Duck calling assistance

Whistles, and quacks are good to begin with. Listen to how your buddies blow their calls,when they blow them to the ducks location, and pay attention to how the birds react. Then practice your calling in your truck until you feel confident enough to start joining in. Get a CD to listen and practice along with.

LINK

Don't blow too much air into the call.

Buy the HOBO duck dictionary.

Most of the time in LA less is more

Mallards are more responsive than others to quacks and mallard calling in my general experience and less calling is generally better. Learn to read the birds and only call sparingly has always been what has worked for me. Knowing when to call is more important than almost anything else.

i just let my friends call lmao

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Honestly just wondering, but are ducks really attracted to duck calls?
I've hunted for years and have always wondered if calls are truly effective.

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It helps, but if you are already where the ducks want to go, you may not need them as much, if at all.

Personally, I feel like if you decoys out, and you aren't calling, it's not very realistic. Ducks may not be loud and rowdy like some guys are, but they also aren't lifeless pieces of plastic either.

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if you don’t have mallards, don’t do mallard call.

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Hen ducks of other species like Greys, Widgeons, and Pintails quack like a Mallard hen. Just not as vocal or as loud. Also, Mallard hens very rarely have more than 7-8 quacks in a cadence. 20 note hail calls are for a contest stage. I find it very beneficial to go out to a refuge up in NE LA that holds a ton of birds and just listen to wild birds on the water. I mean what better way to learn to call than to mimic live birds. That also helps when trying to figure out how to set decoys. When you get a ton of birds on the water, they are basically just lumped in all together but decoy setting is a topic best suited for another thread.

To the OP, go find Phil Robertson's DVD, The Art of Commanding Ducks. You will be set after that.

easy progression is to start with a feed chuckle, ticka ticka ticka ticka
that'll get you used to/learn how much air you really need to blow.

once you get the feed chuckle down, its' easy to throw in a few quacks without stopping, like ticka ticka ticka ticka quack quack ticka ticka ticka quack quack

from there its an easier step up to a full blown hail call. CAAT cat cat cat cat or whichever, just be sure to use your diaphragm not your cheeks to blow it.

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Honestly just wondering, but are ducks really attracted to duck calls?
I've hunted for years and have always wondered if calls are truly effective.

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When you see that high flight of mallards break, start dumping air, and falling towards your blind right after you hit them with a hail call, you'll agree they are attracted to duck calls.

once they're working lower, though, I think they're deciding whether to land or not already and the call just makes them more comfortable (sometimes) but doesn't really attract them at that point.