Sea ducks

Damn, today was fun. After the summer work on The Booger, getting her ready with blind and decoy strings, it was finally time to take her out. I met Tim at 04:00 after another episode of interrupted sleep (awake at 02:00) and we headed off for the Piako River mouth. Forecast was for south west 15kt breezes, but as we descended onto the Hauraki Plains it became evident that there was a near freeze on as the temperature gauge registered 3 degrees. This was a bit of a bad omen, frosty conditions are a precursor to a still day on the plains and we needed wind.We launched at about 05:30 and headed downstream with GPS showing the way. We motored out of the mouth, and rounded the marker buoy before heading back inshore to the mangroves. As we motored in as quietly as possible, ducks could be heard everywhere. The first decoy deployment was a bit of a handful, especially as I wrapped the main backbone of the decoy line around the prop. Not so bad on a calm sea, but not a mistake I'm keen to repeat... anyway our spread looked a bit lost in the tops of the mangroves sticking just above the high water mark. Ducks flew all around us, landing just out of range or moving just where we weren't.

Tim checks his gear

Then a big drake came by and I missed him twice before dumping him into the mangroves. We puttered over but couldn't find him. More ducks landed near by, but frustratingly out of range. They swam off rather than in... the tide began to move out. We probed the bottom with our long handled net and found that we were in only a couple of feet of water, so retrieved the dekes and moved out a hundred metres. We set the dekes and then a Mallard hen made a pass. I fired 4 times and she kept going.... we talked, drank coffee and waited. Ducks moved high overhead, some checking the spread bit not committing. It was still out there, not a ripple moved on the water.

Not duck conditions...

We needed waves and wind. Ducks kept moving. Finally a drake cupped his wings and came in. I hit him fatally and we were on the board. We dropped the pick on a buoy and motored over. Success! A beautiful bird and a grand maiden duck for the boat.

The tide relentlessly bored out, so we moved again. With sun burn a real threat, we scanned the sea. Ducks could be seen sitting out in the distance. We glassed them with Tim's binos, and could see maybe 80 birds around the place, but not thousands or anything like that. All too soon, the allotted leaving time arrived. We had to leave ourselves enough time to re-enter the river mouth safely. We motored our way back to the ramp, and as we pulled out, Piako Pete, the local flounder man pulled in. His sage observation that it was quiet, with not many ducks around was not quite what we had observed for ourselves, but its all relative and he's used to seeing thousands, not tens of birds out there.

That was the most fun I've had on the sea for quite some time.