Ok so its fair to say that I've not really hunted ducks all that often this season. Gone are the days of relative freedom that went with a semi-career in studenthood, long weeks of sort of up at dawn, lazy days, out at night hunting. So far I had 2 days and 1 night on the ducks, not really enough to be considered hard a hard core waterfowler. So, Rick & The Big V went into the ponds on Thursday night and shot limits on Friday. Jason arrived down there Friday evening as did Tim, Andrew and Quinn (Tim's boy). With electronica to the fore, Rick, Jason and The Big V, all took limits on Puru while Tim knocked down a solitary bird. Good times. Saturday's driving rain and wind burst was intolerable, I was ACHING for a duck hunt because that's duck weather and you don't always get it in May in NZ. When I got to the landing on Saturday night I felt excited. When the boys appeared in the Rick-mo boat I felt really excited. By the time we got to the hut I was fizzing! Nice to see The Big V, Jason (we met last year)the Hollands and Rick again. A few beers and we hoed into possibly the best swamp meal ever, roast wild pork, pork-fat roasted duck, roast spud & pumpkin, gravy and some sprouts (gah). Lots of dishes as a result. In bed about 10.30 but I was awake later listening to rain smack the roof and wind rock the trees. Up at 05.00 to put on the kettle, and the lads emerged one by one. Taking Robo and Wonder ducks, me, Tim, Andy and Quinn headed for Willow. Just when we stopped the boat a hen hailed loudly overhead - "sweet" I thought. Got the dekes sorted and then headed into the mai mai with tthe lads and waited... waited. Had a feeding chuckle competition with the Crossfire guys for a while. Swan were out and about, and teal, and now and again we heard shots from Rick & co. in Puru. A pair was circling Rick when the Prang-dangs opened fire. Fools like that should be drowned at birth, the same idiots who park their car in the boat turning area at the landing. Then they came our way and circled a bit before buggering off. Finally 4 appeared behind us, banked hard left and came in at about 25m high. I called the shot and killed the drake, then nailed a hen and then hit another bird and cleaned it up with shot number 4. Andy hit the 4th bird but it carried on behind us, banked and headed over the crossfire to die in a hail of fire. That was it for a long while, the Thames guys packed up and then we had a brief burst of activity when a pair of greys circled and departed and then a another grey buzzed the pond, escaping a mini barrage from me. We picked up the dekes at 10.30 and got back to the hut with 40 odd birds to clean. The weather being warm, a couple of the gut hit birds were going a bit green so got breasted out. The rest were plucked, singed and drawn. man what a lopad of gear to pack out. 7 people make for plenty of boat trips and the first run up the river with me, Andy, Jason and The Big V aboard took forever at jogging pace. Sort of reminded me of the old days with the sea nymph and old Evinrude when a slow trip from Ngatea was an hour odd.
Home at 3.30 feeling really happy to have got a hunt under the belt.
Adding 42 birds to the tally brings season total to 210 odd. Pretty good going I reckon.
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