Nestled between Big Fishing Creek and Little Fishing Creek in northeast North Carolina lies Twin Creeks Hunting Club. With more than 7,000 acres of swamps, timberland and a conglomeration of food plots under cultivation, Twin Creeks has the perfect mix of wilderness and prime wildlife habitat to produce a wide variety of game species. Beyond having a solid deer population, Twin Creeks has a huge flock of wild turkeys and just enough black bears for a member to fill a tag during the new season. But the whitetail deer reigns in these parts, and for good reason.
The majority of the club is in Halifax County, one of the top deer-producing counties in North Carolina. Twin Creeks’ 70-plus members do their part, taking around 75 to 80 deer per year — but occasionally 100 or more.
“We’ve got the best bunch of guys around that are very family oriented,” said Mickey Simpkins, the club’s president. “Each Saturday, we have organized dog hunts, usually made up of 15 to 20 members and another 20 to 25 kids. We have a good time and kill some good deer every year.”
Even though Twin Creeks is primarily a dog-driving club, members allocate around 40 percent of their leased land for still-hunting only. One of their hidden jewels happens to be next to a 2,300-acre preserve, Medoc Mountain State Park. Twin Creeks has 1,274 acres that runs two miles along the state-park boundary, and club members end up pulling a few monster bucks from this lease each year. Twin Creeks doesn’t have any set management guidelines for deer harvests, but hunters on the designated still-hunting lands are selective.
“They will shoot a few does for meat, but the still-hunting guys practice their own trophy deer management by passing up the younger bucks,” Simpkins said. “Just a few years ago, one of our members killed the third-largest buck in the state with the bow on one of those still-hunting tracts we have.”
Twin Creeks is composed mostly of forest industry lands; therefore, it is almost completely forested, with only small clearings left here and there for food plots, yet the club’s field crews prepare food plots all over the 7,000 acres. They cultivate and plant several dozen plots annually in a blend of forage mixes for their deer and turkeys.
Twin Creeks is a relatively new hunting club, but in name only. It was formed five years ago from a collaboration of dog-driving and still-hunting clubs. Due to the downturn in the economy, several clubs in the area disbanded, and in 2008, Twin Creeks Hunting Club was formed out of D & J Hunting Club, Salem Gun Club, Silver Lake Gun Club, and Little Fishing Creek Hunting Club.
According to Simpkins, the new club brought in a good group of hunters and a tremendous collection of hunting land. Each year, Twin Creeks strives to preserve its hunting traditions with a fun, enjoyable and productive outdoor outlet for their members to share with themselves, their children, and invited guests.
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