Open weekend log notes..

Shot this one for the central texas gang…



Fatty Gaddy…



Caught this one in legendary ducknbass crappie honey hole…





Haven’t shot laying down in a long time. Used my momarsh dog stand as a layout rest, worked great, but I’m getting too old for this low lake level no cover business…



Old man needs his coffee…



You think I could have killed this buck with #4 shot?



Tara pics up deeks too, she such a good girl!



Camp dinner.. I cheated and bought these birds..



Sleep, repeat…

You’re doing it right! Great pup pictures too.

Dinner last night…

Awesome! Great post!

always enjoy reading your posts; good luck this season

Thx, part of the fun for me is sharing photos with you guys.

Looks good. Thanks for the pics. I always forget to take pictures. I remember after I'm all packed up. Laying down by the shore is what I should have done Saturday. Too lazy and stubborn. If your pup needs extra training on retrieving decoys let me know. I am always willing to help out with training... Pickin' up decoys in six inches of muddy bottom is what tires me out the most at the end of the day.

Nicely done.

Successful nice lit hunt and some fish too

Looks like a great trip!
If you shot at the deer you’d just embed pellets under the skin!

Great pics. We shot a 3 Man in Fannin Sat- mixed bag, Sunday slow in VanZant Sunday only 1 large group of green wings

I’m gonna try and eat that spoonie I think, and don’t try and stop me! I swear I have not tried to eat one in years, but I have not shot one in years. The secret recipe according to Wayne (wall1809) is butter, garlic and lime… He probably thinks I forgot.

I saw a taste test on youtube and they couldn't tell the difference. I'm gonna eat a coot this year. I hear to breast the out and take the heart and gizzard. Butter and garlic works on most anything. Lime just seals the deal.

Let us know how it goes.

Spoonies are fine. I hunted with a chef yesterday that said he made poppers out of a merganser that were good. Hmm, I would try it if he cooked it, but, I will try harder to id one flying before I pull the trigger instead, I think.

I bet I could do a smell test and tell the difference.

Great morning…

Cool

Great picture also.

I just caught this crappie, I was about to give up. Never fished this lake before, found about 6 nice brush piles, hardly any crappie on them tho. This one I caught I was not sure if it was a crappie, dropped them jig in front of it face and bam!

That’s #3, that makes a meal.

Nice strap of ducks. Looks like you were trying to put together the dream team.

Looks to me like you defined the perfect day.

This is how I like my duck beast. Can’t wait to cook these guys…this duck was a pig.

This is how I prepare that spoonie.

Chopped it up real good, put on top some high quality dog food….


Give it a stir…


Dogs gotta eat too…


Tara thought it was great, licked her bowl clean…

My buddy just started doing this Guy. I am hard up to try it myself as it doesnt take too much longer than breasting them out. I have always just breasted out my birds, grinded the meat and made jerky or sausage out of it. But hes cooking in a frying pan with the skin attached and says its super tasty. The big migrator mallard are starting to roll in too, the fat on them has been looking real real good. Think I am going to have to try this.

Mallard might get the weekend off though. Found a new hitlist bird. Hoping we can make the dream come true and add a snow/can hybrid to the wall this weekend. Third mallard x pin hybrid got knocked off the list a couple weekends ago. Would love a brewers duck one day and anything goose hybrid to add to the wall.

Cooked this gaddy last night, aged a week, this is my favorite way to cook them. Most of the cooking should be done with breast down to render that fat, swish it around, let them taders sop up that duck fat, oh man it is good.









I like to clean them good, pepper them up, but a paper towel in there to sop up the excess juice, given them a flip every other day to let them breath and show them some love, age at least a week like this, not more than 2 weeks. Salt breast 24 hours before you cook them, maybe score the beast as well. If the breast is shot up, I just pull the skin off and cook it other ways. I also take the tenders off, cook them another ways.

Doing this! Next batch of mallard that get shot and have clean breasts, I am going to do exactly this. Thank you sir!!

I do that duck steak for all ducks, not just mallards, but mallards are best. One thing also, if I eat it like that, I do not freeze, it is just not as good. If I freeze duck, I cook it a different way and just breast it. Maybe I just don’t freeze it good.

All the breasted out ducks get frozen on my end. Then I thaw, salt water (draining blood every so often) for 24 hours, then orange juice for 8-24 hours, and then grind meat. I do 15% beef fat and stuff in jerky stick size casings. Usually do jalapeno flavor season and then on the smoker it goes. Once done and dried, I take a small metal detector and go over the whole stick, cut to size and vacuum seal. Give tons of it away to all the farmers that let me hunt their properties, and then freeze a bunch of it and pull a lot of it out and eat it while I am out fishing during the summer. Usually by fall I am fresh out and starting the process all over again. Sometimes I use the meat slicer and just make jerky out of it, but really have enjoyed the snack sticks that duck and goose makes.

This is GWT, when you put it on the plate to let it rest, and after a minute blood drips out, you know you cooked it perfectly…

Closed second split with a would duck. My new clutch to my boat does not get in till tomorrow, so did an old fashion walkin hunt to a legendary spot. When in blind and it nearly kicked my asss. Over grown could not get to my spot directly….managed one wood duck and that made my day. I dropped it way back in the buck brush and Tara found, such a good girl.

Beautiful woody. I’d love to shoot me one this year but not too sure where to find em