Kodiak Brown Bear Hunt 31 Oct - 6 Nov 2021

[IAMMAC]

My son is stationed in Alaska and was lucky enough to draw a Kodiak Brown Bear tag (2% draw odds) for the fall hunt this year.  We will doing a DIY hunt and will be in Area 16 (Larsen Bay).  It should be a lot of fun and great memories for sure.  Anyone here hunted on Kodiak Island?  If so share your experience so I know how bad my body is going to get beat up and possibly die from a bear attack.......🤪   He shot this caribou Monday morning on Chicken Ridge in NE Alaska.

[stanley]

YES!!!   Freaking awesome!!!  Love that your son is taking advantage of his 'station assignment'!!

No matter what the result, definitely share the brown bear adventure with the site upon your return!!

[IAMMAC]

Will do.  I'll be spending a lot of money on this hunt and I won't even be pulling a trigger unless it's for self protection.  

[HuntHarder]

That looks awesome!  I have had a bunch of buddies hunt out of Larson bay and there is no shortage of Grizzlies, so I am told.  My trip to Alaska was epic and I am sure yours will be too. The scenery alone is stunning.  Wildlife everywhere and the remoteness that can be had is unmatched here in the lower 48.  

[GreyGhost85]

That will be an adventure and a half. I hunted blacktail this last year on Kodiak. It is a ROUGH place for sure. You need to get in shape mentally as much or than physically. I never felt like my level of physical condition prohibited me from hunting any harder than i did but your brain will likely tell you to quit several times. Positive attitude and good clothing  are the most important things to bring with you

[eddielasvegas]

Following.  What a great hunt this will be.

Best of luck,

 

Eddie

[PRDATR]

You can get quite a bit of help and info on here.

https://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/forum/alaska-hunting-forums/alaska-hunting

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Ive been on Kodiak 3 times. 2 for Deer and 1 for Mtn Goat. I have a love/hate relationship with the place. I've always seen bears, every trip and sometimes some real big bears. I've hunted in your hunt area for deer 2 times. I am more than happy to give you some more info if you want. I would recommend a transporter or staying in a FS cabin for sure, tent camping it would be a nightmare IMO. Especially if it rains the whole time. You can not hunt over bait but if there are deer hunters around and gut piles the bears will be there. 

 

 

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Pictures of your hunt area from sevenmile

[IAMMAC]

4 hours ago, WHT_MTNMAN said:

Ive been on Kodiak 3 times. 2 for Deer and 1 for Mtn Goat. I have a love/hate relationship with the place. I've always seen bears, every trip and sometimes some real big bears. I've hunted in your hunt area for deer 2 times. I am more than happy to give you some more info if you want. I would recommend a transporter or staying in a FS cabin for sure, tent camping it would be a nightmare IMO. Especially if it rains the whole time. You can not hunt over bait but if there are deer hunters around and gut piles the bears will be there. 

 

 

I will take any and all info you can and will share.  We have a transporter through Kodiak Marine Charters and will be staying on the boat nightly.  There are 4 of us going and I am the only one from out of state.   From my understanding they are allowed 3 deer and two goats each in addition to my son's Bear tag.  The boat also offers duck hunting, fishing, crabbing and fox hunting.  I am stoked and can't wait!

[AndrewJ]

On 9/8/2021 at 9:13 AM, IAMMAC said:

My son is stationed in Alaska and was lucky enough to draw a Kodiak Brown Bear tag (2% draw odds) for the fall hunt this year.  We will doing a DIY hunt and will be in Area 16 (Larsen Bay).  It should be a lot of fun and great memories for sure.  

 

How did things turn out?

[AzRaised08]

Following, would love to know how it went!

[IAMMAC]

Well I've been back for a bit now and to be honest I kind of forgot about this post.  We made it to Kodiak the morning of 29 Oct by way of ferry from Homer.  We met the transporter on the other side of the island in Anton Larson Bay the morning of 30 Oct.  The weather that morning was horrible and I was hoping that it was not the beginning of shitty weather for the week.  Fortunately for us it was not.  We got to Larsen Bay, our hunting area, about 1p.m. and decided to go for a hike and get a lay of the land where we'd be hunting.  To say that the terrain is thick is an understatement.  It took us about 2.5 hours to hike inland before we got to a "open" area where we could not walk through the thick alders/brush.  Even in the grassy areas the grass was 3'-4' high so we had to bushwhack our way through everything.  We were only out for a few hours that evening and saw tons of deer sign but no bear sign. 

Day 1-Started with a 3-4 hour hike to a overlook where we could glass the mountain sides around us.  We did end up seeing a bear about a mile and a half across the valley.  Here's where the dilemmas come into play......It would take us at least 2 hours to get in to shooting range and who knows if the bear would even still be there when we got into position.  Safe daylight began at about 9:45ish and it was dark by 6pm.  We found the bear at about 3:30 and had the hard discussion of not going after it because it would take us late into the night if we were able to actually shoot and kill it.  We made the decision to come back to that area the next day and try to find him again. 

Day 2-Started with a 3-4 hour hike and we went in a different way to try and get a head of where we last saw the bear.  We made it to the area where we were going to try and shoot the bear from the previous day.  We glassed all day and could not relocate the bear nor did we see any other bears.  We saw a ton of deer sign and also a few deer do it kind of gave us hope.  They did want to shoot and deer yet and wanted to keep focusing on the bear.

Day 3-You guessed it another 3-4 hour hike.  Even though we didn't see a bear the day before we stuck to this area and in hind sight it was a bad idea.  We didn't see any bear and very few deer though there was sign everywhere!  This evening we moved the boat about 4 miles southwest down the shoreline.

Day 4-We hiked along a stream but believe it or not after the first 1/4 mile the brush got thick again.  There was actual bear sign here so we were on high alert walking through the brush/grass.  We wanted to hike back to the lake where this stream originates but after 3 hours busting brush we still had a mile to go and decided it wasn't worth the time to get back there and only be able to glass for less than an hour.  We ended up finding a bear on the mountains directly to the south of us but we had two problems......1 he was about 2 miles away and 2 he was on the reservation and we didn't buy trespassing tags ($200 per person) nor the tag to actually kill a bear on reservation land ($1,000).  We had decided not to purchase either of the tags prior to leaving Kodiak.  So we kept glassing until about an hour before dark so we could hike out.

Day 5-Hiked along the river again and didn't see anything other than deer on this day.   They decided that it was a bear or nothing so we glassed all day in multiple spots and never saw another bear.  

Day 6-Took the boat back to Kodiak.......

All three of us had a great time but the bear just didn't want to cooperate.  The other two were able to go duck hunting and got quite a few sea ducks in the evenings before it got totally dark. 

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Well that's too bad. Kodiak is a strange place.  

[IAMMAC]

It was crazy that's for sure.  Weather was great all week but the bears didn't cooperate.  It's not what you think of when you see it on TV....contrary to popular belief there are NOT bears everywhere!