Your Guides for Duck & Waterfowl Hunting Around Pamlico Sound and Lake Mattamuskeet

Location - Mattamuskeet, Hyde County, Pamlico Sound

Our lodge is on Lake Mattamuskeet in rural Hyde County, located about 50 miles west of Cape Hatteras and 200 miles east of Raleigh, North Carolina. We are in the middle of the Atlantic Flyway halfway between Maine and Florida.

Our rural area provides a valuable wintering area for the waterfowl using this migration route which extends from Canada southward. Thousands of Canada geese, snow geese, tundra swan and 22 species of ducks overwinter in this area each year.

Lake Mattamuskeet

Lake Mattamuskeet is part of the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge with about 50,000 acres of marshes, woods, and water. It is the largest natural lake in North Carolina and is very shallow averaging only two feet in depth and five to six feet deep at its deepest part. Some call it a swan's neck deep. It is 18 miles long, 5 to 6 miles wide, and contains about 40,000 acres.

In the winter months, thousands of Tundra Swans, Canada and Snow Geese, pintails, black ducks, and mallards are seen on the lake, as well as less numerous species of waterfowl. Osprey nest in low Cypress trees near the water's edge, and it is not unusual to see a Bald Eagle circling overhead or resting in a tree a safe distance from human traffic. There are more than 200 species of birds around Lake Mattamuskeet for part or all of each year.

Hyde County

Hyde County is one of North Carolina's largest counties by acreage but has under 5500 residents. It is a sportsman's paradise as overhunting and population pressure are not a concern here ... we're off the beaten path. Surrounded by the Pamlico Sound, the Alligator and Pungo Rivers, home to North Carolina's largest natural lake Lake Mattamuskeet, and bisected by the Intracoastal Waterway, Hyde County is known as "the land of many waters". Our lands are composed of fields of corn, soybeans, ryegrass and wheat and our area has numerous lakes, ponds, sounds, marshes, wetlands, and flooded impoundments. Ocracoke Island, once home to the pirate Blackbeard and now a tourist Mecca, is accessible only by air or water.

Transportation

If you are flying to our area, the closest commercial airports are:

• Greenville, NC (2 hours)
• Norfolk, VA (2.5 hours)
• Raleigh-Durham, NC (3.5 hours)

Rental cars are available at airports

Map & Directions

N-Hyde-N Guide Services
1016 North Lake Road
Fairfield, NC 27926