Actually, not a reflection on Phil, at all, but his hunts are not declining in quality nor will they anytime soon. The predator control areas had high numbers and are now coming down rapidly.
Back in the day the brown bear limit was 2 per year. That got shifted to one every four years, pretty much statewide. When the populations got out of hand in some areas they slowly started raising the limits in those areas.
First it was one a year in those areas and then they added that those bears would not be counted against the "one every four years" areas. Then they started the predator control units and have bumped the kill in those areas by raising the limits in some to two per year and allowing the sales of the hides.
They even have limited areas where it is legal to snare brown bears...
Unfortunately game management in this state is based more on politics than biology.
As much as it pains me to say it, when it comes to bears the Feds are currently doing a better job than the state.
Although the season is still open, all of our clients filled out and are gone and word from F&G is that the results of both the peninsula and Kodiak look great. Success rate and size wise. Half of our client's bears will make B&C and I am aware of many others well over 28 inches and one close to 30"
On Kodiak it was their best season ever, with a high success rate and 20% were boars with skulls over 28" and seven went over 29" !!
When the first 74 bears were checked in Kodiak there were 14 over B&C minimum, green. Three of those came from the road system (OTC tags). That is 20% and they had a week left of the season. This was from John Crye the bear bio there. He expected the percentage to drop as people started settling for smaller bears.
It was their best season for average bear skull size, but low for numbers killed. The reason for it is simple though. The kill in '13 was very low due to an early spring and lots of rubbed hides, as were several recent years. The bear population on Kodiak is increasing and more bears are living longer.
Bad bear/human interactions are increasing every year... not necessarily situations where people get hurt, just indications there are more bears around.
The tag allocation across Kodiak has not changed since long before the Feds "took over" management on the refuge.
These truly are the good old days...
