Calling honkers

[goosekillinmachine]

Just wondering what is the best way to learn how to call honkers and what are some ideas on setting up a spread of a dozen or two.

[mike.]

the best way to learn is to practise calling and buy listening to real geese and instructional tapes. Ive only been calling since december (when i got addicted to waterfowl) and im pretty good on the call now. id rate myself a 7 out of 10, a 10 being most contest callers.

[Mark Brendemuehl]

Goose- A good instructional CD or video will go along ways, as will lessons from a friend or pro. Going to events at stores where call pro-staff are available to help you and you have time to take in some seminars are great ways to learn. A good video would be the Zink "Art of Paralyzing" or the Stahl Honker Talk video.
As for the decoys, if you are talking a land set up, it varies on the time of year and temps etc...With a smaller spread, you may be wise to set up the decoys and place the blinds in front and off to the side of them. That way the birds are focused only on the decoys and not your hiding spot as they approach. Good luck.
Mark

[Jeremy Abbas]

George Lynch will be releasing a new type of instructional video this summer. This DVD will include decoy setup, blind concealment, flagging, calling, ect...
This should be one of a kind that hunters of all stages will get something from.

[waterfowljunkie]

I would say practice as much as possible, to be the best you can be, you will need to practice more than 4 months, as stated by someone, and watching a variety of actual hunting videos will give you different ideas as to what you should be doing to call in honkers for yourself. A main thing to remember is to not overcall though, if they are coming right in, dont call too loud, hope this helps ya

[CurrituckBoy]

Talk and listen to people, try to do this face to face,

a good instructional CD is also a great way to learn, join all these together with lots of practice,

Make sure you get a nice easy call to learn on, the big river game calls single reed is a nice cheap call to start with.

good luck, and practice, practice, practice

Michael

[Jeremy DeVries]

Calling:

HONKER TALK is an exceptional video that goes step by step and explains each individual note. The DVD format also allows you to stop and replay and skip to get the sounds you want from each NOTE. Many videos on the market have great callers just calling and you get the "just do this" instruction. They are very poor IMHO and unfortunately many of the MAJOR call makers have vidoes that are taught in just this way.

HONKER TALK IS STEP BY STEP, NOTE BY NOTE. Get 1 call, and master each sound on THAT call. Then move on to make the same sounds on different calls. Mastering a short reed goose call is VERY difficult and for most people takes years not weeks to become proficient.

Decoys:

Most hunters will set up in a U or V or J with the blinds being at the bottom of the V, U or J and the wind at your back. This is a good basic setup to start from, however with only 2 dozen dekes, your spread is pretty small. Spread your decoys out to make it look as big as possible, with geese facing every which direction. Nothing kills small spread more that tightly placed simetrical layouts. The geese look huddled and nervous and WILL push most bigger groups away rather than draw them to you. The colder the weather, the tighter you can place your spread. You will learn over time more advanced ways to set up dekes, how to work crosswinds, pocket spots, traffic versus feeding fields etc. Decoy placement is determined individually by the particular geese in your area, pressure, wind, weather, sunlight and tons of other factors, but the outline above is a good BASIC start.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes and laugh at yourself with calling or placing decoys. That was the starting point for ALL of us. Good luck and have fun.

[CluckmeMN]

I would go look at some instuctional DVDs and CDs. I just got Bad Grammer and its awesome! For settin up a spread it depends on where you are hunting. on water go with resters and sleeper fullbodies and shells, maybe some floaters. field i would go with 4-8 high lookers, 12-18 feeders, and 6-12 actives either lessers or honkers depending on how much room you have. Go with FFDs if you got the money, or lessers if you are on a budget.
PM me if you have any other questions;)

[Rich Good]

Again like was already stated instructional tapes/cds/etc. are a good start. I always preach to my young callers listen to the real deal as well. You cant beat the real thing when it comes to picking up little notes etc.

[Kile Jones]

You dont really need to buy the tapes any more especially with the resident flocks hanging around. You can just listen to them. On the setups. I used a spread like this = C It worked on the late season with 8 full bodys. When calling with this spread do honks to get their attention and then do what they are doing if they are noisy do double cluck, clucks, maybe some spits. but if they are quiet do a honk occaisionally.

[Robb Nicolay]

Start off with finding a helpful and easy to understand video. I would recommend the ancient art of paralyzing by Zink Calls. Fred walks you through the basics and shows you the 5 deadly calls to work on to put birds in your bag day in and day out. After you get the basics down the best thing in my opinion is to go and listen to live birds. They are the masters and the best source for learning to talk the talk.

[Chris Stoddart]

Observing real geese is a great place to start. There are a lot of good cd's and uideo's on goose hunting and calling , pick up a few. I am looking forward to the release of George Lynch's DVD this summer .