Planning an Alaska big game hunt on a limited
budget can be a frustrating experience. Typically, the hunter will collect a
few ads or brochures, contact individual businesses, and realize there is
nothing inexpensive at all about the $1600 to $2400 per person price tags for
a fly-out hunt.
In searching out the big game hunts available along Alaska's major road system
in southcentral Alaska, a phone call to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game
office provided shocking news: success rate is often less than 20 percent for
popular species like moose. Faced with such news, the hunter is discouraged,
and the Alaska do-it-yourself hunt is invariably shelved in lieu of another
inexpensive hunt, perhaps in the Lower 48.
Times are changing. It is becoming increasingly more expensive to hunt Alaska
successfully. But there are big game hunts available to those who search out
those hidden deals and seldom-hunted areas.
One such area is Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. There, a group of
four hunters can enjoy a week-long hunt for trophy black bear and blacktail
deer for $125 per day person, plus enjoy salmon and halibut fishing. For the
basic accommodations in some areas, you can spend $35 a night for your entire
party.
Impossible, you say? Not at all. I bagged a nice black bear, passed up a
blacktail buck, and had some halibut fishing for what I would normally spend
thousands to experience.
Let me first provide the details of the area, and what you can expect.
Prince
of Wales Island is the third largest island in the United States. It is part
of the Tongass National Forest, which means that nearly the entire island is
open to hunting. No closed areas or "No Hunting" signs to worry
about here. There is more land to hunt than you can cover in a lifetime. Until
recent years, this old-growth rain forest--which includes coastal mountains
and wilderness areas-- was virtually impenetrable, with only the fringe areas
available to sportsmen. Over the last few decades, the U.S. Forest Service has
logged select areas, and as a result, opened up vast stretches of the island
by creating over 1,000 miles of logging roads. Most of these roads are now
abandoned, with forested growth springing back in the clearcuts. While some
may view logging as an eyesore, these logged areas have allowed black bear and
blacktail deer populations to skyrocket by creating the favored browse and
berry patches that would normally not be available in old-growth forests. The
results are obvious in the game taken in recent years by hunters. Record-book
blacktail deer and black bear are taken each year from the island. Four deer
and a two black bear limit per hunter supports the productivity aspect of this
hunting hotspot.
Prince of Wales Island is an ideal area for the do-it-yourself hunter. Cabins
scattered across the island rent for $25 per day.You can get a complete
listing of the cabins, hunting hotspots and maps by ordering the book, "Fishing
and Hunting Alaska on Dollars a Day.
A party of two or three hunters can experience a hunt for less than $300 each
for a week. But you'll need to rent your own outboard, and hire an air charter
to reach the area, bring your own camping and cooking gear and figure out the
area on your own.
For $500 a day, a group of four sportsmen (max of six) can have luxurious
accommodations that include a 4WD van to drive the one or two-lane logging
roads, and/or a boat and outboard to work the saltwater bays. Split four ways,
this amounts to $125 per person or less per day.
Excellent black bear hunting areas are within an hour's drive of the base camp
in Thorne Bay. Black bears are numerous along hundreds of miles of streams
teaming with salmon. And the hides of Prince of Wales black bear are among the
most luxurious anywhere, sporting a heavy underwool and long guard hairs. The
six-foot blackie I bagged on my first day is the best hide I've ever taken in
Alaska.
In the spring, anglers can fish PWI streams for steelhead to 20 pounds. With a
rifle slung over a shoulder, one is always ready for a black bear. On one trip
several years ago, I saw three black bear while steelhead and cutthroat
fishing in mid May. This year, I saw one huge seven-foot blackie right after I
shot my bear. Indeed, big black bear are scattered throughout the island. Last
year, friend Larry Hudnall of Indiana bagged a black bear on a stream that was
aged by ADFG to be 20 years old.
Prince of Wales Island is perhaps the best do-it-yourself hotspot on the road
system that we have found in recent years, not only because of the large
tracts of seldom-hunted wilderness available, but also because of the good
success rate for a road-system hunt.
Consider the facts: the harvest of black bear is split nearly 50/50 among
Alaska residents and non-residents. As for deer, hunter success is around 65
percent, with hunters spending about 5.7 days afield. The two-year average bag
is around 2800 deer.
Pink salmon and trout abound in nearby waters. Simply put, just drive to a
stream, slip on a backpack, and start fishing, hiking or hunting.
There are no crowds to contend with. The local logging community is attuned to
work and a subsistence lifestyle. Relatively few people sportfish and hunt for
recreation. Most bag their deer the first few days of the season, leaving
untold thousands of acres untouched for hunting purposes. According to locals,
almost no one hunts for the area's black bears.
I booked a week at a hunter's cottage the last week in September, to hunt
primarily but to also sample the silver salmon and halibut fishery in the
area.
In a clear-cut about a half-hour out of town, at about 2,000 feet elevation, I
spotted a black bear feeding on berries on the open hillside. It was a simple
matter of making a stalk and taking the shot. For late September, the hide was
one of the best I've ever taken, with four-inch long guard hairs and not a
single bare or rub spot. Excellent. And the meat has been excellent eating. I
don't believe this would hold true, however, for a bear taken on a salmon
stream at lower elevations.
Bear and deer sign is plentiful, no matter where you go. We found more sign of
larger deer and bear in remote areas than we did closer to town, which is
expected.
There are two ways to hunt: The first is to overnight at the cottage, and get
up before first light each morning and make the 30 minute to one-hour drive to
the hunting area. Nearly all the good hunting areas can be reached within this
time frame.
Once you are in an area, glass the open or overgrown clearcuts or meadows for
deer and bear as they begin feeding. If you're a late riser, forget about
seeing much. The game is pretty much back into the security of the forest by
10 a.m. There are exceptions, of course. Black bears will stay on a hillside
feeding on berries all day, if it is sunny. Because of the abundance of
berries in an area, a blackie may spend several hours in a depression, feeding
and resting, and not be visible to you at all. Then for who knows what reason,
they get up and move, often across the meadow, oftentimes down the center of
the logging road. This is how I spotted the huge seven-footer I mentioned
earlier. The old boar was just taking his time, walking down the center of the
logging road about 600 yards below us. Too far for a shot, but the bear was
impressive to watch. I never did see him again, despite repeated visits to the
area.
Method two calls for more involvement on your part. Many of the logging roads
course through dense stands of timber. The top of most of the highest
mountaintops on PWI are alpine in nature, and can't generally be seen or
easily accessed. Only a few roads course all the way to or near the top. This
requires you to strap on a backpack, overnight gear, and hike up through 500
to 1,000 feet of rainforest. Don't expect an easy hike. Plan on spending an
hour to 90 minutes easing your way up through the deadfalls and timber. Of
course it can be tough going, but you want to take it slow for several
reasons: first, you might see deer and bear in the forest, offering you a
possible shot near the road.
Second, taking it slow is necessary to prevent injury. While the forest may be
dry, the perpetually wet logs or rotting vegetation can easily give way, often
when you are climbing up a small embankment or cliff. Thirdly, you prevent
spooking whatever game may be on the fringes of timber.
Once on top, you'll see lots of sign and trails, scats and rubbings. Get
oriented, use a piece of flagging tape to mark your entrance into the
rainforest for the trip back down, and begin hunting. You can establish your
camp anywhere. I recommend you do so on a knoll or ridge that overlooks the
area. You can glass from your tent in early morning, which will hide your
movement and keep you warm and dry if a rain cloud passes overhead.
After you've set-up camp, it's time to hunt. You can do this one of two ways:
By driving and walking slowly through the alpine, or by choosing a good
vantage point and begin glassing.
One of the best places I found from which to glass is an old stump. These are
not your ordinary stumps, but rather, bases that are four to five feet across
and that rise three to four feet off the ground. Such a find provides an
unparalleled vantage point for glassing the fringes of timber, where big bucks
like to travel. You'll understand why once you climb atop one. Walking through
an old PWI clear-cut is hell. Woody debris, logs, deadfall, boulders, uneven
ground, holes and other obstacles make this treacherous for humans to travel,
but an ideal hiding area for wildlife. Glass closely and you'll see trails
coursing through this impenetrable jungle. Such a find also hides the game
from your view, which is why it is imperative for you to locate trails where
they exit on the forest or ridgeline perimeter. Here, the game is exposed, and
you can take your shot. See the illustration for the best areas to hunt on
PWI.
It is important to hunt the alpine in September and October, because you'll
find trophy bucks there. They are seldom found in the flats early in the
season, and won't be found low until late October or November, when the snows
and rut pushes them down.
When glassing for deer, don't expect to see a full profile. You'll invariably
see parts of a deer: a head, ear, antler, tail flick or white patch. Glass in
close, and move out as you move from place to place. Blacktails will typically
freeze in place for several minutes if you've spooked them. I've seen them not
move a muscle for 10 to 15 minutes. If not alarmed, they'll move around more
frequently until such time they bed down. Then it's a matter of looking for
head movement. A spotting scope is invaluable for this, and worth packing one
up the mountainside.
The second technique is to drive on foot through the alpine, watching
carefully as you walk the edges of timber. The isolated islands of timber,
which blacktails favor, are must-hit areas. They'll often sneak out the
backside or side exits while you are still 100 yards away. But by moving
slowly, the deer are not alarmed, primarily because they are not used to
seeing humans. They move off slowly, allowing a shot. While driving deer in
meadows, I often played with them, sneaking up and moving slowly at an angle
parallel to their position. Because I never walk directly at them, they rarely
become alarmed. Yet the indirect approach allows you to stalk within 100 yards
for an easy shot.
A final word on the logging operations on Prince of Wales Island. While many
sportsmen are against wide-scale, irresponsible logging, PWI is an example of
where logging is enhancing game populations. Problems do exist, however.
Unlike Lower 48 logging camps, PWI loggers leave their woody debris at logging
sites, making for an eyesore and tough going for hunters in some areas. Plus
some logging roads are blocked off, which requires you to hunt them on foot
rather than by vehicle.
Early-season blacktails require a bit of work to reach, as they are in the
high alpine. You can easily hike up through a thousand feet of rainforest,
where you can hunt without pressure from anyone. Or you can wait till October
when snows push deer down to the flats, and big bucks abound. If you want
numbers of blacktails, I recommend October or November. If it's a trophy black
bear, I recommend late September through the third week in October, or a
spring hunt. You will have best success for both in September or October, if
you follow the above recommendations.
Don't just plan on hunting the road system and expect landslide success. While
PWI has great game populations, you'll still have to work a bit via camping
out or backpacking into alpine or clear-cut areas. Many hunters, however, have
fair to good success by just driving the roads and looking for game. This is a
chance game, and in doing so you might have great success or poor success.
While I don't recommend this for optimum success, if you have elderly hunters
who can't hike far, or hunters with disabilities, the road hunting option is
your best bet.
VEHICLE: Several operators offer a 4WD van with lots of room for packs and
hunters. The van we used was extremely sure-footed in areas that were
partially washed out. Most of the logging roads are gravel, with minimal ruts.
If a breakdown does occur, a handheld radio that comes with the vehicle will
have help to you in a matter of hours.
If you are hunting with several hunters, it might be a good idea to leave a
key hidden near the van. If a hunter returns early with game, or needs to take
a rest, or for any emergency that may arise, he won't be sitting locked out of
the van, waiting for the driver to arrive at day's end with a key. This
precaution is especially pertinent if you split up and hunt different areas.
For instance, a heavy rain may have one hunter bivouacking it out in the
forest until it subsides, while another may hightail it to the van to wait it
out.
The van has two gas tanks, so there is no need to worry about finding gas
along the way (primarily because gas stations are few and far between). Fill
up in Thorne Bay when you resupply, or at day's end.
BOAT: You might also consider using one of the custom boats available to you,
free of charge, to access the saltwater areas for bear and deer. Boating to
remote coves is an excellent way to hunt trophies that even the locals don't
bother to pursue (they'd rather stay along the road system). Make the extra
effort to hike up into nearby meadows and bays, and you'll find more areas to
hunt than you can cover in an entire hunting season. Bear and deer also
frequent the beaches at low tide, offering an easy and successful way to hunt.
Animals are highly visible on the beach, and stalks can be made quickly and
easily, especially in November when big bucks are down low.
Also, your boat rental comes with Dungeness crab traps. Nothing finer than
setting out traps in the morning, and pulling them that evening on the way in.
Fresh crab for dinner, all free for the taking. Or take your salmon rod and
catch a few silvers for the outside barbecue grill, also included in the
accommodation package.
Groceries are available at the local supermarket, less than a minute from your
cottage. Steaks, coffee, pizza, chicken, all can be purchased and prepared in
your own kitchen. Expect take-out meals to cost $7 to $12 each, with minimal
selection. We opted for this method on especially long hunting days when we
wanted to just kick back and relax, and not bother with food prep or cooking.
But part of the fun is preparing the deer and seafood so readily available to
you on your daily outings.
Try it yourself, soon.
For more information about the best do-it-yourself cottages and cabins on
Prince of Wales Island, maps and hotspots, contact the Alaska Hunter or Alaska
Angler Information Service or order a copy of Hunting
in Alaska: A Comprehensive Guide.. or Fishing
and Hunting Alaska on Dollars a Day.
Email: www.alaskahunter.com or call
907-455-8000 for a color catalog or to place an order.