# What to do about coot?



## muzzynat (Apr 20, 2006)

Here's a serious question about coot- do you think they hurt the duck numbers? I was thinking about it, and you'd think that they compete with ducks for resources, food, nesting, ect. I could be wrong though.

The reason I ask, is the population seems completely out of hand, it seems like when I was a kid you'd see 15 or so in a group, then it was 50, and this year I've seen over 1000 in a flock (it was so big it sounded like a waterfall). I feel like I should start taking some coot to try help keep the population in check, but I don't want to shoot something I don't eat.

What are your opinions on coot ? 
Are they A problem?
Do you think they need to be hunted more seriously?
Do you have any recipes (maybe simmer them pull them and bbq them, or make jerky)?


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## dfisher (Oct 12, 2007)

_*No problem with coot. Coot decoys make excellent duck decoys. Stand out really well on the water at a distance. I use to have about 4 dozen and would mix them in with mallards and honkers. worked great.
Big gizzards too. If you like gizzards, the coot should be your bird of choice. Brast taste like liver if you like that.  I would think jerky would be good and they can't be any worse eating than a few of the diving ducks that I've had. Try them out. I got a pond full over here too. I might get a couple and give'em a try too. 
Let me know what you think.
Good hunting,
Dan*_


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## Milla Tha Killa (Dec 11, 2006)

i realy think coot are a problem. coot have no meat on them there realy worthless. the food they eat could be food for mallards and all other REAL Waterfowl.


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## jeffinwestfargo (May 5, 2007)

I agree with you that the coot population is becoming a problem. But I don't know what to do about it. I refuse to shoot anything I won't eat, so I will not hunt coots. However, I just got a letter from the Division of Migratory Bird Management on Sept. 19th asking me to track how many coots, snipe, rails, and gallinules I will shoot this year, and to mail the info back to them. I don't know if they do this every year, or they, like us, see a problem with the coot population.

But really, should we get rid of all the "bad" ducks like coots. What does the DNR think about coot problem? Are their any articles on it?


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## huntingdude16 (Jul 17, 2007)

Shoot em' and use em' as cat food.


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## hoosier dhr (Jul 24, 2003)

Here the DNR just about beg u to shoot them, but not to many guys do.
You can take 15 per day.


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## Milla Tha Killa (Dec 11, 2006)

i would shoot them but i dont want to waste it. i shot two last week and they have not meat


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

With the high bag limits you can get pleny of meat. They legs are great in the crock pot with a nice buffalo wing sauce.

Also as mentinioned the gizzards are great.

Not a lot of breast meat but once again with the high bag limit...

Alos the feet can be made into back scratchers.


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## Milla Tha Killa (Dec 11, 2006)

ill try to buy a box of cheap shells for them, dont want to shoot black cloud at them


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

Yes you don't have to shoot the expensive stuff at them. Also for the dog owners it is great for the dogs when you get into a pile of them. Plenty of retrieves!.

You can also grind up the feathers and use it as flocking.


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## Milla Tha Killa (Dec 11, 2006)

that sounds like alot of work.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

Just pull them out and put them in a grinder. Its more work making the money to buy flocking! 8)


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## Milla Tha Killa (Dec 11, 2006)

yea true. i just have to convince my dad to let me shoot them. but i have to by so 2 3/4 4's to shot them, There not geting the Black CLoud treatment


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## TANATA (Oct 31, 2003)

They eat crap in the slough. I don't think they really eat much of the mallards food. Shoot um up. I want to get a bunch of guys together and go shoot 60 of them. Would be a cool looking picture atleast.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

And then what after the picture?


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## Milla Tha Killa (Dec 11, 2006)

im guess you havent thought of what you were going to do with them


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## dfisher (Oct 12, 2007)

_*Crane legs make the best back scratchers :lol: 
Happy hunting,
Dan*_


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## honkerslayr (Dec 14, 2006)

i would try em out but i have a few times and the dog won't retrieve them no matter what. but he will retrieve any other waterfowl birds it's kinda weird but i guess he knows what he wants.


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## ArcherOfLoaf (Aug 5, 2007)

A good friend of mine shoots them then takes the coots and some mallards to a processor and has it made into servalot (Sp?). He didn't tell me there was any coot in it and I thought it was quite good, and now i get the same mix


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## Bandcollector02 (Oct 4, 2005)

Taste good with a bottle of Jack :beer: uke:


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## HATCHETMAN (Mar 15, 2007)

Coot sausage is the shiznit.


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## Original Goosebuster (Jan 12, 2006)

Milla Tha Killa said:


> i realy think coot are a problem. coot have no meat on them there realy worthless. the food they eat could be food for mallards and all other REAL Waterfowl.


I dont think mallards and other puddle ducks really have to compete with coots. First off, have u ever seen rafts of coots getting off the roost in the morning to go to the fields to feed? Also all that coots really eat is the food found in small sloughs. I also think that they are goood confidence for hunting ducks and are always a good target when the ducks arn't flying.


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## Milla Tha Killa (Dec 11, 2006)

coot eat rice.


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## sasklab10 (Jun 21, 2006)

I don't know about rice unless they are in a flooded field. They eat insects, fish, plant material. Pretty much anything in the pond their in.


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## TANATA (Oct 31, 2003)

They're called **** ducks cause they eat the **** out of the slough....


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## MSG Rude (Oct 6, 2003)

Bandcollector02 said:


> Taste good with a bottle of Jack :beer: uke:


Anything tastes good with enough Jack!


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## ShineRunner (Sep 11, 2002)

Years ago some of the guides at Reelfoot Lake Tenn. would say the competing guides called them ivory billed mallards and had their _SPORTS_ shoot them and take them home for mounting. :rollin:


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## Triple B (Mar 9, 2004)

coots actually can be a help to keeping duck numbers high. they can be a "buffer" species for many of the duck species. they do not compete for food with most of desirable game ducks and nesting sites is hardly an issue when competeing with most species of ducks. what coots can do, however, is provide a sometimes easier target and meal for the many predatory speices out there. there have been a few studies that have shown that in many parts of the country ducks numbers can sometimes be influenced by the abscence or over abundance of coots. as far as i'm concerned coots are at worst no threat to ducks, and at best a great help to higher duck numbers. as far as myself, i've never retrieved a coot in my life.


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## chris lillehoff (Jan 9, 2006)

Leo Porcello said:


> Alos the feet can be made into back scratchers.


LMAO!!! Leo, it really sounds like you are a native speaking about buffalo. You have about 101 different uses for every part of the coot!


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## Goon (Apr 3, 2005)

I don't mind coots and I actually ate one a couple years back out of curiousity. It wasn't that bad. I heard that are people that eat them. 
To each his own.


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## dfisher (Oct 12, 2007)

I had about a zillion of them hanging around the other day and when I picked up my deke's, there were all kinds of uprooted weeds tangled on the decoy lines. Had to be from the coot, as they were busy as heck diving and tipping up to get dinner.

I would think that if you clean them up and remove all the shot from the brest, they would grind up and make excellent summer sausage. My buddy in Ohio does that with his geese and it's very good.

Just a thought.
Good hunting,
Dan


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