2024 Kodiak Blacktail hunt!
- Thread starter D-Mac
- Start date
Gellar
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I prefer waist high pant waders, but if that’s not an option I would choose chest waders.
D-Mac
Well-known member
I’ll go with the chest waders then, better safe than sorry!
AlpineAssassin907
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Awesome. Go get em!!
D-Mac
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Leaving for this hunt tomorrow, bags are packed, podcasts downloaded, and a book ready. Tomorrow is all flights and then Sunday we will fly out with SeaHawk Air to what I’m convinced will be the adventure of a lifetime. I’m fairly certain we’ve overpacked, but we are still under our weight limits. I don’t think I could be anymore excited than I am to visit Alaska and visit it in such a way. I grew up reading my Grandpa’s North American Hunter magazines, like most of you did I’m sure. Being from South Alabama, going on a hunt in Alaska was something other folks did and I only read about. Now I’ve lived in Colorado for 15 years and hunted way more animals that I ever thought I would.
I have a feeling I’ll soon refer to this as my first “of many” trips to Alaska, not just my first.
I have a feeling I’ll soon refer to this as my first “of many” trips to Alaska, not just my first.
Gellar
Well-known member
Good luck on your hunt! AK is awesome! I’ve never been to Kodiak, but that will be changing real soon! The first time I went on a hunt in AK I stayed for a year.
cgasner1
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I keep threatening to not come back
D-Mac
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Well, after a slight annoyance of my first leg of the flight being American Airlines and not Alaska, I am ready to leave Denver and start this out!
The problem is that I can check 5 bags for free on Alaska, but I can only get 5 for free on American if I’m on orders. Not that I have 5, but 3 and two over 50lbs, as I’m bringing most of the gear. Oh well got it straightened out and ready to go!
The problem is that I can check 5 bags for free on Alaska, but I can only get 5 for free on American if I’m on orders. Not that I have 5, but 3 and two over 50lbs, as I’m bringing most of the gear. Oh well got it straightened out and ready to go!
cgasner1
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If that’s the worst that happens the trip is a win that’s not even a slight inconvenience
D-Mac
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Sitting in the Seattle airport waiting on my flight back to Denver. This hunt was an unequivocal success! Absolutely amazing and a bucket list check off for sure. I can say this will be my first Alaska hunt not my only one. I can’t wait to get back already. I’ll post up a more detailed report as I gather my thoughts and rest a little.
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LuketheDog
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That buck peeking on the bottom left of your pic looks pretty good, no?
D-Mac
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We started the trip flying from all across the US. I was coming from Denver and my buddy from Orlando. This was going to be a multi day event just getting there. My buddy was arriving in Kodiak the evening before our float plane ride and I had a 7 hour layover in Anchorage which would put me in Kodiak the morning of our flight. I was set to arrive at 08 and we would fly out with the transporter at 4:30pm.
No real issue getting to Kodiak, except I should have just paid for one of those luggage carts in Denver as it was a pain to drag two coolers, a double pelican case, a pack and carry on through the airport. Not a problem, just a pain.
I arrived in Kodiak on time. My rifle case had lost a lock somewhere along the way, but thankfully everything arrived without issue. The transporter picked me up from the airport, then drove to my buddy’s hotel. We reunited and loaded his gear in the van as well. The last time we had seen each other was about 12 months ago on a scalloping trip, so we were definitely looking forward to this trip. The transporter then dropped us off at Walmart for some last minute items and let us know to just call them when we were ready.
We stocked up on some fuel canisters, some dry wood bundles, and some fresh fruit. We then walked down to the main town area, grabbed some coffees and enjoyed the harbor area. We were treated to a playful otter as a show.
The transporter called us and informed us that they had some catching up to do and we would be flying out a few hours later than expected. They came and got us so we could organize our gear at their dock. The time kept getting pushed out, but eventually they settled on 7:30pm as our hard time. They gave us the keys to their van and suggested we go enjoy one good meal in town while we waited. They said “it’s an Island, you can’t go far”. I thought it was a nice gesture of them.
Finally after a few hours we were loaded up and leaving civilization! The flight in was amazing! We passed herds of goats and absolutely gorgeous views. Our original lake we wanted had a camp on it from another transporter, but thankfully one about three ridges over was empty.
It was a surreal feeling to watch the plane take off from the lake, after unloading all of our gear. This was it, we had 5 full days of hunting now to soak up all the Kodiak had to offer!
No real issue getting to Kodiak, except I should have just paid for one of those luggage carts in Denver as it was a pain to drag two coolers, a double pelican case, a pack and carry on through the airport. Not a problem, just a pain.
I arrived in Kodiak on time. My rifle case had lost a lock somewhere along the way, but thankfully everything arrived without issue. The transporter picked me up from the airport, then drove to my buddy’s hotel. We reunited and loaded his gear in the van as well. The last time we had seen each other was about 12 months ago on a scalloping trip, so we were definitely looking forward to this trip. The transporter then dropped us off at Walmart for some last minute items and let us know to just call them when we were ready.
We stocked up on some fuel canisters, some dry wood bundles, and some fresh fruit. We then walked down to the main town area, grabbed some coffees and enjoyed the harbor area. We were treated to a playful otter as a show.
The transporter called us and informed us that they had some catching up to do and we would be flying out a few hours later than expected. They came and got us so we could organize our gear at their dock. The time kept getting pushed out, but eventually they settled on 7:30pm as our hard time. They gave us the keys to their van and suggested we go enjoy one good meal in town while we waited. They said “it’s an Island, you can’t go far”. I thought it was a nice gesture of them.
Finally after a few hours we were loaded up and leaving civilization! The flight in was amazing! We passed herds of goats and absolutely gorgeous views. Our original lake we wanted had a camp on it from another transporter, but thankfully one about three ridges over was empty.
It was a surreal feeling to watch the plane take off from the lake, after unloading all of our gear. This was it, we had 5 full days of hunting now to soak up all the Kodiak had to offer!
cgasner1
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How was the boot dryer?
D-Mac
Well-known member
Honestly, I’m not sure if our boots were just too wet, too much humidity in general or what, but they did not dry them. I think they did help and they were dryer than they would be otherwise, but it was still damp boots each morning. Maybe in a less humid environment they would work better.
cgasner1
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I have a bigger set im gonna try next week but we will probably also be running a fire and I’ll have it up above them
D-Mac
Well-known member
We had been advised to “avoid the alders, they are very hard to walk through”. Easy, we thought. We were wrong. There are alders everywhere. 3 foot tall alders that are a pain to get through and then 8 foot tall alders that a nigh impossible to get through. We quickly learned that the areas that appear to be easy grass are in fact 2 foot plus’s tall grass and ferns. Not a spot of single level ground. The hillsides reminded me of strawberry fields.
Strawberry fields are rows of foot tall hills bound by plastic. This is what it felt like walking, constant up and down. I loved it! Didn’t want it to be easy, and it wasn’t absolutely awful.
We found plenty of does throughout the hunt, no shortage of deer. However, we just couldn’t seem to put any antlers on any of them. Over course of 5 days we saw 10 bucks. All from spikes to nice 4x4s. In retrospect we should have brought a better spotter. The Vortex we had topped out at 35x and honestly wasn’t super clear at that magnification. It was hard sometimes to verify they weren’t bucks (although I could tell they weren’t great bucks at least).
My buddy was able to connect on the second day with a nice little forky. Now my buddy hikes and camps, but this was his first out of state back country hunt and he was not concerned at all with antler size. Happy just to be there and be successful. We were able to take his buck 1.26 miles from camp, which was plenty far enough.
We made it back and enjoyed some fresh tenderloins on the wood stove. Best steak dinner one could have. Meet care then became a priority for us as the day time temps were in the mid 50s and rainy constantly.
We fashioned a meat pole from the alders and I was honestly, rather proud of it.
This hunt was shaping up to be an unequivocal success, we had one deer down, saw a bear from 1k yards (close enough in my estimation), and 3 days left to fill a second tag! Kodiak is an amazing island.
Strawberry fields are rows of foot tall hills bound by plastic. This is what it felt like walking, constant up and down. I loved it! Didn’t want it to be easy, and it wasn’t absolutely awful.
We found plenty of does throughout the hunt, no shortage of deer. However, we just couldn’t seem to put any antlers on any of them. Over course of 5 days we saw 10 bucks. All from spikes to nice 4x4s. In retrospect we should have brought a better spotter. The Vortex we had topped out at 35x and honestly wasn’t super clear at that magnification. It was hard sometimes to verify they weren’t bucks (although I could tell they weren’t great bucks at least).
My buddy was able to connect on the second day with a nice little forky. Now my buddy hikes and camps, but this was his first out of state back country hunt and he was not concerned at all with antler size. Happy just to be there and be successful. We were able to take his buck 1.26 miles from camp, which was plenty far enough.
We made it back and enjoyed some fresh tenderloins on the wood stove. Best steak dinner one could have. Meet care then became a priority for us as the day time temps were in the mid 50s and rainy constantly.
We fashioned a meat pole from the alders and I was honestly, rather proud of it.
This hunt was shaping up to be an unequivocal success, we had one deer down, saw a bear from 1k yards (close enough in my estimation), and 3 days left to fill a second tag! Kodiak is an amazing island.
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D-Mac
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The next two days were marked with poor weather, it was either rainy or foggy for both of them. We still spent most of our time out hunting, but honestly we probably should’ve just rested at camp. This is the dilemma of hunting, can’t do it from camp and we went all the way to Alaska to hunt not sit at camp. However, really poor conditions to be out in. Anyways, we ended up sitting around some ridges, eating lots of blueberries and crowberries, having great conversations and seeing no deer.
Finally, day 5 arrived, which was our last full day to hunt. I was struggling with coming to terms with the reality that I might not take a deer. While I would love to be able to say that I have the maturity to be perfectly ok with that. Certainly the trip had been phenomenal and I wouldn’t say that success would hinge on filling a tag, however, to have gone that far and not fill the tag would have been on some level a failure to my mind. I was reconciling all these thoughts in my head as we woke and made breakfast. I decided that all I could do was to hunt hard that day and fully soak up the experience, and mature some more haha.
Well as we awaited our meals to rehydrate, I began glassing the hillside adjacent to our lake. Lo and behold there were three deer about 1.25 miles away. I couldn’t tell exactly if they were bucks or does, but given their position on the hillside I thought that they could be a bucks. In our experience (4 days worth at this point) the bucks seemed to feed higher early and then moved down to bed, while the does seemed to feed lower and kind of stay in the alders all day.
We quickly devised a stalk to both avoid their eyes, noises, and the aforementioned alders. Honestly, everything went quickly and perfect. We pretty quickly cut the distance down to around 500 yards. I this point I could only see two of the deer, not sure where the third had gone. They were moving from right to left, slowly feeding. I told my buddy to wait there, I dropped my pack and ranged a little false summit that was 278 yards ahead of me. I knew if I moved about 20 yards to my right, that little rise would block me from the deer’s view and should allow me about a 200 yard shot at them.
I quickly gained the little hill, and slowly crawled up to it. Both deer were still feeding unaware of our presence. I noted the larger of the two and slid my rifle into position on the lip of the hill. I tried to steady my breathing, dialed my scope up and began applying pressure to the trigger.
Blam!
Both deer froze and looked in my direction. Hmm well that didn’t work, recheck yardage quickly, 249 yards, ok work another round in. Stop, box breathe. Calm down, a few seconds later go through the routine again. Blam! This time the larger buck disappeared at the shot.
Those dang alders swallowed him up. I had no idea where he had gone, but I knew where he had been. More telling was the second buck didn’t run, but kept staring into the alder patch where his buddy had been. He then slowly started walking towards me.
I made some notes on a few quickly snapped pictures and dropped an On-X pin where the buck was last at.
Then made my way back down to my buddy and packs. We high fived and figured we would drink some water, eat a snack and then head up to him. As we sat there talking about the trip and enjoying the time, the smaller buck walked within 30 yards of us and snorted. Figures that’s how it goes, can’t find deer for a few days and then they come to you.
We made our way up to where I thought the buck should be and we found nothing.
So I started walking through the alders looking for blood, while my buddy walked a little further up hill to get a better vantage. As was going through a little ditch when he stopped me and said he could see the white belly of a deer! Elation! I was literally 5 feet away, but could not see the deer at all. Thick!
Finally, day 5 arrived, which was our last full day to hunt. I was struggling with coming to terms with the reality that I might not take a deer. While I would love to be able to say that I have the maturity to be perfectly ok with that. Certainly the trip had been phenomenal and I wouldn’t say that success would hinge on filling a tag, however, to have gone that far and not fill the tag would have been on some level a failure to my mind. I was reconciling all these thoughts in my head as we woke and made breakfast. I decided that all I could do was to hunt hard that day and fully soak up the experience, and mature some more haha.
Well as we awaited our meals to rehydrate, I began glassing the hillside adjacent to our lake. Lo and behold there were three deer about 1.25 miles away. I couldn’t tell exactly if they were bucks or does, but given their position on the hillside I thought that they could be a bucks. In our experience (4 days worth at this point) the bucks seemed to feed higher early and then moved down to bed, while the does seemed to feed lower and kind of stay in the alders all day.
We quickly devised a stalk to both avoid their eyes, noises, and the aforementioned alders. Honestly, everything went quickly and perfect. We pretty quickly cut the distance down to around 500 yards. I this point I could only see two of the deer, not sure where the third had gone. They were moving from right to left, slowly feeding. I told my buddy to wait there, I dropped my pack and ranged a little false summit that was 278 yards ahead of me. I knew if I moved about 20 yards to my right, that little rise would block me from the deer’s view and should allow me about a 200 yard shot at them.
I quickly gained the little hill, and slowly crawled up to it. Both deer were still feeding unaware of our presence. I noted the larger of the two and slid my rifle into position on the lip of the hill. I tried to steady my breathing, dialed my scope up and began applying pressure to the trigger.
Blam!
Both deer froze and looked in my direction. Hmm well that didn’t work, recheck yardage quickly, 249 yards, ok work another round in. Stop, box breathe. Calm down, a few seconds later go through the routine again. Blam! This time the larger buck disappeared at the shot.
Those dang alders swallowed him up. I had no idea where he had gone, but I knew where he had been. More telling was the second buck didn’t run, but kept staring into the alder patch where his buddy had been. He then slowly started walking towards me.
I made some notes on a few quickly snapped pictures and dropped an On-X pin where the buck was last at.
Then made my way back down to my buddy and packs. We high fived and figured we would drink some water, eat a snack and then head up to him. As we sat there talking about the trip and enjoying the time, the smaller buck walked within 30 yards of us and snorted. Figures that’s how it goes, can’t find deer for a few days and then they come to you.We made our way up to where I thought the buck should be and we found nothing.
So I started walking through the alders looking for blood, while my buddy walked a little further up hill to get a better vantage. As was going through a little ditch when he stopped me and said he could see the white belly of a deer! Elation! I was literally 5 feet away, but could not see the deer at all. Thick!
