So I want to go to Kodiak

[rmyoung1]

I think I’m getting older or something because I care less and less about big antlers and think more about landscapes. To that end, I’ve never been to Kodiak Island, and it’s been a place that I’ve wanted to experience for quite a while. In 2028 I turn 50, and the plans for a half-century birthday present to myself are consuming some mental energy.

I’m not gonna pony up for a big bear hunt or a mountain goat pursuit. What I want to do is take an air taxi ride, touch down at a lake in the alpine in late September and chase Sitka blacktail bucks. I’d really like to experience the place, hopefully glass up a bear or two in the process of locating a buck.

Those of you who know a thing or two about Kodiak Island, what do I need to know? Who should I call for the float plane ride? (I’ve poked around online but never spoken with someone who’s flown with any of the Kodiak operators.) What tips and pointers do you have for me?

 

[SerialScience]

Don’t be surprised at the cost for deer.

Kinda how horse packers would rather do a guided hunt than a drop camp… and absolutely have no interest in just packing out your elk, a lot of pilots have no interest in dropping off hunters.

Look specifically for air taxi services, boat drop off is also an option.

 

[Packout1]

You’ll have no problems finding a pilot to fly you out in Kodiak, that’s a huge market for those pilots and there are a ton of them.

I’ve flown with Seahawk air on Kodiak but I believe he has retired in the last year. Kodiak Air has a beaver and a pilot that flies into the small lakes. A lot of the other air services do as well. Just start calling and chatting and getting rough ideas on prices, but do that this winter as those guys are pretty busy at the moment.

Have an idea of what lakes you’d like to fly in to. I typically look for something minimum 2500 feet long and start asking if they’ll land there. They might say no, but that’s part of the game. Some pilots are more conservative than others.

I would budget anywhere from 2-4K round trip in a beaver for your trip, depending on which side of the island you get dropped on.

When we went, mid September, it was apparent that we were about a week after the main herds of deer moved down from the alpine. I would plan for last week of August/first week of September for prime alpine deer. We still shot one deer and two goats, but we would look down in the canyons and see a lot of deer.

Plan on taking a damn sturdy tent, and a backup in the event that yours folds up or floods.

Be picky for a deer that you’re going to be happy with, you’ll probably see a bunch. As a nonresident you’ll only get one tag, so use it wisely!

 

[Gellar]

We used a public use cabin through the Usfws, but AKDFG also has public use cabins. We had an air taxi fly us in.

 

[cgasner1]

We used island air when we went out on the boats. I’d highly recommend looking into that trip it was an absolute blast. We stayed on the boat the ran us into shore and we hunted couple days we went out fishing it was super cool. One thing I really liked is they wouldn’t let us hunt the same spot twice if we harvest a deer due to bears we just rolled into new country

 

[WildWill]

One of these day's I'm gonna do the boat style hunt up there!

 

[cgasner1]

One of these day's I'm gonna do the boat style hunt up there!

10/10 would highly recommend it. We were supposed to take 10 guys ended up with 9 due to Covid the trip was right in the middle of that mess.

 

[D-Mac]

We used seahawk, Roland has retired, but it’s still running with a new pilot. Haven’t heard anything about the new guy. Island air always has good reviews. I wouldn’t hesitate going with either. We flew to the far south end and it was 2.5k a person in the beaver.
Agreed on the be picky. There are a lot of deer. I saw a few really nice ones. Take good glass and be picky. We did 6 full days in the field. Which I think was perfect. Two days to get acclimated to finding deer and judging. Two days to get rained out and then two days to hunt hard.
We found that our trekking poles were indispensable for that terrain, lots of up and down and lots of foliage. We used a seek cimmaron and took two bundles of wood which was good. Only takes about 1 minute of walking in that brush to be wet from the thigh down and having the ability to dry things out was real nice after a few days.
I definitely wanted to see a bear when we went after we saw one from about 1000 yards and saw just how big they are and how fast they disappear into the alders, I was good. Not scared but a good respect for them. The hotel my buddy stayed in the night before flying out loaned us two things of bear spray which was awesome. We picked up stove fuel in Kodiak and some fresh fruit. Roland was late in getting us out (weather) so he gave us the keys to his van and we went into town and had some pizza (very good).

All in all, definitely go and do it! I can’t wait to go back and include some fishing next time as well!