Outdoor Nebraska - Nebraska Game & Parks: October 2012

Monday, October 15, 2012

Nebraska Waterfowl Lease Memberships - Mallards, Gadwall, Widgeon, Teal, Canada Geese

Waterfowl Hunting Lease Memberships
Nebraska Waterfowl Leases
Missouri River Waterfowl Leases

400gpm pump (guaranteed to have water)
duck & Canada goose decoys included
24ft pit blind
limited to 10 members
guests are included (based on availability)
less 300 yds from the Missouri River
includes limited spring snow goose hunting (Mound City, MO.)
$1000.00 per membership

Call Scott - 402-304-1192

Inside-Out, Brown Sugar-Glazed Jalapeno Duck Poppers

Per my previous post Brining Wild Duck, I essentially said that the taste of wild duck usually has me running for the hills. But I was determined to like it. Waterfowl is a huge part of the hunting world, and it was a real shame that I did not care for it. So this week, I set out to find a way to get rid of the gamey taste of duck. I brined the duck breasts for three days, and my efforts were paid ten times over!

What we have here are duck breasts which have been brined for 3 days, then marinated in olive oil, rosemary, garlic and red wine vinegar. They were then filled with cream cheese and julienned jalapeno peppers, then wrapped in bacon and glazed with brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon, which caramelized beautifully over hot coals.

Joe and I absolutely loved these! They were spicy, salty and sweet all at the same time. They certainly didn't last long. We hope you all love them too!

Servings: 2 appetizer servings (10 poppers)

Prep Time: 1-3 days, depending on how long you want to brine

Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

- 2 brined duck breasts, cut into 10 pieces (brining is optional)

- 5 slices of bacon, cut into halves

- cream cheese

- 1 jalapeno, cored/seeded and julienned

- 10 toothpicks

Marinade:

- 2 tbs. olive oil

- 2 tbs. red wine vinegar

- 1 garlic clove, minced

- 1/2 tsp. dried crushed rosemary

- freshly ground pepper, to taste

Brown Sugar Glaze:

- 3 tbs. brown sugar

- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

- 1 1/2 tbs. water

We brined the duck, but this is totally optional. To view instructions on how to brine, please click here.

1. Butterfly the breast pieces. The bright red color reminded us of sushi tuna.

To butterfly, cut the duck breasts horizontally, but not all the way through. Lay flat. You now have thinner, larger pieces.

2. Lay the butterflied duck pieces flat between two pieces of plastic wrap. Then lightly pound with a flat mallet to flatten the pieces a little more. We used the poor man's rolling pin. Move the duck to a medium bowl.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, rosemary and freshly ground pepper.

4. Add the marinade to the duck. Marinade at room temperature for at least 20 minutes.

5. To make the glaze, combine brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Then add water and whisk well.

Taking notes as we go ... all a part of the recipe developing process!

At this point, you should probably get your grill ready.

6. Remove the duck from the marinade and fill with cream cheese and jalapeno match sticks.

Then roll everything together with half a slice of bacon. Pierce a toothpick through the poppers to keep everything intact for grilling.

7. Grill (in our case broil) the poppers until the bacon is cooked on both sides. When they're just about done, baste both sides with the Brown Sugar Glaze. Don't do this beforehand because the glaze will just burn.

Remove toothpicks and serve!

Great at the duck blind warmed up!

Brining Wild Duck and Other Waterfowl

I often complain about wild duck. Joe likes it fine, but to me, it's bloody and gamey and makes my nose curl whenever I eat it. I guess it's to each his own, but I was very determined to like it-- some way, somehow. If prepared correctly, I think anything can taste good.

Wild duck is extremely dark, as you can see in the photo to your right. The color is almost purple or blue and this is due to the fact that ducks are very bloody. To get rid of the "gamey" taste, you have to try to leech out as much blood as you can. In the photo above, the duck has been brined for 3 days, leaving a very light exterior and a beautiful ruby red color inside. We've tried brining before, but it made the duck really salty. So this time around, we used a combination of a light salty brine and just cold water. We also extended the brining time, because it does takes more than a day to get all that blood out. When it came around time to cook, Joe said, "Wild duck-- the other white meat!" The meat no longer smelled and tasted "gamey." You don't have to brine for 3 whole days, like we did. I think 2 days will do just fine. It also depends on your own taste.

Ingredients: Should be enough brine for the breasts of 2 ducks

- 4 cups of water

- 1/4 cup kosher salt

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

1. In a saucepan, bring water to a boil. Then add kosher salt and brown sugar. Mix until dissolved. Turn off heat and allow brine to cool.

Our duck breasts were cut up into big chunks. You can do the same or keep them whole.

2. Move the breasts to a nonreactive bowl.

3. Submerge the duck breasts with cooled brine, covering completely. It is important that you let the brine cool completely. Adding hot/warm brine will ruin your meat and encourage bacterial growth.
Cover and store in the refrigerator. Brine overnight and replace the bloody brine with ice water the next day.

Early Season Waterfowl Secrets - Natural presentation and preparation are the keys to opening day ducks and geese.

When nebraska waterfowl seasons open, whether that’s a September 1 resident season or the regular opener, uneducated birds present a small window of opportunity for fantastic shooting. But by no means does “uneducated” mean that they’re dumb.
Early-season ducks and geese focus on specific arrangements of birds and decoys on the ground when deciding whether to drop in. Likewise, the number of decoys, as well as your calling, blind and setup, can make or break a hunt. To get it all right, you have to do some background work.

Scouting
You can hit the same spots time and again and hope the birds come by. But if you’re looking to fill straps and experience sore shoulders, you have to get off your butt and start glassing at critical times.
“Scouting is the most important thing you can do. Just because a spot looks ducky doesn’t mean it’s going to hold ducks,” says John Vaca, the national pro staff manager for Final Approach. “You need to get out and watch the birds—study which species are out there, how long they’re there and where exactly they’re coming in from and landing, as well as wind direction and other weather details. It’s absolutely key during the early season.”
Reality Check
How you arrange decoys can either entice far-off flocks to take a closer look and finally commit to landing or send up a red flag and cause them to just keep moving.

Keep It Small
During the early season, birds don’t typically travel in massive flocks, as they do later in the year. While scouting will tell you exactly how many live birds are on the ground, as a general rule you can count on laying out approximately two to four dozen decoys in molds of species you note during scouting.

Family Groups
Early on, waterfowl move and feed in family units. Place decoys in groups of three to five within the greater scheme of your setup for ducks should suffice in most instances.

Landing Holes
Putting out a perfect spread of full-body decoys won’t do a bit of good if you don’t give live birds a place to land. The finishing area should be dictated by the number of birds within landing flocks. The more birds, the bigger the hole you’ll need for them in your spread.
Calling Keep it simple and natural. Basic clucks and moans for geese and two-to-nine quack sequences and a feed chatter.

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Monday, October 8, 2012

Duck Hunting Tips To Get Started

Duck hunting is a fun, exciting and very tiring sport. Whether hunting with family, friends, wife or father, just being out in the field with them enjoying nature is what hunting is about. Duck hunting is challenging and there are many techniques to use when hunting waterfowl. Like our previous deer hunting tips, here are some duck hunting tips and things to consider when you’re out in the field:

Where to hunt?

There are many different places where you will find ducks congregating, but one of the main ingredients here is water. One of your options include a flooded field. Some farmers will pump in water in one of their empty fields once all their beans or corn has been cut to allow a place for ducks to come and feed. If you’re hunting in a flood field, you probably won’t need a boat or canoe to setup your decoys and retrieve your birds. I would recommend getting a good ground blind like the Bunker Blind from Drake. If you have a ditch bank near your flooded field, you can always lay down in it.

Another area to find ducks are sloughs that are running along the side of creeks and rivers. You can usually spot them fairly easily when you see all the cattails along the side of the water. Ducks find refuge in this area where the cattails are blocking a lot of the wind. They will sometimes rest and feed here all day long. You will need a canoe or boat depending on the depth of the slough you are hunting.

Personally, I’ve never hunted on the river. I’ve always been in either the creeks, sloughs or flooded fields. If duck hunting on the river, look for the islands and sandbars. Those are usually great places for ducks to land and have a wide view of the area to feel safe while feeding.

What gun and shell size to use?

While it’s best to check your State Regulations Hunting & Guidelines first, I would recommend using a 12 gauge pump action shotgun. Some people prefer 2 3/4″ shells and some use 3″ shells. For both, waterfowl and turkey, I prefer using a 3 1/2″ shell. I shoot a Benelli Super Nova and the 3 1/2″ shells seem to shoot the best for me. It might be a little bit more recoil, but nothing I can’t handle. The shells I shoot are Winchester Xpert Hi-Velocity #3 3 1/2 shells. There are many shells on the market. You have to find the right combination for you, your gun and the ducks.

What Should I Wear?

It depends on where you’re hunting. If you’re hunting in a creek, river or slough where you need a boat or canoe, then there’s no need for you to be wearing waders up to your chest. If you’re hunting flooded fields or timber, then you might want to invest in a pair of good waders like the Drake Eqwaders. Otherwise, you just need a nice pair of insulated boots to keep you warm.

What Decoys and Spread to Use?

Setups vary from place to place. If you’re hunting in a deeper creek or river, make sure you have heavier weights attached to your decoys. Hunting over a flooded field or creek and you shouldn’t need as much weight. As far as the size of your spread, it can vary from place to place as well. If you’re hunting in some flooded timber and you are hunting from a boat, you should set about a dozen decoys out. Make sure to look up and see if you can see an opening in the trees. If you can’t, then the ducks won’t come in to you. I usually find that a small spread of 1 – 2 dozen decoys is fine. If you have a Mojo or something that can produce small splashes or waves, then definitely use that too.

One of the most common decoy spreads is the “U” pattern headed directly towards the wind. The ducks will be circling and eventually fly down into the wind in the middle of your spread. I’ve also set up about 1 – 2 dozen decoys just along the edge of a flooded field in no specific pattern and had success. There’s also a guy I know using just 6 mallard decoys that flap it’s feet to make splashes in the water and he always has great results.

How To Call Ducks?

I’m not a championship caller by all means, but I know how to call ducks into shooting range. There are many different types of calls you should know about ducks including: quack, greeting, feeding, hail and many more. If you don’t master any other call, you should at least get the basic quack call learnt if you want a duck to come into your spread. Click here to here a basic duck quack call.

I could write a book on all the different duck hunting scenarios, gear to have and all the decoy patterns you can use, so not everything is covered in this article. These are some of the basic tips of duck hunting. Hopefully this will get your started in this exciting sport!

If you have any other comments, questions or tips related to duck hunting, please leave a comment below.