Coot

Ever eat Coot? The breasts are good when fried with onions, very good. But the gizzards are outstanding. A little pound and a half Coot has a gizzard the same size as a pool ball, and a lot more tender than a chicken gizzard. You know how to clean gizzards right? Split it in half between the 2 lobes and then peel the membrane off each of the halves. With Coot gizzards, then you slice them a couple times to get them to manageable size before you fry them. Wish I had some right now.

They are also a great training aid for young shotgunners. The Winter before I killed my first duck, Dad rowed me around Blackbird Basin in the Gizmo and I shot a lot of Coot. Shot the full 15 bird limit a lot of days. They were the first flying targets I had ever shot, and it got me off on the right foot.

An old timer in a beer joint asked me one time if I ever shot any Mud Hens (nickname for Coot)? I told him yes and he told me that any time I wanted to trade, he would swap me 2 Mallards for 15 Coot. I took him up on it once. I never gave any more of my precious gizzards away.

One day Dad, Harry and I were set up about a half hour before shooting time in one of our blinds. Coot started pouring in by the dozens. By shooting time we must have had 500 or so Coot in the decoys. Dad asked if I felt like cleaning some Coot that night, and even though I generally didn't shoot Coot from the blind (never wanted to scare off the real ducks) there were too many to pass up the opportunity. We went over the 3 man limit with our first volley. Just about killed old Chief retrieving those 57 birds. But that made several good meals.

A few years later Paul Gettys came to hunt with us for a couple days. We killed a few ducks but the Coot were everywhere. So I took Dad and Paul to the mouth of Lucy's Pond and put them out on the bank, one on each side of the opening, about 40-50 yards apart. I took the boat way back in the Pond and started slowly herding the Coot. I had a couple thousand swimming ahead of the boat when they started taking off. Over about a 15 minute period they all flew right through that opening where Dad and Paul were waiting. They killed so many I had to make a separate trip in to the landing to make room in the boat for the decoys. That too made several good meals.

20 years later I took my Boys up to Spring Creek. We didn't do so well on the ducks; I think 1 Wood Duck and 1 Ringneck, but we saw a lot of Coot. On the way back to the Jeep, the Boys asked if they could walk around and shoot some Coot. I gave them each a box of shells and the dog whistle and I headed on back and took a nap in the seat of the Jeep. I heard a little shooting as I dozed and pretty soon Mike came running up and dropped off 15 Coot and asked for some more shells. They had a big, old fashion Coot Shoot. We ate good for a few more meals.

Haven't killed a dozen Coot total since that day, but I'm sure the situation will avail itself again someday and we'll have another Coot shoot. Get the grease hot :-)