Central South Island > Hunting News May 2008

Early season round-up
Graeme Hughes, Fish and Game Officer.

For the waterfowl hunter “opening day” weather in the region was rather peculiar . Inland hunters experienced fine  and calm conditions while  out to sea towering storm clouds chased along by a strong cold southerly wind raced northwards. Laced with intermittent showers this front extended eastwards to include a narrow strip of the coastal region  bringing what many would describe as perfect duck hunting conditions.

Dog with ducks “Pip’s first retrieves’ Photo by Hamish Stevens

Ideal duck hunting weather not always advantageous.
I spent my day at Lake Wainono, a shallow 335 hectare coastal separated from the sea by a narrow shingle dune. The pre season count of about 8500 game birds indicated that the hunter harvest should be good if weather conditions were appropriate. The strong  and icy wind  whipped the lake into impressive white capped, brown waves and despite this being my big sacrifice of the year, chasing duck hunters and not ducks, I felt quite comfortable in my vehicle and I did not feel  the slightest bit envious of the hunters in their hides out on the lake. As the wind rocked the Hi-Lux and the wiper blades struggled with driving rain, in stark contrast to stormy skies, huge Pacific breakers tossed brilliant white spray and foam into the air as it pounded the shingle dune 2.5 km away on the far side of the lake. Ducks, swans,  and geese were restless in the conditions and flew constantly, mostly moving into the wind seeking  shelter.  Today was “one out of the box”, dream weather conditions for the duck hunter, the ducks were on the move , but stupid they were not. The regimented lines of hides each with its own “lean to” boat shelter are far from natural and from my observation point, ducks in flocks or singles avoided every edifice. If flying low the ducks  gave them a wide berth, if flying high they flew higher. Gunshots could be heard all day mostly at the southern end and as I wiped away the condensation from the windscreen, effects of my third cup of flask coffee, incredibly now and again I could see ducks plummet from the heights. Then came the race against the elements. Because powered vessels and sailboats are prohibited on Lake Wainono, the hunters have to jump into their boats, exit the hide and row to catch up and retrieve the downed bird. That’s the easy bit, although spotting a low lying dead bird in the waves would require a fair degree of luck, rowing back into the wind and waves must have been quite an effort.  Long shots in the conditions they faced would have largely been wasted effort and ammo as the chance of finding a distant duck in the waves would have been slim. I’m assuming that had conditions been less chaotic more shots may have been fired and more ducks would have been taken.

“Mallards on a  newly constructed irrigation storage pond one of many which could provide hunting opportunities throughout the season” Photo by Hamish Stevens

Ducks lost due to the rough lake conditions.
The wind dropped off mid afternoon, however with sudden, intermittent  squalls, rowing small boats was still a challenge. Some hunters took  advantage of the improved lake conditions and vacated hides . During my checks of licences, birds and ammunition most of them told me about the conditions, which were plainly obvious,  and as I had assumed, because of this many of their birds were lost. I’m guessing that a man with a reasonable retriever would have no problems in gathering  a limit bag if he wandered around the northern shoreline that evening.

The harvest was variable, the conditions suited some locations on the lake but not all. One hunter came in with one bird, another with two. Then there were 6’s, 10’s and a 17 with some anywhere between. The best bag I checked was 40 mallards and 6 Canadas’, a good effort given the conditions.

The day I believe was quite an ordeal for these hunters. Cold, strong winds and lengthy rowboat retrieves in atrocious conditions for less ducks than expected. Some Wainono hunters may be rethinking on what are ideal duck hunting conditions and what are not.

Wainono duck hunters head for shore as the storm abates.

Allegations unproven.
With persistent rumours of lead shot being used on Lake Wainono one of the reasons for being there was to check out the situation, listen to the hunters, about who’s shooting where and with what.  With 90% of the hides out in the lake it is not possible to approach unseen and rowing a boat will not “take them by surprise”. Obviously any illegal cartridges are jettisoned if an unknown vessel approaches. They may throw away their cartridges but I figured they’re not going to toss overboard any ducks, a) because they’re too damned valuable and  hard to get, b) they don’t sink and could easily be observed and retrieved.

If the ducks come in and the illegal ammo doesn’t, then the ducks may still hold the evidence. Plucking the ducks had no appeal, but an acquaintance  owns a high tech” metal detector, the kind that looks like a mine detector. It has an audible signal as well as an LED read out, a positive and negative graph display. The device will even take a guess at what the detector has discovered with the words “dime”, “quarter”, “nickel”, “ring”, “screw top”, “ring tab”, “foil” appearing on the screen. If I just waited out of view I could check their ammo and then check the ducks. I played with the detector for several hours on the Friday prior to test the several settings available and became  reasonably proficient with as many as 5 pellets being enough to register on the detector screen.  I know what your saying, some ducks may only have retained one or two pellets which may not be sufficient to register a response. Correct  but over the entire bag on average there would be some birds with more and it is the overall picture which should indicate if your hunter is a “baddy” or a “goody”.

As each hunter arrived I got him to lay his ducks in a row (on a “clean” patch of ground. i.e. previously tested to make sure there were no metals buried there) and then produced the secret weapon. Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately all the signals received showed a negative or “trash” signal which is iron or steel, something you don’t want to register when you’re looking for valuable treasures. Because lead is non ferrous it will show on the positive graph and depending on the number of pellets in the bird, usually few, the message can vary from worthless foil to a valuable ring. No I didn’t strike any bismuth, but I was prepared for such an occurrence.
 
Geese registered best, being larger and on average probably carrying a few more pellets than the smaller mallard.

Although no transgressors were apprehended it is highly likely that the “bush telegraph”, and cell phones, alerted any hunters I didn’t see, and if anyone was tempted “to use up some old lead shot cartridges” they may now think twice about it. Law enforcement with metal detection and identification equipment adds a new dimension to checking the hunters bag.

Steel shot acceptance
The good thing about opening day for me was, not one hunter I spoke to mentioned steel shot let alone said anything bad about steel shot.  And this on public water where there was a strong and vocal anti steel shot feeling amongst many hunters. The hunting is very competitive here and on average longer shots are often necessary. I have been told by several hunters recently, that some of the quality steel now available (high velocity)  is so good, they wouldn’t consider using lead again even in areas where it is legal to do so. It shows you that keen hunters will just get out there and do it. 

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