2019 Waterfowl thread

Opening morning Saturday. Was covered up in teal and they’re my favourite duck to shoot and eat. Makes for a good thanksgiving dinner with the teal in a pot recipe we learnt down in Arkansas

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Canso said:
My buddy said it’s a DD/GWP cross. He got the dog at 2yr old, guy had it trained but couldn’t get out hunting. Was moving into a townhouse and decided to give the dog the life it deserved. He gave it to my buddy Chris, best day of both of their hunting lives!!!
Awesome dog, a pleasure to hunt over.
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thank you very much. and yes hunting dogs need to hunt.
 
Got out this morning and the weather was absolutely perfect. Worked a lot of birds in close, but couldn't get them to fully commit. Ended up packing my stuff at around 10:30 with 5 mallards. Today would have been a good day to have the 10g out as the geese stayed just a tad further out than I would usually shoot with the 12g
 
Yesterday was New Brunswick's Zone 1 opener. Been years since I hunted the Musquash on opening day, so I wanted to try. Sadly, wasn't able to get set up until after dark the night before, and through a series of misfortunes, mostly because it was too dark to see well, I set up in a new spot I'd never hunted before, and did a bad job of it. And it rained all night on my campsite, so I never got much sleep.

Woke up, saw lots of blacks but none decoyed for me. I'd inadvertently set up on the only pondhole they had no interest in, they all flew and set 200 yards away. Shot a juvenile hooded merganser out of a creek, and that was the only luck I had. Oh well, it was a beautiful day, and next time I'll know how to hunt better in there.

Have a 10 gauge BPS that's being shipped from a CGNer, and when it shows up, I plan on hitting the redlegs hard in there next month. Hopefully pick off a few geese, too.
 
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TheCoachZed said:
I typically pass on mergs, but all I could see was its brown head while it flew up a coastal creek. Thought it was a teal, made a decent snap shot, then saw it was something else. Ah well. Better than being skunked, will turn it into jerky.
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Let us know how it turns out. I have also mistaken mergansers as something else and made quick shots on them. I tried cooking one once, and decided that I would never try that again. If I mistakenly take one now, I’ll either gift it to someone at the boat launch if I bump into someone that wants it or I’ll gift them to my neighbour who is always thankful for the gift. No idea how they cook them, and I don't want to ask for fear they will invite me over to try some.
 
I remember years ago when I first started duck hunting I mistakenly shot a merganser. I thought it was a mallard in the low light conditions that morning. Anyways I brought it home and gave it to my mom to cook, the whole house ended up smelling like fish. Never shot one again.
 
fishslinger said:
I remember years ago when I first started duck hunting I mistakenly shot a merganser. I thought it was a mallard in the low light conditions that morning. Anyways I brought it home and gave it to my mom to cook, the whole house ended up smelling like fish. Never shot one again.
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Yup! Pretty much sounds like my first experience. Many years ago, I had two drake common mergansers fly in at first light they did a pass but I didn't shoot as I was’t sure it was legal light yet. I quickly looked at my watch and saw that I was good to go so I started hitting the mallard call. The two birds circled around and came back a little high, but straight toward the decoys. As I peaked up over the blind, I saw green heads fly over me and circle around again. Their third pass was closest and I decided to take the shots. Both birds dropped dead and I was pretty impressed with my shooting....that is until I went out to retrieve them. They did have the green heads I was sure I saw...but a bright red beaks instead of the yellow bills I was expecting. Beautiful birds to look at, but it pretty much ends there. Smelliest mistake I ever made
 
Another beautiful day on the lake. Lots of birds moving at first light but the heavy fog made it near impossible to see where the hell they were coming from. Managed to get a teal and a few mallards, it required quite the effort. Marksmanship was a bit off today and had a few mallards and a group of geese get by me. Thats how is goes sometimes. Northern birds have started to make an appearance as there were small groups of bufflehead and some goldeneyes flying around. It will be madness in the next few weeks!
 
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