Thread: North island upland hunting

Originally Posted by Dogroll

I'd be keen to jump in on this as well if anyone's organising something. 14 kms today for one flush - a hen.

Could be worse. local F&G have just published the results of last years Pheasant Permit here. I'm still trying to bag one. Missed the only rooster I found last year.........................twice
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Pheasant Hunters May 2013 Newsletter
Published on Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Pheasant hunting in the Nelson Marlborough Region, 2012 season summary.

Pheasant hunting in the Nelson Marlborough Region has until recently largely been restricted to 3 weekends per season and only in the portion of the region defined as the “pheasant area”. This all changed for the 2012 season after meetings were held with keen pheasant hunters. As a result of these meetings and feedback received it was decided to trial pheasant hunting on private land during the entire 2012 season. In addition it was also decided to open up pheasant hunting on all publicly administered land within the region on the 3 pheasant weekends. The main reason for this trial was to encourage hunters to liberate and look after pheasants throughout the region.

Pheasant hunting within the Nelson Marlborough Region is by permit only. The permit is free of charge with the condition that hunters record their efforts in a diary and return it at the end of the season. The diary potentially gives Fish and Game the opportunity to look at changes in pheasant abundance and habits which would be too expensive and impractical if trying to monitor the birds themselves.

Diary Returns

In the 2012 pheasant hunting trial Nelson Marlborough Fish and Game issued 57 permits and diaries. Unfortunately diary return was poor with a return rate of only 44%. Some feedback suggests that some diaries were not returned, particularly by successful hunters, for fear of having their hunting locations exposed and inundated by hunters. If this applies to you, rest assured that Fish and Game has no intention of doing this or making any reference to specific hunting locations. Information passed back to permit holders will be general in nature and along similar lines to what is contained in this update.

25 diaries were returned, of which 6 recorded no hunting effort. From the 25 returned diaries the following number of hunters indicated that they were undertaking these enhancement efforts: 3 planting, 3 predator control, 2 feeding, 1 releasing pheasants.

The 19 diaries that were returned by active permit holders contained information covering 30 hunters. Hunters spent 126 days hunting pheasants, putting in an average of 3.4 hours of hunting on these days. Success rates compared with effort were generally low. Active permits holders on average bagged 1 pheasant every 11 days or 39 hours of hunting. In total 11 pheasants were harvested from 426 hours of hunting. A summary of the results from these diaries is contained in the table below.

Land Status Cocks Shot Cocks Seen Hens Seen Hours spent Hunter days
Public 7 23 29 278 69
Private 4 27 37 148 57
Totals 11 50 66 426 126

The table shows that effort from these hunters on public lands was nearly double that put in on private land. Whilst pheasant encounters on private land were slightly more than on public land in total, and nearly twice as frequent, interestingly the number of hours per cock pheasant shot did not vary much between public and private land being 40 and 37 hours respectively.

Comments and feedback received from hunters has been little and varied. One noted a good day and a great day, another noting a very poor day and worst ever day. One hunter was thankful for the opportunity and hopes that it will continue whilst another felt very strongly that the declining pheasant population does not need any more pressure from hunters.

The 2013 Season

Nelson Marlborough Fish and Game has decided to extend the pheasant hunting trial to cover at least three seasons. This means that pheasant hunting will be available on the same terms in the region for this season (2013) and again in 2014. The reason for this decision and to inform pheasant hunters of it is to try and provide more incentive for hunters to rear/release/enhance habitat for pheasants, particularly on private land, given the general lack of enhancement efforts being put in but active hunters, as recorded in the diary returns.

As a result of feedback there has been a slight change made to the regulation booklet for the 2013 season for reason of clarification, being that public administered land includes all Crown Forest Land.

No photos were received from 2012 permit holders and that is why there are no photos in this update. The good news is pheasant hunting is again available this season so get your permit and remember to return your diary at the end of the season, hopefully with one or two photos depicting your success.

Thank you to those of you who did return the 2012 diaries. I wish you all the best for the 2013 season and look forward to getting your diaries back and providing you with a newsletter comparing the upcoming season, hopefully favourably, with the last one.

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