Another South Zone Report

[Feathers and Fins]

Hmm snows now where is that. GPS and nearest motel please LOL.. you know I like doing evil things to them!

[BilletHead]

Holy crap! B. Watcher that is real neat! Last four days of last season there was a group of ducks working fields where no one was allowed. I sat in awe at the side of the road watching the ducks tornado down. If it happens to you this year let me know. I want to learn. Goose jerky is done.Four pounds worth finishes out at one and three quarters of a pound. Have another four pounds going into the smoker at five AM before I hit the pond with Pat. Would like to meet some of you guys and share some jerky. Heck I would even mail you some,

Marty

[Feathers and Fins]

Where you located Billet? I get up as far as 4rivers some times.

[BilletHead]

East of Nevada 8 miles.

On another note I did the gadwall breasts exactly by this guys method. http://honest-food.net/2009/01/04/how-to-sear-a-duck-breast/ It was wonderful. Like rare prime rib. I could not imagine it would be so good.

Marty

[Feathers and Fins]

LOL one of my favorite lakes to hunt is Flight Lake, bone dry this year but a good place at times.

Here is a way I cook both ducks and geese if you want to give it a shot.

First Fillet the breast

Place in a ziplock bag and add 1 bottle of McCormicks Original Chicken spice

Soak 24 hours in the fridge.

Pull them out and rinse off the meat

Set oven at 350

Place the breast in Aluminum foil and cover them with McCormicks Roitisary<sp> Chicken and sprinkle some Accent on them

Fold the foil into a pouch and place 1 breast per pouch, place in the center of the oven for 1 hour

When the timer is up unfold the pouch and cook for 15 more minutes

While the birds are cooking make some mash taters

Remove the breast and add the juices to a brown gravy mix till its the way you like it thickness

Get a can of green beans and drain the juice, add the remaining duck juice to the beans and cook 2 minutes 30 seconds in the microwave.

You will swear you are eating roast.

[BilletHead]

I will try that, thanks a bunch. I know of flight lake but never hunted there.

Marty

[duckydoty]

I like to marinate them in Mt. Dew and then make poppers out of them. I will have to try turning some of the goose into jerky. I've been threatening to do it for a couple of years now.

[Bird Watcher]

Holy crap! B. Watcher that is real neat! Last four days of last season there was a group of ducks working fields where no one was allowed. I sat in awe at the side of the road watching the ducks tornado down. If it happens to you this year let me know. I want to learn. Goose jerky is done.Four pounds worth finishes out at one and three quarters of a pound. Have another four pounds going into the smoker at five AM before I hit the pond with Pat. Would like to meet some of you guys and share some jerky. Heck I would even mail you some,

Marty

I will Marty. I actually spend a lot of time right outside your back door if you live East of Nevada. There's a farmer up there that's always been real generous to me with permission, so I keep tabs on his properties when I am scouting.

All you really need to know for shooting ducks out of fields is, the colder the better and scout. They really don't start dry feeding real strong until all the shallow water is iced thick. When they have to sit out in a hole in the middle of the roost with a bunch of geese just to keep water open, they start looking for dry feed with lots of calories. Corn and beans. Beans suck because they are hard to hide in, but it can still work if you can find a hide. They also get the snow blown off of them a lot quicker by the wind than a corn field will. Find a field they are dry feeding in, it's usually best to scout in the afternoon(and hunt for that matter) when it's extremely cold out. You can use your Canada goose decoys to hunt ducks, just stick as many spinners in them as possible. One of the problems with hunting a tall stubble corn field can be long range visibility of your spread to the birds. That's why we usually stick a couple dozen snow goose decoys out when we are hunting one. Actually one of the best duck decoy spreads for us is a snow goose set up. The ducks really key in on the light geese. They will usually give a snow flock a "swoop" when they see one and they can see one from a long ways away. The ducks know the light geese are usually eating something good.

The biggest key though is scouting. You can be 1/2 mile off the sweet spot and never even crack a shell. I won't even go unless I scout it the day before. It's just not worth the expenditure of time and money unless I know they were there the day before and sometimes that's still not enough. Those little suckers can eat all the grain out of a field fast and they will feed late into the night sometimes, especially when you start talking tens of thousands of them with the same number of light geese. It's still not time for me to get too awful excited about it, but usually around Christmas or a little after it starts getting good. I know every year the season ends and I am thinking I could really have evened things up with the ducks if they would just give me another week or two

[BilletHead]

Bird watcher I will keep my eyes open for the right conditions and maybe we can get together. I imagine I might know of know of the farmer you speak of. I have lived here for almost 37 years. Pat and I made our hunt this morning. We had a good time. Had some mallards work and two landed, way far away. I may be killing geese but I think my duck hunting is lacking. Anyway two bunches of geese dropped in and four hit the water. I messed up I think a bit with the way we had the layout blinds pointed. Plus I should of strung my six floaters farther out. Maybe blocking part of the pond where they wanted to land. Birds I think are still mostly locals. I have been watching this pond and they have been lounging there every day. A couple of photos. One of the set up and one of the take. The other floaters were behind me. Looking like it is going to ice part of the ponds again first part of the week.

[duckydoty]

Nice hunt. I goose egged it again this morning. Saw no geese and only about 12 ducks. We need some cold fronts to come soon. Hopefully this weekend will make a difference. Going back out this afternoon to pre set up for the north wind tomorrow. The wife is gonna go and take some pictures of all the greebs that have been hanging around