Let me give you a little of the background that led me to Rhodes Point. The New River was in an extended down cycle, but Mouse Harbor wasn't much better. Whit was getting worse and worse. Always upset about the lack of shooting, and drinking a little too much to suit me. I was looking for something to break because my sons were getting old enough to become semi-regular hunting partners. As I wrote in another story, my sons and I tried Hospital Point out of a boat blind and really did great. So I decided to make a stab at building a new blind.
I had heard plenty of shooting farther down the river, but Hospital Point had always been good to me. Good water depth, easy to get to, the old blind that was there when I started hunting the New River had lasted 20 seasons. So I never planned on leaving that point. Summer of 1996 I built a brand new blind there. Pumped out the last of the pilings from the old blind and moved about 20 yards and put up the new one. Did a fantastic job on it. Spent a lot of money on it. Then Hurricane Bertha came, just a week later, before my pilings really had a chance to get solidly planted. The blind blew over backwards at about a 45 degree angle. But at least she held together. We managed to right it and it started to firm up again. Then along came Hurricane Fran. That was a bad hurricane. Took ever blind off the river, including my new one. Well, there is no insurance on duck blinds so I was out of luck.
That Season, Pamlico Point was fairly decent, but it was hard to coordinate my time off with Whit's time off, and my boys' school schedule. So I tried the boat blind on the New River a little bit. Dad and I had a week off and hit 35 mph winds from the Northwest for 5 straight days. Way too much wind to hunt Hospital Point. We ended up hunting out the week up on the White Oak River. Did OK but I kept looking at the New River. Then we found a launch ramp at Rhodes Point. It was on the Verona Loop side of Camp Lejeune. Down in the area where we used to hear a lot of shooting when we only hunted Hospital Point. Lots of old pilings from past blinds, lots of stories of good blinds and hunters down on that part of the river. Dad and I really gunned the Bluebills the last few days of the season out of the boat, but when I got my boys out for the last day the wind turned East and ruined it for us.
I couldn't afford to build a new blind yet, had to save my money for another year. Old Game Warden told me I could hunt a blind off the shore as long as I was below the high water mark. So I built a portable blind and the boys and I did well from that the following year, until the last day when the Base Game Wardens told us they didn't care what the State Game Warden said, we couldn't hunt from the bank unless we were checked out with them. That training area was never open so I knew I had to come up with the money to build a blind. The following summer I got a friend who had a couple boys my sons age to go halves with me on a blind. I designed it for a month, got all the materials together and built it in May. Early enough to get it stuck in real good before the hurricane season.
It's 2010 and the blind is still standing. It has stood 7-8 hurricanes, being hit by a barge, and broken into a zillion times by every lazy SOB who won't build their own blind. But it is still standing. Over the years it has turned into an engineering marvel. I designed it so that I could disassemble it partially, so there would be less for people to steal and less there to be battered by storms. I still have the plans I used to build it and the list of materials. Initially it cost $1000. Probably spent another $1000 on repairs and upgrades. I imagine it would cost $2000 to build another one just like it. Probably have to in another couple years, so I am already planning that financially.
Our best year from Rhodes Point was 300 birds. Had several years with over 200. Also had a couple years so bad that I hate to even tell about it. We have killed Canada and Snow Geese, Mallards, Black Ducks, Wigeon, GW Teal, Canvasbacks, Redheads, Bluebills, Goldeneye, Ringnecks, Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads, all 3 Scoters and some Mergs and Coot. 95% of our ducks have been Bluebills, but a sprinkling of all the other species has been nice.
It has become my favorite place on earth to shoot ducks. Lots of different hunters, a couple of good dogs, about 1500 ducks and a million good times.
I had heard plenty of shooting farther down the river, but Hospital Point had always been good to me. Good water depth, easy to get to, the old blind that was there when I started hunting the New River had lasted 20 seasons. So I never planned on leaving that point. Summer of 1996 I built a brand new blind there. Pumped out the last of the pilings from the old blind and moved about 20 yards and put up the new one. Did a fantastic job on it. Spent a lot of money on it. Then Hurricane Bertha came, just a week later, before my pilings really had a chance to get solidly planted. The blind blew over backwards at about a 45 degree angle. But at least she held together. We managed to right it and it started to firm up again. Then along came Hurricane Fran. That was a bad hurricane. Took ever blind off the river, including my new one. Well, there is no insurance on duck blinds so I was out of luck.
That Season, Pamlico Point was fairly decent, but it was hard to coordinate my time off with Whit's time off, and my boys' school schedule. So I tried the boat blind on the New River a little bit. Dad and I had a week off and hit 35 mph winds from the Northwest for 5 straight days. Way too much wind to hunt Hospital Point. We ended up hunting out the week up on the White Oak River. Did OK but I kept looking at the New River. Then we found a launch ramp at Rhodes Point. It was on the Verona Loop side of Camp Lejeune. Down in the area where we used to hear a lot of shooting when we only hunted Hospital Point. Lots of old pilings from past blinds, lots of stories of good blinds and hunters down on that part of the river. Dad and I really gunned the Bluebills the last few days of the season out of the boat, but when I got my boys out for the last day the wind turned East and ruined it for us.
I couldn't afford to build a new blind yet, had to save my money for another year. Old Game Warden told me I could hunt a blind off the shore as long as I was below the high water mark. So I built a portable blind and the boys and I did well from that the following year, until the last day when the Base Game Wardens told us they didn't care what the State Game Warden said, we couldn't hunt from the bank unless we were checked out with them. That training area was never open so I knew I had to come up with the money to build a blind. The following summer I got a friend who had a couple boys my sons age to go halves with me on a blind. I designed it for a month, got all the materials together and built it in May. Early enough to get it stuck in real good before the hurricane season.
It's 2010 and the blind is still standing. It has stood 7-8 hurricanes, being hit by a barge, and broken into a zillion times by every lazy SOB who won't build their own blind. But it is still standing. Over the years it has turned into an engineering marvel. I designed it so that I could disassemble it partially, so there would be less for people to steal and less there to be battered by storms. I still have the plans I used to build it and the list of materials. Initially it cost $1000. Probably spent another $1000 on repairs and upgrades. I imagine it would cost $2000 to build another one just like it. Probably have to in another couple years, so I am already planning that financially.
Our best year from Rhodes Point was 300 birds. Had several years with over 200. Also had a couple years so bad that I hate to even tell about it. We have killed Canada and Snow Geese, Mallards, Black Ducks, Wigeon, GW Teal, Canvasbacks, Redheads, Bluebills, Goldeneye, Ringnecks, Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads, all 3 Scoters and some Mergs and Coot. 95% of our ducks have been Bluebills, but a sprinkling of all the other species has been nice.
It has become my favorite place on earth to shoot ducks. Lots of different hunters, a couple of good dogs, about 1500 ducks and a million good times.
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