Bay to Bowl

Yep, first time I can recall the Sedge House being opened to the public. It is an amazing place, one of very few still left.
 
46er said:
Yep, first time I can recall the Sedge House being opened to the public. It is an amazing place, one of very few still left.
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I stopped in this duck shack once. (See Historic Aerials image below) They used to leave the doors open to discourage vandals and it actually worked.

I was told that he duck shack was built in the 1950's and blossomed out of a simple clam lease by on of the owners' grandfathers. The duck shack was a full blown house with dockage on one of the cuts in the lower Mullica just before entering Great Bay. My brother-in -law hunted out of there a few times with the owners, even though he wasn't much of a hunter. For years he promised to get me out there on a hunt but it never happened. The owners were taken to court and there was lengthy litigation with the State over this house that ended with the State being victorious. The building was demolished over twenty years ago.

There is still a house out in the Bay close to this one that friends of mine visit regularly in the summer, although it doesn't look like a hunting shack.
There are also a few hunting shacks left in the Glades along Delaware Bay too.
ironCapture.JPG
 
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The sedge house and the remaining others are within Island Beach State Park. When the park was created, the leases for the properties were extended until the last direct ancestor of the leasee passed on. They then would revert back to IBSP, which has done nothing to maintain them, which is a common occurrence with the state. Lots of history lost. At least the PP regularly patrol them. The majority of those left are in the southern natural area and not on the sedges. A good friend, no longer with us, was interviewing the current lease's and videoing the shack to prepare a historic vid of them. Unfortunately he left before the work was completed. One of the more famous is the Judges shack, in the dunes Oceanside; a fishing shack, it has some history.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzBEC7JuuC3uMDQzYTU5MDktNmNhNi00MDI4LWJkMTItZGI0NjUyYTA4N2Yz/view
 
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I"ve canoed out to the duck shacks in the Glades and went crabbing off their docks.All but one shack was locked up tight.never made it to the one closest to Egg island though I have been to egg island twice.Once I kayaked in summer and another time I walked there from fortescue after swimming two yidal creeks and wading a couple others.Found some arrowheads out there which is what i was after.Got to be about the wildest spot in south jersey distance wise anyway.
 
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manumuskin said:
I"ve canoed out to the duck shacks in the Glades and went crabbing off their docks.All but one shack was locked up tight.never made it to the one closest to Egg island though I have been to egg island twice.Once I kayaked in summer and another time I walked there from fortescue after swimming two yidal creeks and wading a couple others.Found some arrowheads out there which is what i was after.Got to be about the wildest spot in south jersey distance wise anyway.
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I was crabbing way up in Oranoken Creek with my wife and kids circa 1992 and a guy came passed us in a small boat loaded over the gunwales with lumber and carpeting. He stopped to talk for a minute and said he was on his way to work on his shack. That was when I first realized that there were duck shacks out there.

I love it out there. My best crabbing days, up to two bushels in 5-6 hours, were in Oranoken and Weir Creek off of Dividing Creek.
 
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RednekF350 said:
I love it out there. My best crabbing days, up to two bushels in 5-6 hours, were in Oranoken and Weir Creek off of Dividing Creek.
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One of my favorite spots is the backside of IBSP; shallow flats to wade that go on for miles. No boats as it is too shallow. I take a crab live line and net, toss and net them. Great striper and blues in the spring and no one around to bother me, seems like another state.
 
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RednekF350 said:
I was crabbing way up in Oranoken Creek with my wife and kids circa 1992 and a guy came passed us in a small boat loaded over the gunwales with lumber and carpeting. He stopped to talk for a minute and said he was on his way to work on his shack. That was when I first realized that there were duck shacks out there.

I love it out there. My best crabbing days, up to two bushels in 5-6 hours, were in Oranoken and Weir Creek off of Dividing Creek.
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Scott,
There is an island in the marsh visible from the bridge over Weir Creek (the first bridge before the end of the road at Turkey Point) It would be to your left (southeast) from the bridge.I used to hang out on that island back in the late 80's with my dog.There is or was a way out there walking through the marsh,if you knew the way you wouldn't get swallowed alive.There were barn owls living on the island and in broad daylight they would take off as you approached and fly up the island,then repeat the trip when you headed back the other way.Owl pellets with vole skulls galore.Nice big red maple at south end of island made for climbing and observing the marsh.center of island was mass of briars with one deer trail through it,both ends more open.I haven't been out there in probably 20 years now.tried about six years ago and almost got swallered.I seemed to have forgotten the exact route.Otters out the wazoo out there as well. Egg Island is about as wild as you can get in South Jersey.You can look north from there and barely make out the treeline.Like your on the edge of the world and false egg blocks the view of Fortescue.Only really visible manamde object in East Point Lighthouse and if your on the west side of the point you can't see that due to vegetation.
 
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