Sara is having hip surgery on Thurs, so I’ve been trying to get out deer hunting since I returned from Prudhoe as it might be awhile before I can go again.  The weather here has been pouring rain and wind.  I finally took off on Monday about mid-day to hunt Tue and maybe Wed.

It rained all day and till about midnight on Monday.  Tue was nice, with a higher ceiling, some blue sky and no rain or wind.  I drank my coffee, cleaned the dishes, and headed out of the cabin.  When I got to my spot on Admiralty, I anchored the boat off shore.  Once in the woods, I thought I’d better try my deer call before I headed up the hill.  My call was a home made job with a flagging tape reed.  When I first tried, the call was garbled, so I adjusted the tension on the reed.  I tried several tensions until I got a tone that would work.  I shouldered my pack, took about 10 steps, and saw a flash of white.  I’d called in a deer while practicing.

I saw the deer go on the opposite side of the small creek that drains some beaver ponds, but didn’t see it go up the hill.  I noticed from the wind direction it shouldn’t have winded me, so I softly called, and tried changing positions from side to side and squatting to see if I could see if the deer had just run a few bounds then held to see what I was.

As I was scanning the small flat between the creek and the start of the hill, I locked on to the deer standing stone still, broadside, looking at me.  I dropped to one knee for a prone shot.  I cranked up the scope from 3 to 9.  I was having a hard time holding on him, but uncharacteristically told myself to calm down, breath slowly, and just get a good bead on him, since the deer didn’t look like it was going anywhere.  I got my breath, a steady enough aim, and knocked it down for good with one shot.

As I might be coming back this same way on my way out, I thought I’d better take the deer out by the beach to dress it since I’d have a better view if a bear showed up later. I dressed the deer, pulled back in the skiff, put the deer in with the belly down to drain, re-set the skiff, then back up the hill.

I didn’t see any more deer that day. I did find sign of a large buck at the base of the ridge – a 2 foot rub on a large alder that still showed the saw dust. Would like to see that deer some time.

When I got out of the woods, I debated whether to go home or back to the cabin and come in tomorrow. The weather was nice, and I thought Sara would have less to worry about if I came in yesterday, so that’s what I did.

I pawned the heart off on Ranger Dug, who is in from Bethel. Ron told me to save the liver for our mechanic, which I also did. Lungs will go for trapping bait.

Might be my only deer this year, so glad to get out and a good story to go with it.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK  99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Winter has set in here in on the Beaufort Sea in a hurry. Two days ago the weather was in the higher 30’s and open water. Just the fresh water ponds were starting to freeze. Yesterday, we went inside at 9 am and there was just a little ice starting on the shore. When we left again at 945, the bay had mostly iced in with a few open areas – just that quick. It’s not hard ice yet, but never saw ice form that fast.

Today the sow and 2 polar bear cubs we saw here last year appear to have come back again – at least from the size of the cubs, it seems they’re the same animals. First ones I’ve seen all season.

Daylight is fading fast, and with the westerlys gusting around 30, the windchill was reading below zero on our weather station thermometer today. I went from thinking we’d be running boats till the end of Oct to wondering if we’d make it now to the end of Sept

Winter has set in here in on the Beaufort Sea in a hurry. Two days ago the weather was in the higher 30’s and open water. Just the fresh water ponds were starting to freeze. Yesterday, we went inside at 9 am and there was just a little ice starting on the shore. When we left again at 945, the bay had mostly iced in with a few open areas – just that quick. It’s not hard ice yet, but never saw ice form that fast.

Today the sow and 2 polar bear cubs we saw here last year appear to have come back again – at least from the size of the cubs, it seems they’re the same animals. First ones I’ve seen all season.

Daylight is fading fast, and with the westerlys gusting around 30, the windchill was reading below zero on our weather station thermometer today. I went from thinking we’d be running boats till the end of Oct to wondering if we’d make it now to the end of Sept

My cousin from Olean, NY came through on the cruise ship with his wife, wife’s brother, and wife’s brother’s wife – who is now good friends with a high school classmate of mine because she is her hairdresser.

Had beautiful weather. Wasn’t sure all 4 would fit in my skiff, but it worked out fine. Mainly because we didn’t catch any fish so the rods weren’t having to be adjusted all the time. Great to catch up with my cousin, who I did not know very well until now.

After they left in the evening, went to my cabin and woke up and hunted today on another glorious day. I hiked all the way to the top of the ridge we hunt, missing a head shot on a doe that couldn’t have been more than 20 yards. But, the shot was off hand, and I thought it would be laying there when I got to the spot, but I never scratched it and didn’t see where it went in the steep brush terrain. The top of the ridge was amazing, with fall colors and able to see the other mountain tops in the area. Snoozed for awhile hoping I’d see a deer in the open semi-alpine, but maybe too hot for them to be out in the open.

I started down after about noon or 1 pm. The route I took down was longer than the one up. I called in one deer, but it saw or heard me first, and was moving away when I finally saw it. I could not follow it through all the brush to take a shot, so oh for two today.

Not sure how many more years I’ll be able to make the top of the ridge, so glad to do it today. Lots of big blue and huckle berrys still around. No bear sign in the woods, so they must still be on the rivers and creeks eating salmon. Deer – hard to tell. Hard to see this time of the year. We’ll see when the leaves drop.

Our senator – who was appointed by her dad when he ran for governor – just can’t stand the thought of work in the real world so she’s going to try a write-in campaign. This should virtually assure the Democratic candidate the seat when the two republicans split the vote, but I’m sure the D’s will find a way to screw it up – they almost always do. What’s Lisa Murkowski going to do if she loses again – try a coup? I was going to vote for her challenger just to get someone else in that seat until Sarah Palin endorsed him – then I grabbed the non-Republican primary ballot instead. I hope the Sitka mayor wins.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Ron and I went to his brother Roy’s place in Haines to subsistence fish for sockeye in the Chilkat River. Last year we got one sockeye and one chum fishing a net down at the mouth of the river. This year, we decided to try upriver where Ron and Roy had done pretty well a few weeks earlier. We boarded the Alaska ferry Matanuska in Juneau, taking Ron’s Ford Explorer so we had something to bring back any fish in, and another vehicle in Haines.

We arrived Saturday evening after a 4.5 hour ferry ride. We are in the midst of a beautiful week of Indian Summer, with temps near 70 and light winds. Sunday we all were up early. Roy and dog Riley took off up the mountain first thing, and Roy and I drank coffee and ate Roy’s chicken’s eggs for breakfast. When Roy returned, Ron harrassed him for being “late” and after Roy got some coffee we headed to the river.

A 50 ft net is allowed in the river, and it’s a lot less of a load than the 300 feet net allowed at the river mouth and out in the saltwater. The river is not wide where we fished – maybe 200 to 300 feet, so 50 feet is plenty. We made 1 pass, and had nearly 20 fish. So I got out and started cleaning on the bank while Ron and Roy made a second pass. When they returned, I had cleaned a third or so of the fish from the first haul, and the boys had about the same number of fish on their second haul. Ron and I continued cleaning fish while Roy remarked that it sure was nice to have “crew”.

When we finished cleaning, we thought we’d make one more drift downstream a few miles near the boat launch. That drift produced the nicest fish – bright and bigger – than the first two drifts. We got those fish in the boat, hauled out the boat, and headed right to Roys to clean them as we were out of container to hold them on the boat. It was in the 60’s already, and could not have been a nicer fall day. The decidous trees were in full color – mainly yellow with a few reds – and the mountains around Haines are magnificent. There are not many places as beautiful as a clear day in Haines. Mountains – some with glaciers – all around, the smell of autumn in the air, and tooling up a river are about a perfect day. Catching 50 sockeye and a few coho and chum made it all the better.

We got back to Roys and finished cleaning the last haul of fish, and then rinsed the earlier fish that we’d “dry” cleaned on the bank. Ron and I went and bought some more ice, while Roy called a few neighbors he’d promised fish. Ron and I packed our fish in ice in our coolers, and put all in Roy’s garage so the bears wouldn’t get them.

Roy has a few cherry trees that were over flowing with cherries. I’d not seen cherries like this before. They are like marachino cherries, with soft, flame-red skin. I picked nearly 3 gallons, as did Ron. Then Roy got out the magic cherry pitting machine, which Ron and I used to clean the cherries. Ron got cherries the last trip up, and his wife sent up a pie for Roy that was out of this world. I’m going to make jam with my batch, and guessing Ron will have Jeannie make pie again.I have a moose tag for the Delta River area that I plan to hunt in Oct. Roy said he could go, so I tentatively have a partner for the hunt.

Heading back to Juneau on the Monday morning ferry now. I started a brake power booster replacement on my truck on Friday that went way too well. Identified the problem part, got it off easily, then took it to O’Reily’s. They asked me all the info on the truck, including the vehicle weight. I put the booster on, then my master cylinder holes wouldn’t line up with the mounting bolts on the booster. They said they had the master cylinder that was what I needed. So after the second trip out there for the part, that master cylinder, too, would not fit. On call number 3, I got a different clerk who said “we often run into this problem”, and he asked what booster I had and my vehicle weight. The booster was for the lighter model of my truck. So, I had to take off the booster that I’d already painstakingly installed twice already (forgot to put on a part after the first try), and return it to them.

Of course, not one of the 4 parts stores in town (or the Haines store) had the one I needed in stock. I asked O’Reily’s how fast they could get me one and what it would cost. They said they had one in the Anchorage store, but could not tell me for 24 hours how much shipping would be. I called up to the Anchorage stores, only to find out they did not have the part there either. Needless to say, I went to the “home town” parts store, who ended up getting my the part overnight and didn’t even require pre-payment. I generally go with small and local, but the new O’Reily’s is much closer to my home than the other stores further, so I usually check with them first. Now I see it was no savings in time – in fact, would have been a lot quicker to go with the local store with experienced clerks – so a lesson learned.

So, back to Juneau to hopefully put the truck brakes back together, and get my fish processed up. Not sure what yet to do with them. Might decide to can a bunch since I haven’t done that in a long time, and canned fish is less of a worry. If you do it properly, the fish is good for years and years and never a worry about freezer burn. But, what you can make with it is somewhat limited.

Hope to head out on an overnight deer hunt on the ridge across from my cabin on Wed, opening day for “doe season” as we call it. Deer season opens for bucks only Aug 1, then either sex Sept 15 to Dec 31. We always hope for a buck, but having the option for either sex is a bonus since there’s usually a lot of country to cover to find a deer. The leaves are still on the blueberry and devil’s club plants now, making visibility poor, and spotting a deer even less likely. With the warm weather, the deer will likely still be in the high country, where visibility is alot better above the treeline.
–
Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

I went out on the 48 foot aluminum oil response vessel to set acoustic devices on the Beaufort Sea floor with some science consultants who work for one of the oil companies. They study the effect of industrial noise in the sea and bowhead whale migration.

The pack ice is much nearer the coast this year than in my previous two summers. The coordinates where we needed to set the devices were right in the middle of the ice. The ice is not a solid mass, but rather a beautiful sort of maze of open waters and ice bergs. We started to pick our way north and east through the ice, which, and it was much like the island maze in the Georgian Bay in Ontario that I fished as as a kid and in recent year with my nieces and nephews.

As we picked our way north east, the fog set in. We spent the next several hours going down one culdesac after another of open water that ended in no-way-out in the ice pack. The ice bergs were beautiful, ranging in color from aquablue below the surface to bright white above. We saw many spotted seals – the main food of polar bears, I think – and I thought we might see a bear or tracks on the ice pack, but saw neither. We did see several species of birds, one or two of which I had not seen near shore. I never felt in danger that we were in any ice that would crush our boat when it shifted, but only wondered if we’d ever get out of it or have to spend the night on the boat. Turned out to be one of the best days I’ve ever spent up here.

After a couple hours of this, I decided to head due west, and see if I could find the edge of the pack and just get out of it. We finally found the edge, and I motored south towards land. We then decided to try to skirt the southern edge of the pack, head east, and then see if we could perhaps find some open water to the east of our destination. About that time, the fog lifted all the way to land, and the leads were easy to see. We were able to motor almost to cruising speed and were able to set all the gear and take all the calibration readings the scientist needed.