Weather ‘too nice’ for many duck shooters
Large number of hunters were out and about in South Canterbury on Saturday for the opening of duck shooting season but Central South Island Fish and Game officer Rhys Adams says the weather might have been ‘‘too nice’’ for big bag numbers.
‘‘It was a beautiful day for hunting, but it was not great for high tallies,’’Adams said.
Two teams of Fish and Game rangers covered areas from Lake Benmore, through to Twizel, Omarama and down the Waitaki Valley. ‘‘Most hunters had bagged a bird by 10am; some successful groups had 10 birds each,’’ he said. Fish and Game compliance officer Hamish Stevens accompanied Adams. The most successful hunters they encountered were four who had 44 mallard ducks by midmorning.
Adams described it as being a ‘‘reasonably successful’’ start to the season, but chances of bigger tallies were also lost. ‘‘Some people have not practised their shooting enough.
‘‘We ask them to practise shooting clay birds before the season or to join up with a club. A lot of opportunities were missed.’’
Adams said rangers did a lot of scouting before the season opened to find pond locations.
‘‘This time most ponds had hunters, whereas before there would not be those numbers.’’
The large turnout of hunters he attributed to disruptions caused by Covid-19 last year.
‘‘A lot of people missed out and there has been a resurgence this year with licence numbers.
‘‘Everybody was happy to be out there and quite happy to have three birds for the morning.’’
He said there was a good mixture of age groups also. Most hunters are middle-aged blokes, but younger people are getting into the sport with grandfathers and grandsons. ‘‘The populations of duck are quite high in this region, and we could double the number of hunters.’’