ruddy ducks!!!
 

so me and a buddy are sittin in ma blind when out of nowhere a group of very small teal like ducks (6) come zoomin in to the dekes, well in about three seconds and five shots all six are on the water! i go to retrieve the first and notice its a ruddy duck!, well ive only seen pics of them and thought i would never see one because i never have anywhere, so we search online to find that indeed they are ruddy ducks and kinda panic to find a limit writen somewhere!, so we search archive forums to then find that you can kill six a person! soo wfhooo got lucky, but has anyone else ever killed these and how do they taste??

we killed 4 this weekend, in grand chenier,all hens. haven't seen one in 20 years before this sat. you kill a drake? any pictures?

all ours were hens aswell

we saw several more flocks of them, and only a couple drakes out all..

Killed a couple yesterday myself.Attachment 42716Attachment 42717

Where at? When I saw them in flight at first had no idea what it was...

Butter balls!

They don't get their colors til end ofthe season and spring time. They taste about like mullet :) congrats on the ruddys

Some of the ones you killed were probably drakes, they are quite common on big waters. Never seen one while hunting but I hear that is hands down THE worst duck out there to eat:eek: During the market days they brought in more than most of what we consider 'good ducks' though

I killed a few in a huge dirt pit turned pond across from my parents house once. They aren't that great

South Texas near Matagorda.

Drakes don't look good until almost May. Lots of them down here in marshes w big water

When you see a mounted ruddy duck drake in its breeding plumage it was NOT shot during the season;)

Some were hanging out in Rockefeller just off the road until mid-March and they were starting to get a little color but not near what they look like later

Lol every time I see one mounted I asked em what month they killed it in lol

:spineyes:

I've read from several sources that during the market hunting days they were a primary target because they fetched a high price and could fit a lot more of them in a boat...

I'll stick with teal...

http://honest-food.net/2010/12/02/ru...al-butterball/

I was running across Grand Lake the other day to work and saw about 50 of them get up off the lake. Usually see a few bunches every year in the lake.


Warren

Buddy of mine killed one this morning. Never killed one that I know of, and never even heard of them until yesterday when I saw this post. He sent the pic to me and we figured out it was definately a Ruddy duck.