Best snow and spec caller in the country

[laughing mallard]

Haven’t read anything on the forum in quite some time, and saw this scribe.

Congratulations to Bronson, ALOTTA competition no doubt he felt from speck killers on the Gulf Coast….. which as it began decades ago when white fronts decided to move Eastward into SW Louisiana.

Specklebelly calling is unique in its’ own way as it was until the early 60’s only 2 states wintered white fronts- Texas and California. California held the most, but calling took off as the birds moved into Louisiana. Prior, Dudley Faulk’s speck call was the call of choice for the Gulf Coast hunters……California? Hear tell someone made a box call similar to a Canada box call but that was it as far as I can research such. If you know more, please let us on your thoughts as well.



As stated by Nathan Wright to myself in 2008 (owner/Red Bone) around 1970 reps from Olt Call Company showed up for a hunt in Lake Charles, Louisiana. They offered samples to the guides that were at the hotel at the time. Mr. Nathan states he started experimenting with the various calls and found the Olt Fox/ Coyote call when back pressured produced the speck yodel.

I spoke to others about this in SW Louisiana and none of them confirmed what Mr. Nathan said, but they all agreed the timeline for Olt calls being used for specks matches what he says, but here is the interesting part- Phil Olt NEVER KNEW his predator calls was being used by goose killers in SW Louisiana until Mervis Saltzmann (my goose calling mentor) went up to Illinois to talk to Phil Olt
himself.

For those who do not know of Mr. Mervis, he is a rice farmer living South of Gueydan, Louisiana. Mr. Mervis (with his Chien Caille calls- pronounced SHIN KAI) had been making cane duck calls for some
time. He had found taking the Mylar reed from the Olt calls and switching with a hard rubber reed have a more true speck sound AT THAT TIME. Phil Olt, so happy Mr. Mervis came to him to show in person a different species of goose could be called that he sold his calls to Mr. Mervis as blanks with no Olt logo stamped on it. Tim Grounds had asked the same from Phil Olt, but he refused (goes to show you how big of a deal this was IMHO).

It was Mr. Mervis’s intention to convince Olt to switch to a hard rubber reed, but Phil Olt chose not to. He came out with the Olt speck call in 1980/1981(?) and did well on sales, switching the insert from green to brown.

As California moved into hard times for ducks and geese- mid 1980’s- the other 3 flyways had only same DRAMA with ducks. 30/3 was the reality check for
Mississippi Flyway duck hunters, and as
one follows when Canada goose calling became popular, duck hunters realized hunting geese could double their time afield- 70/2 then for Mississippi Flyway. Louisiana hadn’t wintered Canadas in many years, but they did have specks and a 72/2 season to hunt them. According to Mr. Mervis, this is when his business of making speck calls took off, having as many as a dozen wanna be speck hunters learning how to call at the Chien Caille camphouse.

Mr. Mervis was a generous man in teaching others, but he was also an
anal retentive German, meaning he believed in PERFECTION. If you couldn’t take his cussing at you, you best not show up. Fragile egos had to be left at porch when you requested his help……and I saw a fair amount who left with a call and
didn’t come back.

As I started expanding my waterfowl adventures Westward from Louisiana, I
stayed in constant contact with Mr. Mervis over the years. I would tell him about killing specks in Arkansas in the mid/late 90’s, Oklahoma and Texas panhandle in 2000, then eventually in California. He came to California to hunt in January 2007, hunting on one club N of Sutter NWR and another near LDC. Then the limit was 4 per day, and he was fortunate to get on some awesome speck hunts- a special thanks goes to Pete Teglas and Gary Forrester for making such possible.
Mr. Mervis stated the hunts were similar to the ones when he started hunting specks HARD in the late 70’s, but at the time we went he could see the good days were behind him for his area in Vermillion Parish. Sadly now, Mr. Mervis doesn’t hunt anymore or make calls. Olt family now runs the business, so his connection to
Phil Olt is no longer there. I spoke to him about 5 months ago, and the cheerful boisterous voice was in no mood to talk, unusual for him as he was always happy to give an opinion on something.

Why do I bring this you may ask? Well, all one has to do is pull up on YouTube speck calling and the amount of individuals helping others is limitless. Some offer history on the call (which 99% of them is a joke!!!) and let’s hope the ones who made all this speck calling happen are not forgotten. Nathan Wright should be included in this IMHO (and he did state to me Mr. Mervis was his mentor), Eli Haydel should be noted too. “Cowboy” Fernandez from Texas with his Yenzten Calls deserves his place in this noteworthy accomplishment, and Phil Olt
and his input should not be forgotten.

Phil Olt and his calls are the base of many calls we see today- Arkansas style duck calls, Canada flute, Canada short reed, small bore speck calls- and knowing family DRAMA pushed him out of the business is not how to see one part from one’s passion. FYI, on original
Canada short reed…..Olt L-22, same barrel as the Olt T-20 fox/coyote call but with a black insert. As Canada short reed/speck calls evolved to what they are today, not surprisingly their design show similarities. Thank you Skipper Campbell for telling me this years ago.

California currently kills more specks than any other state in the other 3 flyways wintering specks, and with a 107/10 on days to hunt/ daily bag limit no one comes close to that, not even Canada. Louisiana has lost their main wintering population of specks, but the Gulf of Mexico has lost their wintering population of artic geese as well. Mexico has lost their speck wintering numbers for Pacific and Central Flyways (and take a guess where the PAC Flyway birds they lost winter now?) We all must understand our resource we treasure to hunt every fall, and as a state we can hunt specks somewhere from the first Saturday in October to March 10th, pretty amazing considering at one time it was 39/1.

That’s all I have to say- sorry if I bored you. Have a great turkey season.

Enjoyed your story! Would love to hear more if you have them.

 

[Downwind]

Great History Lesson. I remember when we could shoot 1, when the season was closed,, then when we could shoot 3. That little PS Olt was deadly..... no lay out blinds, no speck decoys, just laying in a field with honker shells whaling on that squeaker call landing specks... good old days wearing army surplus camo.

 

[green with ring]

Back in the mid 70's I had killed a few Honkers and Snow geese. Then on a rainy day at Sutter NWR I killed a Speck. It was the first Speck that I had ever seen and I didn't know anything about them. As I remember (I was 17 y/o) there weren't very many Specks around the Northern Sacramento valley back then. I read in the book "Ducks, Geese and Swans" about Specks then I bought a Haydel's Speck call. I've seen and learned a lot since that day at Sutter in 1974.

 

[thekillerofmallard]

Back in the mid 70's I had killed a few Honkers and Snow geese. Then on a rainy day at Sutter NWR I killed a Speck. It was the first Speck that I had ever seen and I didn't know anything about them. As I remember (I was 17 y/o) there weren't very many Specks around the Northern Sacramento valley back then. I read in the book "Ducks, Geese and Swans" about Specks then I bought a Haydel's Speck call. I've seen and learned a lot since that day at Sutter in 1974.

No way I killed one at Sac in 71 no clue what it was. Was afraid to turn it in asked a old timer in the lot what it was he said "my God it's a Tule goose". I still had no clue what a tule goose was. When I turn it in the GW took a picture of it. Didn't kill or see another for yrs the next one was at GL in the 80's me and Rel Atwood killed 6 that very windy day.

 

[Jabird]

Haven’t read anything on the forum in quite some time, and saw this scribe.

Congratulations to Bronson, ALOTTA competition no doubt he felt from speck killers on the Gulf Coast….. which as it began decades ago when white fronts decided to move Eastward into SW Louisiana.

Specklebelly calling is unique in its’ own way as it was until the early 60’s only 2 states wintered white fronts- Texas and California. California held the most, but calling took off as the birds moved into Louisiana. Prior, Dudley Faulk’s speck call was the call of choice for the Gulf Coast hunters……California? Hear tell someone made a box call similar to a Canada box call but that was it as far as I can research such. If you know more, please let us on your thoughts as well.



As stated by Nathan Wright to myself in 2008 (owner/Red Bone) around 1970 reps from Olt Call Company showed up for a hunt in Lake Charles, Louisiana. They offered samples to the guides that were at the hotel at the time. Mr. Nathan states he started experimenting with the various calls and found the Olt Fox/ Coyote call when back pressured produced the speck yodel.

I spoke to others about this in SW Louisiana and none of them confirmed what Mr. Nathan said, but they all agreed the timeline for Olt calls being used for specks matches what he says, but here is the interesting part- Phil Olt NEVER KNEW his predator calls was being used by goose killers in SW Louisiana until Mervis Saltzmann (my goose calling mentor) went up to Illinois to talk to Phil Olt
himself.

For those who do not know of Mr. Mervis, he is a rice farmer living South of Gueydan, Louisiana. Mr. Mervis (with his Chien Caille calls- pronounced SHIN KAI) had been making cane duck calls for some
time. He had found taking the Mylar reed from the Olt calls and switching with a hard rubber reed have a more true speck sound AT THAT TIME. Phil Olt, so happy Mr. Mervis came to him to show in person a different species of goose could be called that he sold his calls to Mr. Mervis as blanks with no Olt logo stamped on it. Tim Grounds had asked the same from Phil Olt, but he refused (goes to show you how big of a deal this was IMHO).

It was Mr. Mervis’s intention to convince Olt to switch to a hard rubber reed, but Phil Olt chose not to. He came out with the Olt speck call in 1980/1981(?) and did well on sales, switching the insert from green to brown.

As California moved into hard times for ducks and geese- mid 1980’s- the other 3 flyways had only same DRAMA with ducks. 30/3 was the reality check for
Mississippi Flyway duck hunters, and as
one follows when Canada goose calling became popular, duck hunters realized hunting geese could double their time afield- 70/2 then for Mississippi Flyway. Louisiana hadn’t wintered Canadas in many years, but they did have specks and a 72/2 season to hunt them. According to Mr. Mervis, this is when his business of making speck calls took off, having as many as a dozen wanna be speck hunters learning how to call at the Chien Caille camphouse.

Mr. Mervis was a generous man in teaching others, but he was also an
anal retentive German, meaning he believed in PERFECTION. If you couldn’t take his cussing at you, you best not show up. Fragile egos had to be left at porch when you requested his help……and I saw a fair amount who left with a call and
didn’t come back.

As I started expanding my waterfowl adventures Westward from Louisiana, I
stayed in constant contact with Mr. Mervis over the years. I would tell him about killing specks in Arkansas in the mid/late 90’s, Oklahoma and Texas panhandle in 2000, then eventually in California. He came to California to hunt in January 2007, hunting on one club N of Sutter NWR and another near LDC. Then the limit was 4 per day, and he was fortunate to get on some awesome speck hunts- a special thanks goes to Pete Teglas and Gary Forrester for making such possible.
Mr. Mervis stated the hunts were similar to the ones when he started hunting specks HARD in the late 70’s, but at the time we went he could see the good days were behind him for his area in Vermillion Parish. Sadly now, Mr. Mervis doesn’t hunt anymore or make calls. Olt family now runs the business, so his connection to
Phil Olt is no longer there. I spoke to him about 5 months ago, and the cheerful boisterous voice was in no mood to talk, unusual for him as he was always happy to give an opinion on something.

Why do I bring this you may ask? Well, all one has to do is pull up on YouTube speck calling and the amount of individuals helping others is limitless. Some offer history on the call (which 99% of them is a joke!!!) and let’s hope the ones who made all this speck calling happen are not forgotten. Nathan Wright should be included in this IMHO (and he did state to me Mr. Mervis was his mentor), Eli Haydel should be noted too. “Cowboy” Fernandez from Texas with his Yenzten Calls deserves his place in this noteworthy accomplishment, and Phil Olt
and his input should not be forgotten.

Phil Olt and his calls are the base of many calls we see today- Arkansas style duck calls, Canada flute, Canada short reed, small bore speck calls- and knowing family DRAMA pushed him out of the business is not how to see one part from one’s passion. FYI, on original
Canada short reed…..Olt L-22, same barrel as the Olt T-20 fox/coyote call but with a black insert. As Canada short reed/speck calls evolved to what they are today, not surprisingly their design show similarities. Thank you Skipper Campbell for telling me this years ago.

California currently kills more specks than any other state in the other 3 flyways wintering specks, and with a 107/10 on days to hunt/ daily bag limit no one comes close to that, not even Canada. Louisiana has lost their main wintering population of specks, but the Gulf of Mexico has lost their wintering population of artic geese as well. Mexico has lost their speck wintering numbers for Pacific and Central Flyways (and take a guess where the PAC Flyway birds they lost winter now?) We all must understand our resource we treasure to hunt every fall, and as a state we can hunt specks somewhere from the first Saturday in October to March 10th, pretty amazing considering at one time it was 39/1.

That’s all I have to say- sorry if I bored you. Have a great turkey season.

Good to see you’re still around Mr Clark. It was a wild season around your old stomping grounds. Been flooded for almost 2 months straight!

 

[Rick Hall]

I'd be interested to learn more about the California friction speck call @speckiller1957 mentioned above. A photo would be great, as all I recall is a California author occasionally crediting his in Petersen's Hunting, circa '70s or early '80s.

Re: Mervis Saltzman, who's been gone a while, now, his Chien Caille version was the ne plus ultra of Southwest Louisiana speck calls when I moved here in '83. Would be interesting to know who first adapted Faulk's woodie and/or teal(?) (and toy) squeaker to specks, but many even stuffed them in ballpoint pen bodies for specks, and they apparently ruled the speck roost until folks started retuning predator calls for them.

What wasn't mentioned in the above account was Mervis' mentor, whose real name I've long forgotten but was nicknamed Chien Caille ("spotted dog" suggesting one who bird-dogged the ladies), who showed him how to make his own reeds and in whose honor the calls were named.

Especially enjoyed this part:
"Mr. Mervis was a generous man in teaching others, but he was also an
anal retentive German, meaning he believed in PERFECTION. If you couldn’t take his cussing at you, you best not show up. Fragile egos had to be left at porch when you requested his help……and I saw a fair amount who left with a call and
didn’t come back."

When I showed up, Mervis was building and selling his calls from a ramshackle shack down the road from his house, which was also a gathering place for his disciples to drink beer and BS, while he filed reeds to fit his calls to his customers' lung power. And he and I very nearly did go to fists over my fitting. Don't know about "anal retentive perfection," but Mervis most definitely was of a "my way or the highway" bent. He was of a mind that back-pressure was best controlled one-handed and I of the two-hand school, so we clashed when he quite literally slapped that second hand away. I was young, fit and had a couple beers in me, but having surveyed the room I was like Ron White "didn't know how many it was going to take to kick my *** but knew how many they were going to use". Mervis might have managed that himself in those days, but we didn't find out, I didn't buy a call and some goose wars on neighboring fields followed. (Mervis' downfall there was leaving his rag spreads out for weeks, if not seasons.)

We did, however, eventually become friends, and it tickled me to take out-of-area guests from our camp on their own pilgrimages to Mervis' place to be fitted with a Chien Caille. By that time, the old shack and its hangers-on were history, and Mervis worked out of the nice, modern "camp" in his yard. With age he mellowed beyond slapping at folks, but was still the Mervis who'd thicken his Cajun accent to fuss them for doing it wrong, albeit with a smile behind the growl. And I'm inclined to believe getting fitted for a Chien Caille by Mervis, even if one never blew it afield, was well worth the price of admission and a right of passage all speck hunters should have known.

Fwiw, California was something spoke of often. Said your birds came in on a short buss. Bet that's changed with time and increased pressure. When I'd tease him about being a calling champion that shot a 10ga, he'd counter with "I shoots 'em where dey is."

 

[Dakillaofnada]

Haven’t read anything on the forum in quite some time, and saw this scribe.

Congratulations to Bronson, ALOTTA competition no doubt he felt from speck killers on the Gulf Coast….. which as it began decades ago when white fronts decided to move Eastward into SW Louisiana.

Specklebelly calling is unique in its’ own way as it was until the early 60’s only 2 states wintered white fronts- Texas and California. California held the most, but calling took off as the birds moved into Louisiana. Prior, Dudley Faulk’s speck call was the call of choice for the Gulf Coast hunters……California? Hear tell someone made a box call similar to a Canada box call but that was it as far as I can research such. If you know more, please let us on your thoughts as well.



As stated by Nathan Wright to myself in 2008 (owner/Red Bone) around 1970 reps from Olt Call Company showed up for a hunt in Lake Charles, Louisiana. They offered samples to the guides that were at the hotel at the time. Mr. Nathan states he started experimenting with the various calls and found the Olt Fox/ Coyote call when back pressured produced the speck yodel.

I spoke to others about this in SW Louisiana and none of them confirmed what Mr. Nathan said, but they all agreed the timeline for Olt calls being used for specks matches what he says, but here is the interesting part- Phil Olt NEVER KNEW his predator calls was being used by goose killers in SW Louisiana until Mervis Saltzmann (my goose calling mentor) went up to Illinois to talk to Phil Olt
himself.

For those who do not know of Mr. Mervis, he is a rice farmer living South of Gueydan, Louisiana. Mr. Mervis (with his Chien Caille calls- pronounced SHIN KAI) had been making cane duck calls for some
time. He had found taking the Mylar reed from the Olt calls and switching with a hard rubber reed have a more true speck sound AT THAT TIME. Phil Olt, so happy Mr. Mervis came to him to show in person a different species of goose could be called that he sold his calls to Mr. Mervis as blanks with no Olt logo stamped on it. Tim Grounds had asked the same from Phil Olt, but he refused (goes to show you how big of a deal this was IMHO).

It was Mr. Mervis’s intention to convince Olt to switch to a hard rubber reed, but Phil Olt chose not to. He came out with the Olt speck call in 1980/1981(?) and did well on sales, switching the insert from green to brown.

As California moved into hard times for ducks and geese- mid 1980’s- the other 3 flyways had only same DRAMA with ducks. 30/3 was the reality check for
Mississippi Flyway duck hunters, and as
one follows when Canada goose calling became popular, duck hunters realized hunting geese could double their time afield- 70/2 then for Mississippi Flyway. Louisiana hadn’t wintered Canadas in many years, but they did have specks and a 72/2 season to hunt them. According to Mr. Mervis, this is when his business of making speck calls took off, having as many as a dozen wanna be speck hunters learning how to call at the Chien Caille camphouse.

Mr. Mervis was a generous man in teaching others, but he was also an
anal retentive German, meaning he believed in PERFECTION. If you couldn’t take his cussing at you, you best not show up. Fragile egos had to be left at porch when you requested his help……and I saw a fair amount who left with a call and
didn’t come back.

As I started expanding my waterfowl adventures Westward from Louisiana, I
stayed in constant contact with Mr. Mervis over the years. I would tell him about killing specks in Arkansas in the mid/late 90’s, Oklahoma and Texas panhandle in 2000, then eventually in California. He came to California to hunt in January 2007, hunting on one club N of Sutter NWR and another near LDC. Then the limit was 4 per day, and he was fortunate to get on some awesome speck hunts- a special thanks goes to Pete Teglas and Gary Forrester for making such possible.
Mr. Mervis stated the hunts were similar to the ones when he started hunting specks HARD in the late 70’s, but at the time we went he could see the good days were behind him for his area in Vermillion Parish. Sadly now, Mr. Mervis doesn’t hunt anymore or make calls. Olt family now runs the business, so his connection to
Phil Olt is no longer there. I spoke to him about 5 months ago, and the cheerful boisterous voice was in no mood to talk, unusual for him as he was always happy to give an opinion on something.

Why do I bring this you may ask? Well, all one has to do is pull up on YouTube speck calling and the amount of individuals helping others is limitless. Some offer history on the call (which 99% of them is a joke!!!) and let’s hope the ones who made all this speck calling happen are not forgotten. Nathan Wright should be included in this IMHO (and he did state to me Mr. Mervis was his mentor), Eli Haydel should be noted too. “Cowboy” Fernandez from Texas with his Yenzten Calls deserves his place in this noteworthy accomplishment, and Phil Olt
and his input should not be forgotten.

Phil Olt and his calls are the base of many calls we see today- Arkansas style duck calls, Canada flute, Canada short reed, small bore speck calls- and knowing family DRAMA pushed him out of the business is not how to see one part from one’s passion. FYI, on original
Canada short reed…..Olt L-22, same barrel as the Olt T-20 fox/coyote call but with a black insert. As Canada short reed/speck calls evolved to what they are today, not surprisingly their design show similarities. Thank you Skipper Campbell for telling me this years ago.

California currently kills more specks than any other state in the other 3 flyways wintering specks, and with a 107/10 on days to hunt/ daily bag limit no one comes close to that, not even Canada. Louisiana has lost their main wintering population of specks, but the Gulf of Mexico has lost their wintering population of artic geese as well. Mexico has lost their speck wintering numbers for Pacific and Central Flyways (and take a guess where the PAC Flyway birds they lost winter now?) We all must understand our resource we treasure to hunt every fall, and as a state we can hunt specks somewhere from the first Saturday in October to March 10th, pretty amazing considering at one time it was 39/1.

That’s all I have to say- sorry if I bored you. Have a great turkey season.

This is one of the posts on this thread in a long time. Thank you it’s great have the history behind all of this.

 

[Calikev]

Haven’t read anything on the forum in quite some time, and saw this scribe.

Congratulations to Bronson, ALOTTA competition no doubt he felt from speck killers on the Gulf Coast….. which as it began decades ago when white fronts decided to move Eastward into SW Louisiana.

Specklebelly calling is unique in its’ own way as it was until the early 60’s only 2 states wintered white fronts- Texas and California. California held the most, but calling took off as the birds moved into Louisiana. Prior, Dudley Faulk’s speck call was the call of choice for the Gulf Coast hunters……California? Hear tell someone made a box call similar to a Canada box call but that was it as far as I can research such. If you know more, please let us on your thoughts as well.



As stated by Nathan Wright to myself in 2008 (owner/Red Bone) around 1970 reps from Olt Call Company showed up for a hunt in Lake Charles, Louisiana. They offered samples to the guides that were at the hotel at the time. Mr. Nathan states he started experimenting with the various calls and found the Olt Fox/ Coyote call when back pressured produced the speck yodel.

I spoke to others about this in SW Louisiana and none of them confirmed what Mr. Nathan said, but they all agreed the timeline for Olt calls being used for specks matches what he says, but here is the interesting part- Phil Olt NEVER KNEW his predator calls was being used by goose killers in SW Louisiana until Mervis Saltzmann (my goose calling mentor) went up to Illinois to talk to Phil Olt
himself.

For those who do not know of Mr. Mervis, he is a rice farmer living South of Gueydan, Louisiana. Mr. Mervis (with his Chien Caille calls- pronounced SHIN KAI) had been making cane duck calls for some
time. He had found taking the Mylar reed from the Olt calls and switching with a hard rubber reed have a more true speck sound AT THAT TIME. Phil Olt, so happy Mr. Mervis came to him to show in person a different species of goose could be called that he sold his calls to Mr. Mervis as blanks with no Olt logo stamped on it. Tim Grounds had asked the same from Phil Olt, but he refused (goes to show you how big of a deal this was IMHO).

It was Mr. Mervis’s intention to convince Olt to switch to a hard rubber reed, but Phil Olt chose not to. He came out with the Olt speck call in 1980/1981(?) and did well on sales, switching the insert from green to brown.

As California moved into hard times for ducks and geese- mid 1980’s- the other 3 flyways had only same DRAMA with ducks. 30/3 was the reality check for
Mississippi Flyway duck hunters, and as
one follows when Canada goose calling became popular, duck hunters realized hunting geese could double their time afield- 70/2 then for Mississippi Flyway. Louisiana hadn’t wintered Canadas in many years, but they did have specks and a 72/2 season to hunt them. According to Mr. Mervis, this is when his business of making speck calls took off, having as many as a dozen wanna be speck hunters learning how to call at the Chien Caille camphouse.

Mr. Mervis was a generous man in teaching others, but he was also an
anal retentive German, meaning he believed in PERFECTION. If you couldn’t take his cussing at you, you best not show up. Fragile egos had to be left at porch when you requested his help……and I saw a fair amount who left with a call and
didn’t come back.

As I started expanding my waterfowl adventures Westward from Louisiana, I
stayed in constant contact with Mr. Mervis over the years. I would tell him about killing specks in Arkansas in the mid/late 90’s, Oklahoma and Texas panhandle in 2000, then eventually in California. He came to California to hunt in January 2007, hunting on one club N of Sutter NWR and another near LDC. Then the limit was 4 per day, and he was fortunate to get on some awesome speck hunts- a special thanks goes to Pete Teglas and Gary Forrester for making such possible.
Mr. Mervis stated the hunts were similar to the ones when he started hunting specks HARD in the late 70’s, but at the time we went he could see the good days were behind him for his area in Vermillion Parish. Sadly now, Mr. Mervis doesn’t hunt anymore or make calls. Olt family now runs the business, so his connection to
Phil Olt is no longer there. I spoke to him about 5 months ago, and the cheerful boisterous voice was in no mood to talk, unusual for him as he was always happy to give an opinion on something.

Why do I bring this you may ask? Well, all one has to do is pull up on YouTube speck calling and the amount of individuals helping others is limitless. Some offer history on the call (which 99% of them is a joke!!!) and let’s hope the ones who made all this speck calling happen are not forgotten. Nathan Wright should be included in this IMHO (and he did state to me Mr. Mervis was his mentor), Eli Haydel should be noted too. “Cowboy” Fernandez from Texas with his Yenzten Calls deserves his place in this noteworthy accomplishment, and Phil Olt
and his input should not be forgotten.

Phil Olt and his calls are the base of many calls we see today- Arkansas style duck calls, Canada flute, Canada short reed, small bore speck calls- and knowing family DRAMA pushed him out of the business is not how to see one part from one’s passion. FYI, on original
Canada short reed…..Olt L-22, same barrel as the Olt T-20 fox/coyote call but with a black insert. As Canada short reed/speck calls evolved to what they are today, not surprisingly their design show similarities. Thank you Skipper Campbell for telling me this years ago.

California currently kills more specks than any other state in the other 3 flyways wintering specks, and with a 107/10 on days to hunt/ daily bag limit no one comes close to that, not even Canada. Louisiana has lost their main wintering population of specks, but the Gulf of Mexico has lost their wintering population of artic geese as well. Mexico has lost their speck wintering numbers for Pacific and Central Flyways (and take a guess where the PAC Flyway birds they lost winter now?) We all must understand our resource we treasure to hunt every fall, and as a state we can hunt specks somewhere from the first Saturday in October to March 10th, pretty amazing considering at one time it was 39/1.

That’s all I have to say- sorry if I bored you. Have a great turkey season.

You are never boring. Always a wealth of information and history. Thank you for chiming in.

 

[Nocalhonker]

@speckiller1957 I love the read, out of curiosity where does James Meyer fit into speck call making with the above mentioned.

 

[API]

Big appreciation to @speckiller1957 and @Rick Hall for sharing their wealth of background knowledge.