It' s only a matter of time before your sitting in front of the air conditioner, on an Ice cream sandwich, with your eyes closed, dreaming of floating down the Koyukuk.

AK gang!
What' s the bag limit for Black-tails in Sitka area/GMU4(?).

The air conditioners and I have already become great friends. I pay the electric bill to keep him going, he blows cold air in my face. The AC in the truck is getting a full work out too.

I' ll be motoring up and floating down rivers in 15 days looking for bou with the family, but that might be the majority of the hunting I' m left with for the year. I had to cancel on Oregon this fall, but next year I' ll hopefully be out listening to bulls scream. Gotta get geared up for the August 10th ptarmigan opener too.

Joe, I don' t have the regs in front of me, but I think the limit is 4 now in most areas, give or take a deer.

Lil - I sure hear you about the yokels messing with your pots. It was so bad over there while I lived there that you just about had to camp right in the middle of your gear to keep the thieves from cleaning you out! More than once I threatened to place the 250 grains of .338 up a little higher than the outdrive - more like between the headlights! The part that really got to me was them heaving the pot back over the side in water deeper than you intended, so your bouy is either tighter than hell or missing completely when you come back to retrieve the gear.
While I still had my big boat - a number of times we put out some of my 700-pound, square commercial King crab pots for salad meat to discourage the small boats, but darned if the seiners didn' t have to try hauling them with their purse winchs and either sheared them off or burned the line in the process. I don' t envy your situation - its a chore to keep ahead of someone determined to make use of YOUR pot and YOUR bait![:@]

Nim - I' m still poking around for transport for caribou hunt - still hoping.[

JOE-A: A PORTION IS ONLY 3 DEER BUT THAT IS PART OF CHICHAGOF. THE REST OF UNIT 4 IS 4 DEER .... BUCKS ONLY 8-1 TO 9-14 THEN ANY DEER 9-15 TO 12-31.
LIL- THERE ARE " THINGS" YOU CAN BUY TO KEEP YOUR BOUYS SUBMERGED FOR A SET LENGTH OF TIME AND THEN IT RELEASES THE BOUY. THEY COME IN VARIOUS TIME LENGTHS. http://www.blueoceantackle.com/trap_accessories.htm
GOOD LUCK
VBM- OOPS I MEAN ABM....NAH VBM WORKS. [>:][:-] GLAD YOU MADE IT TO LAS VEGAS WITH OUT ANY PROBLEMS. SORRY BUT 125 THAT IS NOT WHERE A HUMAN SHOULD BE. UNLESS YOU WERE VERY BAD WHEN YOU WERE ALIVE. SHOOT I WAS COMPLAINING IN SOLDOTNA AT 80.

Nim,

Ya we had heard of some home made gigs like that..oh well it was a blast.

We did end up loosing 5 shrimp pots out of the deal along with all the gear with it, minus the bouy. Dang that stuff is spendy. I think by the time it was over I was at 20 bucks a pound of shrimp after paying 1/3rd the price of the gear DOH!

Only 2 kings in our pots, our dungy pots of all things were getting rapped hourly, we managed to catch one guy pulling them.....oh well. It was still fun and definatly a learning experience.

Back in fairbanks and gearing up for a glacier landing....another first this year.

What have yall been up to? its been pretty dog gone quiet!

Sitka was fun, minus the blistered ears. that and the gale force winds a week ago sunday! I am looking forward to getting my cpts lisc and returning next summer. only time will tell.

Got a whole lot going on down in Hot Vegas. We just did a road trip up to Denver to see family. I found out that I have a cousin there that is a big time hunter. Woohoo! He invited me along on the October elk season so hopefully I' ll get up there since I had to cancel Oregon this year. They hunt Cougar as well, so I think I' ll throw some hints his way that I' d love to go along. He' ll hopefully be joining us on our annual caribou hunt next season also.

That drive through the rockies is beautiful, especially through eastern Utah and Western Colorado. Traffic still scoots along through 10,000 feet plus, and we made the 750 mile trip in 11 hours.

Lil, are you guys thinking of moving down to South East? Sounds like you' ve found some good opportunities there.

I' m back up north on the 31st, but on the 1st we are taking the boats into the mountains. 4 weeks off next time I' m home... Wahooo!

Jerry,

No thats not an option at this point in life. However the charter boat cpt position is something I am definatly pushing hard for.

I picked up my asst guides lisc also and was out this spring. After this month I should be out till the end of october...still working on the october gig. My plan is to run a boat during summer, hopefully in sitka, then head back up here for a few days....then off guiding....now what to do during winter...hmmm

I might end up in Oregon next fall or definatly the fall after. I have to see how things end up as far as scheduling before I make that decision. The only thing I want is mule deer. elk was fun but its obviously not in my blood at this time. A nice mule deer definatly is however. I also have offers in washington for elk and mulies, idaho, and again in oregon with another fella. not to mention some cat hunting in Mt I believe. They asked me to go this fall, sure would be nice but man I dont have that kind of time lol. I am thinking though of heading back to sitka and chasing goats, that or going out with Steve for goats out of juneau. Both of them are successful goat hunters and Brian has a sweet little spot, not to mention a boat, shrimp/crab pots, and we are not relying on ferrys/bush flights to do what we wish. He will be chasing deer while I am out for goats....we' ll see. Its something I have long awaited!

btw, I have my 02 ram back and on the wall.....man Rich does awesome work!!! Had to move the 99 ram into the computer room. I think I have enuf room for a goat, after that I might have to rent some walls space from ya []

ABM - I haven' t been on here for awhile, but I meant to tell you I shook hands with Ol' One-Stitch at the Juneau Cancer Survivor' s Walk-a-thon a couple of weekends ago. We both have sisters that are Survivors - it was great to see the good turn-out. Naturally, he and I were both involved with " other people' s plans" and going in opposite directions, but it was good to see him for a few minutes.

I' m still putting up halibut, a few pieces at a time - while I bide my time and wait for the coho to start showing up in numbers. I' m not setting the world on fire, but we have been doing OK on ' buts by Juneau standards. My son-in-law said to come over while they were catching ' buts in Sitka, and between that draw and the idea of maybe putting up some Redoubt sockeye for the smokehouse - the office crew might just have to get along without me for a short few days!

Its hard to believe deer season is here already! For some reason we still have some venison left in the freezer - but not for too much longer. I am going to have to re-arrange the contents of the freezer, some good roasts are buried under recent additions of fish.

Good luck on the tundra. Hope you get one of those big shovel-antlered guys to walk right up to you!

Phish-On!,

How is the deer hunting right around the Juneau area? Do you usually have to take a boat out or can you go right around the city area and find deer? You shoot any good bucks last year?