2019 Season Hunters 

I apologize for taking so long to get the web page updated from last year’s hunts.  We are having the coldest winter I have seen in several years, and I have been swamped trying to keep vehicles and boats running as well as pipes from freezing.  It is nice to see a real winter in place of the warm and rain we have been seeing.

We had a good season in 2019 despite some ups and downs.  To be honest, we are not seeing as many bears as we have in the past, and we have scaled down our bear hunting.  I think the warm winters have had a detrimental effect on the bears while being very beneficial to the goats, moose and deer.  We chased a couple of big brownies around this spring, but big bears are smart bears and they gave us the slip.  Rob Myhre managed to kill a beautiful haired 8 footer on the last day of his hunt.

Alaska had the hottest, driest summer on record with many forest fires and a lot of smoke.  Salmon fishing for me was very good in spite of this, but it affected our early fall bear and moose hunts.  Rivers were at historic lows in early September and the salmon could not get into their traditional places where the bears like to concentrate.  The moose seemed to prefer to spend their time in the dark timber to escape the heat through the summer.  Notwithstanding the conditions, we had an excellent berry crop which was really helpful for the bears.  Guide Jimmy Paley was fortunate enough to draw a sheep tag and took a beautiful 40” Ram.

Mountain Goat hunting was very good with 11 hunters taking 10 goats.  Unfortunately one was hit and lost.  Frank Peralta of Kifaru and Joe Choate each killed archery Billies, and Aron Snyder also of Kifaru had the very unique opportunity to take a wolverine with his traditional bow.  Dan Dralle took a nice Billy even though he was hiking with a fractured ankle.  The weather was cooperative for the most part which really helped.  Our Goats are doing very well, and we continually access more country to keep spread out.

We have much of the same crew as always, and these guys are great!  We have a much bigger presence on Facebook and Instagram, thanks to packer, Gus Karr.  That type of work is far above my pay grade.  Our charter boat, the Cathy G is coming along slowly, and I obtained my 200 ton Coast Guard license last March.  We plan on doing some sightseeing trips this spring along with a custom charter in July.  We will then use it for Goat hunts in September and a bear hunt in October.

Tragically, Cordova lost one of it’s local boys to a fall off a cliff in Goat country.  Neil Durco was young and experienced in these mountains and understood the hazards of hiking in this terrain.  The search for him lasted 4 days, and he was finally found by helicopter in the bottom of a steep ravine where he had apparently fallen.  We are reminded that this country can be very dangerous and unforgiving, as well as spectacular.

Thank you for reading and let us know if you would like to set up a hunt.