catclaw

I am leaving tomorrow with my son to do some fishing in Alaska. We are going to Prince of Wales Island. This will be my 3rd trip there (POW) Kings are peaking, silvers are coming on strong and there is always the yellow eyes (my favorite) and the halibuts. My son is sure excited to go. He loves to fish and this will be overload! I will take some pics this time since I have him there to take them of! This is as bad as waiting for opening day!! Dennis

I guess the hot days are getting to the deer finally. It was family day at the water park!

No, I had 4 cameras on this tank. my buddy didn't have to move a muscle as the trail cams did all the heavy lifting! He was the one on the tank. I got to sit a different one and only had elk and a lion come in. He also had a fox or two and a cow (I think) come in. This is what he was waiting for.

They would wade out in there and eat those underwater weeds for hours! Sitting on a tree stand waiting for a bear was painful!

He has been hitting the donuts pretty hard!! What a fatty.

Back from bear hunting- saw LOTS of elk and deer and a kitty- no bruins. FISHING... We went out again the next morning to fill the boat with silvers. The bite was decent but not as good as we had hoped. We caught a few here and there and tried a few different waters. Levi then hooks a King! * They fight a little different than the smaller fish and everyone else pulled in their lines until the king was landed or lost! Getting some advice on how NOT to lose it! * Finally in the boat * Levi's first King Salmon! * We picked up some more ling cod and made another good day of it. I wasn't so tired this day- I guess I finally got caught up on sleep the night before. Here are the best fish of the day. One more day to go...

DAY 2 continued We finished up at the King hole with no kings and a few more cohos that we had to release as we were alreadyhad our limits. We went out to some deeper water to find some halibut. We rigged up three big rods, two with bait and one with a jig. After about 30 minutes, my son hooked into something good. We pulled the other two rods up so he could fight it without worrying about a fouled line. When we decided it was a large halibut, I climbed on top of the boat to take some photos. * The fish reached the surface I switched to video at this point as Bobby had to beat the fish to death before he brought it in the boat. I don't know how to put a video up or I would. Bobby and I dragged it into the boat and the tied the tail to the head with a shark hook. We later slid it under the fish box with a little portion of the tail sticking out. The fish weighed 147# or so. We finished up with a few more fish and called it a day. We headed in for the docks and I can't remember being so tired. I guess it was a combination of jet lag, late sunsets and never taking a break all day. I slept from 8 pm to 5 am without stirring that night. Here is the wheelbarrow load of salmon. The day's catch all displayed on the bragging board. Bear hunting opened today- gotta go, finish this when I get back

As I was saying, Day 2 We headed out about 6 am to hit the salmon. We started in close as there was a bite only about 5 miles out from the lodge. We caught a dozen or so cohos and a bunch of humpies. It kills me to have to release all those humpies- they look just as good as the cohos (silvers) but are soft fleshed. My son caught the first keeper and it was off to the races. We had as many as 3 on at one time. The limit is 6 cohos per day. * The kids were having a ball. Kaden is only 9 and fought these suckers tooth and fin... * * We fished this spot for a couple of hours and then went off to more fertile waters. This time, a 45 minute run. We started mooching for Kings and immediately picked up a ling cod. There is a slot limit on lings- I think it is 30-35" and over 55". The first one was just outside the slot so back in he went. These ling cods are amazingly aggressive. They will bite the bait when their stomach is so full they can't swallow what they already have in their throat! I have had a big one chase a smaller one all the way to the surface. They have some amazing chompers and you want to keep your hands away. * more to come

Hahaha Red Mountain wasn't even built when I went to Mt. View so I went with a lot of guys from out there.

I went there and all my kids EXCEPT the one wearing the shirt went there! I guess he stole it from his brother!

I made it back tonight. I stashed 150# of fish in the freezer and am headed to bed. Thought I would check the computer while I cool the house down. Had sunshine the ENTIRE time I was there. I guess the Pacific Northwest had a heat wave- 103 in Seattle!!! I will work on some pics tomorrow and start another thread. Dennis

Well, I made it to Ketchikan yesterday. Nothing but sunshine- this is going to be a good trip! Had dinner at Annabell's - some of their famous seafood chowder and homemade bread. More to follow~

Well, I am headed to Phoenix. I'll have pics and a story next weekend. Dennis

My last trip was to Kodiak but the only salmon I caught on that trip was with fly tackle in the river. We always have a good time in Craig and catch lots of fish. This will be my son's first trip to AK. He has already been to Hawaii and Philippines this summer. He is going to be sooooo spoiled. Here is a silver from Kodiak Island in Oct 2007.

The 1-13 twist is NOT your friend with these heavier bullets. I think you will be limited to 168 VLDs. You can possibly shoot 180s but not VLDs. If you want to try a good bullet that is designed for a 1-12.5 but will usually shoot good in a 1-13 twist, try some 187 BIB bullets. They are tangent, 10 ogive, FLATBASE target bullets. I think they will handle your velocity. Call Dave Tooley and ask him!! He is a pretty smart guy. Forget the 180s and 190s with that barrel though, only the flatbases will work. If you want to try a really good bullet that is commonly available but doesn't have the highest BC, get a box of Sierra 180 pro hunters. If it won't shoot those, it won't shoot any 180s. I can't help you on the powder choices other than to say that I know Karl used R25 at one time. You are going to wear out that barrel looking for the magic bullet if you aren't careful. They are probably only good for about 1200 rounds at most.

It's Boo Boo!

I got three photos of this. Anyone have any ideas? Bigfoot maybe?? These were the only three photos in the time frame- No bear photo or anything else. Did find fresh bear tracks on a nearby tank though?

They are carnivores and they live in troups, not packs. They are heck on dogs that don't know what they are. They will let the dog chase them and then fall on their backs, ripping the dog's throat out. I had to shoot one once in self defense in New Mexico while deer hunting. We watched them every day and one afternoon, just after killing a deer, I was sitting down next to it and this lone male came up the draw. He got within 25 yds of me before he saw me and ran straight at me. I grabbed my buddy's rifle, as it was closer and shot him about 10 feet away. I think the limit is one per year now. I know ranchers that used to shoot all they saw! I guess they lose too many cow dogs to them. I have seen them in unit 22 &23 in NM, and22, 31, 34A, 36B, 36C, 27, 28, 29 and as far north as Timber Camp Mountain in 24A. I killed my first one in 24B near Roger's trough about 30 years ago. I don't shoot them anymore but should I need to fill out a spot on a pot shelf with a trophy, I might shoot yet one more. I have only seen a couple of ringtail cats before and one of them stole a package of bratwursts from my icechest while camping at Timber Camp one year. I had to chase the bugger down to get my wieners back!

who do you exclude so they can?

If you use the right lock, you can't get them with bolt cutters. I like the combo locks so they are not as good as the one in the last photo. A good lock costs MORE than the whole box! I am going to make one with a deadbolt instead of a padlock. If you lag them on good enough and use though bolt cutter resistant locks, you are going to keep 75%of the thieves from getting it. It they take power tools with them, all bets are off. My last box cost about $5 for the steel and $2 for a hinge. They take about and hour and a half. Dennis This is one discretely mounted on a tree- no chains or cables to give it away! Besides, can you imagine how long the chain would have to be to get around this sucker!

My Covert cam is dead in the water. I have no idea what happened. My buddy just checked it and couldn't breathe life back into it. I am having the worst luck- just when I think they are the cat's a$$, they go and do this!!!

I had a camera up over the 4th and popped 1300 pics in a little over 2 weeks. I was a busy trail. Not nearly as many deer as I was hoping but there were all manner of other stuff.

Yeh, but don't expect an epic like the buffalo hunt

What is hunt # 1082?????

August WT in 22C