[mdbuckle]

What is so bad about merganzers? Every time I mention I hunt them, I get harrased for it. They are a great bird to hunt!

Now I must ask a question...I am looking for some merganzer decoys. Does anybody know if they are availiable. I see lots of merganzers fly over my goldeneye spread but I would like to throw in a few mergie deeks to get them to come in... It is quite common in Newfoundland to add a few merganzer deeks to your late season spread. There is only a few more weeks left in the season. Ponds are begining to freeze over...perfect for the big ol' merganzers.

 

[Lakenut]

What is so bad about merganzers? Every time I mention I hunt them, I get harrased for it. They are a great bird to hunt!

You guys up north probably poke fun at us for favoring Mallards :lol: We don't get many merganzers down here and I have heard that they don't taste very good.

Try G&H Decoy in Oklahoma. Here is there web address:

http://www.ghdecoys.com/

 

[gbottger]

Most I hunt with call them hair heads and they are one of the safest migrating birds through the central flyway. :shock: It has something to do with what they eat and how they smell. I had pickled hair head once and it wasn't half-bad.

How do you clean them and what do you use to cook them mdbuckle?

Some would also harass me about the white winged demons I am possessed with also. :wink:

 

[mdbuckle]

I clean them like I clean any other duck...pick the feathers, burn the down and small feathers with a blow torch, then I cut the belly open and haul the gut out. They don't smell bad. The insides smell like trout, which smells better then duck insides in my opinion.

Now for cooking...

I cook them like duck. Sometimes stuffed and baked, but mostly on the BBQ. I cut the breast off. I do them up like steak using steak marinade and spices. Cook them for 7 mins a side usually. Mostly I throw a few trout fillets on with the bird as they make perfect complements to the merganzers. Add a few potatos and some salad and you got yourself a great meal.

Sea ducks taste very similar and are the most fun of any bird to hunt. I guess it is all what you are used to eating...I have never seen a mallard in the wild or eaten one...

 

[blunder]

mdbuckle
It's all a matter of what they have been eating lately. Take my word for it, a Ganzer shot down here does not taste like a Ganzer shot up there.

tom

 

[rcklemish]

Well here on the East Coast of the Mid Atlantic/ New England, there is a problem with Mergansers having high concentrations of PCB's. PCB's are a suspect carcinogen. I personally know that in PA it is strongly suggested that you not eat Mergansers because in Upstate New York the merganser population as a whole has a high concentration of PCB's. The New York population migrates through PA on its way south. Your population may not be located in areas that have had problems with PCB's. The PCB's concentrate in mergansers because of their location on the food chain and what they eat, small fish.