We might now be facing the biggest threat to our sport since the 70's/80's. ​In this era of Sage, we have gone in a big circle. We thought we were past the destructiveness and “if it hops it drops” mentality. By this I am referring to the chopper pilots cleaning out areas. The 70’s and 80’s were particularly bad for it, when Heli-hunting really took off and we were left with very little game to hunt. My father always said my generation of young fellas don’t know how lucky we are. The hunting opportunities that exist now compared to his day are much better. A vivid memory was an old tacky looking Fallow deer head hanging up in the garage when I was a wee fella. I asked him why its not in the house, and he said its cause its not a very good one. He’d shot it on the Albury range. This is the Albury Park herd, and a characteristic of these heads is their split palm. This one had a bit of length, little palms, and the split palm. They were never imported for trophies- just for a meat herd. He got that one mounted, as at that time in history, there wasn’t much better around. Meanwhile in the house there were a lot better heads from before the days of the choppers. It would have been demoralising to have grown up in that era. Hunters seemed to have less of a voice then- there wasn’t any backlash from hunters from what I’ve heard, but I may be wrong. Nowadays when the Tahr cull has been proposed there’s a huge backlash from the public- and that’s due to more hunters. Yes, there are more hunters around nowadays where a lot of people see that as a bad thing, but I think it has its positives. We have more of a voice, and politicians are more likely to listen to us because we make up more of the voting population. Groups like DoC will consider us more in issues because we make up a bigger proportion of outdoor users.
The early 2010’s saw us have a game animal council (GAC) formed. This was a huge break through as we now had a voice in parliamentary issues. Game animals were now being recognised as for what they are- a valuable resource, one that needs to be appropriately managed. In high numbers yes, they are a problem- but where there is a small, highly valued, and sustainable hunting resource it’s a win-win for everyone. Hunters get enjoyment out of the sport, which in turn brings economic growth to more remote areas creating jobs and bringing money to the regions (for example the West Coast with a small population). Overseas hunters bring in export revenue which in turn we can use to enhance our natural environment. Many political parties who are environmentally leaning struggle to explain how we can pay for all their policies- and the unfortunate truth is that money spent on enhancing the natural environment doesn’t bring a return on investment (that’s not entirely true as there’s tourism), however there isn’t a direct return. Eugenie Sage is very opinionated and has her own agenda on how her “ideal New Zealand” would look like. She wants no introduced species, New Zealand back to the way it was before anyone stepped foot on our shores. That’s not a realistic goal, we need a balance between environment and economy. Times have changed since then. Yes, we want to conserve native species that are apart of our identity, but we must be real about what we want to achieve.
I’ve got several friends who are hunters in North America, and a lot are asking me about the Tahr issue now. Saying they’ve heard about it, and what’s happening. Explaining the whole thing to them is plain embarrassing. North America has nothing like that, and all the game is managed very well. They find it hard to understand, and I do as well.
If the government gets another three years in power, that would be damaging for us. She’s keen to get rid of the trout, and all game animals. Its amazing how much influence one person in the wrong place can have. That’s why as hunters, we need to keep the foot to the throat. We can’t afford to lose our hard-earned resources all because of one politicians’ agenda. We need to keep fighting even if we think we’re losing. And from what the NZDA has been saying, the pressure is working. It might not get realized for a while, but that’s life. Ignorance makes it hard to get our point across, but I am of the opinion hunters have the more balanced viewpoint. We realize numbers need to be cut back, but we want a sustainable well managed population. None of us wants to be telling the next generation we don’t have the opportunities now than what we did have because we did nothing. So keep fighting. 

Thanks to Mark Hubbard (@kiwitroutstalker on Instagram) for sending in this wrap up of the last fishing season- hope everyone else's season was enjoyable and you improved somewhat. I can't wait for next years one!
As promised, the 2019/20 trout fishing season produced some very large trout due to the beech mast in some locations around New Zealand. With mice numbers exploding eventually, they are forced to swim in search of more sweet tasting beech seeds. As they enter waterways and lakes, the tables are turned in the trout’s favour to which the rodents become food. With all this added protein, trout reach trophy size (10lb+) quickly, gaining weight as the season progresses. I saw some impressive pictures of these monsters last season with a lot above 15lb.
Sadly, I only managed one trip into the mice zone territories late in the season, so the fish were very spooky. They weren’t so eager to hit the small nymphs as I’d hoped, but a lovely young brown landed tipped the scales at 9.5lb…. oh, so close!
My district still produced a few personal bests from favourite rivers although due to a few large flood events over the off season, this resulted in fewer numbers seen than in other years.
I generally fish locally, mostly day trips with a few three to four-night exploratory trips further afield.
These are special times for me and no doubt other keen fisho’s as the season seems to race through quickly, never having succeeded in searching all rivers on my “to fish” list.
One trip done annually to the remote wilderness became my most memorable for the season, I got dropped off on the lake edge, full pack and gear with the plan to head up a valley to a hut, stay a night then head back down to search a waterway up another valley the next few days.
With a boat tied up at the river mouth and obvious fresh boot prints following the water’s edge I skipped the lower water, hiking up the valley an hour and a half over a gorge to avoid the guys already on the river and hopefully finding undisturbed fish.
This proved correct although the fish were few and far between, I was almost at the hut before finding a good fish feeding in a shallow run, these offer the best chance of a hook up as they have little time to inspect the fly and  also the ripple can disguise a sloppy cast which may normally spook a fish.
Well after what seemed like hours and hundreds of fly changes and accurate casts the fish moved off to the center of the river, “spooked bugger”, but as I was about to head up I thought bugger it one last shot. The tiny nymph was removed, and a large cicada terrestrial fly was attached. It floats nearer the fish’s large snout. It breaks the surface to take. The strike was timed just right and the result a 9 lb jack brown, the largest fish I’ve ever landed from this river.
The remaining few days bought a few more great fish to the net, but this guy topped my trip and just maybe he will be there again next season.
Another nice surprise was finally exploring a lovely small spring creek, looked at for the last thirty odd years. Discovering lovely golden browns in such a small clear stream was a magic experience, and with some pushing 5 lb making more trips back a no brainer.
Another special part of the season is also hooking up with mates to wander the valleys and rivers with, two of which live well outside my district so it’s a great excuse to catch up, camp out, drink a bit of whiskey and of course have a fish as well. If you wish you can, check out some of our adventures (link at the bottom of the page).
The season for me ended March 25th, the day before the COVID-19 level 4 lock down came into force, to which I landed a nice fish from a new river close to town, so am thankful for that last shot.
I feel I had a very good shortened season with many cracking fish landed, not the elusive 10 pounder but close, as well as the newly discovered streams, campsites, and most importantly newly formed memories. 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtXcYKZa2TUtASM0t-wSJKw

Ethics around hunting is discussed all the time, and there are many different viewpoints on what people perceive to be right or wrong. Ethics are defined as being the moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity. As hunting is largely an individualist pastime, it is often up to the person doing it (or people) doing it at the time to make a call. It is the same with fishing, however it’s a bit more regulated, leaving less up to the individual. Hunting in New Zealand is one of the most unregulated in the world- where else can you simply get a permit online, grab your rifle and ammo, for only the cost of food and fuel for their vehicle and go hunting or fishing? I believe this also comes at a cost because there is less trophy quality around, which again comes down to people’s ethics. This is where it pays to match up personalities when in the hills. For the aspiring trophy hunter, they are likely after the big stag or the big bull and are likely to leave everything until they come across the big one. On the other hand, someone might just want to shoot something, that will be anything. It’s always the classic argument amongst New Zealand hunters about young stags- leave them or shoot them? The trophy hunter says leave it, it’ll be a trophy one day and pass on his genes. The meat hunter will say that you can’t eat antlers and proceed to shoot the animal. The latter in my view is more detrimental to the future of the population, but I understand that hunters who don’t get the opportunity to hunt often will often want to shoot the first thing they see- I notice this on the farm bringing people out. I’m lucky enough to go out there pretty much whenever I like, and I often forget that. Taking someone inexperienced I might get them onto a young buck, but once they’ve got one under their belt, they should be aiming for something a bit bigger. Being fussy won’t sit well with them for a start, so I’ll get them onto a deer then encourage them to get onto a bigger goal. Where I was guiding in Canada it was a much easier explanation- in the area I was in, anything with antlers was legal, so no cows or yearlings. In New Zealand if someone is on public land and has a permit or private land with permission, they can shoot any game animal they want. A quote from Aldo Leopold has a good point- “A virtue in wildlife ethics is the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than a mob of onlookers.” Especially if one is alone, they don’t have to tell anyone anything they did if they don’t want to. Exaggeration of stories seems a result of this, and its easy to pick after a while if people say every time “it’s the hugest stag I’ve seen” all the time. The one that got away always seems to be the biggest one! Where your ethics lie depends on most likely one’s upbringing, background and what their personal situation. Someone who’s struggling to make ends meet is hardly going to be picky about what they take, and that’s all understandable. We also don’t need people getting up on their high horse telling people what they should be doing- you don’t know their story and what they’re going through. The New Zealand outdoors environment is a unique one in that none of our game animals are in fact native. All were introduced with the early settlers from Europe, Asia, and North America. As a result, we are less sentimental about them, and North America is at the opposite end of the spectrum. For Canada, the Moose is pretty much their national icon. This makes the subject of Moose hunting a slightly sensitive topic amongst the public. And credit to them, they have the best game management system in the world. Wildlife biologists are surveying numbers in the area before the season opens and they determine how many individuals can be taken out, and this translates to how many tags are issued. Here, the public has had different viewpoints of them. In the early days until around the 1930’s, we had protection on game animals with a licence system. This worked alright until numbers got large with no natural predators. Government cullers were then employed to take out deer. One of my great uncle’s was one of these. He used to have bomb up’s on mobs of Tahr and shoot a whole heap then the barrel would overheat. They’d then put it in the snow to cool down! They’d have another bomb up after that. Helicopters came out and they realised there was money in venison, so populations were decimated. Attitudes now have changed to somewhere in between. Most people realise they provide recreational value to Kiwi’s, but they need to be managed appropriately. We still have diversity of opinions however, but that’s not going to change no matter what the issue is. Anyone whose hunted with me knows I’m pretty picky. When I first started, I was a lot different- I wanted to shoot anything and I kept a tally of how many deer I’d gotten. Now I’ve got a bit more experience, shot a few deer and what not, so I’m quite choosey. I need to justify in my head as why I’m taking it- is it to control the population, get some meat, take a less desirable stag out of the gene pool and so forth. Taking an animal’s life is something I don’t take lightly, and with it brings a bunch of responsibility. It feels like nature gives you a certain privilege to take an animal, and I don’t want to abuse that. When its with other people the excitement of getting them a deer takes over, but with myself I always immediately reflect on what I’ve done. Was that the right decision? Taking an animal’s life is a big decision. I’m very much a trophy hunter now, so I’ll often leave young bucks in search of an older one. I could be a lot of years before getting a big Red stag for example- but when getting it I’ll be content that I’ve earnt it and made more opportunities for others by leaving young ones. When meat hunting, I seem to get more of a buzz from seeing someone else shoot the animal. Especially if they’re not very experienced. Wasn’t like that when I started out though! I could never understand that when I was younger- my old man would always make me do the shooting. On a Tahr hunt I’d shot one, and he was lining me up for another one. “Don’t ya want to shoot one?” I protested. “Nah. Your right, you do the shooting”. I’m understanding that more and more now. When I was younger, I would often know the size of my biggest Tahr, Fallow and so forth and how many. Now it doesn’t matter to me- I’d rather just get out into the back country. There’s different phases people go through in their hunting careers and its normal for people to change. We’re meant to- its an essential part of being adaptable.
Like everyone, I’m not perfect by a long shot. I’ve got regrets about how I’ve handled situations, what I should or shouldn’t have done, not only in hunting but life in general. Cock ups are all apart of it, I’ve made my fair share of them. You can’t get too down about those sort of things, shit happens and that’s how you learn. We’re all learning no matter how long we’ve been hunting. I’ve also done it numerous times when I thought I’d lost an animal, only to find it dead a few days later. When I first got my Sako .308, I wasn’t used to deer dropping so quick. Previously I had used a .223 on Fallow deer. My fifteen-year-old self stalked up on a yearling in the grass paddock, getting to within 100 metres. Not bad I thought. Then I shot at it, and the whole mob ran away. I looked up and was used to seeing something slowly falling, and I didn’t so I presumed it was unscathed. It was just a bad shot. “Bugger, I’ve missed it” I said to myself, then headed home. I think I remember getting a shock off the fence as well, probably pay back! A couple days later Dad was out and about and told me there’s a dead yearling that’s been lung shot. So rather than missing it, it dropped stone cold! That was a waste of meat and we gave what we could to the dogs, but I learnt to check the area after that. More recently I shot a red hind and couldn’t find it. I was searching until dark, presuming it had gone away. Came back the next day and it had done a similar thing, in the same spot I’d shot it! It had just gone into a hollow and died, something any wild animal will do. I’ll always check the hollows and low points in the ground now if I can’t find it. The list keeps going on, but if you have good intent and learn from cock ups, there’s no problems.
It’s up to people individually to decide their own ethics. As deer are a public resource and many are trying to get the same thing- one must be considerate towards other people. It’s a definite grey area for outdoorspeople, and individuals could argue all day long about what’s wrong and what’s right. Let’s be real, that’s not going to achieve anything. When people get ideas about things, they are always looking for evidence to back up that viewpoint, often subconsciously. Viewpoints need to be respected, and if one is concerned about another’s ethics when hunting or fishing, take them out and do your best to show them your so called “moral high ground” rather than tell. They will most likely take it in a lot more if they follow someone’s example, rather than being told.

Thanks Jessie Wright for this- female hunters have increased a lot recently, and its only fitting (excuse the pun!) to have a clothing line especially for women. Make sure to have a look at their website and support them!
Since I was a little girl, hunting and fishing has been a massive part of my life. I came from a family of boys that where avid outdoorsman. I was holding a rod and gun as soon as I was old enough to do so, and as I grew so did my love for hunting and fishing. But as a hunter and gatherer I always struggled with finding good quality built purpose clothing for women, I always had to compromise with my clothing and had to get a size small men, which never fitted right. As a result I decided to start up my own clothing range designed for women. Forever Huntress is an outdoor clothing brand founded by Jessie wright, made by women for women. I strive to make the right quality and design clothing for kiwi women, clothing that looks good and feels comfortable doing the things we love doing. As active kiwi women we deserve a clothing range the fits right, looks good and gives us warmth and support doing what us out door girls love to do.
www.foreverhuntress.co.nz
@forever_huntress_clothing
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