Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Random Photos From My Time In Alaska

I really miss Alaska at times. I was going through an old photo album today and decided to take a few pics of pics and share them here. These are all from the 96-99 time frame.

This was the largest halibut I caught. It was right at 87 pounds IIRC. The Coast Guard maintained a rental fleet of Boston Whaler Montauks that we could check out to fish the nearby waters.

Saltery creek was about a 20 mile truck ride followed by a 20 mile ATV ride from where I lived. At times it held some spectacularly colorful Dolly Varden.

Paul that looks like the Woody Island Channel (Long Island background)
When I left in 2011 they still had 2 or 3 Whalers. Maybe a dozen 23 ft cabin boats for rent.

You could often stop by the fish cleaning shack and get a double handful of freshly steamed crab legs from the Airsta guys.

I miss it, too.

Saltery creek fed out into a bay. Near its mouth there was a small herd of wild horses. I Thought this pic was cool. A sea fog is hanging over the bay. The wild horses are hanging out across the creek. The fish slipped out of my hand and was splashing down right when the photo was taken.

Great memories!!

Yep! That's where it was. I gave most of the halibut away. People were thrilled to get it.

Me, too. I liked to eat cod, salmon, and lingcod more than halibut.

This photo was taken from Barometer Mountain overlooking Buskin Lake. Along the shores of that lake I had the most hair raising bear encounter I had ever had. The rifle is an old boat paddle Ruger 30-06.

'tis a special place we call home.

The bear in the window at the Best Western was killed by one of my neighbors up there, it is a lunker. From Buskin Lake

I bagged this nice blacktail on top of Barometer Mountain. It had been sparring with a smaller buck. Getting up there and back down with a load was a WORKOUT. I enjoyed it though. I'd much rather hunt the mountains than the southern woods. You can't see it, but I have a nice gash over my right eyebrow. Compliments of leaning out over a spindly alder for a rest. Being the big dummy that I am I forgot to take a pic until after I had peeled it.

Someone killed what I believe was the bear that I had the encounter with. It was a hog!

While on a trip to anchorage I found a Smith and Wesson shotgun at a pawn shop for a good price. I am a horrible shotgunner, but there was something about that gun that just worked with me. I could kick myself for selling it.

Heaven on earth.thanx for sharing

My best 4 wheeler was a Suzuki 160 2wd. I bought it for $500 and it never missed a lick. If I got stuck, it was easy enough to throw out of the mud hole.

Thanks for sharing. Looks like some good times were had.

I had a Yamaha 350 and a Big Bear 450 for a while. I liked the smaller one, same reason. You could wool it around a lot easier. Rode to Saltery a few times; quite a bit on Barometer and Pillar.

Lake Catherine is in the background. 100 feet in front of me was my CG housing complex. You can see a peninsula jutting out into the lake. I jump shot these ducks by sneaking out onto that peninsula. I didn't know it at the time, but they had been feeding on dead salmon along the bank. It was some rank game meat, and I stank up my house but good. The first 3 shots with that S&W shotgun resulted in these 3 ducks. I hunted there regularly. I didn't have a retriever, so I had to wait for the right wind so that they would drift back to the bank. I had eagles deprive me of several while I was waiting!.

Along the edge of the peninsula, there were HUGE bear tracks. I hunted bear sitting on top of that peninsula, waiting for one to come along the bank feeding on salmon. I never saw one. A guy I know (David Simmerman) got him. He scored just outside B&C top 10 all time. If anyone knows how to look that up, you'll see his name. I think it was #13. And it was living within 500 yards of a housing complex! David got him back on a feeder creek beyond the peninsula. I hadn't thought to hunt there. It was a dark tangled alder hell.

There was a good trail that led between Old Woman and Barometer. It went all the way back to Bell's Flats. Cool place to go 4 wheeling.

I knew there was a flock of 150 or so Emperor geese in Women's Bay; had big plans to hunt them until I found out they were off limits!