DURING high
school and
between college
classes, Giovinetti
hunted every day
he could of every duck season. As
a youngster, he began with ducks
and a Belgium Browning shotgun,
and to ducks he turned as an adult
with a file, saw and wood rasp.
While he might not have admitted
it and despite early setbacks, he had
evolved into a premier woodworker
and decoy maker. But in the begin-ning
and in the end, with his faithful
Labrador retriever, Drake, he was
first a duck hunter.
His love of the Cape Fear did not
keep him from exploring other river
systems, and the New River estuary
was one of his favorites. The New
River flows east-southeast, meandering
through the sprawling Camp Lejeune
Marine Base in Onslow County north
of Wilmington. Eventually it becomes
a wide, brackish tidal bay flowing
32
WBM january 2019
finally to the Atlantic Ocean through
New River Inlet. When winter
winds whip down the bay and kick
up against a rising tide, the usually
placid waters become as rough-cut
and supremely dangerous as any
on the North Carolina coast. As if
churned by some huge paddlewheel,
the waters become ripped with cross
currents and laced with smothering
white-capped waves. Into the midst
of this cauldron, oblivious to
the surging slough of water,
thousands of bluebills
and canvasback
ducks returned
each year.
Hunted Every Day
ALLISON POTTER
A drake goldeneye
decoy carved by
Nick Giovinetti circa
1969 is courtesy of
Charles M. Godwin.