To Call or Not to Call

when the birds get in that close(within 100yds) start blowing a laydown call with a few clucks mixed in. calling to heavy can scare them off. if the geese turn and leave, hit them with the comeback call. Do you have goose flags? if not i would recommend getting some. it really helps the birds commit, maybe even better than calling.

Calling duck and geese are two different subjects.
Geese are not as smart as ducks- you should stop calling ducks when they are coming in

as for geese- you can call your heart out- give them fast clucks, and feeding moans- up untill you whip out your gun.- when they turn and come toward your spread- start fast calling some double clucks, and fast honks- then when in 50yard give them the murmors, and light clucks

ask any pro staffer or excellent goose caller- they usually call geese until the gun comes up

Yes I have a flag and it seems to work well to get their attention but not much more. I have heard of guys who will flag them until they pull their gun up but it always seem to flare them when I do it. Maybe I am flagging wrong. I will try giving them a few clucks once they start to commite. Many times I try and mimic them. If they are talking then I talk or if they are quiet them I am quiet. But most of the time they will talk on their way in. Hopefully we can get them a little closer. Thanks for you help.

Everyone seems to think that flagging is easy, but bad flagging in some cases can be worse than bad calling

Calling geese and ducks are indeed two different things. I usually call geese all the way in and ducks only "on the corners." However, there are still days when geese, just like ducks, are call shy and you can call too much. Let them tell you what they want to hear. Best thing to do is call rather sparingly unless they shy off, then lay it to 'em. It's like a woman. You can always pour it on if you start to lose them, but if you come on too strong in the beginning you can't take it back and you'll lose them for good. :roll:

So if there is bad flagging what are some good techniques to try so that I don't scare them. I mean I have used a flag for quite a while but I don't use it that often because I don't find it to be that affective. I must be doing something wrong because everyone else seems to think that they work great. Also, I am hunting on water with an island. Does that make a difference with a flag or not? Are they more affective when hunting a feild that when hunting on water?

I will try calling to the geese sparinly unless them seem to flare. Then I'll call a little bit more. I guess I will just have to see what works best. And I have never figured out when to call to ducks. It seems like they either want to come in or they don't. I have never been able to change their mind about coming in. Thanks for you help.

flagging is really easy, but i have seen guys that start flapping it high then come down, but keep flapping it on the way up again. to me this does not seem to work as well, you gotta start high then flap it down, and then just bring it up not flap it.

On the subject of on the water, i have no clue, we always hunt fields in between water holes so we are not directly on water. but using a flag kills them for us this weekend we limited out four guys two days in a row with just flagging and minimal calling

AH, when you flag think of trying to make it look like a landing goose or one stretching his wings. Like Keep Honkin said, start high and end low so your "goose" looks like he's landing. I don't flag if they are coming in. I just use it as an attention getter. You want to get their attention when they are out there, but when they are approaching they have obviously seen you. You don't want to do anything to draw their eyes to your blind.

You keep calling when they are coming so it seems natural. Tone it down a little with feeding calls, groans, and a few clucks when they are approaching but don't stop calling totally. It would be like walking into a room full of people and they all shut up. You would want to leave because something was up.

Well thanks guys for you help. I will try starting high and then moving low. Hopefully this will work for my on water. I will have to wait for our season to open back up, but when it does I will try it out. I will also keep calling until I have to shoot. That is a good way of explaining it. If we walked into a room we would want people to still talk when we entered. I will have to try it out. Thanks again for your help. Hopefully it will work.