Neither have I! I just love their colors and shape. I was fortunate to grow up with a buddy that had his own family hunting land that had duck hunting available. The first time I ever even knew of canvasbacks was seeing one he had mounted. He shot the duck in a flooded corn field. It was a total fluke that the duck was even there! Nobody had ever killed them in our area in South Carolina. I fell in love with that mount. One of the most beautiful ducks IMO....sleek build, love the colors, a diver (my favorites). I just love them. I hope to someday be able to harvest one.......

I hear ya. I've always heard them referred to as "the king of ducks" but never knew why. It seems a lot of hardcore waterfowlers avoid divers like the plague. To a newby like myself that seemed contradictory to the title of "King of Ducks" given to a diver. So I was curious what your thoughts were on them.

I've only shot puddle ducks, but it's certainly not from skill or selective harvest. I'd love to harvest some divers someday.

Cans were nearly wiped out during the market hunter days selling them for meat. They are great table fare, I just don't get to hunt them much.

I talked to some people that had almost stopped hunting a couple of years ago because they were tired of shooting divers. For someone new like myself, anything new is a treat. I have shot a redhead drake, but never killed a can, ringneck, or any of those. I sure would like to though. I need to go hunt AR or somewhere to broaden my horizons.

We certainly have divers in Alabama. They mostly prefer big water and can dive much deeper than puddle ducks to obtain food. Cans, redheads, bluebills, ringneck and buffleheads are all present in Alabama in hunt able populations. Killed lots of the black and white ducks in Alabama.

Diver hunters on big water use good equipment, lots of decoys and big boats. For most of us weekend warriors the cost of admission is too high. Mallards and wood ducks can be killed with knee boots and a few decoys. So the majority of the Alabama contingent will be set up in shallow water (Guntersville is an exception). Besides the puddlers are usually better table fare.

The market hunters targeted Canvasbacks but the ducks fed on wild celery then. I couldn't ID that plant and don't know if it is even found locally. The Cans I have eaten have had a very strong flavor and I prefer puddlers.

What are the white and black ducks again?

I've killed a bunch of cans, redheads, bluebills, ringnecks, buffleheads, mergansers. There were years here that all I would kill all year were divers and gads. The puddle ducks weren't here. Heck I would kill canvasbacks in backwater sloughs and flooded corn fields. I've killed redheads in beaver ponds back off in the timber. I had a few pics of some on my old phones, I'll look tonight and see if I can dig some out.

No real code with this, simply ducks that are black and white in color. Bluebills, ringneck and bufflehead. In Arkansas often referred to as blackjacks or simply jacks. Pull into an Arkansas ramp with a limit of jacks and there will be commentary but if there are a few Cans in the mix, they will be asking where you shot them.

Later in the season, Guntersville will sometimes hold a pretty good amount of divers. They can be killed from the bank, but hunting pressure usually causes most of them to raft out in the middle of the lake or river. We have pretty good success hunting them out of a layout boat.

Almost a one man limit this morning. On the board in AL at least.

That's been my experience there. I either have gadwalls that circle the decoys a bajillion times and sometimes commit, or divers huddled up in the middle that I have to pray someone runs through and jumps them up. They usually land back in the middle though.

I think divers are the coolest of ducks. Very diverse in appearance and beautiful ducks. I can still remember the sound of a group of ringnecks, close to a hundred, dropping into the lake we were hunting early in the morning. Sounded like jets! They can haul some serious ass.....
It's one of the coolest things to me about duck hunting.....there is so much diversity in appearance and habits. Kind of like fishing in the ocean, never know what you got till you reel it in.

All the pics I could load because photobucket freaking sucks so bad . Just a few divers to show

Awesome hunts guys! I shot one of my holes this morning and wound up having to wait some out. Nothing flew in to my spot off of the roost so we waited until some swam through. Could've finished my limit with a hen but decided to let the egg layers live!







Rio also trailed his first deer Tuesday afternoon! I've had some good dogs over the years but never had one smarter or a better hunter!

Scouts first hunt..

Thats a beautiful dog. How well did he hunt?

He did great!!

I knew this duck hunting kill thread would get someone posting over the limit. LOL
Heck it's hard to hunt Woodies legal even when stopping at the limit.

A few for the wall this past weekend.

I hope that blue wing and that black bellied squealer was the last one alive. Those things will destroy a fresh planted rice field in the spring. Nice mottled duck drake also.