Both Barrels July 2024 - Taranaki

Still time to hunt pheasant and quail

The hunting season for pheasant and California quail runs through until Sunday 25th August in Taranaki, with a daily bag limit of two cock pheasant and five quail.

Permits for hunting in Harakeke and Tauwhare forests near Whanganui are available in a weekly draw. To participate in the draw, hunters must obtain a free permit from Taranaki Fish & Game (either 021 270 0239 or taranaki@fishandgame.org.nz), then prior to noon each Thursday contact Taranaki Fish & Game to go into the draw for a permit for the coming weekend.

For the Nukumaru hunting area there is no weekly draw, but hunters need a permit from Taranaki Fish & Game and they must contact the respective grazing lessee listed on their permit prior to hunting. A special condition for Nukumaru block’s 4 and 5 is that in accordance with conditions in the lease agreement with Whanganui District Council, permission must be granted by the lease holder before access to those blocks is permitted.

There is also a lot of good pheasant habitat available outside these permitted areas, in coastal sand country, exotic forestry, lupin, broom, box-thorn, ink weed and briar patches. The best pheasant hunting tends to occur on bright days, although Taranaki pheasants can also be active in the rain and drizzle! Sunny spells have the birds moving about from daybreak to mid-morning and again from midafternoon to dusk.

..and pukeko

The hunting season for pukeko also runs through to 25 August, with a daily bag limit of 10 in Area C (Taranaki province), and 5 in Areas A and B (Waimarino and Whanganui).

Every year, Fish & Game receives complaints about pukeko causing damage to emerging maize crops, pecking holes in silage wrap and silage pit covers, pulling out new riparian plantings and raiding commercial horticultural crops. Farmers will therefore welcome a harvest of birds from these areas, with populations generally most abundant in the wetter northern and central areas of the Taranaki ringplain.

Pukeko can make for exciting hunting when flushed from cover with a dog. Damp or wet mornings are often the best time to hunt pukes as they come out from cover to feed in paddocks and along stream riparian margins. A walk-up shoot with a line of several hunters and dogs around areas of suitable habitat is often a good way to get onto some pukeko.

A reminder to return duck bands

If you've successfully harvested a duck with a band this season, please let us have the details of the band number, your email address and the date and approximate location where the duck was shot. In return for helping us with our research and management you’ll receive a return email including the species, sex and age of the bird when banded (adult or juvenile), when & where the bird was banded and the distance between the recovery location and banding site.

The preferred method is to fill out an on-line form via this link or else contact the Taranaki Fish & Game office on 0212700239 or email taranaki@fishandgame.org.nz

Send in your band details before August 31, and you'll go in the Banding Together draw to win one of five prizes consisting of two boxes of Banded XD (extra detail) decoys. This includes one box of mallards and one box of NZ shoveler decoys.  Select here for more details and entry form.