First Duck Hunt

[givetoget]

YAHOO I'm in my mid 40s and im going on my first real live duck hunt. Cant wait till morning. I never had a place to go, now i have permission to hunt on a 4 acre pond in the middle of 80 private acres about a 1/4 mile from a river Took a walk back there tonight and there was about 50 ducks and 15 geese that took off, so i should have some luck. What is the better tasting ducks? How do you make them, bake, fry, jerky. Good luck to all

[creepworm]

To me, all ducks have the same taste and it is not good. That being said, I don't mind them when cut into small pieces and dipped in shore lunch and fried like fish. Otherwise, I make beef/duck sticks out of them. Good luck to you in the morning.

[walleyehunter80]

yup ducks dont have a very good taste, one of those deals where you could feed them to your lab and instead of eating them he would lick his butt!

[bobbymalone]

People that like duck will always tell you the mallards and woodies are the best. I have never had a wood duck but mallard is pretty good. It's gamy compared to domesticated animals for sure, but then again if you wanted it to taste like chicken you should just go buy chicken.

Generally, the puddler ducks (mallards, wood ducks, gadwall, etc) are considered better than the diving ducks. Something about eating fish gives them a bad flavor, I have heard.

Geese in my opinion are really good. A lot more like beef than any sort of bird you can buy at the grocery store. Prepare a boneless breast like you would steak or beef and you won't be sorry. I make fajitas a lot and they are freakin awesome.

I'm pretty new at waterfowling myself so if I can offer some advice (I apologize if you know what you are doing better than what I did): There are a lot of different kinds of ducks out there. Get good at identifying them. First, the duck regs are bit complicated and it's best to know what species is what and the differences between males and females to keep out of trouble. Second, if you shoot everything that flies by you're likely gonna shoot some mergansers or coots or something which are not the best table fair. Mergansers taste like sucking on a nickel.

Also if you have an experienced buddy that can work a call and show you the ropes you will be A LOT more successful.

Good luck. Let us know how you did, with pics!

[givetoget]

Isnt that just neat, I get up 5am to go and thought look in the regs to see what time shooting hours are, and find out its 9am (Nap Time) as far as idetifying goes I can tell its a mallard or not thats it HA HA. So Im taking my Nat Geo bird book with to help out. How do you think that will work, looking up a species as there flying in Well good luck all

[Selmer]

TRB, I had the same experience about the 9 a.m. opener yesterday afternoon...this is my first duck hunt in MN after growing up in NE SD, living in exile in Iowa for 8 years, and now I'm a little closer to home. This 9 a.m. opening thing is a joke, IMHO. Anyway, I LOVE to eat ducks, haven't met one that didn't taste good properly plucked and roasted with onions, garlic, a little red wine, some basil, thyme, oregano, and sage sprinkled over the top. Brown the ducks whole in bacon grease before roasting, then de-glaze the pan with 1/4 red wine, put the de-glazed liquids in the roast pan, stuff part of an onion in each bird along with a garlic clove, sprinkle with spices, add a little worcestershire in the pot and roast at 350 for 1 1/2 - 2hrs. and enjoy!

[joekleinjr]

that sounds awesome, i'll have to try my ducks like that, most of the time i soak them in thousand island for 12 hours then bake.. thanks for the recipe

[fishnhuntnboy]

Trb hope you had a good opener! I started three years ago and its amazing how much you will learn in the first year. Get yourself a call with an instructional video and learn, I was doing that so much i was annoying my dad and roommates up at college lol. If you know someone that has duck hunted for awhile, that will help out alot with learning the calling and identifying ducks. I have learn alot on identifying just by sitting in the bling and observing. I have alot missed alot of duck doing this just because i wasnt really paying attention and wanted to shoot the right ones. As far as eating them, I like them alot. Puddlers do taste better, i have noticed that divers are tougher meat and has a strong game taste IMO. One way i go about eating ducks is that i will season them in whatever i want and then throw em in the skillet with cream of mushroom soup. Also I will cook them in bacon grease and this helps alot. When i have alot of extra duck, I like to slice them up for jerky. I marinate them for 12 hours and then throw them in the food dryer.

Hope this helps and good luck this season!

[Shoot2Kill]

I have not met a person yet that doesn't like small duck chunks wrapped in bacon on the grill....cook them slow until everything is golden brown...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Ducks and woodies are by far the best IMO. I have 6 mallard breasts soaking in some salt water right now that will be ready for the grill tonight.

[MR.PB]

I have to agree with SHoot2kill on that one, as we had ducks wrapped with bacon tonight ! Usually a breast sliced in half is about right, do not cook too long

as you want the taste to come out. Peg with toothpicks.

Good plan to use a layer of aluminun foil under the ducks to keep the flaring down. Usually poke small holes in the foil after I spray with PAM.

My son likes the cream of chicken in the crockpot version (3-4 hours after browning) Scooped over rice...MMmm. very hard to beat while watching football

on Monday nights.

[ItsaCrappieLife]

KISS method; buy a bottle of marinade from Menards, pour half the bottle in a ziplock and marinade overnight. Throw the duck in the crockpot in the morning and pour the rest of the marinade on. I grew up eating duck so I'm probably not as picky as some.

[givetoget]

Selmer I agree with your opp. on the 9am openner,and the recipe sounds great as well do the rest posted here. I just hope they taste as good.

fishnhuntnboy, Yes I had a great opener, saturday afternoon was 3 mallards and 1 black duck sunday was 2 mallards I didnt have anybody to go with so calling was out and I had to look in my Nat Geo book to ID them when there flying by, it was funny real funny. Sunday I took my 11 year old son out for his first mentored duck hunt so he actually got the two on sunday. Less action but we had a blast chasing ducks around the pond all day Thanks everyone

[Kyle]

Teal and woodies are by far the best eating ducks.

dont let anyone tell you different.