Can anyone please tell me about hooded mergansers? I'm not a duck hunter but last Deer season I saw some beautiful ducks on our pond several different times. I looked them up and they are hooded mergansers. Beautiful !!! Do you think they will visit our pond again this year? I'm hoping so. We got our duck stamps and steel shot ready. We would love to have one and if we get one we will have it mounted. I have been told they are not good to eat. Anyone want to share some information please?

I passed on about 10 this morning after I had my limit. They do not count toward your limit of 6. You can shoot two hoodies in addition to your 6.

They are not good to eat but do make a nice mount. I had one mounted and probably will never shoot another one.

If you are looking to eat a duck, a merganser will make or keep you a deer hunter. Yes, they are the worst eating of waterfowl because they mostly eat fish, whereas your puddle ducks and some divers eat primarily plants with only some invertebrates. My wife calls them "moosh gaggers", kind of explains it. Difficult to clean and do not have a good flavor even if done right.

Like BB said tho, they are great for the wall.

I have a great recipe for merganser. Pluck them whole. Put them on the grill over a cedar plank. Cook well done. Throw away the merganser and eat the plank.

I have shot one, and it's on the wall! I would post a pic but Photobucket sux!!

Thank you all for the input. I will keep my eye on the pond this season and take note of what kind of ducks are visiting, learn about them, and which ones are good to eat, and so forth and prepare for next year, plus the 6 month old lab will have more retrieving training too.





Guy - please post the pic if you ever figure out a way around photobucket, would like to see as I'm still interested in how pretty they are!

I doubled up on a pair of hooded mergansers. They were the first two ducks I ever shot.

I have shot a few and learned they taste terrible. I put 3 on the wall (2 drakes and 1 hen) and probably will never shot one again.

While in Oklahoma we hunt them on purpose. From picnic tables. I actually have a couple decoys I use when hunting in areas they are plentiful. I consider them bonus birds for use in sausage. I have cooked them on the hunt a time or two by cutting breasts into strips, marinated in a spicy or hot teriyaki glaze (not sauce), peppered with a coarse pepper and well grilled (not rare like other duck) over mesquite. Most hunters with me on those hunts have been surprised how edible they are that way. But unless we have to eat them due to being on a long road trip, mergansers get breasted, then filleted and used in sausage with everything else at the end of season. The only bad thing about that is once my hunting partners find out I will use them, they shoot and gift them to me, so I end up having to clean all of them.

Then there is the other merganser. So fishy, the fish fall out of them when retrieved. This is my Vizsla Dash, but I have had one porpoise all around Blaze confusing her, then bite her before disappearing to never come up again. I have seen crippled Hoodeds get defensive as well.

They will return if you have a good bait fish population, we have them every year.
Lots of people believe they are no good to eat, I say lots of people dont know how to use the meat. Grind the meat and use it in gumbo or similar dishes. The fishy taste falls right into place and most wont even know theres duck in it.

The hunt, Nov 9th, 2008...My girl Molly on the fetch..



The mount, just took this pic. It needs to be refurbished.. It use to have a fish in its mouth but fell out, I think when I moved 2013...

Very nice merganser mounts Jacob and Guy! Beautiful dogs doing what they love Sniper John and Guy! Thanks for posting pics.