2009 Game Lands Preview

N.C.’s public hunting lands are likely to get more pressure, but some tracts have enough wildlife to handle it quite well.

With the economy gone south, North Carolina sportsmen are likely to seek hunting opportunities closer to home this fall and winter. That probably means more hunting at public lands.

Here’s a look at North Carolina’s game lands from Currituck to Nantahala and what they have to offer for sportsmen in 2009-10.

Eastern Region

Deer

Best game-land bets: Roanoke River Wetlands and National Wildlife Refuge, Holly Shelter, Croatan National Forest, Juniper Creek, Suggs Mill Pond, Lantern Acres, Dover Bay, Van Swamp, Chowan.

The Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge and Wetlands Game Land likely offers the east’s best chance to bag a “trophy” white-tail deer on public land. Part of the sprawling Roanoke River drainage, it has the best habitat in the state — swamps, blocks of timber and agricultural fields with corn, wheat and soybeans.

“Roanoke River has a lot of deer,” said Tommy Hughes, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s eastern zone supervising biologist. All hunting is by permit only.

The Martin County tracts are part of the Commission’s game-land system, while other parts are in the national wildlife refuge. Similar rules apply to both sides.

“The parts on the Martin County side are a little higher and drier,” Hughes said, “while the refuge side has swamps and some ridges.”

Croatan National Forest near Havelock might be the east’s No. 2 deer spot.

“It’s got a lot of deer and has deer-dog hunting opportunities,” Hughes said.

Holly Shelter and Angola Bay also have good deer numbers. The best still hunting at Holly Shelter is near the Commission’s boating-access area close a green-tree reservoir (used for waterfowl hunting); it requires a permit. Dog hunting is allowed at Holly Shelter and Angola Bay. The Pender Four area of Holly Shelter allows only still hunting.

Suggs Mill Pond, northwest of Wilmington, also has a good deer population,

“It’s permit-only, and there’s no restriction on the number of bow or muzzleloader hunters, but gun-season permits are restricted to five per day,” Hughes said.

Juniper Creek, which covers 18,624 acres in Brunswick and Columbus counties, has whitetails and offers deer-dog hunting, but Hughes said hunters should note the region is home to cottonmouths and rattlesnakes.

Dover Bay Game Land is a lease from the Global Transpark Authority between Kinston and Dover, with only foot access.

“It’s mostly wooded and 2,000 acres,” Hughes said.

Chowan Swamp (27,500 acres) allows still and dog hunting, while Lantern Acres also offers decent deer hunting.

Bear

Best game-land bets: Croatan National Forest, Chowan Swamp, Chowan, Juniper Creek, Holly Shelter, Angola Bay, Long Shoal Tract of Gull Rock, Dare Bombing Range, Buckridge.

The top area for public-land bear hunts in the east should be the Croatan National Forest, according to Hughes.

“In and around Juniper Creek also is pretty decent bear hunting,” he said.

The Dare Bombing Range has a lot of bear, but kill rates are low because of an off-limits area (a refuge) and a permit system (hunters may hunt two consecutive days if drawn) that allows only five hunters on the refuge at a time. Also, only four days per year in November are open to bear hunting.

Lantern Acres only allows still hunting because its terrain isn’t conductive to dog hunting.

Juniper Creek is one of the best game lands in the southeast for bear because of its size and swampy terrain; part of it is a bear sanctuary.

Chowan Swamp Game Land also is basically a still-hunting area, but it’s in a region (northeast) that grows some of the state’s largest bears.

For the hardy still hunter, Dover Bay Game Land near Dover contains 2,000 acres, but the only access is on foot.

Buckridge Game Land and Alligator River Game Land also should hold some bear and be worth investigating.

“Holly Shelter has permit bear hunting, and there’s also some bear hunting at Angola Bay, where a few bears are taken each year,” Hughes said.

Bladen Lakes State Forest allows still and dog hunting on a permit system.

“Van Swamp Game Land also has some bear, but it’s a hit-or-miss area,” Hughes said. “Hunters kill more bear (on private land) around it.”

Waterfowl

Best game-land bets: Suggs Mill Pond, Croatan National Forest, Goose Creek, Lantern Acres, Roanoke River NWR and Wetlands, Holly Shelter, White Oak River, J. Morgan Futch, North River.

Perhaps the most productive hunting at eastern game lands is for waterfowl. The Commission manages and maintains many waterfowl impoundments that attract ducks, geese and tundra swans.

“Goose Creek (in Beaufort and Pamlico counties) is one of the really good ones, along with J. Morgan Futch,” Hughes said. Both have teal, wigeon, pintails and gadwall.

At Futch, hunters draw to hunt specific impoundments to prevent overcrowding. After a September teal season, Futch later features ringnecks. tundra swans, mallards and wood ducks. Permit draws allow parties of three hunters per blind.

Pamlico Point, adjacent to Pamlico Sound, is another excellent eastern game land. The Commission did extensive work cleaning out previously-shallow impoundment ditches at Pamlico Point in order to plant more food for waterfowl, but hunters should view a map to prevent dunks this winter.

“We’ll have a map (on the website, www.ncwildlife.org) that shows where the ditches are,” Hughes said. “I’d advise anyone going to hunt Pamlico Point to print out the map. You don’t want to step into a ditch and float your hat when it’s 25 degrees.

“The Roanoke River Wetlands Game Land and National Wildlife Refuge has the Whitley Impoundment, listed on the (game lands) map as sections A and B,” Hughes said. “It’s got ringnecks, woodies, a few teal and a few Canada geese.”

The North River Game Land in Camden County has three sub-impoundments.

“I think it’ll be a lot better in the future,” Hughes said. “It’s got teal, wood ducks, sometimes black ducks and mallards.”

Suggs Mill Pond’s impoundments attract mostly woodies and ringnecks.

Catfish Lake Impoundment, a 2-day per week hunting area that’s open 4 a.m.-1 p.m., features ringneck ducks, greenwing teal and wood ducks.

A drought has hurt Lantern Acres’ relatively new 200-acre impoundment the past two years, but Hughes said once the impoundment is full, it should have teal and wood ducks, plus pintails and other species.

Gull Rock, which has an impoundment off Loop Road near Pamlico Sound, attracts black ducks, greenwing teal and some wood ducks. Permits aren’t required, although waterfowl hunting only is allowed two days per week.

The Lodge Road impoundment at Holly Shelter shows some woodies and teal, but the birds tend to use the game lands as a roost. Private impoundments built on the Northeast Cape Fear River attract most of the ducks.

Small Game

Best game-land bets: Stones Creek, Roanoke River Wetlands and NWR, Croatan Forest, Lantern Acres, Holly Shelter, Croatan, Chowan Swamp, Holly Shelter.

Rabbit hunters should try Croatan National Forest and Stones Creek game lands.

Croatan has good habitat for cottontails, while Stones Creek is a fairly new game land south of Jacksonville, near the New River’s southern border, with wiregrass in longleaf pine stands.

Holly Shelter has many fields with borders that contain rabbits, along with Lantern Acres.

Most tracts in the Roanoke River property with swamps and hardwood “ridges” likely will be the best places to find gray squirrels.

Sections of Holly Shelter near the Cape Fear River also contain hardwoods for squirrels. Chowan Swamp also has squirrel woods.

Hughes said Lantern Acres would be worth trying for rabbits and “maybe even Holly Shelter, which has a lot of field edges.”

Croatan National Forest has many fields that may hold rabbits. The Haywood Landing side near NC 58 has some fields and the potential to hold a few coveys of quail.

Lantern Acres and Stones Creek game lands will have the best potential for quail, although game lands traditionally haven’t been the greatest quail spots. Holly Shelter field edges also hold some bobwhites.

CENTRAL REGION

Deer

Best game-land bets: Jordan Lake, Uwharrie, Butner-Falls, Harris, Embro, Sandhills, Hyco, Mayo, Shocco, Second Creek.

Harlan Hall of Burlington, the central region’s supervising game biologist, said Caswell and Jordan Lake game lands are the two top central-zone deer areas. They feature hardwoods that offer plenty of acorns to attract whitetails.

“Falls Lake (Game Land) and the Butner Game Land (just to the north) also should have plenty of deer,”Hall said.

Uwharrie National Forest, spreading over nearly 50,000 acres in the south-central Piedmont between Albemarle and Asheboro, is filled with hardwood ridges, but it receives heavy pressure.

Hall noted an abundance of deer at the Sandhills Game Land, “although the deer are somewhat smaller” than most Piedmont areas.

He said a “wad” of game lands in the eastern portion of the Central Zone — Shocco Creek, Sandy and Embro — were part of International Paper tracts where deer hunters can chase whitetails. “And we added the 1,100-acre Garibaldi Tract to the Roanoke River Game Land,” he said.

Other Roanoke River deer tracts include Odom, Boone and Pollock’s Ferry.

Hall said good spring rains created excellent browse and agricultural foods for deer and he expects a good season.

Progress Energy game lands (Hyco, Mayo, Shearon Harris) don’t have Commission-planted food plots but have plenty of deer.

Waterfowl

Best game-land bets: Jordan Lake, Butner-Falls, Harris, Caswell, Chatham, Lee, Alcoa, Hyco, Mayo, Sandhills.

Hall said that resident goose hunting should be good because Canadas have become established across the Piedmont.

“At Caswell, even though we closed the impoundment on NC 86 this year, there are two small impoundments on the Brumley Tract off Stephentown Road,” he said.

Hall said woodies and mallards will be the main fare.

At Butner-Falls Game Land north of Durham, a corn crop didn’t do well at the impoundments, but they have native vegetation and Japanese millet. Mallards and woodies should be plentiful. Permits are required on Butner-Falls’ posted impoundments after Nov. 1.

“Harris Game Land has the same rules,” he said. “It’s a good lake for divers and ringnecks. The lake’s not in the permit system, so you have to get out there early.”

With sufficient rains, some beaver ponds at eastern piedmont tracts, such as Shocco Creek and Embro, should have ducks.

“There’s a lot of good little pothole shooting at game lands with creeks,” Hall said. “Look at game-lands maps. You’ll find good shooting at many of them for woodies and mallards.”

The Pee Dee Game Land along the river of the same name also has some good beaver-swamp duck hunting in its backwaters.

Chatham and Lee game lands feature jump-shooting along the Cape Fear River.

The Sandhills Game Land has a few ponds that hold wood ducks.

Small game

Best game-land bets: Uwharrie, Butner-Falls, Jordan Lake, Caswell, Second Creek, Roanoke River Wetlands and National Wildlife Refuge, Embro, Sandhills.

Hall said he wouldn’t recommend anyone driving 100 miles to a central zone game land to hunt quail.

“The farther east you go, the better luck for quail and rabbits, particularly rabbits,” he said. “The Roanoke River and some of the International Paper (game lands) tracts will have more quail than the heart of the piedmont.”

Sandhills Game Land will have fox squirrels. Uwharrie, Butner-Falls and Jordan Lake game lands should have good mast crops this year, so gray squirrel hunting should be excellent.

Dove hunters should love piedmont game lands, as Hall’s work crews have planted dozens of fields in millet, milo and corn. The Commission’s web page has a map of all public dove fields.

Butner-Falls dove fields that double as waterfowl impoundments have a steel-shot requirement for dove hunters.

WESTERN REGION

Deer

Best game-land bets: Pisgah, Needmore, South Mountain, Johns River, Green River, Thurmond-Chatham, Buffalo Cove, Mitchell River, DuPont State Forest.

The Green River Game Land, which covers 14,143 acres in Henderson and Polk counties, has good deer numbers because of its river-bottom habitat, according to biologist Kip Hollifield, who supervises that area for the Commission.

“Part of Green River has some of the better soils up here,” he said. “We’ve planted a little of everything — clover, annuals, rye and wheat and oats and a little corn. There’s probably 50 acres of field corn at Green River.”

Thurmond-Chatham Game Lands in Alleghany and Wilkes counties adjoins Stone Mountain and Doughton state parks. Hunters at the 6,403-acre game lands take advantage of whitetails who use the parks as sanctuaries.

“Folks are saying they’re seeing some better (bucks) up there, too,” Hollifield said. “At Thurmond-Chatham, during the rut, you’ve got a good chance to see some rut spillover bucks.”

Pisgah and Nantahala national forests are huge and rugged, and Hollified said the most successful deer hunters scout a lot.

Johns River Game Land (Burke County, 3,870 acres) is a permit-only area with good deer prospects.

Buffalo Cove and Dupont State Forest game lands have fair deer numbers.

Bear

Best game-land bets: Pisgah, Needmore, South Mountain, Johns River, Buffalo Cove, Mitchell River, DuPont State Forest.

Bears are plentiful in the North Carolina mountains, and their numbers are growing. The Commission has responded by opening two bear sanctuaries near Asheville — Mt. Mitchell and Daniel Boone — to limited permit hunting.

The huge Pisgah National Forest Game Lands is a top bear region, and bruins also are filtering south into the Nantahala National Forest. The two national forests comprise more than a million acres of land.

Cold Mountain Game Land, which remains a top bear area, is surrounded by the Pisgah and Nantahala forests.

Waterfowl

Best game-land bets: Needmore, Johns River, Nantahala, Pisgah, Buffalo Cove, Cherokee, Cold Mountain, Sandy Mush, Three Top, Thurmond-Chatham, Toxaway.

Waterfowl hunting is problematic in the mountains.

The best hunting likely will be for wood ducks at Johns River Game Land in Burke County.

“There’s beaver ponds at the feeder creeks, and hopefully they’ll have some ducks,” Hollifield said.

Some hunters float the Little Tennessee River through the Needmore Game Land and jump shoot woodies and mallards.

Small game

Best game-land bets: Johns River, Sandy Mush, Pisgah, Nantahala, South Mountain.

Johns River Game Land and Sandy Mush Game Land (Buncombe County) will be two western areas with small game.

Half of Sandy Mush’s 2,600 acres are in pastures. Dove and rabbit hunting will be attractions, along with a few quail and some spring turkey hunting.

A good mast crop usually foreshadows decent gray squirrel hunting in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forest.

Mitchell River, which covers 1,729 acres in Surry County, has clear cuts, which should mean above-average rabbit hunting.

South Mountain Game Lands is a favorite spot for dove, rabbits and squirrels.

Grouse hunting is for physically in-shape hunters. Early-successional clear-cuts are favorite areas to find these birds. Nantahala and Pisgah have grouse, but best bets are Buffalo Cove, Cherokee, Cold Mountain, Needmore, Sandy Mush, Three Top, Thurmond-Chatham and Toxaway.