"The quack is made by saying the work quick or quack into the call. Bring the air up from your diaphragm and control the notes with your tongue, cutting them off sharply at the end. Use the hail call -- a series of quacks strung together in a high-pitched, fast sequence -- when the birds are, say, one-fourth to one-half mile away."

"As the birds get closer, greet them. Tell them this is where they want to be … this is the feeding place, the resting place."

"The feed call is made by saying the words ticka-tooka or dugga-digga -- anything that has a guttural note. Try it slow at first, and then increase the speed later. Use this when birds are over the decoys and you want them to settle down."

The third call Mike uses is the comeback. Use this when the birds have come over your decoys, but didn't settle down and have drifted past the spread.

"Use it if you think they're going to leave. Try to turn them around in a calm way at first, but if it doesn't look like they're going to, get a little more excited. Plead with them … 'please come back' … get a desperate tone to the calling."

If the ducks turn around and start to come, then use the fourth call, the lonesome hen or old hen call. "This is the call the contented hen uses to settle birds on the water. Quack, quack, quack … softer, slower, quieter than the hail call. Think of the word 'contented.'" One thing Mike stresses is flexibility. "Use common sense. You can't go out there hunting every day and do the same thing and expect to kill ducks every time. You've got to be willing to change, experiment and try different things."

Mike cites one example in his own development as a waterfowler. "I used to believe that you didn't have to do a whole lot of loud calling in a blind to get ducks. But I gradually backed off that theory when hunting on public land is involved because of the pressure and the competition from other blinds and hunters calling over their spreads.

"I hunted an area a while back where there were five or six blinds within 400 yards of us. We all had about 200 decoys out. I know for a fact that if I'd just sat back and called a little, we wouldn't have gotten any ducks. They just weren't working near our blind, but were favoring the areas where the others had their spreads."

"The only way I could get them was when they'd swing wide every now and then. I'd hit them hard, real hard, then with a fast greeting and loud comeback, pleading to get their attention and get them to come over. Once I got their attention, then I could work them in."

Mike says you can decide if a duck is worth calling by how far it is. "If a duck is within half a mile, I'll call. If it's real windy, I cut that distance in half and only call if they're within a quarter-mile.

"Hit him hard and loud at first. You can tell quickly if he can be worked. If he pulls, then you know you've got his attention and can start in on him with a greeting call. Call real fast with lots of quacks -- try to make it sound like more than one duck on the water. If he acts like he wants to come in, don't call any more. The more calling, the more chance there is of spooking him.