Who eats Mergansers

[CAJUNLAWYER]

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.

 

[Onomea]

I never heard of a merganser, so looked 'em up:



(Does sound like I'd need to be pretty desperate to eat one...)

 

[rwsmith]

If you ask me.....

...Muscovies are the worst looking duck out there.

 

[twodog max]

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

 

[7.62match]

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.

I'm with you Cajun I stay away from those fish eating ducks, anchovies too.

 

[s&wchad]

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!

 

[Babysitr]

One of the guys I hunt with shoots them and throws the breasts in his duck brats...I never ate one and wont!

 

[LVSteve]

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.

Can we assume you've tried both?

 

[biku324]

A good red-tailed hawk breast might be okay...

 

[Rudi]

Only once, muddy fish is not a good flavor. Never shot another.

 

[lihpster]

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]

Speaking of Coots - Are you an old Coot?
'No, actually I'm a young Coot.
You probably got me mixed up with my Uncle Wilbur.
People do that all the time.
We look a lot a like!'

 

[pawngal]

No way, but the dog didn't mind, went right along with her love of rolling in dead smelly fish.

 

[CajunBass]

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

Well, if they do, "First they make a roux."

 

[Vtgw938]

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.

 

[StephenWhoDat]

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

 

[Retired W4]

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.

 

[lihpster]

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]

Merganser = Mud Hen ????

 

[LVSteve]

Merganser = Mud Hen ????

I thought Mud Hens were Coots or Moorhens, but maybe it is a local naming thing.