Mergansers...what do you do with them?

[LandDr]

So we had a couple fish ducks come into the decoys, look like a regular diver...until you pic them up.

What do you do with them...eat'em?

Cook them for your friends?

Cook them with an old leather shoe...and then eat the shoe?

Does anyone actually eat these things?

[Gordie]

Make jerky out of them a friend of mine did that and another did it with coots he said you couldnt tell the difference but I never got any..

On a side note I bet its jerky that will last all day

[CANOPY SAM]

I let them fly! I mean I don't shoot them... Har Har har...

It probably sounds kind of picky, but I don't even shoot woodies or teal either. I try to only shoot game I plan to eat, and I don't care for wood ducks in the pan, teal are just too small, and hardly worth the cost of the shell, and mergansers, well they're just so darn ugly!

Just IMO.

[Gordie]

Canopy thanks for letting the teal fly by I think those are the best eating duck out there I know not the biggest but to me the tastest

[CANOPY SAM]

Hey, no prob elwood! You can have all of mine! I just tell em' old Canopy sent ya'!

[bobbymalone]

mergansers taste like sucking on a penny. i would jerky it if you are so equipped. pretty much everything can be made palatable by jerkying it.

[LandDr]

Most of what I seen on the internet was to either Jerky them or back them with a shingle...and then eat the shingle.

I did see one of wrapping with bacon and cooking with onions.

I also usually just pass on them, but I didn't realize what they were until we picked them out of the water...nasty things! Then we kept an eye out for them and just didn't shoot. But I have never seen so many of them before...it was flock after flock of the dang things...mixed in with divers and woodducks which also have white bellies.

Well, I am from the "shoot it you eat it" as well so I will try to do something with them.

Merganser Hamburger Hotdish...em..em..em.

[Finlander]

Put them in a freezer laying in a flat extended head position, then later, use them as lawn darts!

[magnum mike]

They taste like an old minnow bucket smells. Let'em go to the next guy.

+1 on the teal! You need 8 of them to make a sandwich but they are the tastiest duck IMHO.

[luckycrank]

let them go to the guys who think there shooting a 6 1/2 shell.

and then laugh like mad when you hear em shooting at em' and yell yummmy!!!!!

[Walleye Guy]

Wrap the breast pieces in bacon and then grill them. Bacon makes everything palatable. Note I didn't say good.

What is the hardest part about cooking waterfowl? Getting them out of the freezer!

[#fishhunt#]

I try not to shoot them but if I do I will use them for dog training and give them to others that dog train. Otherwise a Drake Hooded Merganser looks pretty cool with the hood crest fluffed up and mounted on a piece of driftwood.

[superhawk16]

wrapped in bacon is good. Another one that I have been doing this season is throw them in the slow cooker on low for 6-10 hours (less for little ducks more for geese) and fill the slow cooker with coke. It will look pretty nasty after its done because all of the tendons get broken down but once you drain it off it is fine. Once you have gotten rid of the nastiness pull apart the breasts (like shredded pork) and put them back into the slow cooker for an hour or so with some onions, peppers, and your favorite BBQ sauce. Makes for some pretty good "pulled lawn dart" barbecues.

[shnelson]

I try not to shoot them but if I do I will use them for dog training and give them to others that dog train. Otherwise a Drake Hooded Merganser looks pretty cool with the hood crest fluffed up and mounted on a piece of driftwood.

+1, except the last one I brought home the dog didn't want anything to do with either!

[walleyehunter80]

ha ha ha lawn dart!!! Yeah i dont shoot those sick looking things, same with not shooting COOT! But yeah I guess you did, now you have to eat it and thats even funnier

[walleyehunter80]

oh yeah and jerky will NOT make it taste any better

[CANOPY SAM]

The lawn dart idea is a good one!

[LandDr]

I did the breasts wrapped in bacon slid onto scewers and cooked on the grill last night...excellent!

But...it was not the lawn dart skewers yet.

I went with the mallards and bills last night and they were just incredible.

I will get my nerve up and try the same on the lawn darts maybe tomorrow night. Merganser Skewers...em...em...em.

I will let you know how it works out.

(Nasty little fish ducks! I made sure we passed on them last night so we ended up with bills, woodducks and even a spooner. The ducks were just piling into our rice pond...amazing to watch!)

[bemidjibasser]

crock pot them in a stew mix and brown gravy mix and a bunch of carrots, taters, onions, and a touch of garlic... otherwise marinated in italian dressing and wrapped in bacon and grilled is good or make kabobs after marinating too.

[Lunker]

I don't shoot them. If I do shoot them(or my other not so picky friends do) I breast them out and throw them in with the dogs food. He loves them, and I figure since he retrieves them he should get a taste now and then!

Or give them to my friend who says 'deep fried they all taste the same'...

[brittman]

kitty ... here kitty, kitty

[magnum mike]

All kidding aside, feeding birds to your dog can create some awfully bad habits. I have seen the dog develop a taste for duck and take a few to shore for himself.

[Musky Buck]

I simply don't shoot em, when I was like 14 in 1983 I snuck up on a flock of them thinking from the road with naked eye they were mallards, quite a ways away, snuck up and the whole flock "dove' walked out and dad asked what happened, I said they dove and kept diving and they weren't greenheads dad lol.

[TonkaBass]

I have eaten coots, mergs, and normal ducks all grilled with bacon and they all taste the same. Most people that say they taste bad have never actually tried them. Wild game is only as good as the recipe you use. My geese I make into jerky. Ducks are smaller breats and I use for grilling, dishes, and slow cooking. And canopy, why don't you like woodducks?

[Gordie]

Wild game is only as good as the recipe you use.

AMEN TONKABASS