The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

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!