Duck hunt season starts with more fizzle than bang
A veteran South Canterbury duck hunter’s opening day of the hunting season did not get off to the greatest start.
Noel Dix, of Timaru, has been hunting for nearly 60 years, and said the opening day was not as great for him as it was for some other hunters.
‘‘There was a lot of water around this year. The ducks didn’t come back to the pond I shoot at, and I didn’t get a lot of feed this year. I just put out a few acorns.’’
The 75-year-old, who bagged five ducks on Saturday at a pond in Otipua, said he will probably wait till next week to go hunting again when there’s a southerly change in the wind.
‘‘It helps you out. The ducks usually go out to sea and when the sea roughs up, they move back.
‘‘There was a lot of shooting going on, so I’d imagine the hunters did all right.’’
He said he got into shooting because of his older brothers but has not enjoyed it as much as he used to because of a knee injury a few years ago.
Dix was one of an estimated 50,000 duck hunters out on the opening day around New Zealand on Saturday.
Fish and Game New Zealand said in a media release that while the sunshine and light winds across the country might have been in the ducks’ favour, it didn’t stop hunters getting out.
‘‘The warm wet summer had contributed to increased duck numbers in parts of the country, increasing the chances of success for hunters looking to harvest wild, free-range birds for the dinner table,’’ the release said.
‘‘New Zealand outdoors retailers compensated for the continued global shipping delays and ordered earlier than ever before to ensure hunters had adequate stocks for decoys, ammunition and other hunting gear before the season started.’’
Fish & Game said its rangers were out in force checking licences and seeing how opening day had gone for hunters but no figures were available on how compliant hunters were in South Canterbury.