just getting started
 

So this season I have been hoping to get in to a little bit of waterfowl hunting. I am just trying to get a little time on a public area (Lake Lanier in Georgia if you know where that is). Just hoping to maybe get a couple passing shots etc. But I also want to find a good beginner waterfowl call to work on. Any other tips for a beginner would be much appreciated.

my first year of calling i bought the canada hammer 2 single reed call and have never got rid of it. its reliable and easy to learn and it was only 25 bucks, prob a good place to start.

You didn't mention having any decoys. You ought to get a dozen decoys -- probably mallards -- and put weights on them. They can be cheap, dirt cheap. Decoys without a call will do you more good than a call without decoys. If you have both, that is better still. Call less rather than more. Be mindful that those DVDs on duck calls typically are more interested in selling duck calls than helping you to call in ducks. You don't have to call perfectly, and even if you call perfectly you won't always call in ducks. Having some motion in your decoy spread can be helpful. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as those vibrating floating "hockey puck" looking contraptions. On very clear well lit days, it is going to be hard to bring the ducks in. On foggy, hazy days the ducks are more likely to come in. You might consider hunting on small waters -- ponds, creeks -- in addition to lakes. Have a plan for how you will retrieve your fallen ducks. You didn't say if you had a boat or not. If you don't have a boat, you probably need some waders to wade out to retrieve your ducks. Figure out how deep the water is before you shoot ducks over that same water. Hunting on ponds or sloughs or marshes can overcome this problem. Be advised that wading in water can be dangerous. You can fall over and have your waders flooded and then they act as an anchor holding you down, maybe dragging you under the water if it is over your head this can be a problem. It might be preferable to hunt with others to be safe, particularly when hunting an unfamiliar location.

Yeah I was planning on picking up a dozen decoys from academy sports this weekend. We have a bass tracker that we are planning on keeping covered with some kind of blind material. Any other suggestions would be great.

The ducks will land headed into any wind that is present. It is desirable to take this into consideration when (a) setting out your decoys and (b) placing yourself for shooting the ducks as they come in. A lot of people will set out their decoys in sort of a C-shaped geometry, with the ends of the C pointing into the wind. It is expected that the ducks will come in and land in the open part of the C shape. You might suppose that placing yourself on the line of the wind as it intersects the middle of the C-shape would be a good place, as the ducks coming in would be relatively motionless -- with reference to movement left or right of their flight path -- but they would also be tending to look straight at you! It is better to position your self at a right angle to the flight path, to the side of the C-shape of the decoys. Be about 15 to 20 yards away from your decoys.

Ducks have very good eyes. When they are close or coming in try to avoid motion and generally try to avoid being seen. Wearing camo clothes is not a bad idea. Trying to avoid motion is a good idea. Beware of other things that will upset ducks, like bright reflections off of metal -- eyeglasses, gun barrels, wrist watches, etc. Some things you can't help -- shiny high gloss blueing on gun barrels -- but other things you can help.

Shoot at their heads. Try to shoot at them as they are coming at you, with their wings open and their bellies exposed. This is a more vulnerable attitude than when they are flying away from you.

The best hunting time is usually earliest legal shooting light and last legal shooting light. The hunting is often over by the time the sun is up on clear, cloudless days. If there is fog, mist, rain, or overcast the time period of good hunting will be extended. One of my most exciting hunting experiences was hunting with thick ground fog. We would hear the sound of the wind over the ducks' wings before we saw the ducks!!! Suddenly the ducks would drop out of the fog and we would need to be quick to shoot before the ducks were gone.

If the water is frozen, the ducks won't come in. You can either go hunt somewhere else where their isn't ice -- on a river with moving water (and in fact on such days the presence of ice on competing wetland areas will concentrate the ducks to the remaining wetland areas without ice, such as a river) -- or else you can break up the ice on your body of water to make a hole for the ducks to land in. The ducks, because they have good eyes, will see the ice and avoid coming in otherwise. If the ice is more than 1/4" thick, you might as well give it up at that spot. Also, get the ice out of the way, because if your decoys are sitting in a field of ice, they aren't going to look natural and the ducks won't come in.

I would agree with everything that has been said so far. Where we are, having waders is far more important that having a boat. The best places to hunt around here can't be accessed by boats (canoes yes).

I also agree that decoys are better to have than a call.

As it gets into late season you'll want more than a dozen decoys. It's getting into late season here and I had some yahoo's come set up real close to us on Saturday and they only had a dozen decoys and we had 3 dozen out and those guys didn't pull the trigger once because every single duck came to us.

Thomas makes real good easy to blow calls. They're quiet but good. However, they're pretty hard to find these days so I would recommend the Power Hen 2 (PH2). most places will sell this and its only $25-$30.

Motion in the decoys is important and around here we just rely on the wind to do that for us (SUPER windy here), and if the wind doesn't blow two things happen: Hell freezes over, and the hunting sucks.

Let us know how the first hunt goes

Don't hesitate to ask via PM

BurdBuster

practice at home at work in shower anywhere you have time if you dont sound like a duck ducks wont fall for it. just get a cheap call to start with incase u dont like it you didnt waist $100. primos makes good calls for a good price.