maize silage harvest is in full swing around here so birds will be on fields and not moving far...chasing the harvesters LOL.... they have had grain harvest for last month or so.
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maize silage harvest is in full swing around here so birds will be on fields and not moving far...chasing the harvesters LOL.... they have had grain harvest for last month or so.
Have put a heap of feed into our pond only noticed a dozen odd on it during the day , watched it last night to see if any were coming in on dark seen a few go into the pond but watched 100 odd land in the paddock next to it with the cows, so atleast there is plenty in the area
Son and I getting ready for our second season of ducking. Got string and weights on some new decoys this morning. Will paint up some old Canada and parrie deks tomorrow. Have a spot on lake waipori tagged and will shoot out of a make shift maimai...can't wait!
nobody home at 16;30 today but all feed put out a few days ago is gone bar a few acorns...so another half sack of good grain and another supermarket bag of acorns spread out....hopefully they will camo back,I suspect the main farm pond is now also getting fed so they will be flying between the two feeding at both...time will tell.
seven more sleeps
A wee video of what I’m frothing for next weekend.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=44LDikRMJSQ
four more restless nights
was quietly stalking pond with camera an hour ago...and SOMEBODY (who shall remain nameless)chose that moment to send me a text spooking the four mallards and two parries happily slashing around...maybe I should refind a duck quack txt tone...probably not idea to reinstate the Donald Duck orgasm ring tone though...
Well, I am modifying my plan to take into account that I will only have water for the first 90mins of shooting......When it goes dry where I normally shoot there is soft mud and a steep bank down to the creek, which at half tide is only 3m wide. Once the boat stops floating you have to retrieve by walking out to get the birds in thigh deep soft mud. Crossing the creek ( its only 7m away) is a definite no no. Being 70, I dont relish the thought of walking in thigh+ deep mud as the chances of getting stuck are very high ....Dont ask how I know this!..........Add to it that any birds dropped on the mud will disappear into the mangroves when the tide comes in as they start floating well before the boat and once in the mangroves, they are lost.
Here are a couple of pics to show where I was planning to shoot....you can get an idea of the depth of mud from the first one..
Attachment 249188
And looking down the creek to where I will end up with plan B below....About 500m away from where this pic was taken...
Attachment 249187
Plan B is to shoot until the tide drops a bit...then put the boat into the creek, drift down until I get to a small side gut which will be wide enough to take the boat......park the boat in the side gut and as the tide drops the boat will be below the surrounding mud. Where the gut is, the mud is hard and getting out to retrieve ducks will involve walking on mud which is only ankle deep. With enough cut mangroves poked into the banks either side of the gut the boat will be in, I will look just like a clump of mangroves.......When the tide comes back in the evening I will head back to my original spot.
Have now finished making a collapsible bunk for my 13'tinny and will sleep in the boat fri and sat night...instead of in my fixed stand/hut which is 400m away from where I normally shoot.
Back in the early 90's I did the same thing...Was parked in the gut camoed up with decoys set just before first light which was at 6.40am. First birds came in and I shot 3 drakes....only had time to reload before the next mob came in and shot another 3 drakes.......thought I would only shoot green heads for the last 4 of my limit.....3rd mob came in and again 3 drakes dropped......reloaded and as I stood up to look around a pair of mallards flared so I dropped the drake.....looked at my watch and it was 6.48am.......walked out and picked up all the birds....back in the boat by 7am.....then had to wait until the tide floated the boat at midday...went back to the same spot the second day on a dropping tide at 4am and again had my limit before 7.....then had to sit and wait until 1pm before I could head back to the ramp.
Something I have learned about sleeping in the boat.........I always have one hand out of my sleeping bag and hanging down in the bilge.....If it gets wet, it wakes me up and I turn the bilge pump on. Was out sleeping in the boat in torrential rain one year and didnt realise that the boat was filling up with water from both the rain and a small crack in the aluminium hull. The only thing that alerted me was that the waves got up and as the water sloshed from side to side it almost put the side under.........Didnt get much sleep that night as I spent most of my time bailing the boat out...so now I have a 12v car battery and 2 bilge pumps all wired up ready to go...
For all you hunters heading out.....stay safe and hope you have hot barrels...
Good keen man :)
Extremely dedicated I think you mean @Woody.
1st got introduced to duck hunting when my father took me to this spot when I was 7 yrs old........... Havent missed an opening day in this spot since.....over the last 63 yrs I have had quite a few good mates/duckhunters to hunt with but unfortunately they have all passed away apart from one. Sitting on the mud waiting for the tide to come back in gives me time to remember them all and reflect on how fortunate we are to have had some great ( and not so great) times together.Quote:
Originally Posted by Woody
Learned a lot about the area, wildlife behaviour and how to hunt it. Have introduced quite a few people to hunting the area... many found it daunting and never came back. 40 to 50yrs ago I used to take a boat rod and bait with me, cast it into the creek and catch snapper ( biggest was 22lb).....also used to take a flounder light and spear and hang over the side of the boat and spear flounder as they swam past the boat on an incoming tide.....Picked oysters off the rocks around the corner for breakfast when the tide was out....learned to navigate in pitch black conditions using the movement of the current and the glow of the lights of Auckland over the horizon and the movement of car headlights on SH16.......
Dont know how long I will continue.......but one thing is for certain, while the body is capable, you will find me out there on opening morning.
put it in WRITING PLEASE.... even if just to send it to one of the magazines so your memories and knowledge are passed on for others....there is short chapter in Keith Drapers book on firth of thames duck shooting but very little else on the skillset needed to make it work.
three more sleeps
First of May and its raining!!!!
panic panic must be climate change..panic panic.....
hopefully all the birds dont bugger off into paddocks after worms, but a little more water in creeks n rivers will be awesome
Mate it's 1 May- international naked gardeners day. It should switch the pressure a bit :)
they would have more wrinkles than inches here in Garaldine today!!!!
@Micky Duck and just for another coincidence, duck shooting starts on star wars day
May the forth be with you
Still no ducks flying here in the manawatu.
My brother in law is very disheartened !
that possibly was organised by an older ex nurse so he can wear his white plastic armour suit and have excuse for all the holes in the skyQuote:
Originally Posted by csmiffy
No point dressing up as a stormtroopers.
Never hit anything
eggzachary my point old bean....... eggzachary my point.....Quote:
Originally Posted by csmiffy
Safe travels .hot barrels. Off to join the traffic into the swamp soon.
one more sleep
Will ya actually get some?!
Attachment 249372
Last minute prep.
good luck and be safe alll.
Set the decoys out this afternoon and gave the pond another feed. My kids are ready to go, can't wait.
Enjoy your opening @Micky Duck !
Hope you have a grand one.
Thanks bud...bacon n egg pic cooking now....and it's cookedAttachment 249383
Boy and I got all our big gear out the our possie on Lake Waipori. Lots of ducks about!! Lots of hunters too. Can't wait!
364....
Jeeze, you really need to rub some cream on that itch.:)
What does this secret code mean?Quote:
Originally Posted by Micky Duck
sleeps till next opening day LOL...Quote:
Originally Posted by RUMPY
Hope you had a good day Micky
awesome day in awesome company..my old bitch is knackered..the Wife says thats it,the old girl is retired,just too much for her.....
managed to get @Billbob his first few ducks ,we ate bacon n egg pie..we drank many heaps cups of tea/coffee/chai latte ..watered lots of weeds due to all the hot beverages lol and even managed to shoot a dozen birds for the day.
Was a fantastic morning, thank you @Micky Duck for the invitation and giving me experience. Plucked and gutted and cleaned my share and can't wait to have a feed of them. As for that bacon and egg pie.... Hands down epic!
Attachment 249476
Attachment 249477
Attachment 249478
You're a sick man Micky, I feel for your wife.Quote:
Originally Posted by Micky Duck
Smiffy myself and my other mate ventured forth to ther rakaia riverbed for a spot of action .Mate had recced our maimai on lake ellesmere earlier due to low water levels its was like a carpark so no go.anyhow hed recced a couple of holes on the verges of the riverbed ,but on arriving firday both had been tagged c.after a bit of a bloody bumpy tiki tour we found what was a promising looking spot down stream of these holes and a suitable camp some 200m from it -so alls well set up shop.
after a bloody uncomfortable nights sleep for me -try fitting an adult stretcher sleepingbag etc in a kids tent!(whose the clown) .a couple of times overnight I heard activity ,including some sort of avian domestic! 0530 arives and its on .we had 3 maimais spaced the length of this each with a pack of decoys and boy it was bloody effective .shortly after 0630 i had a parrie hen attempting to seduce one of mine before she parked up on the opposite shore.it was a sitter shot till another arrived beside her .suddenly both took flight at 45'dto each other and startled i missed both .
smiffy let roar from ther other end and downed 3 parries only to loose one in the dense scrub.
why hello a wee mallard hen dropped into mine and was all loved up with a decoy before heading to the opposite shore .oops liftoff ,my baikal spoke and hey presto my first duck of the season.
the actrion was sporadic -no shortage of ducks but boy was steel whizzing past featherd arses at high volume so it was stay a 5000"or chance your beak! round 10am things virtually stopped and we had 5ducks between three of us so we called it and went back to camp to rest refuel and pack up gear .
enter the afternoon session a few missed shjots tillsmiffy and mate managesd to call a mob in and dropped a couple.we heard and saw fair mobs of canadas but hey they wernt foold one iotaand kep[t well out of range .last 20mins before dark trurned bloody hectic ducks in all directions,tilljust on dark smiffy bagged a coupl ,then we had 4 stukas do a low level bomb run .smiffy fired ,me sure hed whipped the leaders arse feather off instinctively took a snapshot ,only to see no2 leave the air and hity the deck with a thud.a quite long seach found a plump mallard drake! yipee
overall we got 11 but bought 10 home and the majority are young plump parries.???excellent parrie breeding season this year.its fairly obvious our tally was juveniles cause the oldies were staying out of reach!
Im chuffed with my efforts but moreso grateful to my mates who actually tolerate me and provide expertise where Im lacking and bloody good fun.
today unpack stores , pluck 4 ducks and fix things I broke 1xchair in camp and my shooting stool which arsed me in up the maimai as I was gonna have a shot.
oh and as a bonus smiffy managed to deal to a jacko who was overly curious as we made our way out and home .
Great mates ,great country great sport what more could a man wish.????self plucking ducks!!!!!!!!!
