Smith: A bucket-list trip to Kodiak Island brings bounties of adventure and wild harvests

KODIAK ISLAND, Alaska – We had walked just 100 yards on our first outing on Kodiak Island and there they were: a trail of footprints, each as big as a basketball.

"It looks like an elephant has been through here," said Chuck Bongard of Sauk City.

The rocky beach at our landing spot on Olga Bay was peppered with salmon heads and carcasses. And as we turned inland and hiked along a stream, fishing rods in hand, the tussocky flat and dwarf willow stands were plowed with game trails large enough to pass an ATV.

All signs told us the area was popular with the island's largest and most famous inhabitants, Kodiak brown bears.

The can of bear spray jangling from my belt felt about as protective as a feather boa on a naked skydiver.

But turning back was not an option. We had come to the wilds of Kodiak with full knowledge of the various risks and rewards.

And one of the latter was splashing in a pool 50 yards down the bear trail.

"It's fishing, plus," said Jim Wipperfurth of Sauk City as our group spread out and began to cast for silver salmon. It was Oct. 1 and near the end of the spawning season but still many chrome-colored fish were pushing in from the sea.

Over the next couple of hours we landed and kept several bright coho for the next night's dinner. Parts of the filets would also become salmon poke a couple days hence and the carcass would be used to bait crab pots.

Eight days on Homer Ocean Charters' former fishing trawler

It was all part of an eight-day hunting, fishing, crabbing and wildlife watching trip with Homer Ocean Charters on Kodiak Island.

Our group of eight spanned two generations and ranged in age from 30-something to 60-something.

In addition to Bongard and Wipperfurth, there were: Steve Bongard (Chuck's son) of Seattle, Washington; Tim Evert of North Freedom; Warren Mohar of Baraboo and his son Justin Mohar of Fort Collins, Colorado; Rob Uphoff of Baraboo; and me.

We stayed on the Valiant Maid, an 82-foot-long former fishing trawler converted to a research and outfitting ship, and were hosted by Capt. Zach Porter, Joe Schmitt and Ashton Brown of Homer Ocean Charters.

We flew Oct. 1 by float plane from Kodiak to meet the Valiant Maid in Olga Bay on the southwestern end of the island.

Each day we formed teams and went ashore to hunt for Sitka black-tailed deer or fish for salmon. Then back on the mother ship we'd fish for Pacific cod and various species of rockfish as well as use a tender boat to set out and pick up crab pots.

All the time we kept an eye open for wildlife, including but not limited to the enormous bears found on the island.

Kodiak Island is a once-in-a-lifetime destination

It was a bucket-list trip for all of us. I'd wanted to do it for 20 years after I learned about a similar excursion taken by my friend Gary Martin of Union Grove. Martin, one of the few to take all 29 North American big game species with a bow, had come to Kodiak for a blacktail hunt.

When he told me about the niche hunting outfitting industry on Kodiak that included staying on a boat, hiking up peaks to search for deer as well as fishing for salmon and catching crabs, it sounded too good to be true.

But it's as real as the salt in the ocean.

Wipperfurth, who often hunts with a longbow and is a big fan of the late archery icon Fred Bear, helped organize the group for our trip. Bear famously hunted brown bears on Kodiak and while here also stayed on a boat named Valiant Maid.

As Wipperfurth set out on Kodiak with his own bow, he felt like he was walking in the footprints of giants in two respects.

Kodiak Island is beautiful and dangerous

Kodiak Island covers about 3,600 square miles and is the second largest island (to Hawaii) in the U.S. It's mountainous and heavily forested in the north and east but fairly treeless in the south.

The island has many deep, ice-free bays that provide sheltered anchorages for boats. The southwestern two-thirds of the island, like much of the Kodiak Archipelago, is part of Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge and has no road access.

This is where we spent our time, accessed by boat in Olga Bay. The land was bathed in red and yellow and tan foliage and peaks crinkled the horizon.

"Kodiak is beautiful," Schmitt said. "And it can be dangerous, too."

Thousands of people visit Kodiak annually to take various hunting, fishing and wildlife-related trips. Among the group waiting in the float plane terminal Oct. 1 was Douglas Waite of Kent, Washington, a retired U.S. Navy chaplain who served in Vietnam.

He now leads an annual fishing trip for fellow military veterans to the Uganik River on Kodiak.

He hires a float plane to drop off his party of four and an inflatable raft on the remote river. They float down the wild river until they see what looks like a log, Waite said.

"But it's a brown bear," Waite said. "That's where we get out. The bears know the best fishing spots."

Kodiak bears can stand 10 feet tall and weigh 1,500 pounds

That calls for some explanation. Kodiak bears are the largest bears in the world and can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds and stand as tall as 10 feet, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

State agency statement notwithstanding, polar bears grow to very similar sizes so there is debate in the wildlife world about the claim. But there's no need to split hairs: Kodiak bears are extremely large.

They get that way primarily because of the rich supply of food on the island, especially runs of several species of salmon that occur across several months each year.

Kodiak bears are a subspecies of the brown or grizzly bear that lives exclusively on the islands in the Kodiak Archipelago and have been isolated from other bears for about 12,000 years.

Waite said his unusual fishing strategy has proven extremely successful over the last five years.

The bears have always run away, he said.

"We just have a great time and catch all the salmon we can handle," Waite said.

He expected each of the anglers would come back that night with a limit of five coho salmon. Weather permitting, a plane was scheduled to pick them up before dark.

Three of the veterans have PTSD, Waite said. The outdoors experience in the wild, with fellow veterans, is extremely beneficial.

"It's faster than therapy," Waite said.

Other parties at the float plane base were packed for backcountry camping trips lasting a week or more for elk or deer hunting in the region.

Sleeping in tents in brown bear country puts the experience at one of the highest levels of adventure. In case of emergency, there is no guarantee help can even try to reach you. The area is known for fog, rain and severe weather, including high winds and high seas.

Our stay on the Valiant Maid offered not only comforts such as running water and warm meals but a solid roof over our heads.

Kodiak Island, Alaska, draws Wisconsin hunters and fishermen

I'm never surprised when I run into other Wisconsinites while on a far-flung hunting or fishing trip.

As we landed Oct. 1 and boarded the Valiant Maid in Olga Bay, the departing group was mostly Badger State residents, including Derek Nelson of Sparta. Nelson works for Mathews Bows where he leads the branding and creative efforts.

His group had done well on blacktails, including several bow kills; we helped load the outgoing flight with antlers and boxes of venison.

For one of our group, the trip also was a homecoming.

Warren Mohar was born on Kodiak in 1955 when his father, Joseph Mohar, an engine man in the U.S. Navy, was stationed on the island.

Joseph's 22-year military career included watching an atomic bomb go off on Bikini Atoll and being stationed around the Pacific and U.S.

He started and ended his service at the Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois.

Warren showed the group a mid-1950s photo of his father holding a salmon caught on Kodiak. Now, in 2023, Warren was getting the chance to do the same thing with Justin, the next generation of the Mohar family.

Plenty of wildlife but few black-tailed bucks on this trip

The daily schedule included waking before 7 a.m. and eating breakfast and then getting dropped on shore about 8 for a day of hunting.

We formed teams of two and set out at staggered spots along the rocky shore. Our hunting strategies included hiking up the 1,500 to 2,000 foot tall peaks and glassing for deer as well as setting up along game trails closer to shore.

Wipperfurth and I hunted together and saw deer each each day but one. Unfortunately we didn't see a buck, the only legal deer for non-residents.

The hiking up grassy slopes was exhilarating and strenuous. We encountered willow ptarmigan in several spots and had bald and golden eagles fly over.

On the first day of hunting Wipperfurth and I watched a bald eagle soar over a ridge 500 feet above us in seconds and without a wingbeat. It took us 30 minutes to cover the same distance.

The other tandems in our group did see bucks, however. And on the third day Warren Mohar was able to tick off another goal on his list when he spotted a spike buck and called Justin over to take a look.

Justin verified the deer had antlers and moments later his rifle cracked and he was soon putting a tag on the first deer of the trip.

Overall blacktail bucks proved elusive for us, however.

Weather was a mixture of cloudy days, rain and some sun, with temperatures ranging from mid 30s to low 50s. On the night of Oct. 4 a front raged through; 70-knot winds rocked the Valiant Maid but her anchor held fast.

Kodiak showed us how quickly this beautiful place can turn dangerous.

The fishing for Pacific (also called gray) cod was good on the big boat and the crab pots yielded very good catches of dungeness, Tanner and king crab. Due to protective regulations, we could not keep king crab but it was no hardship. Steamed with sea water, the dungeness and Tanner crabs were more delicious than any crab I'd ever eaten.

On the last day Evert had a buck in his sights at about 250 yards but it stayed facing away and wouldn't provide an ethical shot. He passed.

Justin's buck would be the only deer our group would take.

But the crabbing, fishing, wildlife viewing and camaraderie filled our creels many times over. On the fifth day of the trip harbor porpoises circled the Valiant Maid.

Seals often hung out in the bays and as we fished for salmon on one stream a pair of river otters cavorted nearby.

Brown bears are a thrill to see

Our group spotted three brown bears during the trip. Evert and Uphoff saw two on their first day of hunting; the bears were traveling together and were about 750 yards away, plenty close to provide the men a thrilling memory.

Then on Oct. 5 our entire group saw a lone bear swimming across the mouth of a small bay. It's large head was easily visible as it paddled to a beach about 600 yards from the Valiant Maid. Once on shore, it shook like a Labrador just in from a retrieve.

But this animal dwarfed any dog on the planet. Porter estimated it weighed 800 pounds. After the shake, it loped away, seemingly with a destination in mind and little time to spare.

Though some of us harbored a wish weather might prevent our scheduled departures and extend our trips, we all got out on time and safely back to our homes.

Warren Mohar summed up the group's feelings of the trip after an Oct. 5 rain shower was followed by a clear patch of sky and a rainbow.

"The rain gods of Kodiak smiled on us," Mohar said of his return trip to his birth place. "All I can say is we're very grateful for everything we've experienced."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kodiak Island, Alaska, provides adventure, scenery and wild harvests