Both Barrels June 2022

Game bird hunters have a new long weekend for hunting (23rd-25th June) so get out there and explore our public land opportunities in North Canterbury.

From scouting for duck camps and quailon the riverbeds to scouting avariety of birds around Lake Ellesmere.

Allowing you to familiarise yourself with the areaso you know where to go and set up in the dark if need be.

So far in our region, we have had predominantly northerly winds which still providegreat hunting over big water whether you’re hunting a large irrigation pond or hunting a lake.

You just need to adapt and position yourself differently, so the birds are committing to your decoys appropriately.

Talking with a few very passionate game bird hunters about how the hunting on Lake Ellesmere has been, it potentially isn’t holding as many birds as this time last year.

Some say that this could be due to a few things e.g., low lake level, but if you do your homework then there is still good hunting to be had.

However, the Selwyn River has risen up to 30m3/s this week, so this will help fill up the lake, be sure to check the lake level on the Ecan website https://www.ecan.govt.nz/data/riverflow/.

Once it gets over the 1m mark then I would highly recommend getting out there when we have a big wind in the forecast as the ducks will get attracted to the freshly flooded margins and this should also entice more ducks to the lake.

We have also made another “How To” video on decoy rigging for windy conditions out on the big water, be sure to check it out on the Fish and Game NZ YouTube channel.

You don’t want to be chasing or losing your decoys which you’ve invested a lot of money and time into so rigging them up is very important.

Hot Barrels

Harry Graham-Samson, North Canterbury Fish & Game