The 2025 duck hunting opening weekend shaped up to be different. I was looking at heading to my roots in the Waikato, but lack of rain there made it very dry in the swamp. Thankfully, I could tag along with my father-in-law, Barry, to a property in North Canterbury.
Then came the weather warnings for extreme rain, which was a concern, as to get onto the property, we had to ford a small river. Talking with the farmer, he crossed it with the water just below the headlights of his 4wd. That was early in the week with the rivers still rising.
It was time to pack the car to head up to the farm on Thursday night. It was loaded with everything I thought I’d need, including sleeping gear, cookers, and water in case we could not make it in and ended up camping elsewhere. This also included all my different blinds, laydown, pop-up, camo nets and poles.
It was time to make the journey up north of Christchurch, where there was a lot of water around and plenty of ducks taking advantage of it. I made it to the farmer’s gate without any issues of closed roads or washouts. The water across the ford was low enough to cross safely, but looking at the tide mark, it wouldn’t have been passable at the peak.
Quickly dropping my gear off into the shearers’ quarters, we were off to the pond to set up the decoys and check the condition of the pond. A Friday night decoy set up is different to what we normally do. This gave us a chance to see how high the water was and if the hide would be huntable.
The pond was very full, with about 25mm of water over the floor of the hide. There was a coating of mud on top of the wood, which made the floor slippery. Time for me to jump in the rowboat and set the decoys out while the others built their hides to give the pond coverage.
With the set up mostly done the night before, we got a sleep-in, at least on opening morning. Getting out of bed just after 5.00am with a relaxed breakfast and getting the blind bags sorted, we were set up at the pond at 6.30am, ready to go.
We didn’t have to wait too long before we started getting some birds flying around. I struggled early on to see them in the dark against the background of some pine trees. The others got into some birds, which pushed a shoveler straight over my head, and with a single shot, I bagged the bird. This was a great start to my morning and a confidence booster.
The ducks kept trickling in and decoying well. We were able to make the most of the smaller groups they were in, with not many birds getting away. With the birds who did sneak in, we were able to share them. They didn’t have a chance to get out again without having to go past one of us. This happened a few times as I was looking in the wrong direction when they were coming in from behind.
The morning ticked along quite fast, and I had mostly clean kills with only one duck that might have been wounded but was found dead not far from where it went into the willows. There were some shocking complete misses, but these were taken care of by the others. The absolute example of this was a swan crossing at about 20 metres, three shots from me with complete misses, but Barry was onto it with a beautiful 50 metre shot from his position.
The highlight of my morning was two separate ducks that had already been shot at, with the other ducks being taken. By calling very aggressively on “The Mutt,” I pulled them back over the hide and killed them while flying through fast and high.
There was plenty of shooting around the region, with some sounding very close. I can only assume it was on the river nearby. It was tough as it appeared with all the water lying in paddocks around the district, the ducks were quite happy to hole up on this instead of coming to the pond.
Looking around, there were puddles with up to a dozen ducks in places, and they were well dispersed around the area.
Ace had a great morning and was as eager as ever. For a 10-year-old labrador, he is working great and not showing his age.
We packed up at 11.00am with the final pick up of birds. We had 47, including four shovelers, two paradise ducks and a swan. It was a great morning hunt for the four of us, and overall, I was happy with how I shot.
After lunch, we went and stalked a few stretches of the river that runs through the property. We targeted the area where we could get on top of the birds. We picked up another three mallards, bringing our total to 50 birds.
As the night shoot loomed, we split up. Two of the guys headed to the main pond, Barry went to a night pond he had been feeding to see what might turn up there. I decided to sit under some willows next to a flooded paddock.
I got set up with just my mojo decoy running intermittently, but I needed to relieve myself and had two ducks whipping in low and fast. I wasn’t quick enough to react. Then another two ducks came wheezing past in the opposite direction to where I was looking.
This was frustrating, but it’s all part of the sport and keeps it fresh and challenging.
Not too much later, I pulled a single hen into the mojo and took her cleanly with one shot. A nice, simple retrieve for Ace over the flooded paddock. This was a fun little night shoot, even with only one duck being shot.
The other ponds had some good shooting with another 14 birds coming from them, bringing our Saturday total to a respectable 65 birds, a great day out.
Sunday morning was a slower start, with even Ace needing some encouragement to get out of the vehicle. Barry and I headed to the main pond to see what would happen. This also allowed for an easy pack up of the decoys and hides. The others went to try a different morning pond.
We had a slow morning with only a few birds flying about. We had four mallards come straight in and land down the other end of the pond to where we were set up. I sneaked over the stop bank to try and push them back towards Barry, but when I was right where they landed and about 10 metres short of where I wanted to pop up. Barry started calling, and there was a single drake circling. I quickly stopped and tried to stay as still as possible. The drake dropped down to about 30 metres and flew directly over my head. Deciding that a bird in the hand is better than the what ifs with the four on the pond. I stood up, missed with the first shot, gave it a bit more lead and down it came.
The other four got up but stayed low so I couldn’t get a shot over the stop bank. Three went out the wrong way, but one went towards Barry, but unfortunately, it made its escape.
That ended my opening weekend, I was happy it ended on a high note of that final drake. The others got three on the other pond and a total tally of 69 birds for the weekend, and some might say a very nice number indeed.
The real work began after some morning tea and coffee, with the start of processing all the birds. Four hours later, all the mallards plucked and gutted (except for a handful too shot up or full of pin feathers, which had the breast and legs taken off them), the swan and paradise ducks were breasted, ready for the pot.
Thanks to Barry for organising the hunt and doing all the hard work. Stay tuned for other adventures for the season, and I hope all those who headed out had a successful weekend and good luck for the rest of the season.
