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Andi Hutchens got this buck on her farm in Westfield, NC during bow season.

When I decided to set up a base camp for my hunting and fishing adventures, I opted for the 16-foot  White Duck Regatta Bell Tent. 

Without a doubt, this tent is much bigger than I need. I will almost exclusively be camping alone, but I wanted something that was roomy enough that I wouldn’t feel cramped, especially when needing to sit out a storm that keeps me inside for an extended time. I also wanted to have plenty of room for all my gear, no matter what adventure I was getting into. 

Sometimes, I will hunt squirrels in the morning, deer in the evening, and do a little fishing in between. Or hunt geese during the early Canada goose season, then fish, then deer hunt. When seasons overlap, I like to keep my options open. 

I’m also guilty of hauling my laptop along on my adventures to keep up with work. So I wanted enough room to set up a makeshift work space too. 

The 16-foot Regatta Bell Tent serves all these purposes well. And if anyone ever does join me, I’ve still got plenty of room.

I’ll admit, I dreaded setting up a tent this large, and thought it would take half a day. Boy was I wrong! After unpacking it from it’s bag and rolling it out, I realized how simple this task would be. The pins and stakes, along with a nice hammer, are all rolled up in a handy bag. I began hammering in the pins, which was quick and easy, going in a star pattern to get the tent floor spread out evenly and correctly. 

Next was the center pole, a three-piece, shock-corded pole that quickly snaps into place. At this point, the tent was shaping up nicely. I added the door pole, which was also quick and easy. Then I hammered in the bigger stakes. Once they were in, I made use of the adjustable guy lines to tighten it all up. And with that, my home-away-from-home was complete. It took about 20 minutes the very first time I set it up, and I’m sure I will shave some of that time off when doing it the next time.

The tent has a diameter of 16.5 feet, so it’s plenty roomy. The single center pole design gives the tent a wide open feel, and that is multiplied by the tent’s interior height, which is almost 10 feet in the center.

It’s much more like being in a good-sized room in a house than it is like being in a tent.

Large mesh pockets mounted on the interior walls provide plenty of storage options for anything you can think of. Multiple mesh windows allow for a good breeze, which gets even better when you have the door open to the full-size mesh panels, which allow the breezes in, bit keep even the smallest of bugs out. 

A stove jack is pre-installed, and a very nice feature to have for cold nights. The center pole also has an attachment point for hanging lights, lanterns, rifles, or whatever else you’d like to hang.

Another nice feature is the power port, a small opening that is easy to close up tightly enough to keep creepy-crawlies out, even when passing a power cord through to an outside generator or other power receptacle.

The tent is crafted from army duck material, which keeps the inside cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. It is highly waterproof and sturdy, and naturally resists mold and mildew.

Because I hunt right outside my camp, I opted for the Realtree Camo pattern, one of five colors available for the 16-foot Regatta, which is also available in four other sizes, as well as in a 360 model, which features no-see-um mesh panels all the way around. 

The other available colors for this model include Sandstone Beige, Forest Green, Desert Red, and Boulder Gray. The other sizes include 8, 10, 13, and 20 footers.

This tent is easy to set up, highly durable, and roomy enough for my cot, chair, and every bit of gear I need for extended adventures, while still leaving me comfortable and not at all cramped, even when I’ve got all the fishing and hunting equipment I’ll need for multiple species. I look for it to serve me well for many years. For more information on the Whiteduck Regatta Bell Tent, click here.

New harvest reporting requirements for recreational and commercial fisheries have been delayed by one year and will now become effective on Dec. 1, 2025.The N.C. General Assembly recently passed Session Law 2024-45, which, in part, amends legislation from last fall that would have implemented the harvest reporting requirements on Dec. 1, 2024. This extension will allow the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC) to engage with stakeholders, not only to inform them about the requirements, but also to ensure that the reporting process and tool(s) are robust and user-friendly. The legislation from last fall requires that any person who recreationally harvests Red Drum, flounder, Spotted Seatrout (speckled trout), Striped Bass and Weakfish (gray trout) must report that harvest to the DMF. This requirement applies to fish harvested from coastal fishing waters, joint fishing waters and inland fishing waters adjacent to coastal or joint fishing waters.Additionally, the law requires anyone holding a commercial fishing license who is engaged in a commercial fishing operation to report all fish harvested to DMF, regardless of sale. More information, including links to temporary rules to implement the laws, can be found on the Mandatory Harvest Reporting webpage at https://www.deq.nc.gov/mandatory-harvest-reporting. The webpage will continue to be updated as new information becomes available. –NCDMF news release

NCDMF, which is responsible for regulating North Carolina’s saltwater fish in the state’s ocean waters, decided against opening a recreational flounder season for 2024. Now, it appears the NCWRC, which is responsible for regulating certain saltwater species of fish in the state’s inland waterways, is poised to do the same. They are currently seeking public comment on the subject.

While flounder are a saltwater species, these fish often travel up waterways that are considered brackish and even into freshwater. This causes problems with anglers that must abide by certain regulations from NCDMF, when the waters they are fishing are governed by NCWRC. Thus, NCWRC also has rules in place dealing with some species of saltwater fish, like flounder.

From NCWRC:

“The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) has been responsible for managing North Carolina’s wildlife resources since 1947. Rules are one means of managing these resources to serve the interests of the state’s citizens. We rely on the public’s cooperation and assistance in this endeavor. Thus, we urge you to submit your comments and appreciate your participation.

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The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF) has stated they will not open the recreational flounder harvest season in 2024 due to the recreational sector exceeding the 2023 harvest allotment. To be consistent with the annual quota management measure of the North Carolina Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3 and with the NCDMF closure of the recreational season in coastal waters, the proposed amendments will close the flounder harvest season in 2024.”

Click here to provide your comments to NCWRC concerning this closure.

RELEASE, a 53-foot Sullivan sportfishing boat based out of Hatteras Harbor and captained by Capt. Rom Whitaker, has won the Fabulous Fisherman’s prize of $1,729,750 for a 504-pound blue marlin.

Angler Kirk Pugh reeled the big billfish in, and because they were the first crew to weigh a blue marlin that exceeded the minimum requirement of 400 pounds, they pocketed the big check on the first day of the tournament.

That’s a great payday, and the crew stands to win even more money if no other boat brings a heavier blue marlin to the scales during the 2024 Big Rock.

At 10:44 a.m., RELEASE boated the blue marlin and headed to the scales, arriving to an excited crowd at around 2:45 p.m.

Minutes before the marlin was weighed, GAME TIME reported they boated a blue marlin and were headed to the scales. Even though GAME TIME missed out on the Fabulous Fisherman’s prize, they still stand to gain a lot in other prize money if their marlin unseats RELEASE’s as the top spot.

For updates, check out thebigrock.com

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries declared on May 23, 2024 that the state will not have a recreational season for flounder in 2024. The reason for the closure is due to overages from previous flounder seasons.

The DMF has not issued a press release on this yet, but sources that attended the agency’s meeting in Beaufort, NC have relayed the ruling to us.

The matter of flounder season did not come to a vote. Instead, the overages from last year (or the past several years) were noted as the reason for the continued closure. As part of the state’s most recent flounder regulations over the past few years, future seasons could be shortened or even canceled if one recreational season resulted in more flounder being caught than the Total Allowable Catch, a number set by DMF before each season.

For instance, during North Carolina’s 2022 recreational flounder season, DMF had set the Total Allowable Catch at 170,655 pounds. The estimated recreational catch for that season was 226,995 pounds, an overage of 56,340 pounds.

The 2023 season also resulted in an overage, which was added to the previous year’s. DMF determined that these overages have cut into what 2024’s Total Allowable Catch would have been, so severely, that they determined it was best to cancel any plans for a 2024 recreational harvest season.

We expect to see an official release from NCDMF soon, and we will update our readers accordingly.