Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska How they talk about Alaska...

Yep. Alaska! where you can never be too drunk or too fat.

Too funny, but at the same time, sadly true, in many cases!

Jeff

fish head
Too much chum in the water!

I think you are referring to Uganik Passage, which is actually outside Calvin's area. Naugolka Point is the dividing line between both the area and the hunt unit. There are two elements to Uganik Passage, and only the West end is narrow... But that makes it a wind tunnel of incredible ability!

The little lagoon you are talking about is usually referred to as Old Woman's Lagoon by the locals. I have spent many big storms hidden in there. Scott Haugen and I had a hunt in there some years back while Kodiak city had a storm with sustained winds of over 100mph for 30 hours. Weather guy told me the winds were probably quite a bit higher in the lagoon area... But of course the little lagoon kept us pretty protected.

Viekoda is open to the SW and hunting out toward the end of the Kuperanof Penn. puts one out in the weather in anything Southerly... But all easterlies and northerers make for decent weather there. Glassing from good locations is tough from the cabin because there are no really good locations for that. Sitting offshore in a boat is really the ticket there. Alpine starts at about 1500' on the north end of Kodiak. There is more than a little alder...

Being the NW corner of Kodiak Island proper there is still quite a bit of spruce forest in Viekoda. Out on the Penn it starts to peter out pretty fast, but there is not a lot of great glassing to be done out there either.

A few years ago in October there was a surge of spawning surf smelt in the Passage, mostly on the Naugolka side. At first I thought they were clamming, but the bears had the smelt dialed in. On some beaches all the way in beyond Hellgeson's where the gravel was right there were bears shoulder to shoulder raking gravel and eating smelt. Some beaches had a dozen or more bears in the best spots. I saw over 100 bears in a single pass through Uganik Passage East.

Naugolka Point has a rep for being unhuntable for deer because of all the freaking bears. From Naugolka one can easily see the spots where Gene Moe killed a bear with his Buck knife (on Raspberry Island) and another hunter was killed while butchering a deer (on Uganik Island).

Directly across Uganik Passage East from Naugolka Point... This guy was getting groggy and we had to drag a couple bucks around him. He was about 300 yards from where RedRabbit shot a couple bucks IIRC.

This is the country just above the bear.


This was a very good bear that swam the Passage right in front of the boat. A definite shooter for anyone satisfied with a good trophy bear... Not a monster, but better than most ever see.


Not much good for seeing it, but that is Naugolka Point just behind OlBlue's head.

art

Never been to either.

What bothers me about africa hunting is so many of the stories include something like "...was driving in the land cruiser, saw a great trophy, got out and shot him..."

I want to move to Kodiak Island. Any good jobs for electricians/ teachers?

I've hunted here and I've hunted "there". Both were fantastic. I'll jump at the chance to do either at any opportunity.

Neither should be judged against the other. Why does it matter? Can't you people just enjoy the differences of each? Still hunting, just different.

Why does it matter?

I have to agree with them....Alaska sucks. Don't come here. Maybe all the non resident guides that work here could start working out of Africa too. That would be great.

One of the problems with reading these experiences that are posted, coupled with the hunting shows, is it gets Mr. Blue Collar Man (me) to thinking I could actually afford to go to some of these places you guys report on.

I am not implying anything here, but, I do not have anybody calling or writing me to sponsor me on such an expedition. Nobody outfits me with hunting apparel or shooting equipment, let alone an all expense paid trip to any hunting venues.

That is much of the reason I cruise these forums. I like reading about it because I don't get to go.

One difference between Alaska and Africa is the blue collar hunter can hunt unguided in Alaska, and if you do your homework a hunt can be put together for $4-5k airfare, license, tag etc. I think most people could scrape up that much cash over a few years, and more importantly spend the time saving researching to have a successful hunt.

Other than the fact that Alaska and Africa start with A, the hunting experiences are completely different.

one of my worst fears is I'll end up wealthy and regret not going to Africa when I was pretty close to prime in my 40's as a good pard tried to talk me into on the slow float to Birch Creek Village.


I feel very fortunate to have got to spend so much time here outdoors. But truthfully if money were no object, I could spend the rest of my days exploring this place and never get to see as much of it as I'd like.


course if money were no object, I'd spend some long stretches in Africa too.

from what I can garner from pards here and those I know personally, they really are two different experiences.


I've swatted enough mosquitoes, glassed till I was cross eyed in every weather imaginable, ate enough freeze dried and packed out enough heavy loads and then went home to play butcher that I could live with a clear conscience by gettin the resort treatment in Africa

for you boys that do both regular, I'm as happy for you as a jealous man can be

I'd love to swat about fifty-eleven critters in the Dark Continent


with Cape Buffalo and kudu being at the top of the list. Would love to eat my own kudu filets and imo they're one of the prettiest creatures to grace the planet.

btw, if you're ever lucky enough to see akjeff's pix of Africa, you'll want to go......just sayin