Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine

Calling geese...it's not easy!

By Gary Shriver

When thinking of waterfowl hunting a myriad of challenges come to mind. Inclement weather, mountains of gear, trudging through knee deep mud in the blackness of predawn to name just a few. However, one of the most challenging and subtle aspects is in the art of calling. I remember my first goose hunt in which I was given an inexpensive flute call and told to say “tooo-witttt” into the call. I did and behold, a goose-like sound echoed across the pond and I remember thinking that there is nothing to this calling business. How wrong I was!

That first morning, seeing the sunrise above the marsh, the sound of mallards quacking deep in the cattails and the honk of geese as they passed overhead in search of breakfast, hooked me for life. I began in earnest to acquire the necessary equipment. An updated scattergun, camouflage clothing suitable for waterfowl environments, decoys, blinds and of course calls. I knew I had much to learn and began studying videos, reading everything I could find on the subject and thought I had a real good handle on things — until I tried the short reed goose call. Then things took a drastic turn for the worse.

Some of the horrible noises screeching from that call sounded more like a cat being squeezed than anything else in nature. Not being one to quit so easy, I purchased a few recommended training videos and began my adventure in calling geese. I knew I had my work cut out for me.

The first useable piece of advice you get from most of the videos is practice, practice and more practice. This holds very true. The second most valuable piece of advice is to take small steps; learn the basic honk before you try to move on to more advanced techniques. I am as impatient as the next guy and tried to be a competition caller the same afternoon which just added to my frustration. Goose calling is one of those things that will reward sooner if you just take it slow and methodical.

Practicing is definitely a must and you will probably need to do a lot of it which leads to the next hurdle in your goose calling career. Where to do all this practicing? Why your home of course, right? Wrong! Trying to goose call is tremendous fun, for you! Not necessarily for your family. I have been threatened with bodily harm, eviction etc. if I didn’t take that “goose thing” elsewhere. Luckily for me I have a shop that I can slink off to do my voodoo with my calls. I set up a cheap TV/DVD player in which I can review the training videos over and over as much as I need to and it allowed my marriage to stay in tact and my children still speak to me. A wise investment on my part I should think.

Learning to call geese with a short reed is challenging and it would be very helpful if you know someone who can assist you. Every person is different in the way they hold call, blow into the call, mouth cavity shape and size and what works for one person may not work for you, so don’t be concerned that you do it exactly as the videos state but instead experiment and see what works for you. You should not move on until you can pick the call up at anytime and without thinking be able to do a perfect honk. The honk is the basis for all of the other sounds made on the short reed. Clucks, murmurs and moans are essentially honks that are drawn out, cut off short or otherwise manipulated. I will not try to teach you how to call as there are a lot of folks out there that are far more qualified than I am for that purpose. I myself am still learning and practice on a daily basis and have been doing so for about a year. Sometimes I practice for only 10 or 15 minutes and sometimes an hour or two. It depends mostly on how well I’m doing and what I feel I need work on. I am much better than 6 months ago but I still have a long way to go.
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For me, the difficulty in calling is where the fun lies. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? Some folks think they are too old or don’t have enough lung capacity, and though they may be right they can still call geese. With so many calls and call makers building quality products I am reasonably sure you can find a call that will suite your needs. I have 42 year old lungs and since I started calling they have increased in capacity. That’s like a form of exercise, isn’t it? Beats running 5 miles a day in my book.

The effort that goes into waterfowl is immense. Placing the decoys in the right strategic positions to simulate a live gaggle of birds, camouflaging your blinds to blend perfectly into the background can take hours of hard labor and thought. All of this can be for nothing if you can’t get your decoys to appear real. That is why it is important to learn at least the basics of calling to add realism to your decoy spread that you’ve spent so much time and money on.

The added excitement and challenge of calling in a wary gaggle of birds to your decoys can round out a hunt very nicely. I now know I can call in geese when I am hunting because I have done it. I take pride in that fact because I know how hard I had to work to make it happen. With luck you will learn much faster and easier than I did and I wish you well. I will probably never be a competition caller but I still strive to achieve that level of performance. I still practice nearly everyday so I won’t get “rusty” when season opens and as an added benefit, calling allows me to enjoy the sport of water fowling year round.