Season Updates
September 20th, 2007
Fall is Here!
It's been a while since my last update and I apologize for that. I have been very busy and I also went back to Oregon to do a little hunting. Brent has had to handle things at the lodge by himself while I am playing.
September was slow early for fishing and hunting. The river fishing has been alright but the bulk of the runs wasn't here as of the first week of September. There were a lot of Coho being caught out in the saltwater. We expected them to be up in the rivers soon. In some of the shallower creeks you can also see the Sockeye Salmon in their bright red spawning colors.
The deer seem to be elusive. They were still up high as of the first week of the September and with the nice weather are still scattered out on the mountains. We need a few good storms to start pushing the deer down. This week there have been a lot more deer seen and that is a good sign.
Our guests decided to do a little clam digging and are going to enjoy a good clam feed during their stay.
There are still a lot of berries out so the bears are still feeding on the hillside as well as feeding on fish along the streams. Look for them in areas with wide shallow runs where the fish are easy to catch. The bears aren't as good at fishing as you would think. They need an easy meal. This week our guests have harvested several bears but they had to work for them.
Coho fishing in the saltwater was very good this week. We had one day of fishing that got into a great bit and limited the boat in short order. The limit is 6 Coho per person and that is a lot of fish. We had several triple hookups and even had four rods with fish on at one point.
Update:
When I arrived at the lodge one of our groups had gotten a bear and another got another nice one a few days later. Both were harvested on the creeks. A forked horn buck was also taken this week. Hunting for deer in September has been tougher than expected so we may be opening up for the rut hunt next year. If you see a buck in September don't hesitate to take it because the meat is too good to pass up.
Kenji King
Prince of Wales Island, Alaska