Thread: Opening 2022

2mallards,2 geese yesterday on public lake in hunly ,1 mallard from raglan this morning,banded to boot,way down on last years total but fog didn’t lift till 10.45 on Saturday making for hard going.

Originally Posted by The bomb

2mallards,2 geese yesterday on public lake in hunly ,1 mallard from raglan this morning,banded to boot,way down on last years total but fog didn’t lift till 10.45 on Saturday making for hard going.

Hopefully be able to shoot a lot straighter this weekend,worked out I had the cast shim in the wrong way around after playing around with it couple of weeks ago,..doh

Low duck numbers for us as well but made up for it with some good shooting.
Went 8 birds from 8 shots ( 6 mallards a puke and a magpie )between the young lad and myself on Saturday before missing a couple on late evening.
Sunday the lad smoked a parry I missed its mate then went 5 from 5 shots with 2 parry’s 2 pukes and 1 mallard on last light
Second season using only 410 bore and wouldn’t have shot any more birds if using 12ga over the weekend

A bit better than average for us. Limit of 140 for mallards on Saturday plus a few parries. Another 40 odd yesterday but we hadn't had a tally up when I headed home. Probably lost 10 to hawks out in the paddocks. They were on them bloody quick this year, must be hungry.

A few numpties around, according to Stuff - I mean leaving a couple of semi's unattended in a maimai? Come on - that doesn't do our cause any good whatsoever.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime...s-and-burnouts

Waikato islands, NO ducks, started off thick, thick fog, ended up with 3 Black Swan....but a good time had by all......

Originally Posted by Scouser

Waikato islands, NO ducks, started off thick, thick fog, ended up with 3 Black Swan....but a good time had by all......

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Aha! I know where you are, (Know the river pretty well). Up stream around the elbow actually shot pretty well this year. The elbow boat ramp is closed for work and I think the lack of boat traffic has made a big difference.

We ended on 21 for the weekend. 4 parrys and a lonesome goose we plucked out of a mob.. Missed about 20 easy ones last night and this morning.
Took the 2 kids in so was a bit of a family outlying. Fun times

just back from the coast and finished cleaning up the kit, sadly the lake has been shooting progressively fewer ducks for a number of years now, opening morning i grabbed by far the biggest bag, ten and there were seven shooting the lake, i don't think the remaining hunters combined surpassed my lot, no one bagged anything sunday. But still a great occasion with family and new friends

Originally Posted by Tertle

just back from the coast and finished cleaning up the kit, sadly the lake has been shooting progressively fewer ducks for a number of years now, opening morning i grabbed by far the biggest bag, ten and there were seven shooting the lake, i don't think the remaining hunters combined surpassed my lot, no one bagged anything sunday. But still a great occasion with family and new friends

Birds must be somewhere else then ? My mate from Hokitika had his best opening weekend in memory and he's been shooting for quite a lot of years. Sorry your weekend wasn't better.

Originally Posted by dannyb

Birds must be somewhere else then ? My mate from Hokitika had his best opening weekend in memory and he's been shooting for quite a lot of years. Sorry your weekend wasn't better.

Spoke to a local farmer and even he commented that the days of seeing ducklings in the drains and culverts are a few years back, there are a couple of other lakes around where we shoot and even they fell a bit quiet early, but again it was great seeing 2-3 new shooters joining in on the lake, and its always good to get out and enjoy the challenge

Anyone on here shoot the firth of Thames this year?

Had one of my best opening in HB. Great morning with one of my good mates.





Ended up with 15 between us after shooting the main pond then jump shooting a few others around. Will do a few evening shoots over the next few weeks.

We had thick fog until 9.30am opening morning, but still managed 3 limits on Parries and 2 of 3 limits on Mallards by 11am, so we were pretty happy with that.

Was a different shoot this year with pine block that surrounds the pond having been felled over summer making for different approach angles by ducks than previous 20 years.

My youngest boy came down to pond for a morning tea visit too, which was great. Meant we had 3 generations of family down at maimai. Both my boys are showing interest in the outdoors, so hoping to nurture that to its full extent.

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Originally Posted by Bryan

We had thick fog until 9.30am opening morning, but still managed 3 limits on Parries and 2 of 3 limits on Mallards by 11am, so we were pretty happy with that.

Was a different shoot this year with pine block that surrounds the pond having been felled over summer making for different approach angles by ducks than previous 20 years.

My youngest boy came down to pond for a morning tea visit too, which was great. Meant we had 3 generations of family down at maimai. Both my boys are showing interest in the outdoors, so hoping to nurture that to its full extent.

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Always like to see father & son going out. I do `t have a boy or girl, but I can feel it when I see photos. Looking forward to you guys duck cooking pictures.