This Saturday marks the annual start to the gamebird shooting season throughout New Zealand.

Eastern Region Fish & Game are encouraging shooter to be adaptive to the conditions to enhance their success.

Wet weather in the week leading up to the opening will likely have waterfowl spending time on flooded paddocks, rather than farm ponds, wetlands, and lakes.

Ducks love to feed on worms and grubs brought up by wet conditions so hunters should look to flooded grassy paddocks.

Sometimes the simplest of set-ups is all that is needed to shoot over paddocks.

A pop-up maimai or a camo net and some locally sourced scrub, a few decoys and a caller is all that is needed.

Eastern Fish & Game's senior officer Matthew McDougall says the season is set to be productive as we come out of a good duck breeding season.

'Trapping numbers, brood counts, and our modelling, all indicate it has been a good breeding season so hunters should be very happy.”

Fish & Game will have teams of rangers out over the opening weekend checking for compliance with the regulations and monitoring success rates.

About 36,000 shooters will be about around New Zealand this weekend for the season start.

Hunters are reminded that good preparation and planning make for a successful season. Ensuring everything is set-up and working well in advance, licencing and firearms safety should all be top priorities for the weekend ahead.