Paul "from NZ" Stenning
05-05-2007, 02:24 AM
Murray and I hunted our traditional opening day spot which is a pond on my brother-in-laws farm.
We were in the mai mai by shooting time this morning (7am) after putting out 60 GHG OS Mallards and Blacks and also some Cabela's real image dekes. All the ponds around us started shooting, it sounded like a war was going on as all the ducks went to the ponds where they have been baited which is legal here in NZ. We do not do any baiting on our pond just wait for everyone to spook up the ducks and then start calling and let the GHG dekes do the rest. By 7.15am when it was light enough for the Mallards to see our decoys we had the first pair decoy perfectly, by 8.10am we had our limit of 40 Mallards all shot within 30 yards using 1 1/8 oz loads of steel 4s. we only had to wring 3 necks, that is what I call good decoying!
Another highlight of the day was Murrays new lab pup called Bob who fetched his first ducks and went really well, My lab Brook also worked very well.
We will hunt a different spot tomorrow morning using my GHG full body resters and sleepers, opening Sunday is normally a tough day after the hammering ducks get today so will be a real chalenge.
Murray takes a shot from the mai mai
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/852/murrayun6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Another pair decoys
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5007/incomingpe7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
They just ate up the Avery GHG dekes
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5682/hoveringfx4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The dogs with the bag after some fast and furious work
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8157/40mallardsjj5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
We were in the mai mai by shooting time this morning (7am) after putting out 60 GHG OS Mallards and Blacks and also some Cabela's real image dekes. All the ponds around us started shooting, it sounded like a war was going on as all the ducks went to the ponds where they have been baited which is legal here in NZ. We do not do any baiting on our pond just wait for everyone to spook up the ducks and then start calling and let the GHG dekes do the rest. By 7.15am when it was light enough for the Mallards to see our decoys we had the first pair decoy perfectly, by 8.10am we had our limit of 40 Mallards all shot within 30 yards using 1 1/8 oz loads of steel 4s. we only had to wring 3 necks, that is what I call good decoying!
Another highlight of the day was Murrays new lab pup called Bob who fetched his first ducks and went really well, My lab Brook also worked very well.
We will hunt a different spot tomorrow morning using my GHG full body resters and sleepers, opening Sunday is normally a tough day after the hammering ducks get today so will be a real chalenge.
Murray takes a shot from the mai mai
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/852/murrayun6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Another pair decoys
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5007/incomingpe7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
They just ate up the Avery GHG dekes
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5682/hoveringfx4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The dogs with the bag after some fast and furious work
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8157/40mallardsjj5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)