Southland > Hunting News May 2008

Southland Fish & Game Hunting News May 08

Mallard hunting in Southland was pretty good over the opening weekend with an average bag of mallards of just over 14. This is pretty close to our long term average.

The weekend was a bit wet and showery close to the coast and pretty cold with snow low down on the Takitimu Mountains and on top of the Hokonui Hills. However the sun came out and made the scene from those maimais with a good view of the mountains rather striking.

As usual hunters who had a good spread of decoys and used effective camouflage and calling techniques were the most successful.  Spinning winged decoys are a common sight on Southland ponds and are certainly effective on opening weekend.  Some parts of the region did better than others with Te Anau Basin hunters having a lean time but others in the main duck factory of Central and Eastern Southland compensating for this with higher bags.  Hunting in Northern Southland was a bit poorer than normal probably due to a complete lack of the prevailing northerly wind.  On the south coast the well known hunting area Waituna Lagoon had its best season for many years.

It is likely to be an extra expensive day for about a fifteen hunters who fell foul of the law by not having licences and/or by using lead shot over open water. These hunters had their guns and lead ammo seized and are being processed through our prosecution system.

There was a new moon over the opening weekend so this kept the ducks on their roosts at night time and forced them to fly during the day making hunting a little better than it would have been otherwise. Evening and morning flight shooting is the best time to take advantage of this monthly event.

While the Mallard population is just average this year Canada geese numbers in Southland are creeping upwards to levels that are too high. Hunters must take charge of this and shoot as many as they can. We had a goose cull last winter, after the duck hunting season, but hopefully this can be avoided this year by some dedicated hunting effort. If you don’t shoot ‘em we will have to.

There are still good numbers of parries about, although not at a level that we can have a special season as they do farther north. We have shortened the season on Shoveler so after June the 2nd the season is over for them. They have been declining nationwide so we have to cut back on the harvest of this bird. So don’t go out and make up for the reduced season! Limit your harvest and perhaps in a few years time we can have a three month season again.  Also remember that Grey Teal that zip in like Shoveler, are totally protected so if in doubt, don’t pull the trigger.

Maurice Rodway
Manager.

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