Robertson Mill Pond Preserve Fishing & Paddling Guide

 Robertson Mill Pond 

Robertson Mill Pond is a 60 acre mill pond located on Buffalo creek near the town of Wendell , NC     This millpond on Buffalo Creek was impounded sometime around 1820  and has survivied countless hurricanes.  Buffalo Creek is a tributary of the Little river in Johnston County and this millpond is located on mile 25 of Buffalo creek.   This mill pond is now an 85 acre Wake County park and sees lots and lots of visitors.  This is a great place to paddle and see a Bald Cypress forest.   If you plan on fishing this millpond  I would suggest during the months of April through September to fish it on a weekday.     ( I will have a fishing video and a Drone video located at the bottom of this article ) and fishing info towards the bottom as well. 

Park hours are from 8am till sunset 7 days a week and the park is closed on Thanksgiving day, Christmas eve, Christmas day and New Years so this Mill pond park provides 361 days of paddling pleasure!  The park facility has 18 parking places, several places for vehicles with canoe/kayak trailers and a small field for over flow parking.   No  permanent bathrooms are here but they do have a porta-jon bathroom.

Here is a picture of the parking area

This millpond is very shallow but depths near the dam approach 10 feet.   The millpond is NOT an open body of water .  Basically 90 percent of this millpond you are paddling through a very tight Bald Cypress forest. 

Here is an aerial photo of this Millpond and I have the mill ponds aprox banks traced. The brownish colored trees are the cypress trees. 

Here is a map of the padde trail  

Kayaks can be rented but to do that you need to connect with Tar River Life which handles the rentals. 

 Here are the boating rules for Robertson Mill Pond 

• Life jackets are required 
• Electric motors only, no gasoline motors
• All NC fishing & boating regulations apply
• There is no launch fee for your own kayak

Now for the fishing !

IMHO old millponds like this only provide so so fishing.  That being said they can provide good days and are still fun to fish. 

What species of fish inhabit this millpond?

Here are the ones I know that live here.

Bluegill -  Bream to us southerners.

Redear sunfish - Shellcrackers to us southerners

Chain Pickerel -  "Jack" to us southerners

Black Crappie

Flier

Bullhead Catfish

Channel Catfish

Largemouth Bass

Warmouth

Golden Shiner

Ones that I suspect live here -

Redfin Pickerel

Yellow Perch

Pumpkinseed

--------------------------------------------------------------

Flier 

Chain Pickerel  Aka Jack

Here is my fishing video on my YouTube Channel "Mack's Extreme River Fishing"

video to be added soon

Here is my drone footage taken on March 4th 2026. 

video to be added soon

Mack

#robertsonmillpond

#fishing

#robertsonmillpondfishing

"fishing robertson millpond" 

How the Old Town 119 Discovery Canoe became common in North Carolina and the South

 This is how I seem to have persuaded many many people into getting an Old Town 119 Discovery Canoe.

I have had one since the 90's and have been river fishing out of canoes since 1977 growing up on the Haw River.  My First Solo Canoe was a Mowhawk Pack and then a bigger tamdem Old town 158  and then I aquired 2 Old Town 119's and for sure they are the best Solo River Canoe.   

Here is my Youtube video on the Old Town 119

In the early 2000's I was a member of the now defunct fishing forum Georgia River Fishing.  Through that forum I have met and fished with many great fishermen in Georgia one of them being Bill Prince. 

 Bill went by "Blackwater Bill" on this forum ( unfortunately he passed during covid) and at one time he was very disatisified with the fishing kayaks out there so I told him he should try  out an Old town 119  which he did.  

Now back up a little bit as I know for sure I have gotten many many North Carolinians in them,  may be pushing 100 or more. 

Here is the story of Blackwater Bill and the 119 he posted on the forum......

" Troy before the 119 Was cool, there was Mack from NC. When I got into the kayak ownership I started with a Dagger Blackwater 12 sit inside, couldn't get out of it the first time I tried it out. It was a gift from my wife. At the same time Cullfisher got an Old Town sit inside, and he didn't like it either. I never took the sit inside to the river, I sold it to Getthenet and bought a T 120 from Drew and it was maybe 3rd hand then. Cullfisher sold the sit inside and bought a P13. I didn't like the T 120 because I was too heavy for it and it threw me out or I bailed out nearly every trip. I sold it to Braveswin and bought a Drifter. Cullfisher sold the P13 and bought a Caper so he could stand up and fish. I could stand in the Drifter in those days. I went through 3 or 4 Drifters usually owning two at any given time. Because MacBass, Rockworm1 and Bassman1 all swore by their electric powered canoes Cullfisher and I got one of them each. We still have them and use them for long trips and camping and so forth where their freight hauling and comfort is an advantage. Then came the Ultimate’s as the flavor of the month. I sold my Drifters and got a U 12 which I hated immediately. After two weeks I put it for sale and a man gave me a sot kayak and enough money to buy a 119 for the U12. I won't call his name because he may regret that deal. I later traded that sot he gave me for a new Drifter which I still have and I won't call the man's name that made that trade either.

  

For about a year I had stuck in the back of my mind was the fact that Mack from NC said the best river boat he ever had was an Old Town 119. If you look at his signature he lists his watercraft and he has 2 Old Town 119s. I have always been impressed with Mack's "walking around sense". Therefore I checked out the 119 and found that Old Town was making the Disco 119 for Dicks and calling it a Kaynoe so I bought one with the boot that I got for the U12. MacBass thought I was crazy when I showed up at Juliette with that boat. I tested it that day for draft, stability and so forth and declared it to exceed my expectations. macbass watched me and then wanted to test it. Just below half way shoals going toward Poep's Juliette, MacBass got in it and stood and paddled around then tried to push it over and couldn't, then paddled in water where his Drifter would get stuck an the 119 floated right on. I then wrote an essay on how good I thought that bought was. Other than Mack's 2 thats the only one I knew of that anybody had. Now the rest is history. Since I wrote that essay, I could name maybe 2 or 3 dozen people who have gotten out of the Kayak usage and converted to 119s and can't think of anybody that has been disappointed. The 119 is the solo canoe par excellence"

He says above that he has got maybe 3 dozen in them which is because of me and I listed maybe a hundred for me but it maybe more.  

Anyway, if you want a great solo boat the Old 119 is it. 

Mack

#oldtown

#oldtown119

#discoverycanoe