# Kodiak Grizzlies!



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

This is some of the bears that live around our hatchery. The first picture is for WyoGoob. He reminds me of you, crotchety, old but fun as hell to be around. He's one of our regulars. He's only about 6'6" but he's still big for any bear. I ranged the rock from my deck and it was 82 yards.

DSCN0054.JPG

Here's a view of Kitoi Bay from my deck. This is what I see every morning I walk out of my door on my 200 yard commute to work. 
DSCN0023.JPG

Here's Lisa scolding a grizzly for stealing fish from our salmon runs. He said "Woman! Mind yer own bidness!" 
DSCN0023.JPG

Here's another bear looking for a free salmon. 
DSCN0054.JPG

When the chars were spawning we had bears everywhere. I counted 21 bears in the bay from one spot. The Chums mainly spawn in our creek so that concentrates the bears here. The Pinks use all the little creeks along the east side of Afognak so the bears tend to disperse accordingly Now the Pinks are coming in in droves and the bears have dwindled a bit.
The Sitka deer season started August 1st and I only have 5 months to fill my three tags. I love this place.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

How the hell do I imbed the pictures in the text like I use to could do? I hate these thumbnails.


----------



## OldEphraim (Mar 6, 2011)

Great pictures, thanks for sharing longbow!


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Wow!!! more, more, more

I'm jealous; had to cancel my Alaska trip this year.

Hey, put your pics in a photo program like Photobucket.

Good luck on all your hunts, keep us posted.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

It's sunny today so a couple fishheads (biologists) and I are going after halibut and whatever else. The other fish have some kind of names but the fishheads call them by their proper names and I don't have a clue what they're talking about. Smart people are weird. I'll post pics.


----------



## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

Good looking bears there longbow. I know a guy who hunted afognak last year and spent the while time so bearanoid he didn't seem to enjoy it much.
Let me know if you ever have an excess of king crab you want to unload.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Scott, we only have Dungies here. For some reason nobody sets traps for them. I'm going to change that.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

We had a pretty good day today. We were bored so, seeing that we have free access to boats and gas, we decided to go fishing. I went with a Fish Culturist and his intern. Holy cow, these guys know fish!

Rian was the first to catch a halibut. He was going to throw it back but I snapped it up to take home.


We also caught sculpin. There's quite a few different kind of these in our bay.


We also caught a few flounders. Here's Kyles trophy flounder.


I caught a mini sculpin called an Irish Lord.


My flounder.


My boss stopped by to show his catch. A couple yellow eyes and tiger rockfish.


We all caught some cod, rock bass and some others. We saw some doll dolphins, a humpback whale breached and blew 30 feet from our boat and we saw a bunch of horned and tufted puffins buzzing all around us.
We headed to the dock at 2:00 and decided to do a little Sitka blacktail hunting. We hiked up to one of our lakes and took a skiff across to where a trail went up through some thick-ass, nasty brush/devil's club/alders. Finally we found an old logging skid trail and followed that up to the treeline. Randy, another fish culturist, saw a buck bedded under a spruce tree. He'd never shot a buck in the velvet and he spotted it so it was all his. He made a stellar shot.

He and Rian hiked over to pack it out and down to the lake as quick as he could because you DO NOT leave a deer for one second on this island. What they say about a rifle shot on Kodiak is a dinner bell to grizzlies is true, but even more so on Afognak island. 
Kyle and I continued up to the openings along the ridges. We saw a small doe just as we came up on an old logging road. She just stood there at 20 yards for about 5 minutes while we took her picture. 

We walked the logging road and soon spotted a doe and twins walking towards us. They stopped when they saw us. I got out my deer call and tried it a couple times. It had worked for me on Prince Of Wales so why not try it? Here they came. I'm standing in the middle of the road! They came to about 15 yards before they got nervous and ambled off the edge and into the brush. Kyle said that since they logged this many years ago, the deer have never seen people up here. Afognak is one of the least hunted island for blacktail deer. On the way back we saw another deer's butt going into the trees. What a great day!
There are no malls, bars, shopping centers, traffic jams or any of that good wholesome entertainment up here. Just hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, shooting and wildlife viewing. Poor me.


----------



## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

I feel so sorry for you. Must be nice.


----------



## svmoose (Feb 28, 2008)

What are you doing for work up there? I assume you must be working at the hatchery?


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

svmoose said:


> What are you doing for work up there? I assume you must be working at the hatchery?


I got a job up on Afognak island in Kitoi Bay. It's a couple hundred miles above your place on Prince Of Wales. Pretty much the same weather as down there. I'm a mechanic for Kodiak Regional Aquiculture Asso. We raise over 300 million salmon a year, turn them loose into the sea and let the sea raise them for us and when they come back to spawn we catch them and either sell them or use them for brood stock. It's a great gig.


----------



## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

longbow said:


> Scott, we only have Dungies here. For some reason nobody sets traps for them. I'm going to change that.


Yeah, but if you're headed through kodiak the same time the big boats come through they say you can pick up king crab cheap. I hear the same thing about juneau.

I live about 3 miles from the ocean and but it is amazingly inaccessible from my neck of the woods.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Good deal Scott. I don't go into town much but I have a couple friend who live in Kodiak. I'll have them snap me some up and put them on the mail plane. Thanks for the tip.


----------



## mattinthewild (Mar 12, 2011)

I'm loving this !


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

mattinthewild said:


> I'm loving this !


Matt, any time you and your daughter/sister/buddies want to come and photograph grizzlies or hunt Sitka blacktails come on up. I have a free place to stay and all the salmon and halibut you can eat. Your only cost would be airfare and deer tags. But hurry up deer season is only five months long and you can only get three deer.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Here's a typical view of the forest floor under the thick overhead canopy of Sitka spruce. It's easy, quiet walking. Good for stillhunting. If you get near the edge of the treeline you start to get into some thick brush and walking gets tough real fast. Out in the open it's up to your neck with grass, devil's club and berries. Trying to bust through alder patches is a nightmare.
Forest.jpg

It's much easier if you follow deer or bear trails. Kodiaks are just like their black bear cousins in that they place their feet in the same spot all along the trail. With as many bears that are up here these trails can get pretty dug up. They're much easier to follow than deer trails because they're as wide as a fourwheeler trail. It's a little nervy following the fresh trails that are currently been used. This trail had fresh tracks in it but isn't being used too heavily.
Bear Trail.jpg

Here's the front door of one of the cabins here. The bears snoop around the cabin at night and try to peel the doors and windows open to get food. Laying in bed and hearing a bear sniff the cracks around the door makes me a bit jittery. We place these door mats in front of the windows too. They're quite effective.
Doormat.jpg

More pictures and adventure to come.


----------



## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

Gotta love that! Cool stuff!


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Here's a video of my dogs chasing a grizzly. Max is not a smart dog but he's quick!
http://s849.photobucket.com/user/longbow_photo/media/MaxvsGrizzly.mp4.html?sort=3&o=0


----------



## Mtnbeer (Jul 15, 2012)

Watch out for that **** Devil's Club. A thorn in your hand makes for a bad day! Good stuff longbow. Won't be long until snow forces those blacktails down to the beach. Hunting gets really easy then.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Mtnbeer, I was introduced to Devil's club years ago on Prince Of Wales while hunting black bears. I reached up for something to pull myself up with and YIKES! The dried plants are way worse than the green plants. Sounds like you've had run-ins too.
I've been hunting blacktails about every third day. More to scout than to hunt but we're seeing deer here and there. They're still pretty high right now. When they shed their velvet they'll be even harder to find until the rut. A fish biologist shot a 3x3 last week and my boss got a spike a few days ago so there's a few around.


----------



## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

Incredible in so many ways...


*"There are no malls, bars, shopping centers, traffic jams or any of that good wholesome entertainment up here. Just hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, shooting and wildlife viewing. Poor me."*


^^That/this^^ describes my idea of paradise. 8)

Hellova gig you got going there, thanks for sharing the pics.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

I went into the Pink salmon building to wire some lights and saw this mayhem. Thought I'd get a video to show how we get 500+million eggs a year.
http://s849.photobucket.com/user/longbow_photo/media/Eggtakevideo.mp4.html?sort=3&o=0

Here's a still picture.
http://s849.photobucket.com/user/longbow_photo/media/EggTake.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

Here's Marina catching eggs and male spawn in a bucket. A couple guys come and get them and put them in the incubators.
http://s849.photobucket.com/user/longbow_photo/media/Marina.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

Ps. I put it on my photobucket account like Goob said and I'm still doing something wrong. Anybody?


----------



## Mtnbeer (Jul 15, 2012)

Good stuff longbow. Some of my employees that are working on the Karluk Lake project just love the use of the term "ripeness" to describe mature eggs and milt collected from brood stock. It cracks them up every time.

Yeah, I've had quite a few run-ins with devil's club. I've had at least one run-in a year for 12 years straight now. Worst was when I crashed my mountain bike into a thicket of them. Ouch! My wife was finding those spines in my skin for about three weeks afterwards. Good luck getting a big blacktail. Them little buggers sure are tasty!

Got a limited entry pronghorn hunt this coming weekend. Can't wait!!!


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

I asked the Fishheads here and they all know Karluk Lake really well. This is their mail place of employment but they fly all over the Kodiak Archipelago to either train, be trained or to help out other biologists.


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

The grizzlies have run out of salmon, the berries are gone and now they're getting really hungry and constantly on the move. I was down in front of the shop and looked up at my deck when I saw this bruiser sneaking by. I like having them around the hatchery and the houses but it's not a good thing. We yell at them, blow horns or bottle rockets at them when they come close. We're suppose to make their visit unpleasant so they don't become complacent. Since the chum run (last of July) until the end of the pink run (today), there has been six different days that I haven't seen a bear. They're everywhere! I love seeing them.


----------



## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Very Cool Longbow. I'm kinda jealous. kinda...;-)


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Wow, that's cooler than the other side of the pillow!


----------



## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

My buddy invited me to fish karluk last week but I couldn't get out of work. 

You going to stay there long enough to shoot goats and bears as a resident?


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

TEX-O-BOB said:


> Very Cool Longbow. I'm kinda jealous. kinda...;-)


TEX, what are you using to waterproof your feathers. I've been using the powder but it wears off pretty quick up here. Even with matted down feathers I shoot broadheads quite well. Anything better than powder? WD40, hairspray...?


----------



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

scott_rn said:


> My buddy invited me to fish karluk last week but I couldn't get out of work.
> 
> You going to stay there long enough to shoot goats and bears as a resident?


I'll be here for a couple years at least. I don't plan on leaving until I get a grizzly with my longbow. They opened Roosevelt elk registration hunt on Afognak a couple days ago so four of us bought tags. We took the boat across Izuit Bay and hunted yesterday. We all have deer tags, four have elk and two have bear tags. We saw lots of elk and bear sign but not a single elk or bear.
If you get some time in late November, come down and hunt. I've got a spare bedroom and a couple skiffs to use.


----------

