**2019 Moose Hunt** DIY Float Trip

[moondog]

Just found this thread.
Did this hunt in 2008. Went with a friend of mine to the Bristol Bay area. Some of the hardest hunting I've ever experienced. But totally worth the effort. I was able to take a bull on day 10.
Now I'm waiting to see the outcome, here!

[Patton]

This is bad ***! Regardless of outcome, way to go to your and your brother for successfully researching and putting in all the leg work that I can only imagine goes into Alaska DIY. Just planning the logistics and stepping foot on the dirt is an accomplishment. Now hurry up with the next post!

[76aggie]

I am waiting for the story to continue as well. I just got home Friday night from a 10 day float in 25A. Planning to start a thread but I want to see the outcome of this one. Great job thus far.

[ChickenWilly]

Just now seeing this! What an awesome trip brother! Cant wait to follow along for the rest of your recap and pictures. I cant imagine how awesome of a trip that was especially getting to do it with your brother and dad.

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[James]

Keep it coming !

[Ouch]

Just saw this and got caught up. Looking forward to more...

[tmkrueger]

Good luck.


TMKBDD

[Aojeda355]

Providing another adventure through the green screen, love it & following!

[Sticks&Strings]

This is a great thread and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Just hope it doesnt take 10 days to finish it as I am very impatient with this new "everything right now culture" I have apparently adopted. Keep giving us all the little details though and I'll be more patient....as if I have any other option. [emoji1787]

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[diamond10x]

It’s about 7pm now and the two of us are settled in. I start a 30 min calling/raking sequence in the birch and spruce trees right behind us, first big mistake on the set. Go through the sequence and sit back down quietly to wait patiently. Time goes by and no sounds of sticks breaking, foot steps, or grunts, other than a few ducks cackling on the lake in front of us. I get bored and begin glassing the mountain side trying to find a black bear since we had a bear tag. I spot one in an avalanche chute way up above the tree line about a mile off gorging on berries. I watch him for about 20 min before I decide to call/rake one last time at about 8:15. Go through the sequence, this time getting more aggressive about it hoping to spark a reaction if a bull is close by to show himself. Get done and sit back down. I’m still in awe of this experience I get caught up in trying to find that bear I saw a few min earlier to hopefully see where he goes in case no bull shows up we can go after him in the morning (next mistake, never let yourself get distracted). Well I finally find him and he is headed out of view so I scoot out of cover to rest my binos on my paddle to have more field of view on the mountain side. Not but 30 seconds later I hear my dad whisper “bull, bull, BULL!” My eyes are still in my binos and I’m thinking yeah right, I didn’t hear a sound not even the snap of a stick, no way one snuck in. All I’m thinking is about all the times hunting out west we’ll pull each other’s leg while glassing during mid day about spotting a big mulie or elk. Well about 5 seconds goes by and curious it’s gets the best of me and I turn to look at my dad to see if he’s being serious. He’s resting his rifle on his knee popping his scope caps off and trying to sight in on something. I turn and look in that direction about 100 yards directly across the lake is a bull staring us down. Oh crap! I’m in the open, we’re both in the exact spot we’d been calling from and he’s got us pinpointed. I quickly put the paddle on my head to look like a moose just like you see in those Jim shockey videos. I quickly whisper “ is he legal? If you’re gonna shoot tell me. Is he legal?!” My dad is struggling to find him in the scope cause it’s getting dark and for some reason his scope is really blurry. He realizes his scope is turned up to 15x some how from walking through the brush on our way there. He quickly adjusts it down and he says ,”4 brows but I can only see one side I don’t know how wide.” Where the bull is standing he is peering around a spruce, head on facing us, so you can only see one antler to judge width, and it’s too late to tell brow tines to be positive. All of this happens in a matter of about 12 seconds. Well as you can guess the bull sees enough and books it out of there. Our hearts sink and we know we’ve blown a golden opportunity. We start playing everything through our minds what we should have done.

Red x= glassing calling spot
Yellow x= where the bull showed himself

We grab our stuff, head to our packs, and get back to camp and decide to go back in the morning. We get back to camp at dark and eat dinner to hit the sack early to be back well before daylight. My dad is pretty disappointed and it’s playing on him all night and even in the morning.

Day 3

On our hike back to the lake my brother and I have a quick talk away from my dad agreeing he still has first dibs on any bull we see no matter what. This morning it was crisp, cold, and clear. Perfect. Well we hunt the lake all morning only to have nothing eventful, now knowing we blew that bull out of there the night before. Only thing to do is head back, pack the rafts, and move on. Lesson learned, broke a golden rule, don’t call from your glassing spot or you will get busted. As well as staying engaged and not being distracted.

We head down river and cover a few miles before we stop at a bar to eat lunch. While we’re eating we notice tracks in the sand. So we finish eating and grab the rifles to check them out. In luck, these are real fresh. We follow them a few hundred yards coming across numerous raked trees but aren’t sure how fresh they are so we keep following. The tracks start to head up into the spruce so we follow some more. We get about 10 yards in and there is a fresh bed with fresh poop in it. Heck yeah there’s one here, it’s looking better. We back out and head to the rafts to try and figure a camping spot so we can hunt the evening and following morning at minimum. We pick a spot on a bar up river and on the opposite side due to prevailing winds and too thick of brush. Well the sun is out and it’s hot so we decide to do a little pike fishing at a lake away from where we’re hunting as to not push anything out. About 6 we cross the river and all get set up in different spots away from the calling location. Go through several calling sequences and nothing. About 8pm the wind starts to pick up and it gets quite windy. Sustained winds about 40 with gusts probably 50-60. We stay til dark but not surprised to not see anything due to the wind and hoping it will be different in the morning. Get back to camp and it’s so windy we have to boil water and eat inside the tent just to keep our stove flame going. I get woke up in the middle of the night to my brother nudging me ,”hey you’re outside the tipi fix the stakes!” I open my eyes and sure enough it had come of several stake and the side was flapping on top of my sleeping back so I get up to fix it and go back to sleep. Not a good situation. Morning breaks and the wind hasn’t let up.

We decide to move on because there is no way we can stay camped here if the weather stays or gets any worse. Load up the rafts again and head down river. All discouraged cause we knew that was the place it could have happened but Mother Nature wasn’t going to let it happen. On the bright side it’s only the morning of day 4 and we still have 12 days to make it happen and hopefully fill 3 tags.

Day 4

Rafts loaded and down river we go. Wind is still fierce but has slowed a bit to about 20-30 but making progress real slow. We make it about 2 miles to a lake I had marked before the hunt that looked moosey. Where it is the river snakes around it on almost 3 sides. We come up to the first side and there is no place to beach the rafts so we keep floating around and come up the west side and there’s a big beach and we can easily see sign from the river. Heck yeah! We get out and start to walk up the bar to take a closer look. The sand on this bar is really soft and we’re sinking down to about mid calf with every step until we get close to the bank. We’re looking at the track to determine how fresh and it’s obvious, it’s real fresh. We look at the brush noticing some raking sign and we notice a birch about as big around as your forearm that’s tore up. Our eyes light up and we start imagining there’s gotta be some mossback monarch bull hanging around here.


Easily agree on the decision to hunt here. All we need is a place to set up camp and we’ll figure out the rest later. Decide the bar is out of the question so we search around in the spruce for a place. Find a spot that’s open enough and start clearing so we can get comfortable. We’re staying here til we punch a tag or blow out another bull. Get everything off the rafts and camp set up and make it about as comfortable as we can before it’s time to set up on the lake.

My brother and I decide we’ll switch spots tonight, I’ll hunt the long sand bar and him and my dad will go to the lake and call. We head out and follow the same routine we had since day 1 but as most days go moose hunting, nothing. We meet back at camp at dark. Talk about the day and my brother and dad tell me they found bedding and more raked trees by the lake. We’re getting more confident in our decision to stay here and decide to keep on with the plan, it’s just a matter of time before it happens.

Day 5

Wake up early with excitement for not knowing what the day holds. I go with my dad to the lake and my brother watches the sand bar. As Dad and I make our way to our calling and glassing spot we’re walking along a moose trail and low and behold come across a bed with fresh poop. So fresh it’s still warm and sticky, probably from some time during the night. We’re excited now. The sun starts to break the horizon so I begin my calling sequence. Finish my sequence and go sit in my glassing spot and wait. By now the sun is up and it’s about 9:30, we’ve called several times, and we’re getting hungry since we skipped breakfast. We decide to head back to camp to warm up a little and grab our food. I get my shake down and decide to head back out so I can sit and call all day. Dad meets back up with me about 3:00pm before he goes to his spot to watch the other side of the lake. As he’s walking off a cow and two calves step out across the lake at about 800 yards. We watch them for a few minutes before my dad says to sneak back and go get my brother. He was still over watching the sand bar. We figured it would be a good idea to get him since he hadn’t seen a moose yet on the trip and we didn’t want him to miss out seeing anything. Things might be starting to heat up...







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[rut-ro]

Best thread in a while

[NotJose]

Following


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[ShockValue]

Good stuff. Keep it coming!

[slicktricker]

This is like a breath of fresh air. Can't wait for the next segment! Thank you for taking us along.

[James]

Best thread in a while

Yup!