With the last bit of cold and snow ready to blow thru and waiting for a bit of calling and shooting after the storms, I took the time to shamelessly cut and paste this nice intro thread from one of our better known hunter-planners, and gamey-getters.

“ The season will soon be upon us. I'm already thinking of the crisp fall mornings, color changes, college football on the radio and some tasty backstrap frying up in the skillet. I'm also thinking about all of the good work that needs to be done between now and opening morning.

Time to get crackin' on some trail clearing and scouting.
How are you prepping for the season? “
.
.
.
That said, I just finished with my first stab at getting back to it by sending a few 2019 hunting $$$ to the wdfw, while making a few hopeless, but optimistic applications to a few special hunts starting with this spring and a possible bear hunt.

Cheers

I'm still not all put away from last season!

When the weather breaks and the snow pack starts to melt, there's a couple of higher up places I'd like to scout for BT's and BL's. We also need to drop trees and cut a new trail down to our lower stand for easier access on the island property.

Then fill out apps for next season. I need to get crackin'.

High places on the islands ? No way, itz all swamp gas and lowlands !


Time for you guys to climb outta the trees, tie on some sneakers for some quiet still hunting, and hunt the lower crest & mountain foothills !

Monster BTs out there, or they were before snomeggeddon...

No - high places in the Cascades. I have dug up a couple of out-of-the-way places that I'm certain hold a masher or two. They're just extremely hard to get into, but that's the reason I want to go there.

The island property is about one of the highest spots on the island, but it's still only like 200 above sea level. It's pretty lazy hunting and we have it set up like a deer golf course. Tee #1, Tee #2, Tee #3, Tee #4 etc. 2 club houses, showers, hot meals and golf carts (front end loader). It's kinda plush.

If'n you have a monster BT spot or two, I'm all ears. Sea level to alpine, doesn't matter to me. I'll do whatever it takes to cross paths with a true masher.

Too late Nick.
The deer have already firmed up their Hawaiian vacays.

What GMU is Hawaii? I could make it a family affair and take out one of their Axis brothers while there.

I did recently get a standing invite to go hunt upstate NY for WT's, which would be pretty cool. I got another to go hunt White Sands, NM for wild / feral Oryx on the base, but it's a one-in-a-lifetime lottery draw and I never draw chit. That would be pretty amazing, but again, I never draw chit. The dude I know down there applied and drew his permit the very first year. He took a dandy about 5 minutes into the first day and all his buddies were pissed because they've been applying for years. I'm told Oryx is extremely tasty and just a bit smaller than Elk.

But I'm just a simple boy, so a Booner BT would suffice.

LOL

The Northeast whitetail hunt is recommended.
Every bit as wiley as the BT.

I'm planning an Idaho hunt for elk and muleys. Hopefully I'll get it all put together and follow through. I've "planning" an out of state hunt since forever and never make it happen. My plan this year is to buy the damn tags early so I can't get vetoed by work or family.

Other than that, planning the same old same old for Washington. Muzzy elk and rifle deer, plus whatever tags I can draw. I have a 1 year old lab that was doing pretty well by the end of duck/goose season (which largely sucked). I plan to train more over the summer with him and hopefully be in good shape come September. One big goal is to do some bird hunting this fall with the mutt.

The biggest problem is not enough time. It's tough to choose between salmon, tuna, birds, big game, out of state, and all the other options. I need to retire but that looks to be about 30 or 40 years out!

Shrit, and I was gonna offer up a sure fire Mt. Hi BT hunt with an invite, but after all the exotic offers you already have noted above, I’ll wait till next season !

DAMMIT. My invites both just called and cancelled on me, so I'm free now.

No need to plan as Rich is scheduling the end of the world.

The AK permit drawing process went exactly as it does for me every year. Jackshit.

I treat it as my annual donation in support of the management of Alaska's fish and game resources.

Thank goodness for plenty of over-the-counter opportunities up here.

Once upon a time I said I'd never go bear hunting. After trying bear meat a few times now with good results I think I might try and find a spring black bear this year. Primarily out of boredom, but I could use a good supply of some meat sticks to fuel the rest of the year. I also need a large black run to cover up the burn marks on my white carpet in front of the woodstove.

After some hopefully productive summer salmon fishing I'll head out for a handful of days for the sheep opener Aug 10, primarily hoping to help a buddy get his first ram. If we stumble across two, I won't be sad. Longer sheep trip planned starting in mid-Sept, which will probably be a sufferfest. Some work obligations are pushing me later into the season that I'd prefer.

No Montana archery elk this year. Sheep dates conflict. Balls.

Thanksgiving in Cordova to chase scroaty goats and blacktail. I'd like to wiggle a 40-mile caribou hunt in there somewhere but can't seem to find the days on the calendar when I look at it. I think I need a calendar with at least two Augusts and Septembers on it.

Digging into the planning processes now which is always fun but frustrating at the same time. Fall is a long ways off and there is still a lot of snow shoveling in my near future.

Coley - per usual I'm a bit jealous of the opps and species you have at your finger tips.

If'n a non-resident guy wanted to get after Sitka BT's up there, where would you start? I need a Sitka and Coues to round out my NA deer slam and I figure a Sitka would be the "easiest" at this point. I'm not looking for exact deep details, just general some pointers. PM if'n you don't want to share publicly (or not). Never hurts to ask eh? Gracias and good luck next year.

OMG ! Sitka BT, my yet to be realized Alaskan Sitka BT !

I have lusted after a beach hunt or river float trip for one of those guys for years. That and a beach or island hunt for the big ole black bears that wander around up there.

I’d die a happy hunting boy for that indeed !
Ahh, late winter dreaming...

Instead of blowing wind up Coley's skirt why don't you dudes get off your arse and pursue your dreams then?

Go hunt.

I’m a blacktail rookie. Never chased them before, but my sheep hunting partner lives in SE and has spent most of his winters for the last 10 plus years chasing them. He can kill five a year and the season is long. They are hunted off the beach by boat but I think the far more enjoyable way to hunt them, for me at least, would be to get up into the alpine and spot and stalk. I know a few guys who have done the outfitted hunt thing via party barge which seems like a great way to go for a pretty reasonable price considering.

There are outfitters that offer this kind of trip just about everywhere up here. Kodak and PWS are probably the most user friendly and/or affordable. I think my buddies that used an outfitter in Kodiak paid about $2500 for a week long hunt. That price included room and board on the party barge, daily drop off and pickup on the beach, meat storage, etc. As an added bonus most outfits will over some bottom fishing and/or king trolling to the mix on weather days, etc. Most folks basing on the water great cracks at bears if they want them as well. They roam the beach quite often in the fall looking for tasty morsels before sleepy time.

This year we will probably do more of a diy thing out of a forest service cabin. If you get a few guys to together throw a few hundred bucks at a local out of work comm fisherman with a bow picker, you can catch a ride to a number of FS cabins from where you can base out of for days trips up the hill.

Montague Island in PWS is a very popular spot because it is close to ANC, relatively speaking, and usually has decent hunting. The population on Montague seems to have taken a hit or at least the hunting hasn’t been awesome the last two years from what I have heard. Lots of transporters can get you back and forth for a diy deal there. I think many jump off from Seward?

Something like the above is where I’d start.

Where is Bigstick when you need him? Murdering something more than likely.

Uh...that's why I'm asking! Just wishing for something to come true, doesn't make it so. Sometimes you gotta plan in advance and sometimes it helps to ask advice from those that have walked before you.

Excuses excuses.

Funny that you mention that, the only time I hunted Blacktails in SE was actually with the infamous BS way back in the long ago up in the high alpine...late summer.
Those little varmits sure live in purty places and the views over the waterways were slightly spectacular.
We watched a sorta decent three point for a while in the evening, but after the slightly more than just strenuous climb to get there I was only interested in something a little more substantial, Senior Stick does have some interesting stories and local knowledge, that and the cold crushed Pop Tart breakfast he supplied was worth the hike... I must have caught him past his prime, as him having to pull over to barf for a bit on the hike up while I let him know that I'd be waiting for him at the top was a nice bonus.
Bivouac camped that night on top of the hill somewhere on the northern end of POW on a perfect summer night, got up in the morning and it somehow had turned fall, fog pretty well shut down any long range stuff and his huffing and puffing pretty well shut down an close range stuff.
Anyway....nothing died on the hill, so we went halibut fishing the next day, 5 good blacktails wouldn't add up to the halibut tonnage I dragged home, so it all worked out in the end.

the end.