DUCKS PLENTIFUL

Southland Times, Issue 22880, 4 May 1936, Page 2

DUCKS PLENTIFUL

WEEK-END BAGS WINTRY "CONDITIONS There is bound to be a difference of opinion when the question of duckshooting conditions is brought up. Some shooters might not have been as successful as others; their choice of shooting quarters might not have been a happy one or the weather which had meant ducks to others might have meant nothing but a cold in the head to them. However this may be, the general opinion among those who ventured forth to shoot ducks, or failing that, pukekos, was that ducks were as plentiful this year as last; perhaps more so. The shooting over the week-end was good in most districts and especially so at Lake Waituna and on coastal areas, because of the direction of the wind and the state of the weather. Pukeko were plentiful and nearly every sportsman was able to return to his family with an offering—even if it was only a “swampy.” Mr J. W. Smith and Mr T. Mannix experienced good sport and good weather at Pembroke. Shooting at Hawea Flat they both secured limit bags of ducks as well as securing 28 quail between them. A party which was shooting in the Thornbury district found that ducks were plentiful and conditions good. Conflicting reports have been received from sportsmen who spent their weekend in the Mossburn district. One party found the ducks plentiful, many limit-bags being secured, but another remarked that the Paradise ducks were not as .numerous as usual. Travellers in the Mossbum district experienced conditions that were trying in the extreme. Fully a foot of snow was lying on the ground on Friday and no fewer than nine cars and one truck were held up by the fall. One set of chains did noble service, but the farmer’s friend, the horse, had to be requisitioned to pull some of ■the cars from their snowy beds. Some indication of the state of the road can be gained from the fact that it took one man seven hours to travel from Linwood to Mossbum a distance of some 30 miles.