Kodiak Reports?

[adventure907]

Once in a blue moon I get to hunt for myself. This year is a blue moon and I am excited to say the least. With that said, anybody have any recent reports on deer movement, population observations, etc....from the past few weeks?

Thanks in advance, looking forward to getting back to the rock.

 

[Nick Muche]

I've heard pretty good reports thus far, plenty of deer from the sounds of it. Excited to get down there myself! Good luck!

 

[Malcolm31]

I’m headed there in a few weeks too!! I’ve been dreaming about hunting Sitka blacktails on kodiak for the last 29 or 30 years. Finally making it happen.

 

[JoeB]

Malcolm I'm headed there two at the end of the month. Who are you hunting with? We will be with Larson Bay Lodge

 

[Malcolm31]

Yes! We are hunting with Larsen Bay Lodge as well.

 

[3Esski]

Heading there Thursday for the archery road system hunt.

 

[Michigander]

I saw decent numbers of good bucks on my hunt a couple weeks ago. First time there so I'm not sure whats normal. Hunted a bit less than 2 square mile area and saw 30-40 different bucks.

 

[Bigbrother803]

Malcolm I'm headed there two at the end of the month. Who are you hunting with? We will be with Larson Bay Lodge

Ill be there next Tuesday.

 

[Malcolm31]

Ill be there next Tuesday.

Good luck! Hope it is an Incredible trip. Please post or send an update when you get back.

 

[Grizz208]

Any luck?

 

[JoeB]

I’m leaving next week and anticipation is running high

 

[Oregon]

Just got a call from a buddy from the south. He hunted 5 days in Larsen bay. Said they only saw one buck entire trip. Said zero snow anywhere.
My thought after 4 trips. He didn't climb high enough. Blows my simple mind. Later November. Rut??? Maybe it's gotten that bad. I haven't been there since 2017, but I can't fathom not seeing 20 bucks in 5 days.

 

[kodiak725]

Just got a call from a buddy from the south. He hunted 5 days in Larsen bay. Said they only saw one buck entire trip. Said zero snow anywhere.
My thought after 4 trips. He didn't climb high enough. Blows my simple mind. Later November. Rut??? Maybe it's gotten that bad. I haven't been there since 2017, but I can't fathom not seeing 20 bucks in 5 days.

Hunted south end Nov 6th-19th and the area we were in the numbers were definitely down from previous years. We did have to hike fairly high into elevation to start seeing bucks of any size and did get a few but it was not easy hunting by any means.

 

[MattB]

I heard from a few guys who went it was a really tough year down south. Very few buck sighting in comparison to prior years.

 

[Rowsdower]

I was on the south end at the end of October. I’ve hunted the same area for years and deer were far fewer than years past and the boat based hunters were the highest I’ve seen.

 

[Chumsnagger]

So from the perspective of this year’s hunters, Did the decrease from 3 to 1 deer for NR hunters have much of an affect? Or maybe when this regulation change took place earlier this year, it was too late for NRs to change plans. Maybe there will be more impact to NR hunter numbers in future years.

 

[119bowhunter]

Our group of 4 went to the south end in early September, it was our first trip so I have nothing to compare it to but I felt like we saw a good number of deer and some decent bucks, 3 of our guys tagged out on the first day of hunting and I killed mine on day 3. Kinda sucked only having one tag but we had already planned the trip and really glad that we went anyway.

 

[Luis]

When you went in early Sept, were the horns hard on the deer or still in velvet ?

 

[119bowhunter]

When you went in early Sept, were the horns hard on the deer or still in velvet ?

Of the 4 we killed one was in velvet and the rest were hard-horned…I did not see any others that were in velvet…we hunted September 7-12

 

[Steve O]

When you went in early Sept, were the horns hard on the deer or still in velvet ?

I’ve been there Aug 3 for 10 days, seen hundreds of bucks and the only ones that had velvet were spikes. May depend on the year…

Was down on the southern 1/3 in November, herd is still rebuilding. Better than last year population wise but turned up nothing mature with bringing home.