As above.
My first time shooting big water was an experience, and I came to the conclusion that it's out of my pay grade.  (I got nothing)
So I jumped some ponds on Sat afternoon and got two parrys.

we shot the mighty waikato swamp in our pond. best year ever limited our 3 guys by 10.30am saturday. had another mate drop in saturday and he got 8.
Sunday bit slower 18
Monday was a good day 28
we shot till 9am this morning for another 8.
We managed 3 bands aswell

We ended on 92 for our late corona visus opening. and boy it was worth the wait.
The mallards were in fantastic condition and really fat.

We got 39 for the weekend here in Southland,There’s 3 brothers and 1 nephew 1 in-law,2 young pups worked very well in the dense scrub,way to fine,a war zone going off around us,but that's duckshooting.GOOD to be out, ,

First limit bag for me inthe Waikato, great day and awesome bunch of blokes.
Pretty foggy in our little pond for the first few hours but when that burned off parries came in, in 2s and 4s all day.
Best decoying seemed to be when gathering around the bbq out the back of the maimai inthe open, clear as blue bird skies, not a breath of wind, "nother flight coming in" -- "shit, let me put me bacon samie down and get back out the front"

Makes you question all the stealth and whispering that went on till the fog burned off! 

One of the better openings on our pond in Southland. Only 2 of us could make it this year, normally 4 shoot on it (1 couldnt get back to NZ from Australia due to quarantine, the other one was shifting farms and had booked this weekend about a year ago specifically to avoid opening  )

Limits of 40 mallards each day, by 9.20am Sat and by 10.10am Sun. A lot of fun and a bit of a laugh pulling the leg of friends on other ponds, but also an anti-climax a little after 55 weeks of anticipation Dog worked well, and for some reason went a lot better on the Sunday than Saturday - may have had something to do with the big feed of muttonbird fat he got at Sat lunchtime

Good numbers after the wet spring. May be just imagination but the birds seemed a little fatter and better hunting (smaller groups) so perhaps a slightly later opening had some benefits.

Shot spillway manawatu best opening ever in 25 years shooting there fine and clear limits x 4 sat - sun monday on mallards 30 parries 11 geese .

Fine clear days but mallards just poured in in 2-3s all the time -
Off to Wairarapa for a week Monday hopefully as good there.