History - Pre Season

My Duck Blog

2009 looked to be an interesting season from the outset. Dynamics within the duck party had changed somewhat, with one core member leaving, one down & out with major surgery, a keen new junior shooter (by invite), the return of Andrew after a number of years in the UK, and several of the non core members indicating that they would be with us, only to be waylaid due to work and health issues.
Jump back a season – a drought had meant that given our abundance of water, the season was a big one numbers-wise. In fact almost too big, ducks came to us almost non stop for the first 3 days and the hunting became shooting. With limits or near limits each day in the field, the party accounted for quite a head of birds. Party 08 was Dad, me, Tom, Paul, Tim, Frank, Darryl, Lyndell and the invited Jr. Shooter from Steve Chapman’s party. While some of the team left on the Sunday, by the time the rest of us pulled out on the Monday we had accounted for maybe 250 head. It was big. The 2nd weekend came around with dad and I, my mate Nikolaij and his wife Ann Marie (both duck virgins) on the ponds and doing very well. If I recall correctly (need to check diary) we put 33 in the boot for a day and a half’s shooting, which between 2.5 guns (Nik & AM shared) was a good result. The guys regularly visited the ponds over the season, and we got decent results all season which really vindicated the work put in. I finished the season with over 100 ducks to my name, which was pleasing considering that I was quite stuck for time what with my young daughter and family demands. 100 was always a benchmark for me, if I could hunt say 15 days of the season and bag 100, it was pretty good. I think for ’08 I got into the field for ducks 12 days. So far in this current season I’ve hunted 5 days and the season is 20 days old. I’ll struggle to do a dozen days I think. Such is life. The old man is doing really well, enjoying his semi-retirement and making the most of his chances which is great.
Pre-season ‘09 required a decent amount of maintenance – 3 days spent dragging the weed from Willow Pond by hand. 2 big days building the new maimai at Park. Another day’s maintenance on the dam, and the hut – the rain guttering was completely replaced, and trees knocked down. A new feeder was purchased and installed. Firewood was cut and stacked. The decoys were moved in by dad. We really needed to spray the ponds but summer seemed to just fly by in a blur. We never learn... well, we do, but life seems so much busier these days. Everyone got stuck in too, with Andrew returning in time to run the final maimai dressing trip, involving cutting, stacking, bundling and transporting enough tea tree to cover 6 maimais. 3 weeks out and the ponds were empty – the Thames party (Twin Willows) had obviously pulled the main dam on the Twin Willows stream, not allowing the water to back up through our place and back into the swamp. Illegal of course, but they’re a law unto themselves and I can’t really be bothered with them. Shooting means something else to those guys, they pack their ponds with guns and the sky busting isn’t far away. Each to their own. Our outboard had packed in a week pre-season, leaving us with an expense on our hands. The old motor had expired with a thrown piston. So for the season, dad hired a boat from the guy who services ours.