The Duck Hunting Trend. And The 2010-11 Hunts

In 3, Britney Spears claims Livin’ in Sin is the Newest Thing.

Well, maybe.

From my perspective, Duck Hunting is the newest thing.

Let me explain.

I keep the pulse of hunting...and other less important things, too. Identifying trends is something I am very good at and have been since I was but a lad, and the amount of outdoor literature I consume in a month is exhaustive. Doesn’t matter if it is elk or squirrel hunting, I Hoover it up.

Hunting fads have swept in and out over the last two decades, most of it relating to deer. In the mid-90’s and into the 2000’s, everyone wanted to be a bowhunting Chuck Adams extraordinaire. TV shows, Internet forums, magazine articles. It stuck with some, but a great many sets of archery tackle landed in pawn shops. The machismo of it has largely, mercifully, passed by - Archery Close.

Thanks to QDM, in a matter of five or six years everyone became Boone & Crockett experts and turned their noses at shooting less-than-mature bucks. Folks who probably hadn’t seen a buck score over 100 were suddenly seeing 140-150 class bucks on each outing and that old 8 point in the Gun Store would easily go 160. Again, this phenomenon is still breathing, but not with the gusto with which it reigned just a few years ago. Yes, you still hear about it...but not as much. See my point?

Some things the outdoor media continues to push just won’t get much footing in my part of the world. Predator hunting is one. I try every year – and enjoy it – but it’s lonely company. AR-Style weapons for hunting, despite the pleas of the NRA and NSSF, just aren’t catching fire the way they’d want. Duck hunting, though, is en fuego.

I can’t quantify this, of course. You’ll have to take my word for it. Or better yet, check out the outdoor forums and blogs. There has been an increase in duck chatter. A lot of people out for their first trips. Everyone has a DU decal on their rear windshields. Each year another friend contracts the Duck Hunting Disease. And why not?

Deer hunting has lost a lot of democratic appeal thanks, in part, to QDM and bowhunting. The woods became crowded and restrictive – not everywhere, but it has become more difficult to justify your time on public land when game agencies are instituting point rules and every flop with a stick and string is stalking down fire lanes trying to arrow a buck. The economy is the other factor. Leases have become right pricey even though the prices have hardly changed. Folks tend to be bailing towards other pursuits. (The upside for serious deer hunters on these lands is that it will eventually open back up where it’s not so jam-packed.)

Duck hunting can be a local activity with high chances of success on public land. With the exception of Montana, all of my duck hunts this year were on public waters and I had a blast. Especially in Florida, if you can’t find a place or two to bust beaks, you probably aren’t trying all that hard.

And duck hunting appeals in a lot of different ways from guns to gear to decoys...you can recklessly buy and waste money until you’re divorced. The hunts are fun. It’s social networking compared to still hunting. You’ll probably shoot more in one morning than a season of deer hunting. Photos of dead game animals and bragging to friends. It’s pure Horatio Alger and folks are taking advantage. The media isn't far behind.

Keep an eye out for it; I promise you this is happening.

I had an immensely enjoyable 2010-11 Duck Season. From STA ¾ in South Florida to Montana and back – all new experiences. Except losing the Sea Duck Tournament. Still stings. And familiar.

Such a fun year, though.

It was almost sinful.

Early Season STA ¾
Early Season Lake Okeechobee
Waterfowl of Montana
Lake Toho Thanksgiving
South Florida Duck Hunting in Pictures
2011 Sea Duck Tournament

Venison Francese Recipe

Love veal. Tender. Flavorful. It’s the tops. I wish I could hunt veal – a backpack adventure into the Wilds of Wisconsin where the great veal herds prosper. Well, I suppose I could hunt them here, but I would not be allowed back on that property ever again.

Luckily, I have plenty of venison which itself is tender and flavorful and an excellent substitute for many veal-based recipes.

Today, we’re going to do Venison Francese. Francese is scallopini – a cutlet of veal, venison, or poultry sliced or smashed thin and covered in flour – in a lemon butter sauce. It’s a close relative to picatta, the large difference being picatta utilizes capers which are, quite frankly, gross.

The Palace Restaurant in South Lakeland serves the best Francese, and their version inspired me to give it a try with venison. Important note, though. This is NOT their recipe. I’m afraid I would only do injustice to their plate. Instead, I browsed through several Internet recipes and substituted for what I did and did not have in my fridge or pantry. I've made my shopping trip for the week already.

So. What’s the cut of deer that would be mostly likely to serve as a fill-in for baby cow?

That’s right, the tenderloin!

Ingredients

2 tenderloins
Milk
Olive oil
Butter
Salt
Pepper
2 eggs
Flour
Lemon juice

Cut tenderloin across the grain so you have tenderloin nuggets. Soak in milk for up to 24 hours. Remove from milk and pat dry. Cover meat with saran wrap and hit a couple times with a mallet until it is a ½-inch to ¼-thin. Dredge in flour and dip in egg wash with ½ tbs of salt and ¼ tbs of pepper. One recipe called for 6 tbs of parmesan cheese added to the egg wash, but again, I have made my shopping trip for the week. Separate the scallopini into three batches.

Set your oven to its lowest setting – 180 degrees or thereabouts. On the stove, heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tbs of olive oil and 2 tbs of butter. When the butter starts bubbling, add one batch of venison, browning on each side, about a 1 ½ minutes a side. Remove to pan in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with 2 more tbs of butter and olive oil for each of the next two batches.

Once all the meat is cooked, return it to the pan and sprinkle the juice of one large lemon or 2-3 tbs of lemon juice over the meat and cook for an additional minute or two.

Serve over angel hair pasta, making sure you pour all that lemon-butter goodness out of the skillet and over the meat and noodles.

Now, a couple things I will do different next time I cook this. One, I’m gonna add a clove of garlic before I toss in the lemon juice. Also, I’m adding the parmesan to the egg wash. I love cheese.

This is a simple-as-can-be recipe that fits venison very well. Suggest you give it a whirl.

Duck Hunter EXTREME RC Game

My duck season is over.

Or is it?

OR IS IT?

OK, it really is. I’m stuck in stupid work trainings all week, and this weekend I am repairing to Homosassa River for R&R with non-hunting buddies. I honest to God can not drag myself out of bed before daylight one more time for a few weekends, at least.

Just can’t. Hate to admit that, but there ya go.

Hunting video games have come a long way since I was a kid – technologically, they’ve come a long way, not so much for my maturity level, sadly. No more orange pistols and trying to shoot the laughing dog in Duck Hunt.

Well, there is still an orange gun involved. Carolyn bought me this crafty little device for Christmas, Duck Hunter EXTREME. It’s a two-player game where one person flies a remote-controlled duck and the other gamer tries to plunk it down with an ever-stylish orange pistol that sounds kinda like a shotgun when you pump the action and pull the trigger. Actually, if I keep shooting without hearing protection, it’s exactly what a shotgun will sound like to me in the not-to-distant future.

It’s advertised as an indoor/outdoor game. Indoors, with the wife present, it goes over about as well as blowing on a turkey or predator call. Outdoors in a clearing where it won’t hang in branches or roofs, it’s a lot of fun.

You take the Styrofoam duck - which really resembles an angry orange flying fish from the waters surrounding a nuclear facility – and charge it on the controller. Then you flip on a little black switch where the anal fin belongs and the gadget springs to life with two forward motions of the controller. Though it’s a kid’s game, there is a strong urge to associate this game with beer.

Which is exactly what Cole and I did one evening with the aid of a feral cat who wanted to pounce on the fluttering duck every time it hit the ground, and who should be thankful we live within city limits. Cole did most of the flying because when I controlled it, the duck seemed to develop a crippling case of depression and flew into powerlines and in front of passing cars.

It takes three hits to bring the duck down with the IR-Laser Gun. The first two hits, the bird pauses slightly, and the third brings him back down to earth and into the waiting claws of the aforementioned feline.

As noted, steering the duck can be tricky, but Cole figured it out. It’s not fool-proof, however. After getting it caught on the roof and in an oak tree, the game devolved into flying it through the patio to buzz the ladies who came over for a glass of wine. Needless to say, it would have done better to let the cat shred it up.

Still, it’s entertaining and props to whoever thunk it up.

I look forward to playing it again one day when Carolyn lets me have it back.

Check it out!

The 2011 Sea Duck Tournament

I pity those who have never intentionally hunted mergansers.

The omens were all there for a spectacular weekend of shooting. The wildlife was alive. When we arrived at the river, dolphins were chasing mullet near the dock and through the manatees that fed on floating seaweed. A flock of bluebills milled around in the channel, diving for mussels or something. A flock of wood ducks flew in right before dark.

I sensed a great victory for my team and let everyone know so.

Alas, the 2011 Sea Duck Tournament ended early. Cole, PJ, and Rumph smoked the field with an impressive 15-Duck Display Saturday morning. They didn’t even bother to hunt Sunday. Sawyer and Mitch pulled 1 Saturday and 5 Sunday, not bad for their first event. Travis, Chase and I – the alleged pros of the tourney - splashed one red-breasted merganser late Saturday morning and slept through the 20 degree cold of Sunday, content with humiliating defeat and warm beds.

We hunted the outer islands around St. Martin’s Key off the mouth of the Little Homosassa River. Cole’s and Sawyer’s teams reported the mergies decoyed rather well, unusual for them. Using a mixture of bluebill and puddle duck dekes, combined with a floating bluebill MOJO decoy, Cole said 90% of the ducks they shot had their feet down to land in their spread. Sawyer commented a similar response. 100% of our ducks did – but again, we only shot one.

My team messed up. I had been doing quite a bit of research over the last year about hunting divers. Our decoys were in such shallow water, they practically perched on oyster clumps. Cole and Sawyer hunted deeper water. The theory in the literature and observing their success and remembering my own history with the sport, the divers like to be in water where they can...get ready for it...dive! But Travis had seen a pile of ducks in this spot the night before.

Some of it's strategy; with the tides and vastness of open water, some of it’s a crapshoot, and I was but a lowly deckhand on T's vessel.

PJ popped a trophy hooded merganser that is on its way to the taxidermist. Sawyer – a duck hunting novice – is already discussing what waders and decoys to buy. Another victim of the Duck Hunting Disease.

You want to know about the merganser I shot? Well, OK. After all, it’s not always a numbers game. They can have their silly victory. For me, it’s about trophy hunting these magnificent mergansers. I look for The One that fits the description of a perfect hunt.

Facing the hurricane force gales, and gazing beyond the circling of bull shark fins, I spotted one lone merganser flying in the distance. More like, he was jet-screaming in the distance. Though he didn’t touch water, he still pushed a wake. I contemplated on how to get his attention.

Through my vast knowledge of interspecies waterfowl communication, I knew he wouldn’t respond to a mallard chuckle. Thinking quickly, I pulled a shotgun shell from my bandolier and pried it open with my teeth. I tossed the steel number 2’s high and out into the decoys. The plunking pellets sounded like a school of piddling pilchards, a merganser treat.

The wise old bird changed his course and approached the spread. As he was about to land, those wings - those backpedaling, pterodactyl wings - blew the MOJO into the brine and sprayed a fine salt mist into my face, like the lashing of water from an airboat engine. Wiping my eyes with my right hand and firing from my left shoulder, the mighty bird was felled. I waded quietly through the bull sharks and retrieved my prize.

One day the rest of those guys will learn a thing or two from me. Until then, they’ll have to just be content with high-volume shooting and a year’s worth of bragging rights.

I’m sure they’ll be fine with that...

Mr. Hunting Expert Bites Back

(World Renowned and Recognized Mr. Hunting Expert takes a break from his two-week Arctic Walrus Safari to answer fan mail. Each day he does not harvest the walrus of his dreams, he punishes himself by removing one article of clothing. Still, it’s not as painful as some of your questions.)

Q. My 2011 New Years hunting resolution is to hunt gators this year. It is a sport that seems to be catching on quickly. I have a 14 ft john boat and most people I’ve talked to say that is about the minimum sized boat they’d want. Friends state with reasonable caution and respect for the game, it’s a relatively safe activity, but what should I be most prepared for?

- Jason Jaws, Estill, SC

A. Easy. Game wardens. While I hunt gators by wading into a lake at night with a mask, snorkel and a catfish stringer to secure my catch, most of you lightweights prefer to hunt from a boat. So, not only must you comply with the standard game rules – bag limits, proper tags and equipment, etc. – you must also make sure that little john boat of yours is water-friendly. Life jackets, throw cushions, flares, and proper running lights. Lesser hunting associates of mine tend to get busted every year on a little oversight. They report game officers are none too friendly at 3 am and awfully unforgiving after spending the night dealing with rednecks such as you. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

PS. New Years resolutions are for the weak.

Q. The sandhill crane population is booming here in Florida. I know they hunt them out West, but do you think they will open up a season in the Sunshine State? Also, what species of bird do you think should be open to hunting? Why?

- Clem Jones, Kissimmee, FL

A. Let my word spread across the land – no more multi-part questions!!! I will answer them no more. I doubt the sandhill will have an open season in Florida. Known as a “Ribeye in the Sky” in certain western states that allow sandhill hunting, the Florida bird is non-migratory and highly protected. It has been taxonomically designated as a unique subspecies much like other Florida natives, the Key Deer and Sunkissed Beach Babe, neither of which you will possess either.

The roseate spoonbill. The reasons are mine and personal.

Q. The time to apply for Western Big Game hunts is nearing. I want to hunt mule deer. This will be my first trip out yonder in pursuit of game. Any tips for me?

- Sea Level Louis, Biloxi, MS

A. Get in shape. Generally speaking, this style of hunting is more physically demanding that your average treestand sit for whitetail, Dough Boy. You’re gonna walk. If you’re in the hills, you’re going to climb. And you’re probably going to ache. The thin air is no joke. You’re going to wheeze, at first. If you smoke, you’re screwed. So peel yourself away from Sportscenter for a little bit and go for a walk, at the very least. Otherwise, enjoy Yellowstone with the rest of the tourists.

Enough for today! I must ready my walrus decoys, chalk my walrus whistle and settle in for my meal of narwhal blubber and snow.