Here are some tips for calling at specks from several of our pro-staff.
Ricky Bourque says “if you mess up on a note don’t stop, the sudden stop will draw more attention than continuing with a bad note, continue what you were doing there are always some specks that make odd sounds that you can mimic. Also if a bird is tough to work let the bird get a far distance out and then hit the bird very hard with yodels and see about bringing them back. Lots of times their curiosity gets the best of them.”
Brady Duhon recommends “When calling specks try to find the same note to answer their calling with and birds will be more responsive to the call. Calling at a high pitch when they are going away from you to try and get their attention is ok, but once you have them looking or committed you should take it easy on them and don’t over call. A few high notes here and there won’t hurt but steady to me is the key. Once they are committed, stop for a few seconds then murmur, they really like the murmur I find it gets them excited and they drop in pretty quick. When calling over open water remember it’s a lot louder than you think, so keep it softer and more mellow than field hunting.”
Cody Nickels says “I think the key to calling Specks is like any other bird, you have to be able to read the birds you are calling to. Try to pick out the one main bird that seems to be calling back to you and carry on a conversation with it. I like to mimic them allot. Sometimes you have to “take the birds temp” see if they are responding to aggressive calling or little too light calling such as one note yodels. I like to think Specks are friendly birds and seem to talk and respond to calling far better than any other of the geese species. I like to hit them with a loud one note yodel when they’re off in the distance and then speed it up and go to some 2 and 3 note yodels with some clucks and whines mixed in as they close the distance. Once I see them set the wings and commit I shut up for the most part with just some soft one note yodels then go completely silent as they close the last 200 yards. If they start to swing out or break away I will hit them with a high and loud one note yodel kind like the same idea as a comeback call on a mallard. But the biggest key is just read the birds and don’t try to over think it or over call them sometimes the biggest key is “less is more”.
Lance Stancik says he has learned over the years to try to interact with and read the flock of specks to determine how to call. When you’re calling to singles and pairs of specks it is easy to imitate their calls to keep them interested. Of course, that is birds that are already locked onto your spread and have an interest in that location. Being on the X takes a lot of the work out of calling. You are imitating the decoy spread with lots of ground murmurs and clucks using the yodel sporadically. Hunting specks at my lodge in Saskatchewan we are hunting staging birds that are feeding heavy ahead of migration. They are prone to move in large numbers and using multiple callers in the spread works well for us. My go to sounds is always the cluck. My experiences have shown that once you have the birds locked onto your clucking you generally have them unless another aspect comes into play such as being hidden or unrealistic spread. You’re always going to have some birds that slide on you or flare out no matter how perfect everything is. At my lodge In Texas, we have large numbers of specks at times and these birds change the pattern a bit. For the most part, these birds are wintering here so they don’t have the aggressive nature toward the feed unless the weather changes their appetite. We tone down a bit and rely on realistic calling conversations. We have a lot of opportunities while duck hunting to shoot specks over water. Most times these are singles and pairs that you normally won’t get a chance at without the ability to call them in. Using aggressive calling to get the birds attention and then as I said before imitating him and using the cluck to seal the deal. Most hunters get caught up in using only a yodel when calling specks when in reality a speck makes a wide variety of natural sounds. Learning to master clucks, moans and murmurs will help you sound more realistic and most definitely add specks to your bag.
Brent Sawyer thoughts are how important it is to control the volume of your calling appropriate to the proximity of the birds. “When you’ve got specks floating overhead, you should be softening your calling and trying to defuse your call so the birds cannot easily locate the source of the calling. I try not to blow the call when circling birds are looking in my direction. Even though I’m obsessive about my hide, I do everything I can do to eliminate a goose zeroing in on me.”