feed chatter from the rest of the group to keep the decoys looking realistic, but I control the calling.  The single duck drops and acts like he wants to turn to the spread; I give a light hopping quack, a hard sharp turn and cupped wings, I did it, he is committed.  The rest of the flock puts on the airbrakes, and the airol acrobats began.  Almost mayhem in the flock, birds doubling over each other to line up to land on the water. A situation like this has happened over and over, light calling at the right time and paying attention to what the birds want.  Just proof you don't have to blow your call like a kazoo to kill ducks.

Cold and sunny days push ducks into the timber, sometimes that means a strong call approach.  Hail and comeback calls need to be loud and sharp to push past the trees and help mallards locate you. Being hidden by trees obstructs the birds visual of your decoys so the noise aspect becomes a factor.  The timber can make a caller or break them, birds can hear calling and be caught off guard by decoys in a timber hole. Sometimes that forces them to throw caution to the wind and make a quick discission to commit to your decoys, other times they may circle above the tree tops and never seem to follow through.  By breaking down and reading the timber hole you can help yourself manage the number of ducks that circle a few times and then seem to disappear.  While the hide becomes somewhat easier in a flooded timber stand, it still remains the most important part of calling the birds.  Standing in the open with a bright face looking up can bust birds just as easy as being in an inadequate hide out in the marsh.  We have very few options for timber holes in Ohio, most being used over and over year after year not only by waterfowl but fellow hunters. Reading these holes becomes easy because of the amount of times we hunt them but can also be difficult depending on conditions.  Wind out of the south on a Saturday can change to the west on a Sunday and now the calling has to change.  Maybe some of the best calling in a timber hole is a strong approach followed by sitting quiet and letting the timber do the work.  After all, if you have the appropriate decoy spread accompanied by movement and you have done your scouting, calling should be the last resort.

But what about those loud hi balls and long drawn out quacks.  When and where do those come in besides on the stage at a calling competition.  Well realistically the ducks don't make those long hails and hi balls, so why do you see call makers bragging about how loud their calls are compared to the competition.  Open water hunting, those cold windy days when it seems like the mallards are a mile in the sky flying with the commercial airliners.  The loud hi balls can catch the attention of a mallard flying high in the sky cruising at 40 mph.  

It had rained nonstop for weeks, almost every field in the area was flooded.  I was able to lock in permission on a small private farm, no crops but the area had flooded and was serving the birds as a late morning loaf after eating their share on the neighbors cut corn.  We set up waist deep on the edge of a creek bed with trees and shrubs giving us a natural blind setup.  It was five minutes until shooting time when we heard the first wing beets. "It's too early" my old man said as what seemed to be a hundred mallards dropped 10 feet from us, we sat and watched as the green heads dumped in from the stratosphere, we had hit the migration.  The day before a massive cold front and snowstorm hit Canada and brought with it those curl tailed orange feet friends.  As the sun rise brightened the flooded field that was only minutes before a symphony of wings and feed chatter was now empty, the birds had moved to feeding grounds and we thought our day was a bust.  Then as soon as they left, we looked to the sky to see 6 figures flying a straight line high in the sky, with a loud 7 note hi ball I managed to draw them closer for a good look.  Out of the left a pair of wood ducks dropped in the center of our spread giving the circling birds a relaxing visual.  The six mallards circled to the sound of our feed chatter and small quacks only to not like the spread or the hide and leave again.  I knew that even though the birds left, I did my job, giving us the chance to give them mallards a look at what we had to offer.

So, what's the real take away from all this, there is plenty of information on the web about how to blow a duck call and what duck call to buy, but I feel like there is less opportunity to research how to read the waterfowl and how to call to the ducks.  Almost every situation is going to call for a different technique and style so it's up to you as the caller in your group to learn how to read everything from terrain and fetchers to weather and what the ducks are wanting to hear that particular day.  Every scenario is going to be different and a lot of the times it's going to be trial and error before you understand what the birds want and how to present it to them.  Start with the basics, change your hide, your decoys then sometimes put the calls away if they seem to shy away or gain altitude when you call, if they seem to react well to your calling give them a little more.  Watch the duck's patterns and follow the duck that wants it the most and realize that sometimes they just don't like what's to offer.  Learn from what they respond to and remember pay attention and be patient.