Pile of Wood (ies)

[Gun Rod Bow]

I try not to pick on these little guys too often, but season is winding down and the only thing I like better than how Woodies look, is how they taste.



If you've never tried Wood duck Gizzards...Whooooboy good with a tall frosty

1 Mallard, 1 widgeon, 5 woody drakes, done by 9:00

Willie makes duck boats too :grin:

[SLEDDER]

They are a gorgous bird. Good job!

[Special K]

never shot a woody. I assume from the Willie that you were hunting off a Willamette river back slough? I started exploring/hunting mid-valley section of the Willamette (around Albany) and am beginning to think the mallards prefer the mainstem of the river instead of the back sloughs? I would assume (from what little I know about woodies) that they would prefer back sloughs? Curious how to go about attacking that river next season.
--> I have heard from several sources that the northern birds have arrived in the last two days ...I may take off all of next week to get my fill of birds in the last week of the season!

[Flatfish]

It is nice to see someone take the time to kill birds for their dog. That is a happy pup.

Mark and the dog.

[skein]

Happy? How can you say that? That poor pup is pooped.

Knowing GRB, I'll bet he had to tow the Predator up and down the river. I mean, do you even see a motor on that boat?

(I couldn't resist. I'm so ashamed.)

Skein

[nitrobass]

Nice looking birds!

Maybe its just me but woodies seem to be about the hardest bird around to skin. Almost like the skin is glued to the breast meat. Anyone else experience that? I love shooting them but cringe when its time to clean them.

[Critr Gitr]

Beautiful birds - i try not to pick on them too much either. They are one of the best conservation success stories of North America - brought back from the brink.....

Skin them when they are somewhat warm. They get real tasty when they are filled with filberts.

The last two drakes I got seemed slower than the other in the flock. Upon examination 1 had 13 Filberts in its crop the other had 15.

Kinda looked like a couple PEZ dispensers....

[Booja 1]

You must of been out scouting for the gossey things for Sat and the ducks probably attacked you huh Bruce..A guy has to defend himself...Hope you got in the way of some geese today too......

[wade]

Hey GunRodBow,


Its probably too late but if not and you're willing, I'd love to have some woody feathers for flytying. Just freeze whatever you can in a tight plastic bag and I'll figure out how to get them. If not me, maybe you have a flytying buddy somewhere closeby. The more intact the skin is the better, but out of 5 I'd think there's some good material there no matter what you do

Just a thought. :smile:

Kevin

[Mikeymoto]

Nice bag of ducks! Its nice that Willie makes a duck boat now, maybe I can convert the NR into 1 to.
Good Job,
MM

[willametteriveroutlaw]

Nice Limit..

[Gun Rod Bow]

Actually Wade I picked them.

We ate them for dinner Friday nite. We also had Wood duck gizzadrs...lots of work, but man are they good.

Nitro-Bass regarding skinning. Wood ducks I pick and roast. One of the very few ducks from the vally worth doing so. We love corn fed mallards from over east too. Everything else goes in the pepperoni bag. The worst duck I think I've seen for skinning is Scaup.

Wade, I do keep the feathers on their flanks, the ones that are black/white/black. I think they makes tails for Royal Coachmens etc.. I have quite a few and will share.

Booja, we set up for ducks Saturday and got 6 ducks and two geese, hunted the last day of period 2 today and we got 6 geese and 1 duck. You gonna hunt with me in February or just wait for springers?

One thing I didn't mention about Woodies is, I am always very carefull to avoid taking hens.

Thanks for the words guys.

[SHOUGALNITE]