FNick Giovinetti’s Hunting Grounds ROM 1950 through 1990,
the Cape Fear River Basin
offered the finest duck
hunting on the East Coast.
Back then, beginning in
October of each year, the confluence
of the Northeast, the Brunswick, and
the Cape Fear Rivers near Wilmington
drew wild mallards, black ducks, wood
ducks, and green-winged teal by the
thousands, and by Thanksgiving the
boom of shotguns was heard echoing
through area marshes. When waterfowl
season was in full swing, names like
Horseshoe Bend, Clearwater Bayou,
Toomer’s Creek and Eagle Island —
most still visible from Wilmington’s
major bridges today — were home to
migrating waterfowl that arrived each
winter. They came to roost in the fresh
water marshes and browse on the abun-dant
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WBM january 2019
wild rice that matured each fall.
The upper marshes near Wilmington
were just part of the great river’s waterfowl
draw. The lower reaches of the Cape Fear
were equally spectacular. Winter arrived
early in those years, bringing the fierce
northwest winds of November. Riding the
storms south into the broad, expansive
sounds and bays of the lower Cape Fear
near Clarendon, Pleasant Oaks, Big Island
and Orton, came bluebills, ring-necked
ducks, and prized bull canvasbacks spiral-ing
down through the icy skies.
Farther east toward the ocean, where
Giovinetti loved to hunt, the estuarine
spartina expanses of Southport, Sunny
Point, Bald Head Island, and Buzzards
Bay brought widgeon, gadwall and the
lovely acrobatic pintails which poured
into places called Cedar Creek, Gum Log
Branch and Molasses Cove.
A greater scaup drake decoy, also known as a
bluebill, was carved by Nick Giovinetti circa 1969
and is courtesy of George W. Barefoot. Below: Nick
Giovinetti, circa 1971 with his shotgun nicknamed
“The Duck Slayer.” Giovinetti with his lab, Drake,
circa 1971. Nick Giovinetti is pictured as Secretary-
Treasurer of the New Hanover Fishing Club in 1971.
ROBERT REHDER