Good Day For Ducks

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30740, 3 May 1965, Page 3

Good Day For Ducks

The first day of the 1965 duck-shooting season on Saturday proved generally favourable to the ducks. They flew high out of range in clear skies while many shooters below them went home cold and empty handed.

Some parts of Canterbury, Otago and Wairarapa were exceptions to the general rule. In those areas shooters seemed satisfied they had the upper hand over the ducks. In Canterbury good bags were limited to a few areas on the opening day of the duck shooting season at Lake Ellesmere on Saturday. Freak weather condition baffled both ducks and shooters. In a generally fine day, a sudden hailstorm sent shooters scurrying for cover. However, rain from the south-west gave shooters the best possible conditions, and many marksmen were embarrassed by the number of ducks dropping.

Some shooters considered it the best opening for years, and one group, Messrs T. G. and G. F. Davie and R. Ball,

bagged 11 ducks and three swans. Others were not so sure.

Mr J. Welsford, who shot a swan and two ducks, said he did better in the fine weather last year. The weather had cleared by 9.30 a.m., but the shooters had already had plenty of variety. Some reported the hail had even dented their decoys.

Results were patchy in the Auckland province, where few limit bags were reported. Lake Whangape, near Rangiriri, was virtually surrounded by shooters, the Press Association reported.

The weather was almost ideal when the first shot was fired with low cloud and rain, but within an hour it cleared. Six limit bags were reported among the many shooters along the Kaituna river. Lack of game and clearing skies disappointed shooters in South Canterbury.

The chief field officer of the South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society (Mr J. T. F. Bull) said results had been generally poor and only a few good bags had been secured. Small Bag

Only small bags averaging about four ducks were reported in Southland, although opening day shooting conditions were about the best for 20 years. Because of storms last week, rivers were swollen and prevented many shooters reaching their stands.

Favourable weather and plenty of ducks added up to a good opening to the season in Otago. “It seems it was a pretty good start fbr most shooters,” the secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society (Mr J. M. Checketts) said today. In Wairarapa fine weather favoured the ducks, but shooters were helped by a fresh breeze and limit bags were reported from several districts. A party of five at Lake Wairarapa enjoyed the best shoot for years when three guns claimed limit bags. A shooter from Te Ore Ore, near Masterton, with a limit bag, also reported the best opening day’s shoot for five years.

Limit bags were obtained on the backwaters of the Ruamahanga river.