The 90th annual duck calling championship competition was held in Stuttgart, Ark., last month, and on Nov. 28, Stuart McCullough, a lifelong Los Banos resident, took home the senior division trophy during the Wings Over the Prairie Festival.
Though he was a ways from home, McCullough’s skills and experience earned him first place and secured his title as Senior World Champion.
McCullough was first prompted to show his calling skills while at a Waterfowl dinner with the 1987 World Champ Daid Jayne. Despite his knowledge of calling coming from hunting rather than showmanship, McCullough’s wife, Kimberly, urged him to enter a contest after hearing Jayne display his world-class calling skills.
Despite his initial hesitation to jump into the competitive scene, McCullough managed to get a videotape of the 1988 world championships and “watched it over and over, just trying to make the sounds that everyone else made.”
Though he didn’t give competing much serious thought at the time, fate would push him further into his calling when he met some friends in grad school who made and manufactured duck calls.
With a steady supply of instruments to hone his skills and a supportive group of friends, McCullough spent the next decade quietly honing his duck calls and in 1997 entered his first contest on a dare.
This dare led to his first victory, which quickly led to his second and third, and snowballed from there into a nearly 30-year career of professional duck calling.
Having qualified for the world championship five times over the course of the early aughts and early 2010s, McCullough is the furthest thing from a stranger to high-level calling competition and even got to reunite with some familiar faces.
“Stepping into the bullpen was like a reunion,” He explains, “We’ve competed against each other for 25 years. You don’t see [your competitors] all the time, but you have all these memories and experiences together.”
This spirit of camaraderie is what keeps the duck calling championships alive, and McCullough always takes his son, Zach, to competitions to show him what duck season makes possible.
While the competitions are a fun way to gather communities together and recognize the skill of callers at all levels, duck calling is a real art practiced by outdoorsmen the world over.
The beauty of the calling competitions lies in the celebration of the outdoor lifestyle and realizing what we can give back to nature and the environment around us.
“Even if we didn’t have this sport, every one of us would hunt and fish,” says McCullough, “We’d still be doing this whether we’re competing or not.”
Stuttgart, Ark., has been hosting duck calling championships since 1936 and does not plan on stopping any time soon.
Much like many of our own hometown events, the American Legion takes the lead in managing and maintaining the Wings Over the Prairie Festival alongside the duck calling committee, who do a top-notch job with judging and facilitating the world championships.
Stuart McCullough now holds one of just six world trophies, and despite having been in the duck calling game for 30 years, winning the 90th annual duck calling championships “felt really good – the regiment, the mindset, it’s all still fun.”
While competing further is not totally out of the question, McCullough is content now to share duck season with his son and admire his world championship trophy, happy to have followed the duck call of victory.
