Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Yukon - Running from the bridge to the Koyukuk

Yukon River - Running from the bridge to the Koyukuk and back in Sept for a moose hunt.

I know this is early, as the draw result wont be available until March, but I am wondering who here, if any, will make the trek on a registration permit, (or a DM if drawn). Crazy long way to go to cut horns, I know, but I hear that guys do it every year.

Who's going, or may likely go?

Ramhunter did that very thing this year... Not sure how often he checks this site though. I'd love to do it someday.

A good friend and his wife have been going every year for the last 10 years. Cut um or not, the trip is worth the price of admission is what I'm told. It looks like I get to go this year, the wife called it quits on anymore hunts so he need a strong back with a weak mind to fill in. Luckily I have both.

OOOOOOOH - you are in for some fine scenery and weather! Even if it is miserable- but if it is good, it's great!

Take along a shotgun for waterfowl and grouse... and a fish pole.

And don't take "shortcuts" on those river bends or behind islands if it hasn't been raining and the river is up - stick to the main channels. I'm a sand-plowin' sheer pin/blade-buster from waaaaay back!

It's embarrassing to be out in the "middle of the river" in 3 inches of water, and your Lab won't get out of the boat......

What about down the Tanana? Isn't that a bit shorter; perhaps less issues? It sure are pretty, for certain.

From what I have been told the Tanana is more Air boat territory... Planning on doing this hunt as well the hunt on the Yukon probably put in for the draw if not drawn then will get the registration tag, and cut the palm off oh well...

If you recall a bit of Fairbanks' history, you'll know that the Tanana has plenty of water for a prop boat. That's not to say that air boats don't also use it, but that's probably more because there are so many other airboat-only accessible sloughs in the area. Yutana Barge Lines was centered out of Nenana for many years. I always figure that if a sternwheeler or modern tug can do a river, then it probably takes some effort to screw things up. And I have, but I've found more terra firma out in the Yukon than on the Tanana.

Yeah. Actually going to Manley and launching from there would be shorter if you wanted to cut your river miles. Most folks can run from Fairbanks to Galena and the downriver villages on about a barrel and a half of gas or less with a reasonable 4-stroke outboard.

My two sons and I did the trip this year for the first time, we had the Kateel river permits and put in at the Yukon river bridge. The locals at Galena told us that we were wasting our time because of the low water on the river. I told my sons that we have come too far to turn back now and we proceed up the Koyukuk. I have a Phantom sport jon and we took on 220 gals of fuel at Galena and with all your camping/hunting stuff we were heavy. When we hit the mouth of the Kateel , I told the boys well this is it, we just need to make it approx. 10 miles up the river and we will be in our hunt unit!
There was some skinny water in spots but I had no trouble, were 3-4 hunting camp down low on the Kateel just inside the hunt unit. We made our base camp at approx. 40 river mile up the Kateel from the Koyukuk And we spiked out 80 miles up the river approx. 10 air from the Box river!....Case your all wondering?.....We had the upper river too ourselves��well except for all the Wuffs and grizzlies!
We saw four small bulls and opted not to shoot one, holding out for a bigger one, however we did get a pretty grizz and the boys worked the Grouse over pretty good!
Bottom line was it was a great trip, and we had a lot of fun and saw some cool sites along the way�and yes I will do it again!

I've been patiently waiting, for a buddy of mine to buy one of those. Have to be the toughest boats in Alaska,


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKLgMpbE5RU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zc76lhyvtA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHWy9OLj38

I don't know about the toughest?..But mine is impressive to stay the leased!..packing a heavy load, running in very shinny water and the heater is unreal!, better than my trucks! The boyz liked that on the long ride back to the haul road bridge, being it as cold and snowing half the time!

Craig is selling the SJX now. believe it's a beefed up version of the SJ.

no flies on the SJ though, pard has one he customized. it's sweeeeet

XS will get you there as well, in fact it seems to me, that the SJX is a nod to the toughness of the XS

anyway you look at it, running skinny water is a blast!

along with sheep hunting

Now that the draw results are out, perhaps guys have had a chance to make plans on running from the bridge to the Koyukuk or even further down the Yukon. If anyone has an open seat in exchange for gas money, I'd like to hear from ya. I have an Achilles 11' and 15hp 2 stroke (200 combined pounds) plus minimal gear weight wise - Kifaru 8 man tipi and Mt House meals. I am looking to hunt from 'about' the 10th to 'about' the 23rd, then get back to Galena and fly meat/gear back to town. Pm or drop a line if you are open to the idea of discussing this.

Actually, that's the way I went- from Manley to Galena when we moved there for a couple years. Tanana and Yukon river running are the same. Shorter or not, I dunno. The tricky part is Squaw Crossing, at Tanana, where the T joins the Y. When the Y is high, it backs up the T, which dumps it's overburden.... The barge line marks the channel, but the markers are hard to find - and the channel may only be 50 yards wide in a mile of river width. That was the part about a half-mile of water on each side, 3 inches under the boat, and the Lab had to be dragged out of the boat before we could get unstuck....

It was about an 11 hour run, IIRC, with a 1,000# load in an 18' flat bottom and 40 hp motor, running downriver. - 360 miles or so. It's been a few decades so things may vary, what with 4 stroke engines, memory, etc. The return trip upriver we went with only camping gear, food, and gas for 2 days, and was only, IIRC again, about 5 hours longer to reach our remote cabin, some 35 miles below Manley, and 25 miles up a tributary of the Tanana.

That 7 mph current will do that to you.

Peterbilt- You might try the Nowitna or the Yuki above Galena, rather than the Koyukuk, which empties into the Yukon about 35 miles below Galena. That way you don't have to fight your way back upstream with (hopefully) a full load of moose meat.

If you are just looking for a bull- any bull- try the head end of the slough about 12 miles above Galena- it empties back into the Yukon across the river from Galena. Don't try to motor the slough unless the river is way up, however - hours faster to get back onto the main river and motor down that. Especially with a moose in the boat- it's a drift (7 hours) thing on the slough in low water. Ask me how I know....

I think the creek is called O'Brian Creek- a very shallow clear-water creek.

Our plan was to motor up the Y to the head end of the slough, and work the flat bottom boat as far up O'Brian as we could (about 3 riffles and a quarter mile), then hunt on foot up one bank of the creek, to a bluff (on the map), sit there thru mid-day, cross, and hunt the other bank back down to the boat and camp, repeat the next day. If we got a moose up there, we'd return to town and get the 18' Grumman canoe, tow it up to the kill via waders, and float the meat out to the riverboat.

We were 70 yards from the boat, after doffing our river running gear (it was 27 degrees when we left Galena that morning at day-break), when a 3 year old came walking out to get a drink about 80 yards ahead of us. At the shot, the Lab, who hadn't seen the moose, started bouncing around, while the bull stumbled about 50 feet back from the edge of the river, behind a screen of willows (we waited until he'd had his drink and turned away from the creek before shooting). Circling around after I thought I heard him go down back there, we came up over a high bank to find the bull down 20 yards ahead and below us. (Yes! a short pack to the boat!!!!)

The dog went racing down to him, sniffed a hind leg, and then turned around with an expression on his face that plainly said "You have GOT to be kidding!" It was his first moose. We LOAO!

I have made the run twice in a 26' Hewe's Alaskan Sea Runner. No it is not a very good river boat, but I took my time and the props look new. I had a DM830 permit in 2007 and took a beautiful 62.5" bull up a slough and was blessed to get it on film. We opted not to shoot a subsistence bull and only took one permit bull last year. The trip for us is not just about a big set of antlers. It is a beautiful adventure that I have been fortunate to do twice. 3 of us slept and cooked on the boat each trip and moving camp was as easy as untying a knot. If you hunt off the Koyukuk you will see other hunters and I don't leave the boat unattended, sad but true. Weather has varied from the 60's to a freezing blizzard. Don't forget bug dope, head nets, Thermacell's,tire chains and a Sat. phone. Your pretty much on your own up there so you have to know how much fuel your going to burn. I went alone but will try to travel with another boat next time. I encountered 3' waves and high winds in 2009. Unless you know the river it is best to pull over and wait it out as it is hard to see sand bars under those conditions. My wife was born on the Yukon and it was great to share the trip with her and stop at her birth place in Tanana. As far as expenses goes gas is the big one. We each took 1,500 in cash and a couple of credit cards. Take lots of pictures if you go, soak it in and breathe it. Life is short.

Thanks gents for the info and stories. I love reading this stuff. Anyway my trip hunt needs to start/end in Galena, (hunt downriver from there) as there's no other village to fly meat and gear out of. How I get there remains to be determined. I could fly there, then hire one of the well known transporters...or...launch the inflatable at the beach and go....or hook with another river runner from the bridge. What I am trying to avoid is running upriver with a moose in an 11' Achilles/15 hp motor. I've run the Yukon with a 19' Gruman 9.5 hp, and that current does kick your ass LOL. I know there's a few of us here on the campfire who drew tags in this area, kinda wondering who is getting there by boat

Sounds familiar. I tried the right side going upriver many years ago, discovered that was the wrong side. tried to cross to the other side to avoid back-tracking. Comedy of errors for anyone who would have had a bird's-eye..... thought about tenting in the boat at 2:00 am out in the middle, but decided I didn't want to risk losing any of the water I was barely drafting in when walking alongside the vee-bottom ocean skiff I was running. Setting the tent on an island back in the channel amidst hoards of mosquitoes (in July) and soaking wet will never be a more pleasurable experience - I was no longer barely floating in thin water with current under the same conditions.


FWIW, gas was cheaper at Galena at $5.85 than out on the coast. Nulato was a fine bargain at $4.75. These prices were from about three weeks ago when we went over to the river. I expect prices will not be lower with the next barges, but you never know.