Thread: How did you do on opening day ?

Hi guys, we woke to a very foggy day on the Waikato, final tally for our group of 5 was 4 mallards, 6 Black Swan and 1 Canada Goose.....

My first Canada Goose, only got it as it came honking out of the fog......

....and Scouser - How many eels and bottles of Scotch for the evening festivities...

???

Originally Posted by Carpe Diem

....and Scouser - How many eels and bottles of Scotch for the evening festivities...

???

What happens at Mullet Lodge stays at Mullet Lodge......

Hahaha @Scouser ..... Loving your work. A real extended family experience which is what it should be...

For us better year this year - first hour and a half went well and then got harder and harder as things went on with then circling very high and multiple circuits above the Poplars.. we never get huge numbers at our pond (apart from the day before LOL!!!) but always have good fun and its a great experience for sure!!

P.

Originally Posted by Carpe Diem

Hahaha @Scouser ..... Loving your work. A real extended family experience which is what it should be...

For us better year this year - first hour and a half went well and then got harder and harder as things went on with then circling very high and multiple circuits above the Poplars.. we never get huge numbers at our pond (apart from the day before LOL!!!) but always have good fun and its a great experience for sure!!

P.

Same here mate, numbers dont really count as we just go for a social gathering (tradition).....saying that i was chuffed to drop the first Canadian at the Lodge........Legend status awaits.....bwaharrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Good numbers of ducks down here. Only finished our new maimai build three days out, fresh earthworks and minimal scrub around it. Still, we managed an about average shoot for us, 160 for the weekend. Thought we'd only got 159, but found one in the paddock on the way home to round it off nicely. Only five shooters this opening - two of the guys couldn't make it out this year - and we just filled our bag limit on Saturday evening. Sunday we had steady pairs and singles all morning till lunchtime but they were a lot more wary. We pulled pin and lifted the decoys right as a small front came through and could've picked up another 10 or so. Great weekend once again. Stoked with the new maimai, all we need to do now is pour the floor and install the fireplace. It was the 14th year in a row our crew has shot together, the only time we all get together in the same place at the same time these days.

Awesome Josh, our place has been going since 1988, so its purely a traditional get-together, the number of ducks does not concern us, we will turn up every year we are still standing, even if the birds dont....!

we did as well as we always do....poked plenty of holes in the sky ,got lots of bang for our ducks. 3 guns,one was out for first go with shottie and did well with the open choked Rusky mistress

I got woken up to lots of shotgun noises (must have at least half a dozen ponds within ear-shot of my house)... Still haven't shot an opening weekend.

44 birds over the weekend in HB

i was set to go out to private land on the morning. unfortunately wife spent all of friday arvo/ evening in a&e and so i stayed home thru the weekend.

The Fog seemed to go around us in our spot in the Waikato but still managed 35 Mallard on Sunday morning, couldn’t shoot Saturday due to coaching commitments. The GSP loved it!!

i've headed over the coast and shot with the father in law for the last 8 years and its always feels like christmas as a kid. We never shoot big numbers but thats ok i love the short tradition we have created and i know it's important to him also we change it up our opening spot every year and this year was special as my 6 year old boy was having his first opening behind a .410 that is now his and belonged to his great great grandad.

Safety was first with the very keen boy which meant i only fired 1 shot at a duck all weekend but thats ok, chances coming in to us were very low and no easy ones presented them selves he had half a dozen misses opening morning before i took him looking for a pukeko to break his duck some how we managed to stalk within range of this guy who became trap bait and as you can tell he was wrapped with his first animal.
Not content on still not having his first duck we were back up at 5.00am on sunday and heading down to someone elses spot which had been shot heavily but was still more likely to provide the chance we "both" now desperately needed after 2 misses i was beginning to think about the amount of birds i could of bagged for the weekend when the dumbest parrie in the Grey valley erased those thoughts by turning to my calls and coming straight into the the couple of sillouttes in the paddock behind us, the boy had plenty of time to line her up and .......... YES!!
As i was packing up dog pulled a woundy from someone the day before out of a bush about 10m away and presented it to me as if to say how many do you have for the weekend but what can you do...

The most memorable opening for me yet and now all i get is when are we going again? (saturday )
the successful Duo.

AWESOME result.....great going young fella the .410 is a fine gun,we have taken all sorts of animals with it over the years...just a matter of picking the right loads for your gun.

very thick fog opening morning after a promising built up. Ended up with a dozen or so. greys/mallards
High light of the weekend was my boy shooting 2 1/2 ducks opening day with his 410 8yrs. A bit slow going trying to get the boy a good shot, ducks weren't playing ball
A few changes in order for the mai mai to make it easier for him next year