Hooded Merganser?

Are they good to eat?

Nope, taste like rotted fish.

nope. Male makes a good looking mount.

Nope

Well crap

Who does a good job mounting them?

I know some boys that claim they eat them, they also claim to eat coots so their honesty/sanity might be questionable

There's another thread going on for the same thing.

No.....there is nothing you can do to make them taste good...I have tried everything.

Coots are good to eat....but not a Merganser!

Got it thanks

Gonna take yalls advice and just mount him. Was hoping it would be like a wood duck but oh well will know not to shoot another one.

What Fred said

I've eaten coots. You can make anything edible with enough Italian dressing and bacon.

Hood rats ain’t good for much of anything unless you’re having a slow day in the timber. I quit shooting them until my buddy killed one that I wouldn’t shoot. It was banded.

They are NOT tasty!!!! Back in the day, I would shoot them for the dog on slow days. How I got my moniker. A fish duck isn't really good for anything but training dogs.

When I lived in South Bama, we always managed to give them away. The trick was to never give the same person ducks and occasionally throw better ducks into the mix. Once gave some to a group of river rats living on a small houseboat traveling from somewhere up north to Mobile bay. Gave them the mergansers in Gainesville before Thanksgiving. Saw them again in Demopolis and took pity on them by giving them part of a deer. They were still raving about the Thanksgiving mergansers. Took all the romance out of living in a boat Huck Finn style. They were 2 months into the trip and broke and hungry.

Has anyone eaten a coot? They have to taste better than a merg. They only eat plants.

Blake Wilson

http://www.trophybirds.com/


He's a member here.

I never have, just assumed they wouldn't be good cause they look funny. Maybe I'll try them some day. I'll never eat a hood again though.

Coot isn’t bad, just make sure and get all the fat off of them.

Coots are good...just make sure and get ALL of the fat and skin off of the breast. I soak the breast fillets in buttermilk for 24 hours...wrap em in bacon and season with Montreal Steak seasoning...then grill em till the bacon is done. Pretty dang tasty!

Several time. They have big gizzard which is tasty. They also make a good gumbo.

I have heard of cajuns making pouldeau gumbo which is Coot meat. I didn't seriously think they'd be good to eat. Wish I had known. I probably killed about 20 last night. Sounded like hail hitting the bottom of my boat.

Hell ya we eat coots. Cut the breasts out and clean that big ole gizzard. Cooked down in a black iron pot or a gumbo. Make a puppy pull a freight train. Them mergansers taste way to much like pelican for me. Don't like it.

I got in touch with him. Gonna send him a wood duck or two and the rotten fish duck

You won’t be disappointed. He does jam up work.

You will be pleased, he's done several for me.

Upper Midwest, they make jerky out of the mergansers, it's probably the only way I would eat it. When it comes to Coot, I can't get past their smell.

Years ago when I still duck hunted, we killed 2 hen mergansers and that was all we shot that morning. We were just kids really. Maybe early 20s.
There was an old man at the boat ramp when we got back. He was eyeballing those mergansers hard.
“Is that what they call a wood duck?” he asked.
“I reckon it is,” I said.
It was like Christmas Eve or the day before.
The old man wanted the birds and we let him have them.
“I’m going to have my wife make dressing out of them,” he said. Thanks
Now she may have been a spectacular cook and it might have turned out beautifully. But I’ve always envisioned a horrorible stench coming off that merganser dressing on Christmas morning.

Well that just seems a little lousy to me

Was hunting with a guide in Arkansas years back and we had some coots swimming out around the decoys and jokingly he asked if we wanted a limit of those as well. We laughed it off and he told us he has a group of Cajuns a few days prior that was passing on mallards to shoot the coots that would swim in. He said they was tickeled to death with their limits of coots. It was a fairly expensive guide too. I told him if he ran across anyone else wanting a guided colt hunt to send them to the big G and I’d hook the up for a few $$$.

Don’t knock em till you try them. Did a blind taste test of coot to wood duck and my wife picked the coot. Ugly goofy looking bird but they do eat good. Give em a try, you will be surprised

Mergansers on the other hand.......no bueno

Best thing to do with a hoodie is breast it out and use it for catfish bait. Then eat the catfish.