The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

Thomas and his River boar

Here in the lowcountry, we are still dealing with freezing temperatures along with tons of rain. And the combination continues to keep the hogs from moving very well.

We had a group from NC at the lodge this past weekend, and while a few hogs were seen despite the horrible weather, no hogs were taken. So in addition to the always uncontrollable weather, the following reasons kept the cooler bare for our hunters: sows with very young piglets, a big running boar that wouldn’t stop for a clean shot and a HUGE hog that just didn’t get inside the magic 30 yard radius that our bowhunter needed for an ethical shot… These are all just things that happen when you are hunting fair chase, free range animals on their turf ….

However, while we only had a few hunters earlier in the week, the conditions were definitely better and so was the hog movement for them. That allowed Thomas, home locally during leave from the military, to harvest a nice boar over on the River during his one day hunt. The decent winter weather also helped Tony, down from Laurens, SC, to also take a nice 130 pound sow down on the River as well. So congratulations to both of them.

And since the guides had some extra time this week, they not only were able to get up a few new bow stands, they also had a chance to get the trailcams moved around a bit as well as check what was on there from last week. Sure enough, some more great pics of life in the lowcountry woods including quite a few shots of nice pigs hitting the corn during the mid afternoon and big gobblers teasing us with images of their dangling beards.

As for the week ahead, we have 4 hunters at the bow camp for 5 days. And since the hogs have really been hammering the place, we are just hoping that the hunters will get a few breaks in the bad weather that is forecast to plague the South Carolina lowcountry for the next week and allow the big boars to move for them.

As always, we look forward to sharing their adventures with you next week. And please note, we are only weeks away from our South Carolina turkey hunting season that starts on March 15 and runs through the end of April, so make sure and call Becky to check what dates are still available… Spring is not only beautiful in the lowcountry, but it is truly one of the best times to be in the woods pursuing our big longbeards and giant hogs.

PS: Included in this post is a great shot of Matthew, down from GA during the last week of deer season.  Check out the two nice bucks that he was able to take during his visit. So not only a huge congrats on his fine deer, but a big thank you for emailing us the shots for us to share here on the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

Mathew and his two late December bucks

What a difference a few weeks and a lot of cold weather makes for hunting hogs in the South Carolina lowcountry. Because after a warm fall, our guests have continued to see good movement while taking out some great hogs since the first of the year.

Jeremy and his VA group

Members of the Ashe County Wildlife Club in NC joined us the weekend before last, and they kept the hog ball rolling with several great hog kills and tons of hogs sighted. They truly had a fantastic time, and as a matter of fact, the group went ahead and booked again for April, which is still a great time for hog hunting in South Carolina. Their return trip will also give us a chance to get some of the pictures they took of their kills IF they don’t go ahead and email them to us… HINT HINT

Dave and his nice Boggy pig

That same weekend, we also had the parents of our guide Justin down from PA. And his dad, Dave, took a nice pig over on Boggy Creek while his mom had some close calls with sows and piglets, but just couldn’t get the crosshairs on the big boar she wanted. Fortunately they are planning to return trip to South Carolina this Spring to take another shot at our hogs along with our Eastern turkey.

And we can’t forget another guest from that same weekend, Dave from DC. He used a traditional muzzleloader to take his great hog down over on Boggy Creek! That is quite a feat on such a tough animal, so congratulations to him.

During the week we only had a few hunters in camp, but several more nice hogs were taken as well. Jeremy, down from VA with three fellow plumbers and one electrician, knocked down a HUGE boar on the Lower End tract while his friend Mike shot a nice meat hog. Hopefully their cooler of pork holds them until March when they return again.

That brings us to this past weekend when we had our great friends Randy, Gene and Joe from NC join us for their monthly hunt along with several of their buddies. Unfortunately, while the rain managed to hold off, the weather was pretty weird, and only a bunch of sows with piglets were seen along with some great bucks… But isn’t that almost always how it goes - you see great deer when the season is out, and big hogs when you are deer hunting.

I am going to hold off on putting any more pics up or telling any more hunting stories, however I will go ahead and tell you that several more hogs have already been killed this week. So stay tuned for more hunting updates about those lucky souls that are here now as well as about the big group coming in this weekend… The temps are supposed to stay cold, but rain is forecast. So we will hope that it holds off for them and gives them some decent weather for their hunt. And if it does, they should see some of the good hogs that we have been seeing on the trailcams lately. Just check out the couple of tasty meat hogs getting a snack at 7am down on the River property.

Michelle with her first hog ever

Like I talked about in last week’s post, Cypress Creek cranked up our hog hunting for the new year with a visit from a Bass Pro Shops group last weekend. The six showed up and hunted hard in the sub-freezing weather, and they managed to leave with 3 nice porkers and a ton of great memories.

Professional BASS fisherman Michelle started the group off with a GIANT 275 pound boar off of the new Lower End tract just down the road from our Luray lodge. This was her first big game kill EVER, so congratulations to her!

Eric then followed up on Michelle’s success by shooting two great hogs during our first trip down to the River tract in the new year. And while the guides couldn’t find one that managed to get back into the water, they did locate and recover his great 175 pound boar complete with lots of Russian genes.

Eric and his GIANT River Boar

Dale, the head of the hunting department for the Charlotte, NC store also took home the bacon when he shot a beautiful 150 pound hog over on Boggy Creek. I was instructed to ask anyone visiting Dale’s store to make sure and stop by his department to speak to “Multi-Shot Dale” and hear his lowcountry hog hunting tale

The other three members of the Bass Pro Shops group, Barry, Trey and pro fisherman Jason Q., all saw lots of game but didn’t harvest any animals. However, like they all pointed out, when you see over 50 sows and piglets like Jason did or giant shooter bucks (if the season was still in) like Barry and Trey did, you can’t help but call the trip a success! So congratulations to everyone on a great trip, and we look forward to having everyone back again very soon.

The Bass Pro group with Dale's hog

Another group that we have been waiting to have back again, the Ashe County Wildlife Group, was here this past weekend for a quick one day hunt. I can’t wait to share the details of their hunt with everyone next week along with the exciting conclusions of all of this week’s hunts that include the family of our recently returned-to-work guide Justin. So see you then. And please don’t forget to give Becky a call if you are interested in getting in on some of our great Spring South Carolina hog hunting as well as our adrenaline-pumping South Carolina Spring turkey hunting.

I know that it is still colder than heck out there these days, but since we have turned the corner into 2010, I am going to call this Spring. And one of the great hunts we have here in the lowcountry is our Spring hog hunting.

The “Spring” hog hunts are great due to the fact that there is just no other food sources left in the woods by this time. Most of the acorns have either been eaten or have rotted under all of the water that we have had on the ground lately, the deer hunters have left the woods and taken their corn piles with them and the cold temps force the hogs to come out and eat if they want to survive. So our fortunate hunters are able to take a stand over corn on one of our tracts that is loaded with hogs and have some of the best hog hunting action anywhere.

And now that the crew has gotten everything set up, corned up and ready to go, I am just waiting on the final tally along with harvest pictures of the Bass Pro group that is in camp right now so that I can share it with you here . Then from here on out, until at least the end of turkey season, we will be hog hunting like crazy, so we look forward to bringing you lots of hog hunting success stories complete with pictures over the next few months. However don’t think that you are out of luck if you have been dragging your feet about setting a hunt up with Cypress Creek- just give Becky a call so that she can tell you what dates are still open.

To help you hold on until then, we have a great video of Bass Pro Shop’s Tracker Boat rep Rod B. hunting hogs with Danny while Bub Jackson of Outdoor Moments runs the camera…

77-year-old Bill R. with his first deer ever

We also wanted to share with you one of the pictures we were waiting on from our deer season’s last week. Check out 77-year-old Bill R. with his first deer EVER. Just goes to show it is NEVER to late to start and that hunting is for EVERYONE no matter what ones age, shape or physical ability.

Now pick up the phone and call us to set up a hunt. We truly look forward to helping you “pursue the experience” here in the South Carolina lowcountry.

Stan with his great Tiaun 10 point

Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge really rapped up 2009 on a high note when freezing weather made the deer and hogs move for those brave souls that came to the lowcountry for some late-season hunting.

One of our successful hunters was Stan, down from Fort Bragg and just back from Iraq, who shot a great 10 point right out behind the lodge. Another veteran and successful hunter was our friend Greg Stube, who was back with us to hunt some hogs before he left to go to Dallas for the SCI show. And sure enough, Greg’s luck held and he took another great hog, a 200 pound boar, this time with his rifle at Boggy Creek.

We also had several new hunters in camp that shot their first deer ever while here. One was Greg Stube’s father-in-law who shot his first deer - a big doe. Another was 14 year old Matt from GA, who was practically run over by bucks while he and his dad were down. Matt’s first deer was a great 8 point, and his second would have been an 8 if he hadn’t have been fighting and broken one side off. Our other “new” hunter was 77 year old Bill, down from Black Mountain, NC, who took a huge doe to break in his rifle. Both of these hunters are emailing pictures of their kills to us, so as soon as they do, we will share them with you.

SFC Greg Stube with his big boar

Now that deer season is over, Cypress Creek will be preparing for our Spring hog and turkey hunts. We have the 1000 acre tract right on the river back again (where we always kill a ton of great boars) along with another new hog hunting tract plus another 2000 acre tract just for turkeys, so we are really looking forward to getting some hunters at the lodge to use all of them. However until then, we will be working on getting these tracts set up and the roads worked on (a must after all of this rain), so hang in there for some great upcoming hunting action.

Happy New Year!

Ruben and his 8 point

We have finally reached the last 10 days of hunting for 2009, so it is time to rap things up. And fortunately we had some nice, cold weather to usher the 4.5 month long deer season out, and that helped force the deer and hogs to move to eat and survive.

That cold-induced movement allowed Danny’s friend Ruben to take a nice 8 point buck over on Pleasant Hill and Patrick, down from Lynchburg VA, to shoot a good 160 pound hog over on Boggy Creek.

Patrick with a good Boggy hog

We also had our good friend Ken C. up from Florida the week before last, and as usual, he took a couple of nice deer. First he killed a good doe with his son in the stand with him, then shot a funky, thick-racked buck to finish his season up.

Ken with his thick 7 point

And we aren’t done yet since we still have a few hunters coming in next week after Christmas. However until they arrive,  everyone here will be taking some time off to enjoy the holidays. So from everyone here at Cypress Creek, we would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas.

Since the season is finally winding down, we haven’t had much going on around the lodge this week. So I thought it was about time to break back into some of Danny’s video library to see what else he had in there. And sure enough, he still has plenty of great footage to be shared here at the Skinning Shed.

This clip is of Kelly, from Outdoor Moments with Bub and Kelly, attempting to take a great buck… I thought that everyone would appreciate it since it shows that the TV personalities are no better of a shot than anyone else - they just happen to have their “mistakes” captured on film for everyone to see. I also love the fact that the buck just stands there in total defiance of Kelly after the shot as well as that the video shows why the single shot rifles are great when your first shot does the job, but SUCK when they don’t .

We also have hunters back in camp this week, so we are ready to report on some deer being put down on the ground in next week’s post. And since two have already been knocked down in the COLD, rainy weather, I feel certain that we will talking about late-season kills and not the warm weather that has plagued us this entire season. So stay tuned for more updates, and until then, check out Steve from Florida with his lowcountry double.

Also, please note that our 2010 Spring Turkey season is just around the corn, so if you are planning on pursuing the red heads with us, you had better get on the horn and make your reservations soon to ensure that you get the dates you want.

Sgt. Greg Stube and his lowcountry hog

Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge was privileged earlier this week to have a great American war hero, Greg Stube, come and hunt with us along with a couple of his friends including Kerry Earnhardt.

You can read all about Greg here in an interview with Glenn Beck, but basically he was a Special Forces field medic who was wounded horribly by an IED during combat in Afganistan in 2006 and lived to tell about it. Now, 17 surgeries later and still in the Army, Greg works with the Special Operations Command Public Affairs Office as a spokesman for the US Army. He is also a representative with the Wounded Warrior Foundation where he travels around the country working with and supporting veterans as well as promoting the use of the outdoors and hunting as part of a healing regiment for wounded veterans.

Greg’s group spent two days at our new bow camp, and they had a great time hanging out by the Savannah River and hunting the hardwoods that run along it’s banks. And after lots of sightings of deer and a few hogs, Greg came out on top when he stuck a great hog right at dark on his last afternoon sit. So congratulations to Greg, and we look forward to the next time we are are blessed to have him here with us.

We also had a small group down from VA and MD, and they too had a great time. However our winter heat wave continued to make the hog hunting tough for everyone, and while this group had a few sightings, none were taken out on the back on the vans.

We now have about a week and a half off before we have more hunters, so everyone is taking a few days to catch up on their sleep and rejuvinate themselves for some late-season hunting. However we have some new trailcam photos to keep everyone entertained, and next week we get back into some of the great video footage we have in our archives. So stay tuned!

I don’t know where the time has gone, but we are already at Thanksgiving and near the end of deer hunting for 2009. The warm weather has truly been the big story of the season, with the highs staying in the 80 degree range right up until now. And as a matter of fact, we still haven’t even had one night of freezing weather yet, and it doesn’t look like we will before December! Add the tons of acorns in the woods this season due to our wet Spring and a long, drawn out rut, and you have the makings of one of the strangest seasons in a while.

However even in the heat, as we wrapped up the rut over the last few days, our guests killed a few more deer. First we had a crew from the Orlando Bass Pro shop visit, and while they saw quite a few deer including a few good bucks, only Chuck ended up taking a couple of does. And as real hunting usually goes, he saw a giant buck as he walked up to check on the does he had shot. His son Cory missed a doe while coworkers Anthony and Fred both passed on deer.

We also had two members so of our Armed Forces, Tom and Brian, come down for a quick one day hunt. And after enduring a complete downpour on their afternoon sit, Brian killed a tasty, young doe while Tom missed a buck and saw tons of turkeys.

We still have about a month to go, so hopefully we will still get some cold temps before long, and that should help the late-season hunting. So give us a call if you are still looking to squeeze in a hunt this year. And don’t forget that the best time of the year (Jan-April) for hog hunting is just around the corner too, so make sure and to reserve those prime-time dates now.

Happy Thanksgiving from Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge. And as you celebrate with your family, please remember those that are serving our Country.

Barry and Jack with a morning's harvest

Man, it is the middle of November, isn’t it? I could be a little confused about what month and season it is because of the 85 degree days that we have been having lately. However the one thing that I am sure of is that our bucks should be rutting and running like crazy right now. But they aren’t due to the heat. And that hasn’t helped our hunters one bit.

The ones that we have had in camp since our last cold front left us with this summer weather have hunted hard and seen some bucks. However most of them have been small to medium, with only the monsters being seen in quick glimpses like the giant buck that chased a doe right past the van as we picked up our Pleasant Hill Plantation hunters down from PA on Sunday at 11:40am. Larry and Irene, Randy and Ilene, Bob and Paul all toughed it out while they were here, and each saw does and some bucks, just mostly not what they were down for. However they didn’t go home empty handed after Paul dropped two does back in the hardwoods, then shot a great buck on their last night here. So congratulations to Paul, and we now wait for his email with some pictures.

Jack and his buck

Also, before the cold weather left us, we did have a couple of nice bucks shot including a really nice 8 point by Jack and a beautiful 9 point by his fellow NC friend Barry early last week. Danny’s son Chris also joined us for some lowcountry hunting a few days back, and also shot himself a nice 7 point.

We now have a few days off with no one at the lodge, so we can all get caught up on some needed rest. This time off will also give the weather some time to get back onto the cold side of the dial since the weatherman is still calling for 80+ heat for the next 5 days at least. So hopefully a new cold front will have time to roll in to SC by the time the Orlando BassPro group comes in on Friday to get the deer back up and moving.

Chris and his lowcountry 7 point

Then, after they leave, we still have a little over a month to hunt. So if you are looking to put some meat in the freezer before the season runs out, give us a call. The hunting should get better again as we move into December since the warm weather can’t hold out for ever, and the deer find that they must move to eat to survive!