WaterfowlForum.Net

Date: 20OCT2014
LST Time: 0723
Location: Mununscong Bay/Mununscong Levy
Wind Direction and Speed:
Temperature at LST: 43F
Barometer:
Moon phase:
Special Notes:
Waterfowl Activity: Nothing flew in the AM. Walked the levy in the afternoon shot one Blue Bill on the jump. Tired of seeing them!
Hunters: Olly
Dogs and retrieves: Moose 01
Bag: 01 Blue Bill

Well blue bills are good for coon bait and gardens.
at least you're shooting something.

Bills are fine eating

DeadEye_Dan wrote:Bills are fine eating

so are stick bills (insert puking smiley )
.

Learn to cook and it's not a problem

No problem eating them, just want to see more species on my trip.

Go 60iles East, I saw a Redhead or five thousand Sunday

West. My brainz aren't werkin yrt

DeadEye_Dan wrote:Learn to cook and it's not a problem

Oh come on now stick bills being good. Never shot one never will .

When I started waterfowling in northern Ohio, bills were what we shot the most of, and cold smoked bills whittled off the bones with a pocket knife were my mentor's favorite blind fare. He smoked them all, and I was convinced by association that they were nasty otherwise. First time I had them down here, stuffed (between ribs and breast meat) and pot roasted by a Cajun camp cook, I found out they were as good as most any duck - at least here and cooked that way.

Rick wrote:When I started waterfowling in northern Ohio, bills were what we shot the most of, and cold smoked bills whittled off the bones with a pocket knife were my mentor's favorite blind fare. He smoked them all, and I was convinced by association that they were nasty otherwise. First time I had them down here, stuffed (between ribs and breast meat) and pot roasted by a Cajun camp cook, I found out they were as good as most any duck - at least here and cooked that way.

I am talking about mergansers .

If you've never shot one, how do you know??

DeadEye_Dan wrote:If you've never shot one, how do you know??

His brothers cousins ex-mailman said so. Just like the mailman doesn't like coots

DeadEye_Dan wrote:If you've never shot one, how do you know??

I have shot blue bills,and ringnecks I just pass on the mergansers. any bird that eats shad has to be nasty. .

Yeah, nasty fish eaters. [attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1413911645872.jpg[/attachment]

Flightstopper wrote:Yeah, nasty fish eaters. [attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1413911645872.jpg[/attachment]

My Mallards only eat corn lol .

firstflight wrote:

DeadEye_Dan wrote:If you've never shot one, how do you know??

I have shot blue bills,and ringnecks I just pass on the mergansers. any bird that eats shad has to be nasty. .

Your'e a lot younger than I expected.

firstflight wrote:

DeadEye_Dan wrote:If you've never shot one, how do you know??

I have shot blue bills,and ringnecks I just pass on the mergansers. any bird that eats shad has to be nasty. .

^^^ the voice of experience

Woody wrote:

firstflight wrote:

DeadEye_Dan wrote:If you've never shot one, how do you know??

I have shot blue bills,and ringnecks I just pass on the mergansers. any bird that eats shad has to be nasty. .

Your'e a lot younger than I expected.

Ha ha that's my now 15 year old son .

DeadEye_Dan wrote:

firstflight wrote:

DeadEye_Dan wrote:If you've never shot one, how do you know??

I have shot blue bills,and ringnecks I just pass on the mergansers. any bird that eats shad has to be nasty. .

^^^ the voice of experience

Well I just can't see the being any good to eat so I don't shoot them.

firstflight wrote:

Flightstopper wrote:Yeah, nasty fish eaters. [attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1413911645872.jpg[/attachment]

My Mallards only eat corn lol .

Because that's all you feed them.

SpinnerMan wrote:

firstflight wrote:

Flightstopper wrote:Yeah, nasty fish eaters. [attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1413911645872.jpg[/attachment]

My Mallards only eat corn lol .

Because that's all you feed them.

Lol

firstflight wrote:

Rick wrote:When I started waterfowling in northern Ohio, bills were what we shot the most of, and cold smoked bills whittled off the bones with a pocket knife were my mentor's favorite blind fare. He smoked them all, and I was convinced by association that they were nasty otherwise. First time I had them down here, stuffed (between ribs and breast meat) and pot roasted by a Cajun camp cook, I found out they were as good as most any duck - at least here and cooked that way.

I am talking about mergansers .

Then someone's hacked your account:

firstflight wrote:Well blue bills are good for coon bait and gardens.
at least you're shooting something.

Down on our end we winter a tremendous amount of bluebills (lessers) on the coastal lakes, most eating sea critters out on the open waters, and often give off a pungent odor when you crack em open to clean. That said, you're also liable to find a mallard, gadwall, mottled, etc. foraging on same stuff given certain conditions like lean years with degraded pond grasses. In other words, I've gotten the same odor from a wide variety of puddlers taken in the same area.

Flightstopper wrote:Yeah, nasty fish eaters. [attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1413911645872.jpg[/attachment]

Before Rita boogered my slide files, I had shots like that of mallards and blacks taken at a hot water outlet on Cleveland's east side (East 52nd?) and below Ohio River navigation dams.

Rick wrote:

firstflight wrote:

Rick wrote:When I started waterfowling in northern Ohio, bills were what we shot the most of, and cold smoked bills whittled off the bones with a pocket knife were my mentor's favorite blind fare. He smoked them all, and I was convinced by association that they were nasty otherwise. First time I had them down here, stuffed (between ribs and breast meat) and pot roasted by a Cajun camp cook, I found out they were as good as most any duck - at least here and cooked that way.

I am talking about mergansers .

Then someone's hacked your account:

firstflight wrote:Well blue bills are good for coon bait and gardens.
at least you're shooting something.

Yeah never said they where good.that's why I stick to puddle ducks.and not divers.

Darren wrote:Down on our end we winter a tremendous amount of bluebills (lessers) on the coastal lakes, most eating sea critters out on the open waters, and often give off a pungent odor when you crack em open to clean. That said, you're also liable to find a mallard, gadwall, mottled, etc. foraging on same stuff given certain conditions like lean years with degraded pond grasses. In other words, I've gotten the same odor from a wide variety of puddlers taken in the same area.

Used to find grays smelling like that at Pecan Island and breast them and throw them in with the dos gris we probably shot the most of in that very brackish marsh for conversion into bbq sandwich meat ala an old Canada recipe. (Crockpot in cider or apple juice until falling apart, then mix with bbq sauce and slow cook some more.) A few years back I swapped a mallard for a very rare here bufflehead another fellow killed in our marsh and gave it "the same pan" test with a greenwing. That buffie was nearly purple dark and smelled like diver, so I thought sure it would fail pretty miserably. But its breast and legs sauteed in nothing but butter with just a dash of Lawry's, next to those of a greenwing, and eaten while still pink in the middle compared quite favorably. I could tell the difference, but it was close enough I'm sure I could pass it off as teal.

Rick wrote:

Darren wrote:Down on our end we winter a tremendous amount of bluebills (lessers) on the coastal lakes, most eating sea critters out on the open waters, and often give off a pungent odor when you crack em open to clean. That said, you're also liable to find a mallard, gadwall, mottled, etc. foraging on same stuff given certain conditions like lean years with degraded pond grasses. In other words, I've gotten the same odor from a wide variety of puddlers taken in the same area.

Used to find grays smelling like that at Pecan Island and breast them and throw them in with the dos gris we probably shot the most of in that very brackish marsh for conversion into bbq sandwich meat ala an old Canada recipe. (Crockpot in cider or apple juice until falling apart, then mix with bbq sauce and slow cook some more.) A few years back I swapped a mallard for a very rare here bufflehead another fellow killed in our marsh and gave it "the same pan" test with a greenwing. That buffie was nearly purple dark and smelled like diver, so I thought sure it would fail pretty miserably. But its breast and legs sauteed in nothing but butter with just a dash of Lawry's, next to those of a greenwing, and eaten while still pink in the middle compared quite favorably. I could tell the difference, but it was close enough I'm sure I could pass it off as teal.

Interesting.

I once lightly browned some mergs, squaw, and goldeneyes, then baked it all together in a mushroom gravy and served it over buttered noodles to some guys that looked down their noses at my trash ducks....they were in disbelief when I told them what it was.

I took home an empty dish and the guys that brought venison roasts were eating leftovers for a week.

DeadEye_Dan wrote:I once lightly browned some mergs, squaw, and goldeneyes, then baked it all together in a mushroom gravy and served it over buttered noodles to some guys that looked down their noses at my trash ducks....they were in disbelief when I told them what it was.

I took home an empty dish and the guys that brought venison roasts were eating leftovers for a week.

You lost me at mushroom. Not a fan at all.