The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

Ken with his 2009 Spring gobbler

We are now just 3 weeks away from the start of our South Carolina lowcountry turkey hunting season, and the big red-headed birds are starting to get fired up. The nice, warm weather has finally arrived after almost 3 months of nonstop rain and cold, and that has got the gobblers gobbling. And while we are still seeing the big winter flocks still holding together, we are already seeing many of the hen groups being joined by strutters, so you know that the breeding is about to begin. That means that it is almost time to pull out the vests, the snake boots and the thermacells and hit the woods in search of giant longbeards.

Hank with his 150lb Boggy Creek boarsearch of giant longbeards.

And whether you are an old hand or just a newcomer to the sport of turkey hunting, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to hit the South Carolina woods with us since turkey season provides our guests one of the most unique hunts South Carolina has to offer - the Spring gobbler/Hog combo. Because while you have the option of hunting turkeys all day, many of our hunters choose to chase the redheads in the morning and then switch gears and guns to pursue hogs from a stand in the afternoons. This really works out great since the mornings usually provide the most vocal time of day for gobblers, making for an exciting hunt that usually includes quite a bit of walking, while the PM hunt offers the best time of day for big hogs and is done from stationary tree stands where you can relax and recover from the AM hunt. So give Becky a call to see what dates we still have open, and come join us for some great South Carolina turkey hunting.

Hogs working to replenish what we kill :)

Lowcountry hogs enjoying our rare snowfall

As for this past weekend’s hog hunt, it set a new record: Most Fun During Most Disappointing Hunt :O  Our West Virginia group came in after our properties had sat mostly undisturbed all week only to find that the hogs were mostly holding tight to the cover during daylight hours. The hogs just weren’t moving well due to the bright  moon, and the VA boys only got three chances at hogs - which they all missed - and one shot at a coyote - which was grazed. Fortunately the VA posse has been to the South Carolina lowcountry many, many times and know exactly how the hog movement can be. They are also not a group that lets ANYTHING stand in the way of them having a fantastic time, and this trip was no exception. They truly had a great time, and we can’t wait to have them back again so that we can give them another shot at our porkers.

Fortunately right before our VA group rolled in, we had two hunters in camp from LA, and Hank managed to knock down a nice 150 pound pig over on Boggy Creek for our only hog kill of the week. We now have another couple of days without hunters, so we are giving the woods some more quiet time and us some more rest while we get things ready for our Spring gobbler season. Hope to see you here for it.

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.

This past Saturday night we finally had a nice drop in temperatures as well as a ton of rain, and that incoming front helped to get our bucks up and moving for the hunters we had at the lodge.

First we had Kevin down from Tennessee who whacked a monster 9 point with a great mass right behind the lodge. Then we had our good friend Ken C. that comes up several times a year from Florida drop a nice 6 point across the paved road on the Bowers property. And since he had seen so many deer even after shooting his buck Friday night, he pleaded to go right back to the same stand - and sure enough he made the right call because at 6pm, an even better 8 point stepped out for Ken to shoot. However Bubba and Danny then spent several hours following the very faint blood trail into some thick young pines until it gave out, leaving them unable to find him much to Ken’s disappointment. Fortunately, we ALWAYS make every effort to locate any animal that we believe is mortally wounded, so went back out at first light to make sure that the deer was not down… Well, three of us working slowly through the thick stuff just yards apart, finally found the beautiful 2.5 year old several hundred yards beyond the last blood drop! And while coyotes had eaten much of his hind end, since the night had been cool, the deer’s cape was fine for mounting, much to Ken’s surprise

The weather change this past weekend also had the hogs moving better, and Nelson and his two sons, Cory and Travis, down from PA on a hog-only hunt went home with pork after Cory was able to drop a nice boar over on Boggy Creek. So congratulations to everyone on a great weekend of hunting the lowcountry!

As for our cameras, they caught some great activity over on the Bowers tract this past week, including quite a few nice bucks like these two 8 pointers. And interestingly enough, the 8 in the color pic looks like the identical twin of the buck Ken shot with just slightly shorter G-3s. Also check out the funky looking doe with the huge tumor on its jaw and white-speckled hide.

It is now Wednesday, and our temperatures have dropped even more. Couple that with that fact that the acorns are falling like crazy, and we expect the deer and hog movement to just get better and better as they prepare for winter by fattening themselves up on these oak-dropped snacks. Then throw in the fact that the pre-rut is cranking up (we are starting to see lots of scrapes) as well as our fall plots coming up, and you have the makings of some great hunting.

Hope you can make it here to enjoy it with us!

Jeff

Having hunted in South Carolina for most of my 38 years, I can tell you that 60 degree mornings are not the norm in August. Neither are having bucks out of velvet on opening day or leaves falling off the trees before late September. So that can only mean one thing, and that is that we are going to have an early Fall.

And that should really help out our rut that typically starts around October 15th but doesn’t really get cranked up until almost Halloween when it cools off. So with cool weather already here, and hopefully cold weather just around the corner, the deer should really be moving great soon. Therefore anyone looking for some great hunting this fall better go ahead and call Becky to get their dates on our calendar.

However, just because our Fall is coming a little early this year doesn’t mean that the deer and hogs aren’t killable RIGHT NOW. The movement of both animals has definitely been better after a slow start to the season, and lots of bucks are being seen on all of our properties by our guests. As a matter of fact, Orlando from Goose Creek, SC and his brother visiting from the Phillipines, left the lodge last week with two nice bucks off of our any-legal-buck tract. So congratulations to both of them on their FIRST deer, and we look forward to you guys sending us some pics to put up here on the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed!

In addition to our guests and guides Bubba and Henry seeing lots of bucks while out prepping our properties for the rut, we have also had lots of activity on our trailcams. Both have been hanging over on the bow camp for the last few days, and both caught some unbelievable trophies just wandering around without a care in the world during the night and in daylight hours. First we have some beautiful bucks frequenting a feeder, then we have a giant boar hanging out in a wallow near another stand on the same tract.

And don’t forget that our doe season starts on September 15th if you are just looking for some tasty, healthy meat along with a fantastic hunt. Rates are just $225 a day with all meals and lodging included for our doe-only hunts that run from the start of doe season until October 15th. So again, just give Becky a call to book. We look forward to hunting with you!

Jeff

Outdoor Moments with Bub and Kelly was a great TV show that covered lots of hunting in the South and was even produced right here in South Carolina. Unfortunately it is no longer on the air, however we have been working on getting some of their old clips up from their many visits to Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge up on our website. And now that they are ready, check out one of the hunts where Kelly shoots a big old boar and then has to track it down in the thick brush with the help of our old guide Mike Rayano. Then follow along as they let Mike have a chance in front of the camera to try his hand at shooting a big hog - with Kelly’s gun! It’s great stuff and should provide a few laughs in addition to reminding everyone why you NEVER hunt with a gun that you haven’t personally verified is ON TARGET.

And I posted last week about how we were going to have some hunters in camp this past weekend, so I guess I better report on how they did… Well, most of the hunters saw hogs - that was the good news. The bad news was that two of them had a monster boar run by without getting a shot over on our Sandy Run tract while Tim, who was down with Doug from Clover, SC, had a pack of 30 hogs show up at his stand on Boggy Creek only to miss a giant one. Fortunately our good buddy Joe, down from NC with Rick, Gene and Randy, managed to get his crosshairs on a good sized pig and drop him. The bad news on his good kill was that his shot almost cut the hog in half, so no pictures were taken for the blog…

We have this July 4th weekend off to celebrate the founding of our great country, then we get back to business with several groups coming in starting Sunday and running through the following weekend. So if the hog movement will continue to stay decent and our new hunters can sit still as well as shoot straight, we should have some new hunting stories and kill shots for the Skinning Shed next week - so stay tuned. I will also have some new trailcam shots as well as more updates on our preparations for the opening of deer season.

I am also still working on getting many, many more of the clips from the different hunting shows converted and uploaded here. Then I will begin transferring all of the unseen video footage that Danny has taken over the last few years so that we can get it up here as well. And since I have seen some of it, all I can say is that you better keep checking back - you don’t want to miss any of it because there is some unbelievable action on those tapes - and we truly look forward to sharing it with you.

Jeff

The Virginia Crew with Danny, Bubba and I

Our lowcountry weather has been pretty cool lately, and that has really helped the hog movement for our guests.

Two groups that benefited from the pigs moving so well during shooting hours were a married couple from North Carolina along with a great crew of Virginians who visited us last weekend. David and Tracy, our NC couple, and most of the Virginia group have hunted with us for the last couple of years, so they were looking forward to spending some time down on the River tract. And they were

Ricky with his monster boar

Bruce and his roaster pig

not disappointed when their time in the stand paid off with 7 good hogs and one huge 275 lbs warrior. Their two groups also had lots of sightings of sows with piglets in addition to several misses and missed opportunities when shooter hogs didn’t stop long enough for a good shot.

Ricky got things started Saturday night with his 275 pound monster at the Red Bank stand. Bruce and his dad, Donnie, then chipped in with a couple of good hogs to bring the group’s total to 3. Not content with his giant boar, Ricky then knocked down 2 more meat hogs Sunday evening when our NC

Mr. Donnie with a good-eating pig

couple shot a good-eating pig as well. Charles then capped off their 3 day trip over on our Telfair Plantation tract by shooting two nice hogs to bring their total to 7. Everyone in Stanley’s group then left with a ton of fresh pork and a lot of great memories… I may even have to tell one of them soon in its own post!

Charles with two Telfair Plantation hogsFinally on the 3rd afternoon, Charles dropped two nice pigs over on Telfair Plantation to bring their total to 7.

I also don’t want to leave out Washington Wizards basketball player Darius Songaila. He and his father-in-law were in just before the Virginia crew showed up to reek havoc on our hogs, and Darius shot a nice sized sow out of the cut over stand on the River. His hunt was then capped

Washington Wizard Darius Songaila with his nice sow

off by watching Bubba run his wounded hog down (while I ran behind him providing the light to see) and dispatch it! Darius said that even if he hadn’t shot a hog, his trip would have been worth it just to see us at play… I mean work

After such a busy, long holiday weekend of hunting, it was then time for a couple of days rest - for us and our properties! But then it was time to get back to work and put our hunters on some pigs, and we did. We had 8 hunters from Maryland join us here in the lowcountry this week, and they racked up the hogs too. However you will have to check in on Tuesday to see the results of their hunt…

Also, Everyone here at Cypress Creek would like to send a huge Congratulations out to our great hunting guide Henry and his wife. They just had their second baby boy!