CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Without fail, every year in the new hunting regulations regarding duck limits, there is a separate limit for Mergansers (which in Louisiana is 5). Does anyone actually target these? If so WHY?? I'd rather eat a seagull.
Who eats Mergansers
- Thread starter CAJUNLAWYER
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I never heard of a merganser, so looked 'em up:
(Does sound like I'd need to be pretty desperate to eat one...)
(Does sound like I'd need to be pretty desperate to eat one...)
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If you ask me.....
...Muscovies are the worst looking duck out there.
...Muscovies are the worst looking duck out there.
twodog max
Member
No one that I know of but I am sure someone somewhere does. I will say this if no one in south Louisiana eats them they have to be inedible. LOL
I'm with you Cajun I stay away from those fish eating ducks, anchovies too.
I shot one a long time ago and tried cooking the breasts.
It smelled horrible and I threw it out. You don't want to cook a coot either.
I never tried seagull, but I have been tempted to shoot them!
It smelled horrible and I threw it out. You don't want to cook a coot either.
I never tried seagull, but I have been tempted to shoot them!
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One of the guys I hunt with shoots them and throws the breasts in his duck brats...I never ate one and wont!
LVSteve
Member
A good red-tailed hawk breast might be okay...
My oldest brother went duck hunting with my dad once. he shot a merganser. In order to steer him toward the preferred mallard drakes, my dad cooked it and made my brother eat it. Rather than teach him which birds to shoot, my brother decided he hated ducks and duck hunting.
THE PILGRIM
Member
No way, but the dog didn't mind, went right along with her love of rolling in dead smelly fish.
Well, if they do, "First they make a roux."
My father tried. He wasn't a duck hunter and I found the carcass over the bank and it was a Hooded Merganser. Last duck he ever shot. I think sea ducks (Scoters, Eiders and the like) aren't much better. Some of the old fishermen off the coast of Maine swore they could make them taste good, but I think the receipt left out the duck.
I don't know many people in Louisiana who eat them, but folks in Virginia like them, from what I've heard.
How to: eat a merganser — Elevated Wild
How to: eat a merganser — Elevated Wild
I don't like eating fish eaters. Those vegetarian Wood Duck are smaller but real yummy. The Alapaha river in S. GA has a pretty good population of wood ducks.
I remember, during the '70s, my father must have put up hundreds of wood duck boxes. We'd be floating down the river, fishing, and he'd pull to the side and go check on a box he put up years ago. Pretty birds. Dad could always find feathers for fly tying.
deadin
US Veteran
Merganser = Mud Hen ????
LVSteve
Member
I thought Mud Hens were Coots or Moorhens, but maybe it is a local naming thing.
the very first duck that I ever shot was a merganser... helluva shot too... it was hard to convince me to not eat it... I was raised, you kill it you eat it... but they ALL insisted and I listened... never went duck hunting again.
Taste like possum. 
deadin
US Veteran
Could be,but now that I think about it, our local Mud Hens were Coots and inedible......
Toledo has mud hens.
OP
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
I'll differ with you on the Coots. They are delicious breasted out in a stew.I shot one a long time ago and tried cooking the breasts.
It smelled horrible and I threw it out. You don't want to cook a coot either.
I never tried seagull, but I have been tempted to shoot them!
OP
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Merganser sushi...you go first
Article makes sense, I'd try the jerky. Lot of trouble to prove a point though!
Never shot nor tried to eat merganser, but I am sure it can't be worse the condor or spotted owl. I heard seagull and Shake and Bake are pretty tasty.
Speaking of seagull
Did you ever hear the one:
A Texas game warden was driving on San Luis Pass road in June outside of hunting season checking on fishermen.
He heard some shooting from the beach and went up an access road to find a very old van with a family with a bunch of skinny kids playing in sand around van.
Father was 50 yards away shooting seagulls with an old ratty single shot shotgun. He had about 6 down on the ground.
GW went to father and said it's not hunting season, seagulls are never in season and you cannot shoot on a public beach.
Father in very broken English says, "This is how I feed my family, we are very poor and cannot afford groceries" GW decides hell it's a seagull, a flying rat and decides to let him go, but warns him to not do this anymore.
As he is walking away, he has a thought, turns back to father and asks, " you know I have never eaten seagull, how does it taste?"
Father thinks a second and said "it's kind of a cross between bald eagle and whooping crane."
Did you ever hear the one:
A Texas game warden was driving on San Luis Pass road in June outside of hunting season checking on fishermen.
He heard some shooting from the beach and went up an access road to find a very old van with a family with a bunch of skinny kids playing in sand around van.
Father was 50 yards away shooting seagulls with an old ratty single shot shotgun. He had about 6 down on the ground.
GW went to father and said it's not hunting season, seagulls are never in season and you cannot shoot on a public beach.
Father in very broken English says, "This is how I feed my family, we are very poor and cannot afford groceries" GW decides hell it's a seagull, a flying rat and decides to let him go, but warns him to not do this anymore.
As he is walking away, he has a thought, turns back to father and asks, " you know I have never eaten seagull, how does it taste?"
Father thinks a second and said "it's kind of a cross between bald eagle and whooping crane."
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