Delta Waterfowl Fall
2004 Book Review

Minnesota Duck Calls

To paraphrase Ed McMahon from the old Tonight Show skit: That's amazing. EVERYTING you ever wanted to know about Minnesota duck calls is contained between the covers of this book.

Johnny Carson might have come back with, ìYou are wrong, swamp breath,î but in this case McMahon would have been right. Virtually everything anyone would want to know about the history of duck calls in Minnesota is contained in Doug Lodermeier's book, Minnesota Duck Calls.

Writes Lodermeier, ìI've noticed that most duck call lore and collecting information focuses on the states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Louisiana. Minnesota's story is largely untold, but it has a rich and storied duck tradition.î

The author covers that tradition A to Z in the 600-page, hard-cover book that contains 500 photos of waterfowl calls. But that's not all. It also features old hunting photos, paintings, decoys and profiles of famous duck hunters.

An avid collector of calls and other duck hunting memorabilia, Lodermeier writes, ìI didn't intend for this book to be the great American novel. Rather I wrote it to be a reference guide as well as an introduction to Minnesota call-makers.î

What he produced is a virtual encyclopedia of Minnesota duck calls.