I’ve been fishing all of my life. I’ve been hunting for half of my life. Despite priding myself in engaging in the widest diversity of outdoor experiences possible and residing the past decade or so in a region renowned for its waterfowl hunting, I am ashamed to say I just never got into duck hunting.
I don’t really have a good excuse. I just never really knew anyone into duck hunting to drag me along for the ride and I always had a lot of other things going on. The appeal of waterfowl hunting makes perfect sense to me. It combines many of my favorite elements: water, hunting, bad weather and birds. So I decided it was time to change things. I decided this was the year I was to be a waterfowler.
Where does one start when they’ve made such a monumental life decision? The usual channels: books, magazines, internet research and tracking down duck hunting friends from coast to coast and harassing them into meaningful advice. I researched and bought a variety of duck calls and began practicing, much to the chagrin of my family and possibly neighbors I am quite sure. As time went on things started to come together and the duck calling got quite good, if I may say so myself.
I enjoy the planning and preparing for an outdoor adventure almost as much as the adventure itself. Nature can be completely beyond control but I try to go into every situation as prepared as possible. As the great Capt. Joshua Slocum wrote in his “Sailing Alone Around the World,” “To succeed, however, in anything at all, one should go understandingly about his work and be prepared for every emergency.” Excellent general life advice but even more apropos for outdoor pursuits.
So I had a rare chunk of five continuous days off from work to make this happen. I planned three different hunts to allow for a buffer for weather or unforeseen circumstances. I planned hunts in three very different habitats targeting different ducks just to get a taste of the varieties of duck hunting opportunities. Accompanying me on these hunts would be my father in law Tom who has become a sort of partner in crime on many outdoor excursions, although it has yet to be determined whether I am the bad influence on him or vice versa. So let’s get to the hunts. And let’s start in the swamps.
Newport River
Eastern North Carolina is famous, or maybe notorious depending on perspective, for its tannin stained black water rivers and swamps. These unique habitats are harsh and unforgiving to bipeds during the warm months due to bugs, snakes and gators but during the winter these areas are ripe for exploration.
Out starting point was the NC Wildlife Resource Commission boat ramp on Chatham St. in Newport, North Carolina. Our vessel was an Old Town Discovery 133, the work horse of my paddle fleet. The game plan was to paddle up the river as far as we pleased in an attempt to jump shoot puddle ducks. We were hoping for the usual suspects: wood ducks, mallards, widgeon or gadwalls. Tom was the in the bow seat for this is the better shooting position and he is a better wing shooter than your humble narrator. I sat in the stern seat and controlled the position of the canoe around bends and up the river.
Let me start by saying the scenery is top notch. Despite traveling under two major roadways and never being too terribly far from civilization as the crow flies, one would be hard pressed to claim they were not in some remote wilderness while paddling this stretch of river. Of the six or so miles covered on out paddle, only a few houses could be seen along the river. Other than that there were no signs of human presence.
The flooded woodlands towards the headwaters of the river, and really the entire part of the river we traversed, looked like prime duck habitat. Despite that, the only ducks we saw were a contested pair of woodies (contested because I saw them and Tom did not) that flew off long out of shotgun range. We saw a lot of other birds and heard a lot of squirrels chattering in the trees along the river bank, but no other ducks. Speaking with some local hunters since the trip, I was told that the river does hold ducks back where we were but it had just been too warm and too early for the season for numbers to show up yet ( a common theme for this years duck season, it would turn out). Regardless, it was a wonderful paddle and a place I would love to explore more before hot weather rolls in. I do believe it still has potential as a duck hunting spot but I am very curious to find out what kind of catfish may be lurking in these waters. I think a fishing trip may be in order in the not too distant future.
Cahooque Creek
Ah, Cahooque Creek. I can never say enough or write enough about Cahooque Creek. If you have followed along with previous adventures then you already know it is one of my favorite spots. Also, there are many different interpretations on the correct spelling of Cahooque Creek but I gather any and all are correct. I am not sure anyone actually knows how to spell the name correctly. Cahooque. Cohooque. Cohoogie. Who knows? It doesn’t matter. Anyways, if you are new to Cahooque Creek, a brief synopsis: At the end of a long, straight paved road off of Highway 101 in Craven County there is a long, semi-straight gravel road and at the end of this gravel road is the Cahooque Creek access in the Croatan National Forest. This spot, despite being directly across Hancock Creek for Marine Corp Air Station Cherry Point, is relatively remote and unfrequented. I chose this spot to duck hunt because, well, I like it, and it seems like a good spot for ducks.
Part of my rationale for choosing this spot was it offered a two-fold approach: The waters towards the confluence with Hancock Creek could be hunted with a decoy spread as an open water hunt and the narrow head waters up the creek could be paddled for jump shooting ducks. I have kicked ducks up on previous paddles up the creek. We opted to begin with the first approach, and never even tried the second approach. Finding a little cove just inside of Cahooque Creek but overlooking Hancock Creek as well, we laid out a small decoy spread, camouflaged the canoe along the river bank and took concealment positions along the bank overlooking the decoy spread. The decoy spread looked great. Although it was not a lot of decoys, they made me look twice a couple of times as they gently bobbed in the current. It was my first time laying out a decoy spread and I felt pretty good about it. Off to a good start. I began occasionally letting some duck calls out in hopes of attracting any birds that might be within earshot.
We were full of hope and anticipation. Those feelings slowly dwindled as we sat for hours without seeing any ducks flying. Not only were ducks not flying, but it seemed nothing was flying. There were no squirrels making a racket in the woods behind us. There was virtually no sign of life anywhere! The only bird we saw all day was a great blue heron that flew across the creek and fished about 30 yards on the other side of our decoys for a bit and then flew off none the wiser to the game we were there to play. What was the problem?! The weather was too nice! We lounged on the bank with clear sunny skies over head and not a bit of wind. The weather was warm and beautiful. The perfect weather for ducks not to fly.
We sat on the banks of Cahooque Creek the better part of the day. Admittedly, some of the time was passed examining deer tracks and trails in the woods surrounding us, telling jokes and eating Nabs (if you have to asked you are not a North Carolinian) but it was an excellent day none the less. Then again, I always enjoy any time I have spent at Cahooque (or is it Cahoogie?) Creek.
So now we were 0 for 2 on duck trips but I was cautiously certain of success on our third and final hunt. I am slightly embarrassed to admit this because it is not something I have ever done but I called in a hired gun. OK, not exactly. I hired a guide.
Big Glenn’s Guide Service
I’ve been on a few chartered fishing trips in my day. I’ve never paid for one myself but I have never turned down an offer to tag along on one before. I’ve never paid for a hunting guide. It has never even entered my mind before I started looking into duck hunting. I have always prided myself on doing the work and hiring a guide always seemed like cheating. In most outdoor pursuits you have a mentor or friend that either introduces you to or greatly enhances your skills in a particular area. I don’t know anybody that is currently duck hunting or was physically able to take me, so I decided to cheat and hire a professional to rapidly increase the learning curve.
It’s 0-dark-30 as we exit the truck at our meet up spot on a remote beach along Adams Creek. A spotlight appears from a boat approaching the shore. A hulking figure hops off the boat in the pre-dawn darkness and walks towards us.
“I hope you are Big Glenn or I’m in the wrong place and in some serious trouble.”
I am a big guy and it is rare that I am looking up at someone but I certainly was in this case. With a warm chuckle Glenn confirmed his identify. Introductions and niceties out of the way, we load our gear into Glenn’s skiff and start slowly motoring out to our duck blind on the Neuse River.
“Ya’ll are in luck. The ducks really just started showing up in any numbers yesterday. Before that there was nothing flying. I think you’ll get to do some shooting today.”
Being we were not too far away at Cahooque Creek two days prior I was beginning to feel better that it was warm weather and late duck migrations and not my choice of hunting spots that had so far contributed to our lack of success. Glenn graciously confirmed that for me. As we pulled up to the blind, Glenn was relaying the story of chasing a cormorant out of the blind the previous day that had really made a mess of things. As the door to blind swings open, we quickly learn that the cormorant has returned to his residence. I am volunteered to face off with the cormorant in the close quarter combat confines of the duck blind. If you have never had the surreal experience of removing an angry cormorant from a duck blind in the dark, I hope you never do.
With our squatter effectively removed, Glenn proceeded to lay out a massive decoy spread consisting of all the usual diver duck: bluebills, buffleheads, etc.… Tom and I settled into the blind and got our gear ready while enjoying a hot breakfast provided by Glenn’s wife. When the decoy spread was done, Glenn came by to give us a few more tips and then we were on our own.
We did not have long for the anticipation to build for as soon as it was light enough ducks began coming in on the spread. Our first engagement with the enemy was a small flock of bluebills that came in hot. Tom and I slung as much non-toxic shot as we could and we came away with our first duck: a beautiful bluebill drake. Success!
Although Glenn continually stated it was not a lot of duck action, we had a great time. We missed a lot of ducks. Buffleheads (dippers as they are known locally) are a small acrobatic duck that toyed with us throughout the morning, but we got on them. In the end, we ended up with 6 bufflehead, 2 bluebills (a hen and a drake) and one hen surf scoter. We had a wonderful lunch of venison burgers in the blind, again cooked by Glenn’s wife, and called it quits in the early afternoon. Glenn provided great advice throughout the day and gave me a lot of advice on the other trips I had done (Again – pretty weather and late migrations. Overall, everyone said it was a slow duck season in the end). We had a wonderful time and got our first ducks.
So I think I like this duck hunting thing. I really want to look into more puddle duck hunting. North Carolina has a lot of great wood duck hunting and I would love to do more of that. But for year one, I feel pretty good. And despite my hesitation at hiring a guide, we had a wonderful experience with Glenn and we may just do that again. Sometimes it’s nice to let someone else do all the work for a change!
To find more information about the Newport River boat ramp, visit the NCWRC Boat Ramps Locator website
For more information on Cahooque Creek, visit Croatan National Forest website
To book a trip with Big Glenn’s Duck Hunting Guide, call 252-670-0588 or find then on Facebook
General duck hunting information in North Carolina can be found on NC Wildlife Resources Commission Website
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