Merganser help

Was lucky enough to bump into and hunt with Jim Schmedlin (sp) a couple weeks ago and hunted over his rig. He comes up every year when the mergansers are on the Bay. I think 6 guys shot the limit of fish ducks that day. They were all still in eclipse plumage and I've never had a shot at one that wasn't. They all looked like the ones Brandon was holding. How do you tell a common from a red brested in eclipse?
They're fun to shoot even if you're not shooting over thousands of dollars worth of decoys!! John
 
i don't think those are eclipse. They are young of the year and female birds. the big males are one of the last waterfowl to come south. I really want a nice common. I shot one in AK but he was only wounded and got away.
 
I will say Carrylite makes a damn nice merg decoy....Knutson's used to carry them. I don't know if they still do.

I too like them, and I will say that I find that out on Green Bay they actually taste remarkably well. Now, other parts of the country they may not be so hot, but I personally have not run into that.

I have shot all three species on the bay...that said it has only been 1 hoodie in my life. Common and RB are VERY common here in the fall.

Odd, they seem to move on however in about mid to late nov and NOT stay to the bitter end like the GE do (unlike what most of you guys are saying) They seem to more of a stop and go during a 2-3 week period.
 
We actually do shoot mergs intentionally if nothing else is around. After 30 years of trying we finallly came up with a couple of recipes for them that are very good.
 
Wendell, howzabout you share some of those Merg recipes? There's enough of those birds around, but few guys shoot them 'cause they think they're inedible. Just think of the favor we'd be doing the all the salmon and trout fingerlings by thinning the population out a little.

John
 
Those that i was holding in the picture were all commons. The next day we shot in the same spot and we shot almost all red breasted. Strange the difference a day makes. Those were all on Lake Erie around Thanksgiving. But the drakes were not plumed out yet so you would not want to hunt them that early in the season in Ohio.

I just finished hunting on Erie again today. There were a lot less mergansers around now then a month ago but the adult drakes are colored out. I would like to say I am going to hunt again tomorrow but to be honest I think I am calling it a season. I have hunted close to 50 days this season and I think its time to start sleeping in and carving again till next year.
 
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