Black ducks

Anyone takes a trip to the east coast to hunt them? Me and a buddy are wanting to give it a whirl and are looking for info. I’m dying for a couple to put on the wall.

Don't have to leave Alabama. Just find a good swamp.

That’s the problem. I don’t have access to anything that I’ve ever known to hold a black duck.

More than plenty up here

put me on em matt. Ill trade you a turkey fer em

Only one I killed was in a wide spot in a creek. They came in behind us and I kept my face down until they were right on top of us.
I took a snap shot right as they came over. It was low light and I thought I’d shot a wood duck.
My brother knew before he picked it up.
“You just killed yourself a black duck,” he said.
He shot the one with it. It was a hybrid mallard, black duck. Had a streak of green through its head.

I've done a east coast hunt in Mass and Maine but I wouldnt go for just a Black Duck. Make a sea duck trip and ask to go shoot a black duck. Most of it is just jump shooting them up there anyway. With that said I still didn't get my black duck.

You got coordinates?

You would be surprised how many secluded farm ponds hold black ducks. Gotta have some woods around them or close by, and maybe a creek. Killed many off ponds.

I’ve got access to a handful of farm ponds with woods close by but most of what we kill are grey ducks and a few mallards on them.

These river sloughs west of Decatur hold the better numbers I've seen.

What are you calling a grey duck? Gadwall?

Yep grey duck is a gadwall.

it's a Cajun thing

I've rarely heard Gadwalls called Grey ducks except from Cajuns, around here they're known as the Guntersville Mallard I believe.

What's crazy, during the 80's we never seen drakes and very few hens. We'd think we had hen mallards till we seen the spots not he bill. They used to be pretty stupid too, shoot a few in a small flock and the they would keep coming back for more.

My youngest got him a black duck this weekend. They were picking greenhead shots only Saturday pm and got the black duck sunday morning. They had a couple good hunts.

Good deal. Headed to the wall...?.

Yeah, I reckon. I think they have a pintail and really pretty widgeon in the freezer waiting too. This could get expensive...

There isn't a spot in Alabama or any other state for that matter, with plenty of black ducks, except the east coast.

We get majority of our ducks up here from Delmarva. Hence why we do get a fair amount of blacks. There's a spot in limestone co that's a slam dunk anytime after xmas

I've always wanted to kill a black duck. Just one for the wall. They're a dang pretty bird. Wink wink

There’s one in Jackson too. Never been there and not seen em. There are some places that they just like to go I guess.

But I despise duck hunting with a passion. If I never shoot one again I'll die a happy man. Turned down several trips to Illinois last few years on great places just cause I hate it now. Don't know why. Just do

Matt, you would love Texas goose hunting then. Go out before light and lay on yer back on frozen ground till noon and watch 10,000 geese fly over you 200 yards up. Maybe 10 geese all morning will come in below 100 yards high. Move and do it again that afternoon. Never again.

That's a big ole negative for a stupid goose either. I just don't play that game anymore

I got this new over & under and I kind of got just a little itch to go duck hunting. But I’m holding it off for the moment.

I am afraid that my OK duck hunt is gonna turn out to be something like that. Every time I go duck hunting, the ducks have always gone somewhere else.

But shooting at any kind of flying critter is more fun to me than sitting in a tree waiting on a deer to walk by. I'll take a good crow hunt over a deer hunt any day.

Duck hunters are just like deer hunters. We go hunting based on hope, not the realistic expectations of experience. When I deer hunt, I get a shot at a mature, mountable buck every couple of years. Those days sitting in the stand with no deer or small bucks and does are easily forgotten. The days when a hot doe is being chased by a never ending parade of bucks stay etched in our mind. Same with duck hunting. The slow days are forgotten but the days when the birds are migrating and flocks are landing in the decoys, we remember forever.