A small boat and a small bag of decoys is all you need to access great duck hunting on Holly Shelter’s three impoundments
Lodge Road is usually a quiet stretch, cut straight as an arrow through thick, Pender County pocosin habitat. Pickup trucks make the dust rise on the days when Holly Shelter Game Land is open for big- and small-game hunting. On days when waterfowl hunting is allowed, the reach along the northern edge of Lodge Road Impoundment rarely had traffic as heavy.
However, on this ducky morning, vehicles had turned into every parking spot. Flashlights bobbing and weaving through the brush and grassy openings showed duck hunters making way, setting out their decoys in anticipation of a hot-pink dawn. When it arrived, the shooting was even hotter.
Wood ducks and teal were flying, and the occasional quack of a mallard Susie issued from the sky. As the sun burnt golden, the shooting died down. John Henderson and Chris Quinn paddled two tiny Creek Boats back to their vehicle near the headwaters of Ashes Creek.
“We saw a ton of ducks,” said Henderson, a 30-year-old utility lineman from Teachey. “Most of them were wood ducks, but we saw some teal and mallards. Lots of ducks were in the back of the impoundment, where you can’t get to them.”
“It was my first time coming here, but I’m coming back,” said Quinn, a 33-year-old landscaper from Richlands. “I like hunting so close to home because I have baby on the way.”
A third hunter in the party, Steven Herring, took much longer to haul his boat out of the water. He had been determined to explore the area in the southern reaches of the Ashes Creek reservoir. Part of the Ashes Creek reservoir running along Lodge Road is managed under the same waterfowl hunting rules as the adjacent Lodge Road Impoundment, both of which have signs posted that inform hunters of special regulations. A pump transfers the water stored in the Ashes Creek Reservoir to the Lodge Road Impoundment to keep the 200-acre impoundment full during the course of the waterfowl season.
“I shot at a wood duck and decoyed some teal,” said Herring, 38, a utility lineman from Rocky Point. “I usually hunt three or four times a week. I like hunting the swamps and creeks.”
Along Lodge Road to the west, other hunters were slogging back out after the morning’s hunt in the Lodge Road Impoundment. One of them was 33-year-old Troy Beasley of Wilmington.
“I shot at couple of teal and woodies and had some mallards to decoy,” Beasley said. “But the impoundment is so grassy it made it hard to find the ducks.”
Beasley had walked around the impoundment dike and entered the hunting area from the south, a good tactic due to the loss of one of the main access bridges along Lodge Road to the 2011 Juniper Road Fire that burned 34,000 acres of Holly Shelter Game Land, including the Ashes Creek Reservoir and Lodge Road Impoundment. Chris McLean, Holly Shelter team leader for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, said the burned bridge would be replaced at some point.
“There were two bridges, and one burned in the fire,” he said. “We are trying to replace them with concrete structures. But, we don’t know for sure when they will be built. There is still good access over the remaining bridge, and hunters can still walk around the back side from either end to enter the impoundment.”
The hunters used wood duck and mallard calls and had about a dozen decoys to set out. Beasley said he could have used a good retriever to find a woodie that fell in thick cover, but he also said hunters should also be aware that there are alligators in the impoundment that can pose hazards to retrievers in warm weather.
The hunters and the ducks were benefitting from the fire that burned across the impoundment and reservoir, as well as much of the northern area of the game land. The impoundment and reservoir had received ho-hum interest from duck hunters for years, because so much of the water-filled areas had grown up in woody and other types of vegetation of little benefit to waterfowl.
An intentionally set ground fire created the Lodge Road impoundment many decades ago by burning away the peaty soil. The construction of a system of risers and a pumping station keep the impoundment full during the waterfowl seasons.
However, the same type of ground fire can also spell disaster when it burns out of control. The fire burned several holes into the organic material of the Lodge Road Impoundment’s dikes. For that reason, maintaining the impoundment at its full level proved to be a problem last season.
“Over the summer, we used an excavator to core the entire back section for about two miles,” McLean said. “We dug a bucket-wide trench down to 12 to 15 feet and packed the soil back tight. However, the roots of the coastal bay vegetation burned away, and it may have left some little channels. We are still at the stage of discovering if it has been completely repaired.”
Besides the Lodge Road Impoundment and Ashes Creek Reservoir, Holly Shelter also has a 50-acre greentree impoundment south of the Commission’s Holly Shelter boating access area.
“The best access to the greentree impoundment is along River Road,” McLean said, “but hunters can also access the southern edge of the impoundment from an unnamed road off Shaw Highway. There are a couple of gates that block vehicle access where hunters can park.”
One hunter who enjoys hunting the greentree impoundment is Jennings Rose of Wilmington, who uses a Marsh Rat layout boat to gain access to the impoundment. To ferry his boat from the parking lot along River Road to the impoundment, he straps it on a kayak dolly, which consists of a pair of wheels on a folding frame.
“By using the dolly, I can carry my shotgun, decoys and all of my other gear easily,” said Rose, 22. “When I get to the impoundment, I slide the boat in and paddle. The main thing about having a boat in the greentree impoundment is that it allows you to retrieve your ducks. Some hunters hunt by pass-shooting and their ducks might land in the Northeast Cape Fear River. They can’t get them unless they have a boat or a dog.”
Along River Road, there are few places with water shallow enough to wade into the greentree impoundment safely. The gated road to the south has better walk-in access. Still, hunters who do not have dogs or boats are going to have a difficult time retrieving downed ducks because of the thick cover and the unseen root holes that haunt every hunter’s very next step. A hunter may step in water deeper than his chest-high waders or poke a hole in them with a beaver-gnawed stick at any time. While watching out for cottonmouths is also important, hazards of that type are just part of any duck hunt in a coastal swamp.
“The greentree impoundment can get burned out from hunting pressure,” Rose said. “It pays to show up early, so you can have a good chance of finding a spot to get your wood duck limit. You might see some other species of ducks like mallards and teal, but most of the ducks you see are going to be wood ducks.”
So why do hunters go out before dawn in their small boats on the odd chance they might down a duck or two before most people have finished their breakfast? Rose said he prefers Holly Shelter’s impoundments because, unlike several other coastal impoundments the Commission operates, because they do not require special permits and are close enough to home to hunt before he goes to work. Henderson gave different reasons.
“We used to hunt deer and other game,” Henderson said, “but we got tired of all of the hunting club politics. When we hunt ducks, we can go out alone in our little boats and watch God’s creation come to life. All you need is a boat, a paddle and a shotgun. But I think next time I will also bring a pole along to help me push the boat through the brush.”
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE — From Raleigh, take I-40 east to the NC 53 exit. Turn east toward Jacksonville and go 5.5 miles before turning south onto Shaw Road. Go another 3.8 miles and turn left onto Lodge Road in front of the Holly Shelter Depot or continue another tenth of a mile and turn right to get to the boat ramp and greentree impoundment access.
WHEN TO GO — The second and third segments of North Carolina’s waterfowl season are Nov. 9-30 and Dec. 14-Jan. 25. Waterfowl hunting is allowed on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the last day of the season and Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
EQUIPMENT — Most of the time, “big ducks” won’t be encountered, so high-velocity loads of No. 3 and No. 4 steel shot will do the trick for wood ducks, teal and merganser. Small hunting watercraft like the Creek Boat and Marsh Rat boat, along with any kayak or canoe, will work well in the impoundments. A hunter only needs a few wood duck, teal, mallard or black duck decoys.
HUNTING INFO — N.C. Wildlife Resources Commmission Holly Shelter Depot, 910-259-5555, www.ncwildlife.org for more information. See also Guides and Charters in classifieds.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Sleep Inn, 5225 Market St., Wilmington, 910-313-6665 or http://www.pleasureislandnc.org/.
MAPS — DeLorme North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer, 800-452-593, www.delorme.com. Visit www.ncwildlife.org for game lands map for Holly Shelter that shows locations and access points of the various impoundments.
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