Ruddy duck hunting

C

clinton bolton

Member
This fall I seen ruddy ducks on the lake I hunt while shooting teal.How does a guy go about hunting Ruddy ducks.Will they decoy on a diver rig?
 
They usually just swim into the decoys, if the day is really really slow shoot at em than they dive and swim out of range. They hand out about 250 away for a while than they will swim in again. Really stupid bird and not good eating
 
I've never been able to get ruddy's to decoy. I've hunted with hundreds of them all around me and just end up shooting blue bills. I have paddled my little duck kayak right into the middle of them and shot them. This works well. They just swim away from you but not fast enough to get away. I imagine if you had a sculling rig you could really get em good. I don't think they taste any worse than blue bills or buffleheads.
 
Thanks guys,I have been told buy oldtimers that they taste fine if you like duck and that way back when they were sought after.When I ask how to hunt them I am told there are none around here and thats the end of that.I am going to give them a try next fall if our lakes don't dry up.
 
if they are scattered an not in a raft you can sneak up on them by sculling or paddeling while they are underwater. Sometime you can get close enough for a shot.
 
Early in the season, they seem to decoy well here. After that, you rarely see them flying, just swimming like other noted.
They taste fine to me. Most information on them state they mainly eat seeds and roots of aquatic plants with some invertebrates.
 
I've shot them in Sask.,ND & SD, Ohio, and a bunch of states in the Atlantic flyway. Always have at least one Ruddy Decoy in my rig. Most of the time its' just one bird, maybe two, flyin' in to look.
They taste just fine. They used to be called "The Dollar Duck", back when Prime Cans, brought 5-10 bucks a pair. Ya gotta Try pluckin' one........ don't think you will again.
All part of the Great Sport we call Waterfowling. Far as I'm concerned the Ruddy is a darn fine Duck, but then I like Coots also.
 
I wish I had your problem/dilemma. I haven't seen a ruddy in years. The few I saw were migrators/moving through the area/new to that piece of the river, and they pitched in to the diver decoys like bluebills.

Never tried to eat one, as the few I shot got frozen, then later skinned and dead mounted to use as study skins for decoy carving. In skinning the ruddies, I found the thickest layer of fat I have ever found on any diver. During the skinning, one of the ruddy's fat smelled okay, the other was pretty fishy/swamp muck nasty. I suspect that the one that smelled okay would have been fine table fare, while the one whose fat smelled rank, not so much.

I have had a similar experience when cleaning bluebills, some have a pleasant duck smell when plucked, and the fat showing through the skin is light yellow or whitish with a slight pink tinge. Others have an almost greenish cast to their fat, and have a less than pleasant odor if you smell the skin after plucking. The ones that smell less than pleasant, I skin out, remove the fat, marinate the breasts in something that will draw the blood out (like Italian dressing, beer, milk, buttermilk, or a simple salt brine), and use recipes that cook the breast meat only because I learned that the stronger smelling ones, if cooked with the fat intact were not something you wanted to serve company. As my son (14 at the time) said one night, "gee these bluebills have a kind of oystery flavor." Yeah, more like old, strong, on the edge of spoiling, oysters, mussels, and clams........ While he did eat seconds, my wife threatened me with lots of unpleasantries should I cook ducks like that up again....

I have since enjoyed "good" bluebills prepared many ways, avoiding her threatened outcomes. I would never put the best bluebills I have eaten in the same cullinary category as wood ducks, pintails, GWT, mallards or blacks. But even so-called "table ducks" like blacks and mallards can be less than good fare when they have been eating minnows, dead salmon, dead shad, etc. instead of corn, rice, and acorns.
 
There's a great Martin Bovey story from the 40's ("Ice, Ducks, and Good Strong Rye") that tells about the camp cook sending him out with a request to bring back ruddies, or "boobies" from his day of battery shooting on the Cuttrick Sound (- he ends up bringing back 17 in addition to a limit of bluebills).

" But at a shooting lodge, a guest is given a duck to himself, and the Lord planned things well when he fashioned the booby. He fits so nicely on the plate, and surrounded by yams and creamed onions and supplemented by a cut of pie and a piece of cheese, he exactly satisfies the appetite of the average man..... And every now and then there came to the lodge a superman who could master two ruddies when the long day was over. Who ever heard of a man - a real gentleman - who could eat two canvasbacks at a sitting and shoot straight the next morning? Yes, sir, the booby was the tenderest, sweetest, bestest duck on the Sound! "
As I headed for the door of the lodge Henry intercepted me.
'Please Mr. Bobey (Bovey)," he implored, 'git me some boobies today. Dey ain't nothin' in de duck shed 'ceptin' a bunch o' redhead an' canvas. Ah sho hopes de Lawd will sen' de boobies streamin' to you.' "

 
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Little creek in DE use to be loaded with them. However I haven't hunted it in about 8 years. The bays along the NJ cost get big rafts of them from time to time. I should try em. 95% on the ones I killed swam in. Only killed 3 or 4 that flew into the decoys
 
One of the funniest "duck stories" of mine includes a hen Ruddy.

I was a kid of perhaps 12 or 13. It was early spring and I was fishing at the neighborhood farm pond. The first thing I noticed when I got there was this little, round ball of feathers swimming along the shoreline. I watched in awe as she dove and played in the cold water. After a while I noticed that she was swimming closer and closer to shore and eventually swam up the little one foot wide, six inch deep feeder stream entering the pond. Being a kid, I put the "stalk" on her. Everytime she had her head underwater, I would creep a little closer. Finally after what seemed like an hour, I was close enough for an attempt. Her head went under and I lept. Nailed her with my bear hands! I picked her up and was amazed at how little she actually struggled. She acted as if we were friends or something.

Wasn't so funny when my Mom and Dad came home and found her swimming in the bathtub however. I had to scrub the tub for a week after.

I took her back to the pond and let her go. She swam away and behaved just as she did when I found her, as if nothing ever happened.

Saddly, (to me now anyway), a Ruddy is the only duck I ever water swatted. I had one swim in one day and couldn't get it to fly. Thinking it was a cripple I dispatched it. I learned later that they just won't fly.

We get a few of them around here on occasion. I am working on a couple toy Ruddy ducks for my rig. It's one of the few birds I do not have.

Fun stuff, for sure.

Jon
 
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One of the funniest "duck stories" of mine includes a hen Ruddy.

I was a kid of perhaps 12 or 13. It was early spring and I was fishing at the neighborhood farm pond. The first thing I noticed when I got there was this little, round ball of feathers swimming along the shoreline. I watched in awe as she dove and played in the cold water. After a while I noticed that she was swimming closer and closer to shore and eventually swam up the little one foot wide, six inch deep feeder stream entering the pond. Being a kid, I put the "stalk" on her. Everytime she had her head underwater, I would creep a little closer. Finally after what seemed like an hour, I was close enough for an attempt. Her head went under and I lept. Nailed her with my bear hands! I picked her up and was amazed at how little she actually struggled. She acted as if we were friends or something.

Wasn't so funny when my Mom and Dad came home and found her swimming in the bathtub however. I had to scrub the tub for a week after.

I took her back to the pond and let her go. She swam away and behaved just as she did when I found her, as if nothing ever happened.

Saddly, (to me now anyway), a Ruddy is the only duck I ever water swatted. I had one swim in one day and couldn't get it to fly. Thinking it was a cripple I dispatched it. I learned later that they just won't fly.

We get a few of them around here on occasion. I am working on a couple toy Ruddy ducks for my rig. It's one of the few birds I do not have.

Fun stuff, for sure.

Jon
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While we are on Ruddys.... Although I've hunted all over the place, I've never been in a place that had a whole lot. I can think of only a couple places that held enough to hunt. One glacial lake in WI had just tons, but they were the only duck there, and I was travelling with friends that didn't consider them a worth the effort. I can think of a lake in SD where there were quite a few and I was excited to get a shot at them. After having seen several flying I was tracking one with the gun that was just about getting into range it landed - no shot. That is the only one I can ever think of having seen in range, in the air with a gun in hand. Not exactly a quest bird, but one of a few I haven't shot, but would like to. I watched them put on their breeding displays last Spring in nuptial plumage - a sight to see - very fine looking fellows.
 
I've always been told that ruddies molt in the winter and are limited to swimming while that is taking place.

I've seen them flying and decoying early in the season in the Chesapeake, but as soon as the season wears on they will only swim in.

Some locals I know call them Lesser Cans and say that wherever the Ruddies are, the Cans will show up eventually. They evidently like the same types of foods. Like all diving ducks their flavor can vary depending on their diet.

I'd agree that sculling is the best way to get into a number of Ruddy Ducks.

Good luck getting the illusive red one.

-D
 
Ruddy will often decoy into the diver rig but may as often come in from UPwind and fall into the water next to the layout boat and swim out in front of us. Way too funny.
If we're going to target Ruddy, we head out into the back bays with the Brant II sculler. These were in Muscamoot Bay along the NE end of Lake St. Clair while the Coot were in a favorite lake down in Elkhart area. This was a couple hours sculling Ruddy with a buddy, Steve. It's Steve in the picture.
Now, if we want to target Coot...we do the same....scull. Way too much fun and great eating.
Lou


View attachment Scull01Ruddy.jpt.jpg

View attachment Scull02Coot.jpg
 
Dave there may be something to that.We do not have alot of water out here even in good years most of the marshes that were here when I was akid are now farmed.Canvas backs are hard to find but the lakes I seen the ruddys on have cans and quite alot of them.An old guy told me that years ago cheyenne bottoms held alot of cans and ruddys but I have never seen them there.The bottoms were bone dry this year.Great pics Lou.
 
We see tons of them on the pond our blind is setup on located in eastern Long Island, NY. To be honest, I have never seen them fly more than 50yds... they just loaf around the pond all day.
I still can't figure out if they are stupid or really smart. We dont shoot Ruddys, but they regularly swim into our decoys. Many times we will shoot at other ducks as geese while ruddys are still in the rig. The crazy thing is, they dont fly away, dont dive.... just keep swimming around with their Greenhead Gear cousins, lol.
Like I said, either they are too stupid to fly away, or really smart and know they aren't in any danger.
 
If they show up here again next fall at least one will be in danger as I have got to roast one and see for myself.I had always been told as a kid that you don't eat sawbills and if you are not going to eat it don't shoot it.Once I left home in the late 80's I saw some common mergs and shot one cooked it up and have been shooting them since.I sometimes wonder if my Dad ever tried them or if he was just going by what his Dad had told him.
 
Clint - We have lots of them in the places we hunt. No rhyme or reason for how/if they work. Not a great decoying duck that's for sure. They seem to either buzz you at mach 30 or, swim in. We have ruddy decoys and have even done ruddy hunts. Great little birds thought. Seem to have Kevlar for plumage...
View attachment ruddies1.jpg
 
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