Killed a mess of black ducks on and around Saginaw Bay. I’ll never forget a late Nov hunt at Fish Point. During deer season so the duck hunters were sparse. Me and a buddy killed our 1 each black right away. Then for the next 3 hours it was non stop flight of blacks into the decoys. Snowing hard all day and pond freezing up as we were standing in it. Another black story. My first ever hunt in Michigan(just moved from the west coast), opening day 2002. Little rice lake. Set up my decoys and waited for LST. 2 minutes into shoot time, pair of mallards hovering over decoys. I ups and double. Dog brings back a black duck. Then it hit me...doh! Stupid dog never found either mallard.
Had a group of 15+ Black ducks dump into a small fresh water tidal marsh yesterday. No circling. They new exactly where they're where going. Managed to scratch down one because they weren't coming to me. Usually they come in as small group of 2 or 3, or a single. They'll make a pass to take a look, then circle and land. Give a 3 quack call after they've passed and you've a good chance of shooting a decoying bird. Don't need many decoy's for this spot - 3 or 5 is sufficient. Sometime none is the correct number. Just pattern where they're landing and wait for then the next day. It's location, location. On big water they're notorious for circling and landing out of range. Sometimes a single will land and swim in. Have shot a number of them behind the blind/hide.
I think they’re by far and away the most beautiful duck. I hunted MI two yrs ago and saw about 15 the whole trip. All were w mallards. They stick out like a sore thumb. I picked this guy out of a flock of six. Never seen one in LA.
Having never seen one before, I still knew he was a good one. Brought him back to LA to mount. Lost power at the camp for 2 weeks and didn’t know it.. he got ruined.
Thats sucks. I've killed a dump truck load of black ducks in my life so I guess I kinda take them for granted. No denying a bid stud redleg drake though. I wouldn't mind having one mounted myself.
I had a very nice drake black duck mounted 10 years ago but during a move a friend of mine put it on top of her car to put a box in the trunk. When she slammed her trunk it slid off and crashed to the pavement and broke the neck off. I was pissed.
