Red breasted Merganser

And people laughed at me when I said there was a niche market for guided merganser hunts.

 

If there was a guide for redheaded big breasted mergansers I’d be all over that

 

Down here in coastal Texas I mostly see hooded mergansers. This map shows them to be all over, but if there is big concentration of them somewhere, I don't know where it would be.

 

I hunted in Boston a few years ago and had my choice at a whole bunch of them. I got a real nice one without much effort.

There are eleventy million of them on Lake Michigan in the spring while I’m chasing cohos. But obviously no season then. I personally haven’t seen any particular good ones on Lake Michigan in the fall but I’m sure they can be had, just not sure how well feathered they be.

 

The “yellow” area on the map seems to be your best option.

 

There is but you gotta come to CA, Northwind Outfitters will make it happen 9x out of 10.

 

Even if you get a bunch of them it's hard to find a good drake. I've killed them in very fresh water lakes but I see the vast majority of them just offshore to within a couple of miles inland...

 

It’s been a few years since I’ve been there, but there used to be a pile of red breasted mergansers on the eastern shore of Virginia at Chincoteague Island
Cool place and they do have a few guides out there

 

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