Waterfowl

, one prime duck, defeathered, and eviserated, toss a handfull of salt in the chest, let him set a few minutes, shake out the excess, now heres the important part, grab you a propane torch, sear it good, draw all the skin tight, the breast the back, dont forget the pits, throw it on the grill, Rare. enjoy
cheers
 
Like most wild game, ducks are great eating when cook right. I've found ducks good best with a sweat style sauce--Chinese style duck.

A good orange marmalade sauce, and as browndog advises-- crisp up the duck's skin before cooking, then let the grill or oven do the rest. Some of the best eating I've had was found in a freshly shot mallard duck with crispy skin, a rare core, cooked in an orange marmalade sauce;)

Is it duck season yet?:rolleyes: lol
 
duck hunting exstends my season, and i hunt till the end of the season with my shorthair, he does exstemely well in cold fast water, he will play in it even when not hunting, i now have a nice chessie that will take over late season duck duty from him as hes almost 5 now and slowing down a bit in the cold, also the upland bird population here is way down from 4-5 years ago, lucky to get a limit of roosters once a year
 
I'm a dyed in the wool waterfowler. Would rather do that than anything. I attribute the increase in waterfowl hunting to a number of things. I will list a few.

Internet= easy scouting and tons of info on areas. Before the Internet it was time consuming scouting. It has cut it in half at least.

TV shows = Outlines techniques for hunting. What works and doesn't work. Also highlights good waterfowling areas. Also makes the sport very glamorous. Everyone wants to be the guy on TV.

Waterfowl Populations = easy for hunters to shoot their limits and for most thats all they care about these days.

Better equipment = keeps the once fair weather hunters in the marsh longer because they can keep warm.

Bag limits= makes it more worthwhile for guys that all they care about is how many ducks they kill. Nobody wants to endure a cold day for 2 ducks and 1 goose.

I've hunted through the thick and thin years. The years where it was a 2 duck limit, one canada goose and 3 snows and 1 speck. Not much for waterfowl in those years.

I was hunting in the 70's in which a lot of guys refer to those as the good ole days.

These ARE the good ole days of waterfowling. I keep telling the younger hunters I know that all it takes is a drought in the prairie pothole region to plummet duck numbers. If that would happen then and only then would we see duck hunter numbers drop.

I'm a waterfowler at heart. I hunt them the old fashion way. I buy a bag of sunflower seeds, a 44 ounce big gulp, a can of chew, a map, pair of binocs and a full tank of fuel. I scout easily twice as much as I hunt.
 
Robo duck has given us a generation of Duck hunters that can't blow a damn call to save their a$$ !!! Calling in my opinion is just one of the arts of Duck and Goose hunting.
 
breast a couple of mallards, roll the breasts in whichever coating you prefer, bread crumbs for instance, brown lightly in a greased pan,remove,put the browned breasts in a pressure cooker and let them "rock" for about 20 minutes, they'll come out like roast beef
they'll be moist but cooked through
 
there is no increase in waterfowl hunters up here in MN we or on the decline for duck hunters & license sold each yr...

very little to get excited about here in my neck of the woods went down last yr for opener & herd maybe 10-15 shots all around us??? other years you hear that as the clock hits legal shooting time???

can sit around all day & maybe get a few ducks just not that fun for me or my dog if we traveled out west say 2-3 hours we could get into ducks or head to the big river but its a zoo down there any duck hunter left hits the mississippi in MN to duck hunt lol also if we head way up north we can get shooting but i cant travel for a duck lol

i grew up & cut my teeth duck hunting but i had to give er up a few yrs ago
 
I can't think of anything better. A nice fat wild Mallard.
Cooked up with some skill.:thumbsup:
 
We have a huge duck hunter population as we live in the middle of rice, corn, milo, hay fields etc etc so its hard to notice if the duck hunter population has increased here or not. We duck hunt as it extends our hunting season. We have A zone deer season Middle of August to 3 weekend in September, then Doves, then pheasants then ducks goose which end in February After ducks we are bored until August rolls back around. I am not sure which I prefer more duck hunting or pheasant hunting. I love upland game hunting because its a family thing for us including our pooches. Yet, it is hard to beat a good day when the ducks are flying and limits are met but a no duck day sucks! However, I would take a day of any hunting over most anything.
 
Not sure where the impression that duck hunter numbers has increased comes from. The USFWS says in the last 15 years duck stamp sales have dropped 20% on a national basis. Canada waterfowler numbers are down 70% over the last 15 years. They believe the "casual" duck hunter is now choosing other options. This smaller number of duck hunters averages many more days afield than 15-20 years ago. Loss of wetlands and overcrowding of public areas are considered the main culprits, along with expense. You can bet the guy with a box trailer for goose decoys or the guy with a $20K boat is a pretty serious waterfowler. Conversely, the number of hunters in some states (LA & CA) the number of duck hunters has increased...tremendously in LA, where they harvest more ducks than any other state, CA being #2. SD has also increased.

Population numbers are up, so one would expect more hunters to hit the marsh or river...especially in areas where other hunting opportunities have declined. I and the dog would rather hunt pheasants, but it's real hard to find a decent spot and get permission in my neck of the woods. So, we split the season and chase roosters when we can, and greenheads when they're around.

Looking forward to doing both in about 60 days!
 
Not sure which I love the most. I hunt for the love of the hunt. Love the labs working in the marsh or field, love the friendships that I have made over the years, love being in the outdoors, loved the planning and prep of the upcoming trip,love watching the sunrise and sunsets,love spending time in the blind or walking the fields behind the labs. Now that I am retired I can spend even more time doing those things that I just mentioned.

Smoked goose/duck appetizer

Brine and smoke duck and goose breasts as desired
Slice very thin, the thinner the better
take favorite cracker and spread cream cheese on it
put on a couple slices of the smoke fowl on it
top with a dab of jalepeno pepper jelly
Got this from the show "The working Mans Retriever"

Have done this several times and they are great, hard to keep on the plate
 
Greetings From Canada

The hatching-rearing conditions in Saskatchewan have never been better in my lifetime......52 and counting.
I am seeing sooooooo many duck broods per small wetland (and these are just the local area broods), I can only imagine what the larger production areas will be yielding.

The waterfowl fall flight will be absolutely massive this fall. Just hope the weather doesn't change too quick and they decide to make their travel plans before I can set my dinner plans.

Cheers
Phezzy :cheers:
 
bird ranches

NO. fun maybe and certainly have a place, a hunt certainly not. if you like it, do it, to heck with the other guy, but don't kid yourself, it ain't the same but maybe beats staying home, another thing, if you are out of state, it is cheaper and by a bunch, just do it, sure my kansas pheasants cost more and you would crap if you knew what my turkey cost me and i shoot a bunch of them, never again will i complain what a super market charges.

cheers
 
When I started going with a friend in SE Kansas about 10 years ago, we were the only people who hunted waterfowl for miles and miles around.

I think the waterfowl numbers increase, and the quail DEcrease, plus the fact that duck hunting is now considered "trendy" have all contributed to make duck hunting really popular in the area we hunt.

10 years ago, we had our choice of several prime watershed ponds any day of the season and if we didn't get our limit there we could jump ponds the rest of the day. We started seeing other groups about 5 or 6 years ago, and last year it seemed like everybody had decoys in their truck. A couple of the really good watersheds are leased now and the others are crowded now that everybody is a duck hunter. We still get birds, but it is a lot more work now, for sure.

There are a couple guides in the area now as well.

The only thing I don't care for is that they shoot-out the wood ducks when the mallards aren't in. We don't see 1/10 the wood ducks we did 10 years ago...
 
We take a week off each fall to hunt down south , and are rigged for both waterfowl and upland, but our main focus is pheasants and Sharptails at that time of year.
It's going to be a late one for us this year, so I'm hoping the weather holds.

DT
 
This is a funny one.

So, back in 1982 (I think....man memory really sucks when it begins to fade), a couple buddy's and myself go out for a morning goose and duck hunt.

We were (are) hardcore. So naturally, we are camo'ed up including fireplace soot (ash) to blacken our faces. (this is 20 years prior to me ever seeing "the Dynasty boyz" doing it.

Well, we have a good hunt and afterwards decide to stop in at a local taven for lunch and a couple of cool ones. We go into the place and are drawing the occasional odd look from the locals.

Apparently showing up for lunch with your face still blackened from soot is not good manners. :D

Still laugh about this, all these years later
 
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