Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Duck hunting decline

lol, I don't know of a single duck hunter that actully eats them.

Just drive around with em piled up in the bed of your dodge 2500 for 4-5 days and toss em the dumpster behind the China King buffet.

Hahaha!!

Blue norther with sleet stinging your face and snow blowing sideways on the Pecos River in West Texas with the mallards, pintails, redheads and canvas backs coming in to the deeks all day. Heaven on earth.

In high school my younger cousin and i would get his mom to drop us off at daylight on the Piney Creek bridge on Hwy 59 north of Corrigan in East Texas. We had 10-12 miles to cover up the creek by dark, for her to pick us up. Squirrels and ducks died. The woodies jumped from the bends were either shot or shot at cutting up through the pinoaks and sycamore and black gum trunks and limbs-spot shooting at its best, which precluded ever learning to "swing through", at least without often stopping the swing to fire.

Getting to the Iron Bridge early meant building a fire and each of us spitting a duck or squirrel over it and watching the juices sizzle in the inferno below. After all day with nothing more than an orange or apple they tasted simply wonderful with no salt or pepper.

I have a to call a bit of BS on declining duck hunter numbers. I haven't missed an opening day in 42 years. I believe after the initial decline, the numbers have stabilized.

If I'm not in the marsh overnight or even at 3am, I'm not going to get a decent spot. That goes for anywhere on public land or waters in the state. If you can find a good mallard feed on private land, good luck getting permission as a number of hunters have already asked. Couple that with the new Duck Dynasty crowd in their beards and blackened faces wearing black hoodies with brand logos on them, I think the new hunting generation is well represented.

Duck hunters need lots of gear. Duck boats with blinds and mud motors, layout blinds, expensive flocked decoys, robo-ducks, Gore-tex clothes, waders, the latest "B" Italian auto-loading shotgun for $2K, some Heavy shot or Bismuth, a couple 3 custom acrylic calls, and it adds up fast. Add to that around $50 in licenses and it's not for the casual hunter.

But I enjoy it and now my boy does too. We just had his final youth hunt this past weekend. He got 3 woodies and a greenwing Sat morning. We had 'em in a piping hot iron skillet for lunch with some Uncle Bens - his call. Can't get any better than that.

Fun to hunt....miserable to eat.

Been hunting ducks and geese here on Saginaw Bay since 1967. It is and will always be my # 1 passion. Have seen both duck, and hunter numbers cycle up and down more than a time or two. Not many of us old school guys left anymore. Lots of yuppies with $200.00 calls they can't run, $600.00 waders, and $35,000.00 boats. Seems as though a lot of the newer crowd have no respect for anyone or anything, kinda like I'm here now so get the fugg outa the way. Must agree, places to hunt are pretty hard to come by anymore. Thank goodness the bayshore is public and pretty large, although some spots are better than others. As far as the high duck numbers I just don't see it AT ALL here in Mich.. Headed up to the UP for the opener on Munuscong Bay, then Black Lake, then home to Saginaw Bay so I hunt a lot of places. Like someone said maybe the numbers down south are up (I hope so) but I don't see it here.

I eat both wild ducks and geese. There are several species of duck that I don't eat. I don't shoot those species, unless I need to freeze birds for retriever training.



As to the decline of waterfowling, I have two thoughts.

1. Modern archery hunting created many more deer hunting days. Prime waterfowl hunting hours overlap with prime deer hunting hours. Whitetail deer populations have been healthy and in many cases increasing. Waterfowl populations continue to fluctuate by species and flyway. Residential development has negatively effected waterfowl hunting areas to a much greater degree than it has whitetail archery hunting areas. I wouldn't be surprised to see a correlation between a rise in archery hunting for whitetails with a decline in waterfowling.

2. Duck hunting is sort of a younger man's game and these days, most younger men are pussies.

Some great memories duck hunting, but stopped duck hunting for some reason. Maybe this year is my year to get back into it.

I say BS on declining numbers... All you gotta do is show up opening day for the BAYOU METO Blast off!!! I'm surprised there hasn't been anyone killed. Check youtube for some of the videos. I'll never set foot in there again, just because of all the crap that goes on there. Most of my duck hunting now consists of a small wood duck spot I got on some family property. 20ga SxS, some bismuth, and 15 mins of fast shooting. I just can't deal with the crowds, and the ones that simply don't know not to set up 75yrds away from you.

As far as table fare goes... Duck is one of those things that can get ruined cooking, and quick like.

Here's what we do.

Remove the breast from 6 ducks. Split each breast into 3 equal pcs. Brine in a covered bowl overnight. 3/4 cup of salt to 6qts of water.
Remove from brine, and place in plastic zip loc bag. Cover with Allegro marinade, and a couple drops of liquid smoke. Let it marinade for at least 2 hrs. Longer the better.
Pre cook some bacon in the microwave, about 2-3 mins. Not so long that it gets stiff. Place spring onion, or whatever veggies you like on the breast strip, then wrap with the bacon. Secure with toothpick.
Cook over charcoal, low heat, about 300 degs, JUST until the bacon is done. The breast strips should be med-rare.
If you don't like this, there ain't no help for ya. I've had folks turn down ribeyes, for more of this duck.

Love duck hunting. A bit different here in Canada though. Lots of areas to hunt, either wetlands or field shoots. No access fees or leases to deal with, just a chat with the farmer and you are usually golden, just be respectful.

No denying the cost of gear anywhere but where I hunt in Alberta, all I need are a couple dozen decoys, layout blind and waders. Occ. I need my canoe but I would own one regardless of my waterfowling cause it great to fly fish from. Chasing Snows is a bit more intense/costly but it is what it is. Tons of fun.

I hate to say it but, the only times I have run into ignorant, get the "F" outta my types were a few guys with California plates on the truck. Were trespassing as well but thought they knew better than I did. Sucked to be them when the landowner arrived as we discussed access. I was hunting with the owner LOL.
Had one other run in with a group from the States, black hoodie types with the big truck/trailer full of decoys and all decked out with decals. Told me I shooting up "their roost" on public land. Ordered me off the property, that didn;t happen. Seemed to me they were guiding but couldn't be sure. Roost was a few miles away on the Bow River, had they scouted they would have known this.

Most folks are great though. Out for a good time, love the action, love the habitat types. I don't see numbers dropping here.

i love hunting ducks, i'll blow off deer hunting to go duck hunting.

Myself and a few buddies flew across Cook Inlet to our duck shack for opening weekend. Got about 40 ducks throughout the weekend.

We always marinade the ducks in Italian dressing in a ziplock. We then cut up mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, onions and peppers and marinade in Italian dressing in a separate ziplock. We then shishkabob on the grill to medium rare. Never overcook!

We happily had juice running down our chins for 3 straight nights over cocktails.

Forgot to mention we wrap the duck in bacon.

All right, and thanks.

The worst thing about eating ducks is-they dont taste like shickken. If the suckers tasted like shickken, everyone would lovem.

Havent seen a bloody duck all year!

That is a hell of a good sounding recipe.

Tractors big enough to pull meaningful scrapers have greatly concentrated ducks to year-round waterholes and shifted the central flyway significantly West. Mandated non-tox shot was also a giant blow to hunter numbers. When I was in grade school and lead was legal, almost everyone my dad hunted with loaded their own shotgun shells. Non-tox became mandatory and the number of shotshell handloaders dropped way off. Cheaper to quit hunting waterfowl and buy a few boxes of lead for upland game.

I used to be DIE HARD. I lived for duck season, traveled everywhere, and hunted like a mad man. Cost, and time, was no object, even in college.

I was heavily involved in Delta Waterfowl, DU, CWA, and other organizations.

I even created one of the first, biggest duck hunting websites on the net in the mid-90's, and was one of the first on SPAV. Either on-line or in person hunted, fought, hung out with, became great friends with, or cussed all of the old names: Hoosier Jim, Benny, Duck Undertaker, Dr. Duck, Gator Joe, Steel 3's, Mayo, Mudhen, Doc Hull, duck guru, WuChang, and too many others to list. Most of you have no idea what I am talking about. A few of you know that was the hayday of duck hunting on the web.

I bet I met 75 of those guys in person, and hunted with at least 25 of them. Most of them were/are great guys, but there were a few whack-jobs in the group for sure.

Then, I got married. Instant kids. Priorities changed, but I still hunted hard, 1 or 2 days a week instead of 4 or 5 days a week.

Then, I got a little older, and getting up at 3AM to drive 2 hours to get a decent spot before shoot time started to lose it's allure, but I still hunted ducks a bit.

And now, frankly, I want to get into the countryside to relax, have some peace, and not deal with a rat race. ON the busy days, I hated the yelling at 4AM because guys are setting up on top of eachother, I I don't want to listen to someone else's music in the parking lots at o'dark thirty, and I don't want to footrace to some pond at a popular spot.

Because of all that, I took a hiatus. I haven't shot a duck in 3 years, and instead I have been big game hunting where I can get lost and enjoy some peace. I don't enjoy the hunting as much, but I enjoy the hours/effort/quiet much more.

But I have missed the ducks, and this year I have 4 young friends who want to learn to hunt waterfowl, which has brought the fire back and given me a reason to dust off the decoys.

We'll see how it goes, but I am looking forward to it!

--Duck911

It Is hard to beat a good flooded timber hunt for Woodies and Mallards. Both are great eating IMHO. Our group does the typical marinate, wrap in bacon, then fry or grill. We will pass a platter around the fire until everything is gone. This is part of what makes duck camp so special.

I love hunting ducks and have for many years. However, 1 by 1, my partners either moved away or gave up the ducks. It kind of lost its allure when I had to hunt alone. When my last duck dog died, I haven't replaced her and likely won't. I do miss it, though.

For me it's all about logistics.

What used to be a 20 minute drive and 2 hour soiree is now a 4 hour drive and 6 hour soiree. Not sure where all the ducks went or where all the traffic came from.

Corporate life and population expansion sux!! But I still enjoy being out there when I can even get out there. Especially, if it's all day.

I started duck hunting when stationed in WA State and there was a huge amount of public land or farmers that were willing to let you hunt within 30 minutes. Lots and lots of ducks and some really good times, although as Steelhead says, some damn scary times too hunting tidal water up there.

Shift to the east coast and you find in MD, VA, DE very little public waterfowl and what is there is crowded. I got active in DU and even after five years no real ins. Leases around for large large dollars. I pretty much gave it up although I still have a bag with a couple dozen dekes in the garage.

Heading to Alberta here in a couple weeks for some duck and goose and it reminds me of how much I love it (and eating them!) and that in retirement (not in MD!) I'm hoping I can find some small backwaters that I can get a little shooting in.