Both Barrels June 2020

Opening weekend a mixed bag

Opening day dawned with low cloud cover in many parts of the region and this provided a good hour or two of hunting before it cleared to a fine calm morning.

Right: Hunters enjoy their opening morning at Waverley’s Lake Herengawe.

Mallards holding in an un-shot pond on opening weekend.

There was a significant amount of shooting early-on, but after 9am much of the activity was restricted to the larger lakes where birds kept coming in throughout the day.

Most hunters had some success, with paradise shelduck figuring prominently in the harvest, followed by mallard duck and a few black swan.

Hunters were very happy to be out and about after all those weeks in lockdown.

Plenty of hunting still to go

Areas of shallow water and small ponds can provide good sites for an evening hunt.

With the season for ducks running through to July 12 this year, there is still plenty of opportunity to get out hunting.

The relatively dry autumn and early winter means that the ducks will certainly be keen to get out on new grass or pugged up areas when there is wet weather.

With the full moon now past and darker nights, evening hunts should come into their own.

If it remains dry with not much casual water lying around, then feeding a small pond can create a good evening shoot.

Similarly, lots of ducks are holding on the rivers during the day under these conditions, so jump shooting or being in place before they return after first light is a good option.

Farm oxidation ponds will continue to provide some good hunting, as will farms that are feeding out maize silage.

Game that may be hunted within Taranaki F&G Region in 2020

Hot Barrels

Allen Stancliff, Taranaki Fish & Game Officer.