Seeking Advice on POW Black Bear

[BayouBengal]

Hi all,
I just joined the forum after following some great information over the past few months. I just wanted to see if anyone would be willing to help me out with some information on northern Prince of Wales Island for the bear season this spring (end of May 2012). I am taking my wife and parents up to Coffman Cove and will have access to a vehicle and skiff.

Both myself and my wife served in the US Army, she is still in and Im back in school. My plan is to stick to the roads and work the alpine areas with lots and lots of walking and glassing, as we are both still young and in good shape. Being from the southern US, I have never even seen a black bear so I have been working pretty hard at the judging skills and capabilities and reading everything I can about POW in order to get ready. To be clear we are both trophy hunting and have no desire to shoot a sow or smaller bear and are more than ready to eat our tags if we dont see a large bear. Really the adventure of going to a place that is wild and beautiful and letting my dad ride a float plane is 90% of the trip.

If anyone has hunted the area before around Coffman or Thorne and would like to share some tips or guidance I would sure appreciate it. Thanks to all and have a great New Year.

 

[Big Fin]

Hmmm. Based on a some hunt just north of there, I would take advantage of the skiff option. You can cover a lot of ground with a skiff. The bears in the spring will be down along the beaches and you will probably get to some ground that the road hunters cannot.

I have not hunted POW, so I can't speak from experience, but many people talk about the crowding of hunters on the road system there.

I have a friend who lives in Thorne and he has shot many bears that make the all-time B&C. He does it all by spotting them, glassing to make sure they are a good bear, then setting up to call them. He uses the mule deer call made by Elk, Inc. in Gardiner, MT.

We tried his calling techniques on our trip last year. When it works, it almost works too good. Translation - Be ready, and look over your shoulder once you start calling.

Good luck. You will have a ton of fun.

 

[M. R. Byrd]

I would recommend the skiff to maximumize success. Your have spend a lot of time and effort to make this hunt happen, so put yourself in a position to be successful.

 

[brownbear932008]

You will have a great time but I really can't stress the skiff enough you really up your chances a ton I think we tried the road and clearcut thing and only saw a few tracks. Got on the skiff and we have been there twice and went 4 for 5 on good bears. I would load the pics of our bear but they must be to large to attach? It is a great hunt but expect a lot of pressure this year with people beating the draw hunts coming up this fall. I have a few friends headed up again in May this year I chose not to go felt the pressure would be strong.

 

[brownbear932008]

Here is a pic of my bear all four bears were about this size not a monster POW bear but a respectable one all were around 19 inch skulls. The hides were just awesome and really thick.....

 

[BayouBengal]

Awesome Bear

Thanks for the help, that is a great looking bear and awesome pictures. I think I will try to lean more on the skiff option as that is what most folks are recommending. I worried about the pressure as well, but there really isn't anything I can do and I guess we are exactly the type going up to beat the draw deadline, so I shouldn't complain anyway. I dont really mind, it is going to be great to just have an awesome trip. Thanks again BrownBear

 

[brownbear932008]

Your welcome you will have a great trip I'm sure. We love going up there. Just one peice of advice DO NOT leave your bear up there for skinning and shipping trust me for the last 3-4 years there has been terrible problems with bear skulls and hides being lost by shabby so called taxidermist up there. I was lucky and got mine back but two of my buddies lost thier hides but got skulls back after ADG&F got involved with one of the islands taxidermist she had lost about 100 or so hides. Skin your animal freeze it or salt it and bring it back with you. Good luck and make sure you post your story here after your trip I would love to hear it

 

[mtlion]

I was lucky and got mine back but two of my buddies lost thier hides but got skulls back after ADG&F got involved with one of the islands taxidermist she had lost about 100 or so hides.

I heard about that lady. The way I heard it she let the hides rot. I can personally recommend Rosey Roseland if you need a taxi for fleshing or cleaning up a skull. He will have your stuff done within days. I was there last fall and took a nice bear. Rosey had my skull cleaned and hide fleshed and salted ready to pick up 2 days after I dropped it off. Plus he can seal your bear.

In addition to being a good taxi the guy is a crazy serious traditional archer and has some amazing trophies to his credit. He's also a native Montanan and I was amazed after talking to him how many people we knew in common.

 

[Calvin]

I hear the Salt Shack up in Thorne Bay is pretty good. No personal experience tho.

The gal who was doing it in Craig was a trainwreck. We all figured she had some sort of Ponzi Scheme going on with the bear hides. I once stopped by and she had bear hides all over her yard. The smell was horrible. I can't believe the neighbors put up with that. My good buddy is the adfg bio that dealt with all of that. What a nightmare.

Then a guy named Greg McMillian took over. No better. Lazy SOB. He screwed a lot of guys on their sculls a few years ago. All the skulls ended up at Kodiak bones and bugs, and the owner there is making an effort to get the skulls home. Greg, the asshole, lost a B&C skull I gave him. Unfortunately I was the first person to kill a bear on POW that year, in his first year of being open, so I trusted he'd be ok. Also, I had him seal my bear. I gave him accurate info on where I killed the bear. I went back a week later and his rig was parked in my spot! Adfg pulled his sealing abilities.

As it was mentioned, watch you tube and learn to do it yourself until you get to an Taxi you know/trust.

 

[kansasdad]

Pardon my ignorance, would you help me understand what "seal" means regarding big game animals? Thanks in advance.

 

[mtlion]

Pardon my ignorance, would you help me understand what "seal" means regarding big game animals? Thanks in advance.

They put a locking tag on the skull and one on the hide that has to stay on until tanning.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/regulations/wildliferegulations/pdfs/bear.pdf

 

[brownbear932008]

I gotta say I have the upmost respect for ADF&G and your friend I talked to him numerous times on the phone. I really do feel like ADF&G is probally the best game department in the United States. They went way above and beyond what I thought any game department would have done to take care of the situation up there. They rented large freezers until they could sort that mess out and keep close contact with us and even mailed the items to us with no charges to me. I give them a huge pat on the back. And the next time I'm up there I still owe him a dinner or a cold one and I will follow through with that one day.

 

[DANGLER]

Bear Lady of Craig

Your welcome you will have a great trip I'm sure. We love going up there. Just one peice of advice DO NOT leave your bear up there for skinning and shipping trust me for the last 3-4 years there has been terrible problems with bear skulls and hides being lost by shabby so called taxidermist up there. I was lucky and got mine back but two of my buddies lost thier hides but got skulls back after ADG&F got involved with one of the islands taxidermist she had lost about 100 or so hides. Skin your animal freeze it or salt it and bring it back with you. Good luck and make sure you post your story here after your trip I would love to hear it

She might have been a shitty taxidermist and a shady business woman, but she sure was a good looking lady Or maybe, I had just been in the bush too long

We killed three bears up there. I had already skinned mine out and just had her flesh, salt and freeze it so I could take it home... Both of the other guys I hunted left, left everything with her to be shipped home. One made it, but the 8'2" pig my buddy Chris killed was lost. Took over 18 months of phone calls with ADF&G and the US Postal Service but he eventually did get his hide back.... no thanks to that lady.

 

[M. R. Byrd]

Pardon my ignorance, would you help me understand what "seal" means regarding big game animals? Thanks in advance.

Here is Herb at Point Baker sealing black bear. The hunter's tag is a metal tag that is placed in the bear's hide after harvest, then at an official sealer, the sealer obtains the harvest information, measures the skull and records that data, places another metal tag on the hunter's tag and a tag on the skull.

 

[BayouBengal]

Thanks

Thanks Fellas, great information that I am soaking up. I really appreciate the taxi stuff as that was one of my biggest questions. I will definitely make sure to post the story and pictures up after we return. Until then I will keep a play-by-play of the preperation we are going through so if I miss or forget anything important please let me know.

Currently we are booked into our lodging up at Coffman Cove, and we have purchased airline tickets flying from Dallas, TX into Ketchikan. I had planned a night between our arrival in Ketchikan and our floatplane ride up to Coffman Cove, but haven't booked that yet.

As I mentioned before we are bringing my mom and dad along, so it should be fun to have them along to see the scenery. They will spend the week doing sight-seeing and overall relaxing while we do the hunting.

 

[mtlion]

If you have time in Ketchikan there's a totem pole park that has some good "touristy" type photo ops for your folks, and ketchikan probably has the cheapest souveneirs you'll run into. If you have time look into taking the ferry from ketchikan to POW I have seen and photographed/videoed whales and dolphins and it's a good way to meet some of the locals, although the float plane ride is an experience in itself! The last time I was there we took the plane in and the ferry out. The ferry is way cheaper, I think $40 and about a three hour ride.

 

[slim23]

how did your hunt go?