AvidIndoorsman
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2015
- Messages
- 18,370
When I was in high school my family took the ferry from WA through SE AK and ever since I've always wanted to go back. I've done a couple of spring bear hunts at this point. I've hiked logging roads and climbed mts with a spotting scope, both of which are a blast, but with this trip I wanted to try something a little different; fly in and hunt via a boat.
Having lost my dad just months before I applied for this tag, my father-n-law volunteered to accompany me on the trip.
We arrive late in Ketchikan and stayed at a local hotel, they picked us up at the ferry terminal and took us over to safeway to grab some last minute supplies, including dry ice for the cooler.
Seems, like no matter how hard you try you bring way too much crap. That said we managed to get all our gear, inflatable boat + motor, and two hunters into the plane with room to spare.
Definitely the best ride into camp I've even had
Since you can't hunt the day you fly we set up camp and then did some fishing.
Day 1 we headed out and found our first bear, went in for a practice stalk but got winded.
Came back to camp to find fresh sign everywhere, around 9pm this little lady padded out about 120 yards from the tent.
Day 2 I decided to go for a little walk up the stream behind camp.
It took over an hour to go .25 miles, fallen timber in the river you couldn't climb over + nasty crap on the banks... new appreciation for the climb BigFin did in Rain Deer, the vegetation is spiteful.
Came around a bend and this guy was at 35 yards hanging out.
Day 3 we headed out and found a good glassing spot, we decided that since we only had a couple of days left we needed to actually start hunting do more than just look at bears.
We spotted what looked like a decent bear and went for a stalk, we were able to get up to just under 100 yards spent what seemed like 15 min looking at the bear.
Definitely a boar, great coat, decent size, although not a monster by any means... and more importantly the time and conditions for a perfect shot.
I was able to make a good clean shot took, a even better bear than I had thought.
We were pretty close to camp, so we decided to load the bear up whole and make the quick trip back to camp.
We skinned the bear, boned out the meat and were able to get everything into our coolers. I had waffled back and forth with salting versus freezing, but since we were able to get our hands on dry ice I decided to skin out the head, turn the ears, remove the toes and then just freeze it. ( You have to present the unfrozen, skinned out skull for checking)
Neck and rib meat didn't make the photo...
Our last couple days we spent hanging out around camp, fishing, and enjoying the freakishly good weather.
As were packing up our camp we had a final visitor to our spot.
Things got a bit tight on the way out, but the locals turned out to give us a send off
and we got an amazing sunset
Really appreciate BigFin for helping planting the seed of this idea in my head and @Randy11 @MinnesotaHunter @muskeg for putting up with all my pestering.
Having lost my dad just months before I applied for this tag, my father-n-law volunteered to accompany me on the trip.
We arrive late in Ketchikan and stayed at a local hotel, they picked us up at the ferry terminal and took us over to safeway to grab some last minute supplies, including dry ice for the cooler.
Seems, like no matter how hard you try you bring way too much crap. That said we managed to get all our gear, inflatable boat + motor, and two hunters into the plane with room to spare.
Definitely the best ride into camp I've even had
Since you can't hunt the day you fly we set up camp and then did some fishing.
Day 1 we headed out and found our first bear, went in for a practice stalk but got winded.
Came back to camp to find fresh sign everywhere, around 9pm this little lady padded out about 120 yards from the tent.
Day 2 I decided to go for a little walk up the stream behind camp.
It took over an hour to go .25 miles, fallen timber in the river you couldn't climb over + nasty crap on the banks... new appreciation for the climb BigFin did in Rain Deer, the vegetation is spiteful.
Came around a bend and this guy was at 35 yards hanging out.
Day 3 we headed out and found a good glassing spot, we decided that since we only had a couple of days left we needed to actually start hunting do more than just look at bears.
We spotted what looked like a decent bear and went for a stalk, we were able to get up to just under 100 yards spent what seemed like 15 min looking at the bear.
Definitely a boar, great coat, decent size, although not a monster by any means... and more importantly the time and conditions for a perfect shot.
I was able to make a good clean shot took, a even better bear than I had thought.
We were pretty close to camp, so we decided to load the bear up whole and make the quick trip back to camp.
We skinned the bear, boned out the meat and were able to get everything into our coolers. I had waffled back and forth with salting versus freezing, but since we were able to get our hands on dry ice I decided to skin out the head, turn the ears, remove the toes and then just freeze it. ( You have to present the unfrozen, skinned out skull for checking)
Neck and rib meat didn't make the photo...
Our last couple days we spent hanging out around camp, fishing, and enjoying the freakishly good weather.
As were packing up our camp we had a final visitor to our spot.
Things got a bit tight on the way out, but the locals turned out to give us a send off
and we got an amazing sunset
Really appreciate BigFin for helping planting the seed of this idea in my head and @Randy11 @MinnesotaHunter @muskeg for putting up with all my pestering.