Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Transport Hunt out of Homer AK

I have a transport hunt out of Homer Ak for the first of May this year. I know its a bit early but didn't have a choice on the dates. Looking for any advice. Would like to try to shot a decent size bear we will be staying on a boat for 7 days to hunt and fish.
Do we need to hunt the tide flats or get up away from them
Which is better hunting high tide or low
How long a shots should be expect
What type of areas should we concentrate on
What type of boots or waders should we take

Looking for any good pointers Thanks

What is a transport hunt?

We get on a boat in Homer they take us 6-8 hours to the area we will hunt. We use the boat for our base camp to sleep fishing and eat our meals. They run us to shore to hunt but that's as far as they go the rest is a dys hunt skin and quarter our game 7 days later they take us back to Homer

STX; Hunted with Bill Petersen on the Seabear in South East Alaska. Most enjoyable hunt. Basically you glass the beaches looking for bears. When bears come out of hibernation in the North facing mountains where their dens are located they jump start their digestive systems by eating skunk cabbage that grows first on the south facing open slide areas. When they are ready for real food they cruise the beaches for washed up whales, seals, etc. When they are located you hop into a skiff, land downwind of them and stalk.Tide was not a factor other than access to the beach and how you moor your skiff. On an outgoing tide you take a long azz mooring line, hang a cannonball wight on a smaller line on the bowplate. After attaching the mooring line to a tree you start the outboard, remove the gas line, engage reverse and back the skiff out. When the mooring line is taught you flip it thereby knocking the weight off the bow. The engine stops when the gas in the fuel line and carb runs out. As the tide recedes the skiff anchors up. This keeps you from having to drag the skiff out to water. The tides in Alaska are unbelievable.
Regarding gear the best set of binocs you can afford is number one. I used 10x40 Swarofski. Boots were Alaskan sneakers - ankle fit hip boots. Orange rubber gloves. A dry bag type gun case with the gun in a silicone cloth gun sleeve. Gun Boot was popular but I think they are out of business. Two schools of thought on raingear. The guides wear Heely Hansen rubberized because they are tough on equipment and cannot properly care for Gore Tex. A Sport can get by with Gore Tex for a week if you start with new rain gear or you clean your old in Nixwax cleaner and treated with Nixwax waterproofing dried in a dryer. If you choose Goretex be very careful around fuel. It ruins the Goretex liner. Raincoat should be knee length to cover tops of hip boats. I stalked bears up mountains just by rolling angle fits down to calf length and stuffing in top of boot to keep forest duff out. Be careful you do not roll your ankle. Since you are using a transporter and I assume you are a not a resident, you are hunting black bear. Blacks are easy to kill but remember you are entering the food chain but not at the top. I carried a 338 Win mag with 250 grain Swift A-Frame. For fishing I used Berkley Gulp and out fished guide using frozen cut herring.
Glass spring bears carefully. Decide if you want nice hide or size. I passed on an over 10' bear because of a large bare spot on back but got a smaller bear with a perfect hide. Marked increase in bear activity May 12 but more rubbed hides.

Thanks lot of good information is there somewhere in Anchorage to buy hip boots so I don't have to fly with them

That sounds like a good time!

Fred Myers, Sportsman's Wharehouse, Walmart

Depending on weather, bears could still be up high the 1st week in May. Doesn’t mean you won’t see any on the beaches, just not as many as say the 3rd week in May, which was historically our best week. Tide doesn’t matter a whole lot except being prepared skiff wise. Glass the smaller bays that reside in larger bays. Usually that’s where the grass and bears are. Boars are usually the first ones out and about. You will spend lots of time glassing, if you bring bad glass you could get headaches. A soft sided gun case to keep the salt off along with an aerosol can of rem-oil to fend off corrosion is the best bet.

Shots can be long (long shot for me is 300 yds). It’s always good to try and stalk close, but in heavily hunted areas they are not on the beach for long. A few minutes, then back into the thick stuff. They start acting squirrelly you better find a rest. Enjoy, went every spring multiple times for most of the decade I lived there. Best time of the year in AK. Hopefully the Capt’n has some shrimp pots, the best shrimp, no competion.

What is a good bear for there I don't expect to shoot one like I have here at home but would like to shoot a good representation for that area

6’ Sq is a good bear, 7’ is what I’d consider a trophy and might make book if you are into the records and such. Shoot the one with small ears and short legs 😁

Cabelas

Retailers in Soldotna and Homer as well.

I have skinned over 50 black bears in that general area... never saw a bear there close to an honest 7 feet.

Virtually no book black bears from the area... winters are snowy and long which means very long hibernation and shorter growing season. You may or may not be in an area where it is legal to shoot from a boat.

That snow melts from the bottom up... if the bears are above the beaches you are screwed. You need the bears on the beach so can see them and actually have a chance at them. Last few years snow was light up high and bear hunting sucked.

We don't go by 6' or 7' here we go by weight so I'm not really sure how to judge a bear that way I personally have killed several over 300 my two best bears weighed 560# and the last bear I shot was 620# I know I'm not going to see bears like that up there but I want to experience a different type of hunt. Just want to shot a bear that is a good one for the area I'm hunting. So the bears move up as the snow line moves up?

SE AK has some seriously big black bears... they hibernate only briefly and have tremendous food sources. Not so when you go farther north.

The outer coast and around into Prince William Sound usually is a ridiculously snowy area. When the grass comes up down on the beach bears are just starting out of their dens...as other plants come up the bears shift to them. Skunk cabbage is a favorite.

Once the snow melts off higher the bears reduce their beach use a lot and they are much tougher to find.

Glass lots from long range and then try to intercept them as they move along the beach.

I can relate, grew up hunting bears in Pa and dressed weight at a check station or estimated live weight was always the measuring stick. In most remote areas of AK a scale just isnt handy let alone rediculous for brown bear, so the Sq ft rules.

Here is a pic of a 7’ bear from PWS. I was always just after a representative bear and lucked onto this one after years on my buddies taking the big ones. We took another one that was 6’ 10” or so. The 7’ missed book by 3/16”. Sure do miss it and wish you the best.


9’ ceilings

To measure a bear you add the total length nose to tail and across the front legs, then divide by 2.

nice lookin' bear!

Now that's a nice black bear !!

Thanks for the kind words fellas. If you haven’t hunted Spring black bear in AK, you owe it to yourself. About the only thing I enjoyed more was sheep/goat. Blacktail in the alpine is a tie 😁

Nice bear!