First off, I want to thank Capt. Dave for giving us this new forum for all of us hunters to have a place to hang out here on FPT! Let's try and get some good reports and photo's posted so he doesn't think he wasted his time creating it.
In this thread I am going to report every duck hunting trip that I make in 2009. I typically hunt about 50% beaver swamps and the other 50% downeast on the big water,marshes, creeks. Hopefully this will motivate me to take more pictures and videos during hunting trips than I have in the past. Maybe I will find a few ducks to shoot this year so I won't be boring ya'll to death with skunk reports. Hope ya'll enjoy the reports and anyone else can feel free to add their reports and photos into this thread as well.
I hunted for the first time of the year this morning. Was out of town for opening day so I slipped into a local beaver swamp today down here in Brunswick County. I was greeted with a light fog and virtually no wind this morning. I hate duck hunting in fog because it makes it very hard for the ducks to see your decoys and I think makes the ducks reluctant to fly. The wood ducks however showed up right on time, bout 10 minutes before legal shooting time. Had a group of 8 sit down about 5yds from me but it was still too early to shoot... Watched them spook and fly off as more woodies started moving. Finally legal and had a pair come down through the trees right in front of me, found the drake and dropped him. Saw a few more ducks and that was it for the morning. May of gotten some more shots if I would have stayed longer but had to get back to the house. Short hunt but a good way to start the season. Hopefully there will be more reports to come this week, possible day trip to Hyde County Wednesday or Thursday!!
pretty drake!
I'm not a hunter (nothing against it, seriously...I mean that....just not something I do) so I might pop in here once in a while to display my ignorance.
What do you do with a duck you've killed? Do you eat it, or do you stuff it?
I'm not a hunter (nothing against it, seriously...I mean that....just not something I do) so I might pop in here once in a while to display my ignorance.
What do you do with a duck you've killed? Do you eat it, or do you stuff it?
For the most part we eat them, especially wood ducks. They are some of the best eating ducks you can find. I also especially like teal. Some of the other ducks we kill in NC are'nt as good table fare but you can always find someone who is happy to have them...
There should be a whole thread on cooking and preparing wild ducks because most hunters, myself included, struggle with cooking wild ducks. I have a few go-to recipes but I could use a good cooking lesson from someone who knows what they're doing.
PG hit the nail on the head.. Woodies and teal are tops for NC birds. Some others aren't bad, but teal really are the cream of the crop.
I like my ducks grilled just a touch over rare.. A soy and honey marinade is tough to beat! Don't forget the wild rice!
We hunted opening morning and the woodies had spread out big time with all of that rain. Found a few mallards that were willing to work though!
Good luck and be safe,
JRJB
thanks for the education. I never really guessed that some ducks might be better to eat than other....but I guess it makes sense, just like some fish are better than others.
I've always heard horror stories from my mother about how dreadful it was to pluck a chicken, and I've never really liked duck that I've ordered when out (usually pretty greasy). I guess I've got a prejudice that wild fowl isn't all that tasty (or easy to dress), but as I said, I have zilch personal experience with it.
Once again, thanks for the lesson.
I havent had the chance to have some wild duck yet. I am hoping to do some hunting for them soon. I know I like the farm raised that you can buy comercially. The way I cook them may work for the wild ones. I use the rotisserie we bought. Some of you may have one out there. I got that Showtime Rotisserie that Ronco sold on tv. That thing is great to use for about anything, even fish. Just roast that bird in it with just salt and pepper and a lil garlic. Works good for me and my family. No one ever complains. Give a few very shallow slices through the skin over the breasts and it will let some of the fat run out but still stay juicy. Hope this helps someone out there.
BTW, I would like to find a good place to start duck hunting here in Brunswick county. Will be completely new to it so whatever help I can get would be great. I deer hunt and take my boys out for squirrels and such so I am used to the woods.
Teal are the best to me...".flyin ribeyes"
Scouted out a new area near Jordan Lake outside of Raleigh yesterday afternoon and decided to give it a try this morning. This new spot looks really good for Teal and Mallards and although I haven't heard of many of either around the piedmont yet we decided to give it a try anyway. This spot is too open for many woodies but we managed to knock down three anyway. Should of had at least 1 more but apparently over the off-season I forgot that you had to re-load your gun after shooting :?. We probaly saw at least 3 dozen wood ducks this morning. I think this spot will really produce later in the season. Gonna be sore tomorrow from the 1+ mile walk in and out but hopefully it will pay off.
We tried to hunt Jordan in beaver creek and it was stacked with people. There were way too many people way to close. Were there many other guys in there with yall?
We tried to hunt Jordan in beaver creek and it was stacked with people. There were way too many people way to close. Were there many other guys in there with yall?
This is the reason that I rarely hunt on gamelands around Wake Cty. Any well known spot is going to be over-run with people and it is no fun at all to deal with that at 5am. Spend some days walking creeks and you will find some lesser known swamps. The spot I hunted the other day is a 1hr walk from the truck but that is what it takes to get away from everybody. That part of the state is very hard to hunt because of all the pressure but if you put the time in to scout some new spots you can kill some ducks. Good luck.
So far this week I have gone on a couple quick morning hunts down here in Brunswick County.
On Monday I hunted a creek that I had never hunted before. Creek was very high and flooded over the bank on both sides in most places so there was a lot of water in the woods. With limited scouting the day before, I just set up on a good lookin spot on the creek and watched as dozens of wood ducks flew into the flooded timber all around me. Saw at least 50 wood ducks but never even pulled the trigger.
This morning I got an invite from a buddy to go in his beaver swamp for a quick hunt before work. Had much better luck than yesterday as the wood ducks starting pouring in about 10 minutes after legal. After a couple misses to knock the rust off we managed to knock down four. Saw a bunch of woodies but still no Teal or Mallards. Back at the truck by 7:30. Sorry but no pics this time.
Planning on hunting the Pamlico on Friday so hopefully I'll have a good report and some good pics from that hunt.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and good luck to those of you going out hunting over the holiday weekend!!
PG, where are you in Brunswick Co? I live on Oak Island. When we moved here in 2000 there were tons of ducks flying up and down the waterway every morning and night. Now on most days I don't see any. The only hunting I get to do is woodies in the swamps off 211 and a beaver pond off Governors Rd. Maybe we'll have to meet up for a hunt....especially if you know where to find other ducks. Nothing against Woodies, but it gets kind of old.
I live close to HB. This is the first year I've made any attempt to hunt in Brunswick Cty so unfortunately I don't know of any honey holes. I want to do some scouting on the Cape Fear sometime and try to do a little hunting out there this year. When I want to shoot some other ducks I usually venture North a little and hunt on the Pamlico, Currituck and Albemarle.
If you want to get together sometime just give me a shout.
11/27
Hunted a spot on the Pamlico that we've had good success at in the past. Expectations were high but somebody forgot to invite the ducks...Seems it was a bit too early for that spot cause we mostly saw were woodies and some resident black ducks. Saw one teal and a three Mallards. Knocked down one Mallard that we couldn't find in the marsh and missed one group of woodies. Oh well, gonna hit it again when the season comes back in.
11/28
Went up to the farm in Bertie County to hunt the old reliable beaver swamp and it did not dissapoint. Three of us went back to the spot and shot 8 times killing 7 wood ducks!! These woodies decoyed better than any I've ever seen. We had 7 decoy and 7 hit the water. Probably the most efficient duck shoot of my life.
On vacation this weekend so I'm done until the 19th. Keepin my fingers crossed for some cold weather up North to move some ducks down for us. Good luck to those hunting the weekend and stay safe!!