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.