Big decoy spreads, good concealment and maybe even a good retriever can make for a great duck hunt on North Carolina’s New River.
North Carolina’s New River of the east is a wide, salty estuary, quite a contrast to the winding, freshwater New River of the state’s northwestern corner. Among the shortest of coastal rivers, it flows from Jacksonville to the Atlantic Ocean.
Between those two points are thousands of acres of protected waters swarming with diving ducks. The principal species is lesser scaup, aka bluebills; however, a smattering of other divers brings waterfowl hunters flocking to the river. Two of them are Holman Byrd, a 26-year-old construction worker from Castle Hayne, and hunting buddy Chris Hufman, 25, who works for a Wilmington beverage company.
“We’ve been hunting (the) New River for about six years,” Byrd said. “At first, we hunted from a layout boat we borrowed from Jerry Simmons. I liked hunting from a layout boat because it gives you some very close shots. The duck can land right on top of you.”
Simmons, a dog trainer from Castle Hayne who has trained more than 1,500 retrievers, still gets in an occasional New River hunt, but at twice the age of his young apprentices, he spends more time these days training dogs and hunting for puddle ducks.
“I enjoy having these young men around my training grounds and shop,” Simmons said. “Keeping them interested by helping them to train their dogs for field trials and hunt tests and teaching them how to rig and make their own decoys is all part of passing on a tradition that was passed on to me.
“I started hunting at New River decades ago, and it has always been the place to go for divers along southern coast. Back then, the bag limits were much higher, and there were lots more bluebills than there are now. I still go to New River to hunt with them a few times a year.”
In the beginning, Byrd and Huffman hauled the layout boat to the river inside a larger craft. One hunter would shoot until he filled his limit, while the other in the tender boat picked up downed ducks. Each hunter had a turn in the layout boat. While it is an effective hunting method, certain things that made hunting more pleasant were found lacking.
“The divers get here during the late season, when it turns really cold,” Byrd said. “That’s when a layout boat is most effective, because the birds are getting spooky from being shot at all season. Shooting cripples can be a hassle, unless you are anchored in water shallow enough to step out to stand up and shoot. If it’s rough, it’s not a lot of fun to be sitting in a layout boat, rocking and rolling and trying to hit a bluebill decoying into the waves. Those are the times I would rather be in the tender boat.”
After hunting from a layout boat for a couple of seasons, Byrd and Hufman rigged Byrd’s 19-foot aluminum center-console that they had been using for a tender boat with a homemade pop-up blind. A couple of seasons later, they changed it out for an Avery Quick-Set blind.
“The advantages of hunting from a pop-up blind are that it gives more shelter from the chop and the wind, and you can hunt multiple gunners, which helps when a large flock comes in,” Byrd said. “We can hunt up to four people comfortably. The disadvantage is that the ducks can get wise to the boat and flare away from it. I think that matters less on a windy day than on a slick, calm bluebird day. On rough days, the ducks will sit down anywhere with a group of real birds or decoys.”
Another big reason for using a boat blind is that Byrd can send his Lab, Woody, to retrieve downed ducks. A dog won’t fit inside the cockpit of a one-man layout boat with a hunter.
Eventually, Byrd and Hufman tired of boat blinds as well and decided to build their own stake blind. They spent all summer fabricating a blind from leftover construction materials.
“We built a blind by jetting 4x4s and 4x6s into the bottom,” he said. “Then we built the platform, walls, roof and a bench. It is 200 yards offshore, and the platform is three feet above the high-water line to keep it from being beat up by waves.”
The blind seats six or seven hunters, but it takes more than one boat to haul that many people, plus dogs and decoys. It is painted battleship gray and has some brush on the front to hide hunters’ faces.
“Being able to take a lot of hunters will make the shooting last longer on a good day,” Byrd said. “The limit was four bluebills last season, but this season the limit has dropped back down to two. That hurts.”
Byrd said more than 95-percent of the ducks at New River are lesser scaup. The next most common duck is the redhead, followed by hooded merganser, ruddy duck, bufflehead and the occasional canvasback and greater scaup.
Setting decoys for all of the different blind situations is essentially the same. However, when hunting from a layout boat or boat blind, hunters have the advantage of being able to look for some big concentrations of resting waterfowl and set their rigs at one of those locations.
“You can find flocks of thousands that move from day to day,” Byrd said. “If they were sitting there, they had a reason. You are hoping they will return to the same spot.”
Such enormous flocks represent stiff competition. Therefore, the hunters set out 250 to 300 decoys.
“We have about half of the decoys on gang rigs, and the other half are rigged on single weights,” Hufham said. “Most of the decoys are set right in front of the blind or just upwind. We set them in the shape of a ‘J’ or ‘U’ about 50 or 60 yards long and 30 to 40 yards wide, with an opening facing downwind to create a landing zone. Then, we set a line of decoys that can be 100 to 150 yards long to create a highway that guides the ducks to the big body of decoys set in front of the blind. We put the gang rigs out first. Then we fill in the spaces with the single decoys.”
Certain conditions move the birds better than other conditions. Hufham said the best wind is a 10- to 15-knot wind out of the northwest, north or northeast.
“The wind dictates your set-up,” he said. “When we hunt from the stake blind, we can set the decoys to take advantage of any wind because it has a lot of open water. We can set up a boat blind or layout boat wherever there is a high bank to break the wind. We want to see just enough wind to ripple the water and try to hunt with the sun coming from behind us. It’s hard to hit a decoying duck when the sun is shining right in your face.”
Besides wind, the other thing that makes the big flocks of divers move is people. New River can become crowded with hunters and fishermen on weekends.
“I think seeing lots of other hunters helps move the birds,” Byrd said. “A commercial fisherman or trout fisherman moving into one of the bays can put up a big flock of bluebills that is drawing everything away from your spread. Hunters picking up after a morning hunt or coming out for an afternoon hunt can move the birds around quite a bit. But I have had hunters set up 100 or 200 yards from my decoys and basically take advantage by pass-shooting ducks coming to my spread. That’s being rude.”
Byrd and Hufman once launched their boats at a private, pay ramp at Sneads Ferry. However, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission built a boating-access area at Sneads Ferry two years ago that offers free launching. The ramp can be crowded on Saturday mornings, but Byrd said if everybody helps everybody else launch, the traffic flow is smooth. Everyone can get there in plenty of time to shoot a few ducks.
“The new (ramp) is a great place to launch,” Byrd said, “but you should launch in the daylight the first few times you go so you can learn all the channels, including the narrow one leading from the ramp to the river channel. I know where my boat can go and where I can cut the corners, because it runs very shallow. But I’ve run into trouble finding the safe passages. I have nearly sunk my boat and taken waves over the bow. You can be running along fine, then suddenly, your boat is grounded on a sandbar or an oyster bed. New River acts more like a big, open lake or coastal sound than a river. The wind can pick up without warning and when it does, the waves can get dangerously rough.”
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE/WHEN TO GO — The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission boat landing is on Fulcher Road in Sneads Ferry, which is accessed from US 17 and NC 172 from Holly Ridge. at the intersection of US 17 and NC 50. It provides excellent access to the New River. The third and final segment of North Carolina’s duck season runs from Dec. 14-Jan. 25. In general, the colder the weather, the better the hunting; the largest number of diving ducks arrives in late December.
TACTICS/EQUIPMENT — Use big decoy spreads — as many as you can afford to make, buy and carry to a blind. You will be competing with huge flocks of divers. Locate your spread in an area that divers have been using. As far as guns, 12-gauge guns that handle 3- and 31/2-inch loads are standard equipment. Non-toxic shot is required, and Kent Fasteel loads are locally popular with 11/4 inches of No. 2 shot.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Triangle Motor Inn, Jacksonville, 910-378-2554. Hotel Ramada Jacksonville, 855-579-8757.
MAPS — Sealake Fishing Guides, 800-411-0185, www.thegoodspots.com; GMCO’s Waterproof Chartbook, 888-420-6277. www.gmcomaps.com.
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