Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska The good old days

How about some of you guys who've been here a long time telling us some stories about the good old days in AK before the salmon were on the decline and the moose were shot out and the place was full of L48ers.

I've been here a decade and won't be here much longer, but even I'm starting to yearn for my own "good old days". The first year I moved up I caught piles of kings and silvers on the Parks highway streams, and I didn't even know how to fish for them. I once caught 23 kings in one hot July day on the Klutina, the largest a 71lb buck. The last time I went up I fished until my arms nearly fell off and landed one 35 pounder all weekend, I was the only one in the group to catch one.

Some come on I know some of you guys have been 20, 30, or 50 years. Tell us what it used to be like.

I suspect thats one reason you would likely need money or a plane (same) to get to the really more somewhat pristine places today.

We are coming regardless. Its still gotta be better than where we are.

Cold, windy, wet. Hard to get anywhere. Good News River had the best fishing (5 species of salmon, rainbows, grayling, Dolly Varden) I've ever experienced, but that was 35 years ago, but then I haven't lifted a rod in 15 years. What God made gill nets for....

Except for that pike I caught at the mouth of the Cosna last July. I forgot the dog food in the truck, and the boy had to eat. Especially after he spent an hour trying to catch the beavers out there in the water...

These ARE the "good old days" now - the best they are gonna get for the future. Enjoy what's left of them.

Kenai Peninsula had a 2 bull moose per year limit for a time following the '49 burn. I missed out on that, but in the 80's and early 90's I got in on the '69 burn heyday of moose hunting in 15A. After the first year, which I spent on "stand" before killing a bull in the last hours I had left to hunt by walking a vehicles-prohibited road in the rain, I figured out it was better to slip-hunt thru a succesion of timber "islands" left in the burn area (which the moose used as bedding cover) rather than watch one or two unproductive edge "feeding" areas all day long for 20-some days!. "Any bull" regs let me shoot the first antlered animal found, and I never spent more than 4 days hunting to fill the freezer for the year, each and every year I hunted. Twice I did not moose hunt, having enough left over from the previous year, in addition to whatever other species and fish procured.

Just came back last night from an epic trip, flew to Red Devil on the Kuskowin 8 miles down stream from Sleetmute,
gas was $7.00 a gallon 36 pack of soda $64.

Went 60 miles up the George river to a mine site and got my buddys boat 22 ft landing craft. Moved it off the bank with bars and log rollers trailers in Bethel.

Looking at pictures and the mine sites. The good old days are still there. Amazing that they got big equipment that far D8 cats and loaders and kept them running.

Where you headed to??

Back to SW Oklahoma, been away from family long enough. It's been a fun ride but things change and it's time to turn the page.

From a few years ago.

Father in Law with his first King. We were at our cabin that My Bro in Law and I built on the Kenai River out of Soldotna.The 20X20 Aframe didn't cost much as we were able to salvage material from Elmendorf AFB.
Mother in Law and FIL never adapted to the long days. They got up when the sun came up and went to sleep when the sun dropped. They couldn't understand why they were so tired.

I remember when my dad caught his first King, 22lbs if I remember right. He was fit to be tied, all excited, and insisted that we keep it even after I suggested gently that we would get him a bigger one. Poor thing hadn't even stopped twitching when my sister and then girlfriend screamed "fish on" in unison. He was a little redfaced when the girls hauled in a 35 and a 40!

Great picture.

Dad and I had some good fishing out of Soldotna one year on the Kenai.

Carolyn caught a 55ish pound king there also on our honeymoon. Rough size as it was released. Still need to learn how to paint that early august king color and do a replica for her.

The "Good Old Days"?

How about a Sunday afternoon drive, looking for snowshoe hares on the Richardson Highway in the early 60's and counting over 500 hares in the stretch between the Front Gate at Ft. Greeley and Dot Lake. Road kill didn't count.

Less than 200 people on the Russian River at the peak of the Red run?

Helping my Dad dress out a legally hunted bull moose in Spenard. I think there's a Village Inn restaurant on that spot now.

Catching 12-14" Grayling at mineral Lake south of Tok and then 36" + Pike there.

Hunting hares along south side of the Knik River across from Jim Creek. No one lived along that stretch of the Knik River Road East of the Old Glenn Hwy.

Taking over 50 hares in one afternoon along the Lake Louise Road and making sausage out of them. A lot of work, but well worth it!

Snagging Kings and Reds in the Gulkana River, landing one King that bottomed-out a 75# scale. Wading into that ice-cold river and retrieving snagging rigs that other fishermen had broken off, and selling them at a discount price.

Hunting Spruce Hens and hares along Ship Creek from the base of the mountains all the way through Elmendorf with my recurve bow and wood arrows

Hunting Spruce Hens with bow & arrows just north of Muldoon along the base of the mountains.

Killing ptarmigan all along the road in Hatcher's Pass, from Willow to Palmer. My Dad throwing, and killing one with my hatchet to see if he could. He killed another with his walking staff, a 5' long piece of Diamond Willow he cut from a grove on the Gulkana River.

Just some of the many memories of the Alaska I grew up with.

Ed

I don't think I've ever seen a hare on the road live or dead between Dot lake and Greely....

YUP!!

I know a couple of old timers that shot moose from their dorm window at UAF.

Lower dorms and moose by the RR tracks, for those that know the area.

AS long as the muzzle is inside the window frame, nobody would even know!

Have an old friend who used to be the pipeline superintendent or some such for the stretch of pipeline in the roughly Paxson to Thompson pass area. Not really sure what his actual job was but he had a key to the access gate, a company truck, and shot scads of grouse on the right of way every fall.
He told me that one day in the middle of winter him and a coworker were on the way back from Delta or somewhere and came tooling down the big hill between Paxson and Sourdough. At the bottom of the hill and right in the middle of the highway a big pack of wolves had pulled down 2 caribou. They had eaten them down to the bones and were napping in the middle of the road with swollen bellies, obviously traffic was light that day on the Richardson.

He instantly threw the brake and did what anyone with any sense would do, unlimbered his shiny new Remington 700bdl in 17 Rem and shot the biggest she wolf right in the throat. His coworker apparently had a Ruger 6mm which he never got into action but Mike managed to kill 3 wolves before they made the timber. Said they tossed them in the truck and headed on back to Glenallen.

There are some years a family could live on bunnies from Jarvis creek to donnelly ...sometimes we would quit wacking them cause we were getting tired of it.lol

from jarvis to Donnelly. THats a big wow.

But I haven't been through the area much at all until about 2007 or so.

Have shot a few behind the dome though with base access when not closed for military functions.

Sure wanted to go in there fishing last fall but they were running maneuvers while we were up.

Supposed to be some good raspberries somewhere along Jarvis, if I can ever find em going to attempt to transplant some back to the yard for future use.

"Runny Babbits"; mile 90 on the Glenn! I had to put a scope on my .22 so I could pick a unobstructed hole in the brush. Be sure to dress them out back in the bush so that the varmints could share the spoils with you. Your back pack could get really heavy carrying around all that fur and guts. Besides, it made me angry to see all that residue in a pile at a turnout. Get 20# of meat and Alaska Sausage would make up Bunny Burger for you. I remember taking the snowmachines up to Tyone Lake. We slept in the camper on the lake and the next day, ventured up Tyone river to harvest (whack) our three each Caribou. Drug them out by tying one to the machine and then the other two head to hind legs like a pack train. Remember the terrible bumpy ride those machines had? If you had an Arctic Cat, you developed very strong hands by pop riveting on replacement grousers after each trip.