Krieg Hetzen
Lil-Rokslider
So I managed to get the luck of the draw today and snagged DE723, Eastern Afognak Island Elk hunt for this year. My season dates are October 8th - 22nd. I have several question regarding this hunt that the previous threads on rokslide did not cover. Also this will be my first fly in hunt and my first time hunting for Elk.
1) What is the normal weather there? Judging from all the historical things I can find its 30-50f with a lovely mix of wind, snow, fog and rain.
2) Which transporters have people used in the past? So far I have Seahawk Air, Andrews Air and Kodiak Air Service to call on Monday to start gathering information about prices and schedules with a deposit possible in March/April.
3) For those that have hunted Eastern Afognak, I’m looking at the Pillar lake area for the cabin if its available (appears they only go out to September right now for scheduling, I will call them Monday as well). How is using the cabin as a base camp? Does it have decent access to the surrounding ridge lines and mountains (where the deer and Elk are I assume)? Should I instead look for an alpine lake and base camp there, hopefully above the devils club?
4) Is Afognak Island Elk hunting similar enough to other Roosevelt Elk in the US that I can use it as a basis to start learning elk patterns, behavior and calls? Or does it require its own special considerations?
5) Is a stove a necessity or will a covered area and fire suffice? I have a Nemo Chogori 3man, insulated pad and 0 degree bag from Nemo as well which has kept me warm to 20 (coldest its gotten so far).
In the meantime I will most likely be watching everything I can find on YouTube about this including rewatching the meat eater and remi warren hunts. It seems that information about the area and the hunting there is fairly sparse with most people describing it as one of the tougher hunts around, typical Gulf Weather (wind, rain, fog and snow) being predominant throughout October, to expect a lot of up mountain/down mountain type of walking, extremely thick willows/alders/devils club/salmon berries, a lot of bears and just general “what was I thinking”... Sounds like a blast. I know there are some recommended items for the islands and dense bear country that I will be looking to pick up such as an inReach, back up sat phone, bear spray (in addition to side arm and possible a camp shotgun/lever gun) and a bear fence. Lastly I’m going to pick up some black tail tags and hopefully can snag a couple of those in addition to an Elk, the Elk is the priority though.
Any additional thoughts, advice or input would be greatly appreciated as I begin my journey for my first Elk. Thank you for your time!
1) What is the normal weather there? Judging from all the historical things I can find its 30-50f with a lovely mix of wind, snow, fog and rain.
2) Which transporters have people used in the past? So far I have Seahawk Air, Andrews Air and Kodiak Air Service to call on Monday to start gathering information about prices and schedules with a deposit possible in March/April.
3) For those that have hunted Eastern Afognak, I’m looking at the Pillar lake area for the cabin if its available (appears they only go out to September right now for scheduling, I will call them Monday as well). How is using the cabin as a base camp? Does it have decent access to the surrounding ridge lines and mountains (where the deer and Elk are I assume)? Should I instead look for an alpine lake and base camp there, hopefully above the devils club?
4) Is Afognak Island Elk hunting similar enough to other Roosevelt Elk in the US that I can use it as a basis to start learning elk patterns, behavior and calls? Or does it require its own special considerations?
5) Is a stove a necessity or will a covered area and fire suffice? I have a Nemo Chogori 3man, insulated pad and 0 degree bag from Nemo as well which has kept me warm to 20 (coldest its gotten so far).
In the meantime I will most likely be watching everything I can find on YouTube about this including rewatching the meat eater and remi warren hunts. It seems that information about the area and the hunting there is fairly sparse with most people describing it as one of the tougher hunts around, typical Gulf Weather (wind, rain, fog and snow) being predominant throughout October, to expect a lot of up mountain/down mountain type of walking, extremely thick willows/alders/devils club/salmon berries, a lot of bears and just general “what was I thinking”... Sounds like a blast. I know there are some recommended items for the islands and dense bear country that I will be looking to pick up such as an inReach, back up sat phone, bear spray (in addition to side arm and possible a camp shotgun/lever gun) and a bear fence. Lastly I’m going to pick up some black tail tags and hopefully can snag a couple of those in addition to an Elk, the Elk is the priority though.
Any additional thoughts, advice or input would be greatly appreciated as I begin my journey for my first Elk. Thank you for your time!