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Hunters Brave Wild Weather for Duck Season Opening

Tuesday 10 May 2011, 4:53PM

By Fish and Game NZ

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GISBORNE

Duck hunters have won praise for sticking to the rules around the Eastern Fish & Game Region – in a patchy weekend opening to the game bird hunting season.

Fish & Game Rangers mounted a major operation throughout the region’s key hunting areas, checking on licences and bag limits in particular.

Eastern Region Fish & Game Manager Rob Pitkethley says all available officers turned out and checked just over 200 hunters in total – in an area from Turangi right out to Gisborne and the East Coast.

“It’s pleasing that of all those hunters, we turned up only couple of cases where the regulations were being flouted. One was a hunter using banned lead shot; there is no excuse as the ban within 200 metres of open water – imposed for very sound ecological reasons – has been around for some time and widely publicised.”

Rob Pitkethley says a group of hunters were also found who’d exceeded their bag limits, and with the penalties they face, have had a costly start to the game bird season.

Another pleasing feature of the opening weekend was no alcohol-related incidents in the region. “It is very important that hunters keep alcohol and firearms separate, and save their celebration of the season’s start until after their day’s hunt.”

Rob Pitkethley acknowledges there were some hunting-related complaints to police nationally in addition to the tragedy in Waiuku. He says Fish & Game encourages hunters to be very aware of their surroundings, consider and respect outdoor users and rural residents, and to follow the rules in the Arms Code.

The start of the season can often be patchy – varying widely from one area to another – but this year’s start showed “extreme” differences, he says. The rainy, windy weather left plenty of flooded paddocks, and provided plenty of areas for ducks to occupy with food available, away from their usual haunts.

Hunters who changed their tactics to suit achieved some good bags – including those who hunted on waterlogged paddocks in the evening.

“Reports were very mixed as normal; some areas shot very well while some typically good spots in the south of the region provided very hard hunting. In general however, it was great to see families enjoying an exciting day together on Saturday in particular, braving some pretty ugly, wet weather.” Rob says.

The game bird season runs for eight weeks so that if we have a reasonably dry spell followed by northerly winds, it will produce some good conditions for hunters to achieve some ongoing success. “There are plenty more chances to have a good crack at bagging yourself some ducks.”