Saturday, September 24, 2022 is National Hunting and Fishing Day, which seems a good time to highlight the man dubbed the Waterfowl Wizard, Eli Haydel. As a hunter and musician from Cajun country who had mastered reed instruments, Mr. Haydel couldn’t have had a better background to be a champion game caller, winning both the Louisiana State and Texas Regional Open Duck Calling contest, and qualifying to compete in the World Duck Calling Contest, and to be an inventor of a new kind of game call now sold around the world.
Eli HaydelAs a sales representative to local hardware stores in the late 1970’s, Mr. Haydel got permission to display and sell some of his hand-made game calls at hardware stores on his route. The calls got popular, especially because he made ones that would still work well even when wet. Apparently, that wasn’t the case with almost all other calls, a true disadvantage when hunting waterfowl! He began his company Haydel’s Game Calls in Bossier City in 1981. In addition to the duck calls the company made calls for just about anything else: geese, whitetail deer, elk, moose, turkeys, squirrels, quail and more.
Eli Haydel’s expertise as an outdoorsman made him a popular figure on hunting shows on the likes of the Outdoor Channel, ESPN, TNN and others, and he hunted alongside celebrities from the worlds of sports and entertainment. Locally he conducted seminars for local citizens to learn from him in person.
Because of his knowledge of waterfowl from the Canadian prairies to swamps and marshes of the Gulf South, Haydel coauthored the Natal Rifle Association’s Waterfowl Hunting Manual. In addition to writing about game calling and how to arrange decoys, he wrote how to introduce young people to the sport.
Mr. Haydel also concerned himself with conservation of waterfowl species, and stated that the duck calls he made could have a role in that. The calls, he said, helped lure the bird closer, giving hunters a better chance to identify the species of waterfowl and determine if they could or would shoot at it. This closer range was also advantageous when using nontoxic steel shell shot. The nontoxic steel shot became required by law for conservation purposes, but generally had not been the first choice of hunters because it was not as effective at longer ranges.
Eli Haydel was inducted into the 1999 Louisiana Sportsmen’s Hall of Fame and also earned membership in the National Legends of the Outdoors. He’s also in the Louisiana Hall of Fame for Entertainers, and recorded a CD, “Hangin’ with Eli.” Mr. Haydel passed away in 2013. His business Haydel’s Game Calls carries on in Bossier City with his sons.Eli Haydel is one of the Bossier personalities featured in the History Center’s presentation “A Celebration of Bossier Sports: From Duck Calls to Free Throws, Shuffleboard to Touchdowns.” The History Center has a varied and ever-expanding list of presentations that local groups, schools or organizations can request for either here in the History Center or we can often come to your school, senior living facility and more. You can find out more about this History Center resource and outreach on the History and Genealogy
Resource page on the bossierlibrary.org website. Or visit or call us. We are located at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
Photos: Eli Haydel with trophy from a duck calling contest sponsored by the Caddo Wildlife Association. 1974 photo from The Bossier Press.
Article by: Pam Carlisle
Haydel’s Game Calls photo
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