Remember, too, that you don't have to call every bird in the group into your decoys. One common mistake is to call to a group rather than to identify the bird or couple of birds most interested in joining your spread. When you initially begin calling a flight of ducks or geese, you want to start looking immediately for the individuals in the group that show the greatest level of interest and start calling directly to them. Your goal is to find the most committed in the group and have them coax the majority to come in with them.

Don't give up calling too soon. Sometimes the leading ducks in a flock will go on, but those in the back will peel off and start working your decoys. The leading birds may see something more interesting farther on, but the trailing ducks will home in on your decoys. Unlike geese, which can be very difficult to draw out of their straight-line Vs, ducks aren't highly structured, and those that leave a flock are often not coerced back into line by their fellows, as geese seem to be. If the whole flock seems to be on a direct route to the Gulf of Mexico, there's no sense in blowing until you're gasping for air.

But don't quit too early!

CALL CARE
An important step in keeping your call sounding right and bringing in the birds is to make sure that you maintain it properly, both in the field and at home.

A major component of that is keeping the call clean. Whether you're hunting geese in a cornfield littered with chaff and stubble or standing hip-deep in the muddy water surrounding some flooded timber, something -- even if it's just dirt or water -- can always get stuck in your call and change the dynamics of the sound.

Frequently flush your call in cool or cold water from the exhaust or inset end near the mouthpiece; pull it apart occasionally, remove reed and cork, clean everything thoroughly and reassemble it, being careful not to kink or otherwise deform the reed. Most calls use a sliver of cork to hold the reed to the soundboard. If you drop your call in the water or hunt in the rain, repeated wetting and drying can cause the corks to shrink and thus hold the reed less tightly. Most of the current crop of Mylar reeds are very durable and will last a season or two -- but the corks won't.

Waterfowlers who hunt nearly every day will probably need to replace their reeds at least once a year. Reeds can crack and break or just get out of kilter. Knowing how to change the reeds in your call can save a good day of hunting if something goes wrong. Of course to be able to change your reeds, you'll need to carry an extra set.

Most call makers make replacement reeds available to their customers. The reeds come in varying degrees of thickness and are cut or trimmed in slightly different manners. Reed thickness is matched to the call. You can manipulate the reeds in a double-reed call to find a sound you like, but do so with caution: A slight modification can make a big difference in the sound produced by the call.

SUMMARY
One thing to remember above all else: Have fun. Everybody had to learn how to call at one point, so if you blow a wrong note or scare a flock off, don't worry too much. The more you practice, the better you'll get. There are other things to enjoy about hunting than just bringing home the meat -- so get out there! Happy calling and happy hunting!