Kodiak Island August or November?

[AK Troutbum]

Hey bum, on the 2nd pic from the bottom how many fences did you bring to surround camp? We have 2 we are renting but I do have a another charger and a spool of wire that I was thinking of bringing to make a bigger corral.

That was just one big fence with three strands of tape/wire if I remember correctly. It was my buddies fence and it was a POS IMO. You could stand there and hold it all day long and you would probably only have to let go when you fell asleep. The fences I have are for backpacking, so they're not nearly as big, but they pack one hell of a punch, and even with rubber boots on, you still don't want to touch it. If you do accidently touch it, you will make every effort not to touch it again.

 

[kodiakfisher]

Having lived on Kodiak for several years and visit regularly (Dad in Coast Guard and mom still lives there) I feel uniquely qualified to speak about Kodiak. My passion is elk hunting and specifically Rosies in the coast range of Oregon. I'm used to fairly tough terrain and weather. If you are camping in anyway shape or form you could be in for a week of misery during November. Rain can soak you clean through, wind can try and tear your camp apart, snow up high and slush can make every step a risk reward calculation. I would ONLY hunt deer in November if I had a cabin or boat to stay in. Keep in mind even sleeping on a boat one could get sea sick. Now if you have to camp and actually generally speaking I would choose late August. If you got your deer early or the weather is really crappy you could fish for Coho salmon. Most of the bears are also down by the rivers gorging themselves through about mid October and guess what in November they are headed up. Fresh deer kills in November draw more bear attention than in August. The bear population on Kodiak the last 15 years has seen a significant increase. Late 90's early 2000 hardly ever seen any bears. Last 10 years I always see several bears and this is just along the road system.

 

[Voyageur]

@mcseal2
I've been following this thread and enjoying people sharing their perspectives. Have you decided on the dates for your 2022 hunt?

 

[Broomd]

You probably won't be able to find anyone to fly you into an alpine like that late in the season, and even if there was no worry of freeze up, I don't think you'd want to. There's really no advantage to the higher elevation areas during Nov. if you're just deer hunting. All that said, if I was going down to strictly hunt deer, I'd probably choose early Oct. Nice cool temps. but not really cold, and longer days to hunt.

Yep. I'd even consider late September when the bears are on the creeks. Our best trips have been in that time-frame and the deer hunting seemed to be fantastic either way.

I HATE KODIAK BEARS.

 

[mcseal2]

Just got back from an elk hunt. Now that that’s past we are ironing out available dates for our group. I don’t have a decision yet, but will let you know when we do.


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[Oregon]

I HATE KODIAK BEARS.

I'm a grown assed man. 6'1 230#. Spent my entire life rushing into danger to save lives. Done 4 Kodiak blacktail trips.
I will never ever forget the time one stood up out of the Alders at 25 yards.
yep. I hate Kodiak bears. Jurassic park looking bastards.

 

[bushman]

Just got out of the bush yesterday. The first 3 days was intense for rut action. It seemed to taoer down as far as buck sightings. That could be because of our pressure on the mountain we were hunting.
We had bear tracks around camp but nothing came in. We had a bear come to 220 yards while hunting, but ran away after 3 shots fired and waving of arms. Overall it was fantastic hunt,we got a double one afternoon.

 

[bushman]

3 of us went and we got 4 nice bucks.

 

[mcseal2]

Thanks for sharing, looks like a fun hunt!

 

[Andy Stephens]

Good luck!- sound like an adventure is coming your way!

 

[Muledeerfanatic]

3 of us are going mid to late August '22
Don't want to deal with bears and I live in a place with shitty weather so don't want to vacation in it on an island in November
Plus the fishing is a big part of the trip also

 

[Falcon]

I see absolutely no problem in going floorless that time of year, or any other time of year for that matter. Your combo tent idea sounds pretty bomber and I’ve done it that way many times. The only difference between what you’re thinking of using and what I have used in the past is, I usually bring an Arctic Oven and one or two floorless tipis, depending on how many people are going. I have on occasion just brought one of those bigger base camp shelters, when there were just two of us going, and I’ve also just used a 6 person Cabela’s Alaska Guide Dome on one occasion. If you’re going that late in the year with multiple people, it’s nice to have a big, fat, base camp with multiple shelters, because you will be spending more time there given the fact that your days are much shorter. I think having a designated sleeping tent, along with using a nice sized tipi for your cook shelter, and just hanging out in shelter, is almost the perfect base camp configuration. The latest I’ve ever gone down there is in late December, right before Christmas. There were four of us on that hunt and we brought a large Arctic Oven sleeping tent, a 12 person Seek Outside tipi w/wood stove for our cooking and hanging out in shelter, and a Titanium Goat 8 person tipi that we used as an outhouse. It was really nice to be able to go into a designated shelter, take off your wet jacket, and sit down on a camp toilet to do your business. That was probably the cushiest base camp that I have ever experienced and it was well worth it, given the fact that we spent so much time there with there being only about 7 hours of daylight/day.

Here’s a few pictures of some of our Kodiak base camps.

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Awesome looking base camp.

 

[Icky26]

A friend and I did a DIY fly in on the south end of Kodiak during the first of Sept. 2021. Filled 3 of our 4 tags (hard horn and velvet). Would highly recommend the trip and would do it again. Weather cut our trip down to 4 days in the field. 3rd day was a meat Looking at either going back for another early season trip or a November boat based trip in 2023.

 

[Icky26]

 

[Catchfish]

Boy does that camp site look nice, looks like it has nice drainage to keep you out of water.

 

[Icky26]

Boy does that camp site look nice, looks like it has nice drainage to keep you out of water.

Ya, we got lucky that the lake bank area where we ended up was alot of small smooth gravels. Made staying in the tipi dry and more comfortable, able to smooth over and level out under the sleeping pads

 

[repins05]

following

 

[Farmer79]

View attachment 396063View attachment 396064

Looks like quite a hunt and a great camp.

 

[Fartrell Cluggins]

For anyone who is considering a Kodiak blacktail trip, here are some things to think about. Early August means velvet if that matters to you. The last half of August may mean velvet falling off racks. August through early October can make for very good fishing in the rivers and creeks. By mid November the length of days drops to about 8 hours. That's 16 hours of time that you'll be in camp, and with the weather being what it is, you'll most likely be in your shelter for those 16 hours.

In August, the vegetation on the mountains is tall and thick. Couple that with steep, wet terrain and it makes for difficult movement. At higher elevation, the vegetation isn't bad at all, so once you get up there, you should be good. The deer tend to be higher up in August as well. By November, they will likely be low and much easier to hunt.

Something else interesting happens beginning in August. For most of the summer, the brown deer stand out like lights on the green hills and mountains. They are ridiculously easy to spot with the naked eye. In August the Cow Parsnip (putchki locally) starts dying off. You'll spend a lot of time sorting out dead putchki while glassing.

Kodiak is a great place to kick up an adventure. I am going back there to fish in June and July this year. Really looking forward to it.

 

[kwackkillncrew]

We are in the field oct 27 thru nov 4. South side of kodiak. Cant wait

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