bigbassin' Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 Figured there’s a deer thread so why not one for ducks? Post up your reports, stories, mishaps, etc. So far only 1 day of duck hunting for me this year. Hit the saltwater one morning solo, they seemed to have my coffee drinking schedule down to the second. Patiently waited…nothing. Put the gun down and grab coffee, 3-4 ducks buzz the decoys. Happened 3 times, so much for needing to sit still lol. When I get back to the boat ramp skunked, I see someone stole the hose to the freshwater rinse off and I wouldn’t be able to run the salt out of the motor. Being a quick thinker, I figured this left me with no other choice but to go hunt some more on the river to wash the salt off of my boat. Luckily it paid off with my first ring neck hen (and second duck ever). Have the next 10 days off so plan to hit ducks hard in the morning and scouting/fishing in the afternoons. Have several friends that are getting green winged teal mixed into their bags, would love to take a drake in the next few days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User clayton86 Posted December 25, 2022 Super User Share Posted December 25, 2022 Been out almost every weekend. beginning of the second split had numbers but no quality birds so just sat and watched them decoy and fly off again. Last weekend was good my taxidermist bill grew A LOT lol. Got a nice stud hooded merganser then around 9 got sick of ducks in my lap pretty much getting a pass because they were hens or juveniles I said to my partner next ducks that come around the break wall if it flies it dies because my daughter and fiancé were making comments how I’m always hunting and not bring anything home. Had a triple hook around the break wall and fly right into the spread giving me an easy 10 yard shot. Heard a drake old squaw do there what ever noise and I instantly perked and focused more zeroing on the long tail and folded him up. Happened again on the next group that came in. So got 3 nice stud drakes that day all headed to the taxi. 2 squaw and the hooded. I also got a hen squaw one handed while out retrieving haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User gimruis Posted December 25, 2022 Super User Share Posted December 25, 2022 I used to hunt waterfowl every season. I stopped 3 years ago because of the lack of birds. I used to hunt 5-6 times/season and harvested 25-30 ducks, mostly wood ducks and mallards. That number steadily declined over the years and it just became futile. I simply didn’t see as many as I used to. I could probably find new spots to hunt that are more productive, but I don’t have the time to scout. Scouting ahead of time is crucial to find active birds. I foresee myself going again someday, but not until the birds return. October is the primary month for it here and I’d honestly rather be fishing at this point. I’ll continue to hunt deer, turkeys, and pheasants every season. I shot a drake mallard with a band and a drake wood duck with a band, both the same season in 2008. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted December 25, 2022 Global Moderator Share Posted December 25, 2022 Somebody was shooting ducks near my dock on Christmas Eve, scared one of our dogs to death. Some dogs just ain’t gun dogs hahaha. I will admit, hearing the shotgun report made my mouth water a bit . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbassin' Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 Took me 4 days but found the ducks heavy this afternoon while fishing…of course I’ve got to work tomorrow morning. Guess they’ll have to wait until Friday for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User clayton86 Posted December 31, 2022 Super User Share Posted December 31, 2022 Went out this morning it was dead calm Lake Ontario only had 5mph S winds I guess it was. The lake was glass hardly anything was flying. Ended up getting 1 bufflehead and a coot, I’ve never shot a coot glassed it and IDed it then looked up to double check that it was okay to shoot. only have 1 day left of the season here in the western zone in NY. Planning on going out tomorrow for last day hunting off shore if wind will let me since I hunt diver/sea ducks from a kayak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User gimruis Posted January 1, 2023 Super User Share Posted January 1, 2023 5 hours ago, clayton86 said: I’ve never shot a coot Technically they aren’t even considered a duck. They’re called mud hens here. They have chicken feet too. Kinda odd for a water bird. Hope you aren’t planning to eat it… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User MN Fisher Posted January 1, 2023 Super User Share Posted January 1, 2023 7 hours ago, clayton86 said: I’ve never shot a coot glassed it and IDed it then looked up to double check that it was okay to shoot. Shoot all of them you want - they're a bloody nuisance around here. There's a reason one of the names for a group of them is a 'Swarm'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted January 1, 2023 Global Moderator Share Posted January 1, 2023 I’ve seen many coots taken out by a minn kota strike at 50 mph 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbassin' Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 15 hours ago, gimruis said: Technically they aren’t even considered a duck. They’re called mud hens here. They have chicken feet too. Kinda odd for a water bird. Hope you aren’t planning to eat it… They taste just like a gamey skirt steak in my opinion, no issues at all with eating them. The smell when you clean one certainly can have you question why you took one Have to cook them rare, tried cooking them towards medium and had to throw that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbassin' Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 Did a ton of scouting this past week and just really didn’t find much. Found a ton of teal (blue wing and green wing) and ring necks in one spot Thursday and decided to hunt there Friday. Got to the lake at 4:30 AM and had a guy already setup on the spot, bummer but setup about a half mile away on the back side of the marsh. Ended up getting 2 hen ring necks. Had several pairs of 2 to 3 teals circle but never come into the decoys. Also had a massive flock of ducks buzz the decoys, couldn’t id them (all white belly/underwing, definitely bigger than ring necks or teal) but easily 30 ducks blew by just booking it. Made a couple of passes which was awesome to see and hear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User clayton86 Posted January 1, 2023 Super User Share Posted January 1, 2023 Was 1 duck short of a 2 man limit today. While old squaw limit since that’s what 99.9% of what we see in this spot lately. NY bumped it from 6 to 3 starting this season and we’ve never seen as many as we did this year. I easily shot 2 boxes of black cloud today and wasn’t hitting a thing. I mean I got a few but man was I missing like crazy today. Was an expensive last day on the ammo aspect good lord I sucked today haha. We managed 5 squaw and 1 buffie today though. Was a little windier than we hoped to do the layout kayak gig but it worked well we had a lot decoy or buzz us offering shots but it worked well to bad we waited till the last day to attempt it. The coot was breasted out not expecting it to be delicious but I also just hunt divers they aren’t the tastiest birds to begin with but they do make ok jerky occasionally I’ll wrap a breast in bacon and whip something up that’s usually bufflehead though. Squaw and scoter what we shoot the most get jerky treatment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User gimruis Posted January 1, 2023 Super User Share Posted January 1, 2023 19 minutes ago, clayton86 said: 5 squaw What’s a squaw? You got a photo of those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User clayton86 Posted January 1, 2023 Super User Share Posted January 1, 2023 5 hours ago, gimruis said: What’s a squaw? You got a photo of those? https://ibb.co/X8KFbBg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User gimruis Posted January 1, 2023 Super User Share Posted January 1, 2023 That is a nice duck @clayton86. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmontgomery87 Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 It's been years since I've done any hunting. Went waterfowl hunting with some friends for the first time yesterday and had an absolute blast! I got three drake mallards and a Canada goose. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbassin' Posted January 22, 2023 Author Share Posted January 22, 2023 20 minutes ago, Jmontgomery87 said: It's been years since I've done any hunting. Went waterfowl hunting with some friends for the first time yesterday and had an absolute blast! I got three drake mallards and a Canada goose. That’s awesome! Went this morning, just watched bluebills flying around 100 yards away. No luck for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmontgomery87 Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 5 minutes ago, bigbassin' said: That’s awesome! Went this morning, just watched bluebills flying around 100 yards away. No luck for me. It was awesome. We had several hundred fly over and called a few in. I let the experienced guys handle all of the calling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.