Kodiak Sitka Trip

[WHT_MTNMAN]

 

I just returned from a great trip to Kodiak. It is my 2nd trip to Kodiak and of course it did not disappoint. 

1st rule of Kodiak- Give yourself plenty of time before and after the scheduled hunt for weather delays  Thankfully ours was minimal but one group was waiting to fly for 4 days because of weather. 

2nd Rule- Bears are no joke.   I saw probably over 20 brown bears in 5 days with 7 in one day and a giant 8 1/2 foot sow and her cub at 40 yards. Standing up on her back legs and growling, making lots of noise and staring holes through me.  No rifle and no backup gun. Dumb on my part but I was pressing to kill my buck before dark.  I made a 48 yard shot on on a bedded buck, he ran 20 yards and tipped over, I held low since he was bedded down and almost missed him. But caught the lower part of his heart. I was by myself in bear country at almost dark.  I didn't take to many pictures and hurried out of there. 

3rd Rule- Sitka are pretty easy to hunt except the terrain they reside in. Couple of the guys in our group shot bucks at under 10 yards with rifles. 

Thanks to Jason for setting the trip up and inviting me along. He did all the work I just showed up. 

We flew into Kodiak on Friday night, Saturday morning the weather was good enough for us to be dropped by charter plane into Larsen Bay. Our Transporter picked us up and we busted it to an area to get hunting that afternoon. Everyone had the opportunity at bucks, but not a lot of real big mature bucks. It rained almost all day everyday with a few broken clouds we capitalized and took a few pictures. 

I get seasick, I know I do and tried to prepare but still ended up getting seasick toward the end. The boat  captain tried real hard to keep the boat calm during the night, which they did. It was dead quiet and calm most every evening. My 2 goals were to take a big buck with my bow and to catch some fish. I only got sick the days I stayed on the boat and tried to fish in the deep water.  My buddy killed two bucks with his rifle

Quite a few guys caught a bunch of halibut, but I was so sick I wanted to get on land and hunt. could have shot a few solid bucks but nothing bigger than I already had. 

photo credit of the boat with rainbows to Jason and Tony. 

My buddies 2nd buck, last day. 

 

screen shot from video of a pretty big bear

Buddies first buck they are pretty deer. Real heavy hide with lots of fat. 

I'll try and rotate our salmon limit

 

 

Lingcod

 

 

 

[Outdoor Writer]

Nice job, Houston. 👍 Looks like you got into a few salmon, as well. Look like coho, eh?

Sitka is the only NA deer I'm missing. Wish I was still able to do that hunt, but I put it off too long. Now my days afield are over. 

[WHT_MTNMAN]

4 minutes ago, Outdoor Writer said:

Nice job, Houston. 👍 Looks like you got into a few salmon, as well. Look like coho, eh?

Sitka is the only NA deer I'm missing. Wish I was still able to do that hunt, but I put it off too long. Now my days afield are over. 

They are Kings and the limit is 2 a day, we got lucky and limited out in under an hour. 

[Outdoor Writer]

2 minutes ago, WHT_MTNMAN said:

They are Kings and the limit is 2 a day, we got lucky and limited out in under an hour. 

I knew that by the black mouths and meant to say Chinooks!  🤬

[Coach]

That's awesome. Looks like you had a great time - I'm officially jealous! 

[WHT_MTNMAN]

3 minutes ago, Coach said:

That's awesome. Looks like you had a great time - I'm officially jealous! 

It was a very good experience, one that I will most likely do again. You can do some of these hunts for about as cheap as Mexico so they are doable. 

[PRDATR]

Those are some really nice bucks. I learned the hard way to always carry a gun in Alaska.

[Redman]

awesome, congrats, thanks for writing this up.  I want to do a Sitka trip someday, maybe not Kodiak because of the bears....

Have you had other trips like this?  How would you rate this trip comparatively.  

[wish2hunt]

1 hour ago, WHT_MTNMAN said:

 

I just returned from a great trip to Kodiak. It is my 2nd trip to Kodiak and of course it did not disappoint. 

1st rule of Kodiak- Give yourself plenty of time before and after the scheduled hunt for weather delays  Thankfully ours was minimal but one group was waiting to fly for 4 days because of weather. 

2nd Rule- Bears are no joke.   I saw probably over 20 brown bears in 5 days with 7 in one day and a giant 8 1/2 foot sow and her cub at 40 yards. Standing up on her back legs and growling, making lots of noise and staring holes through me.  No rifle and no backup gun. Dumb on my part but I was pressing to kill my buck before dark.  I made a 48 yard shot on on a bedded buck, he ran 20 yards and tipped over, I held low since he was bedded down and almost missed him. But caught the lower part of his heart. I was by myself in bear country at almost dark.  I didn't take to many pictures and hurried out of there. 

3rd Rule- Sitka are pretty easy to hunt except the terrain they reside in. Couple of the guys in our group shot bucks at under 10 yards with rifles. 

Thanks to Jason for setting the trip up and inviting me along. He did all the work I just showed up. 

We flew into Kodiak on Friday night, Saturday morning the weather was good enough for us to be dropped by charter plane into Larsen Bay. Our Transporter picked us up and we busted it to an area to get hunting that afternoon. Everyone had the opportunity at bucks, but not a lot of real big mature bucks. It rained almost all day everyday with a few broken clouds we capitalized and took a few pictures. 

I get seasick, I know I do and tried to prepare but still ended up getting seasick toward the end. The boat  captain tried real hard to keep the boat calm during the night, which they did. It was dead quiet and calm most every evening. My 2 goals were to take a big buck with my bow and to catch some fish. I only got sick the days I stayed on the boat and tried to fish in the deep water.  My buddy killed two bucks with his rifle

Quite a few guys caught a bunch of halibut, but I was so sick I wanted to get on land and hunt. could have shot a few solid bucks but nothing bigger than I already had. 

photo credit of the boat with rainbows to Jason and Tony. 

My buddies 2nd buck, last day. 

 

screen shot from video of a pretty big bear

Buddies first buck they are pretty deer. Real heavy hide with lots of fat. 

I'll try and rotate our salmon limit

 

Lingcod

 

How do you stay in the boat at that angle? 
 

Looks like fun

[WHT_MTNMAN]

5 minutes ago, wish2hunt said:

How do you stay in the boat at that angle? 
 

Looks like fun

 They should be rotated now. 

[Basser15]

Man that trip looks awesome!  You're making me think that I should be taking my bow with me next year

[CatfishKev]

That's a beutiful buck! Congrats, looks super fun. 

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Couple more pics

 

[trphyhntr]

Aren’t those like world record size deer you got? 

[HuntHarder]

How do you think Ninilchik did as an operation?  I may do this in the next 5 years or so after I check off Moose.  After my trip this year, I am now looking at new ways to get back to Alaska ASAP.  That place is special and so remote it doesn't even feel real sometimes.