One Big Wolverine!

This is the largest wolverine I have seen or caught. . .and he is very pretty as well! I might have this one mounted, but we'll see.

Wolverines!!

Here are three of my wolverines I caught this trapping season.

Moose!!

About a week and a half ago the weather finally returned to normal and we have been in the teens or lower making the traveling for trapping and hunting better and better. Ron and I were going to go out on our trap-line Saturday morning and try to make to a cabin about twenty miles away where we would spend the night and return on Sunday. However, our trip was cut a bit short.

We had our sleds all loaded up with traps and gear when we finally left around 11am. We were about a half mile past the dump when I saw a bull moose standing in the trees about 75 yards away. I stopped and pulled my rifle over my head and looked at him through the scope. It takes a lot of effort to get the rifle sling over my head when I am all bundled up like I was. I expected the moose to move into the trees and I wouldn't have cared because we had big trapping plans for the weekend that would be ruined if I shot him.

Well, he didn't move into the trees and I knew he was a decent bull so I lined up and pulled the trigger. . .Nothing happened, so I tried again. Nothing happened. I looked down and apparently I didn't get the safety off so I fumbled with it for a bit, took aim and . . .nothing. I thought I was carrying a loaded gun, but apparently not! I put a shell into the chamber, pulled up and "click!" I pumped a new shell in, pulled up and "BANG!" I think I missed because I was rushing and by this point I was going crazy! I took a bit more time for the second shot, pulled the trigger, and "click!" Again, I pumped another shell, my last one, into the chamber. . . .The moose was gone.

Just kidding! He was hiding behind a tree. I could see his head and neck so I tried to put one through his head to knock him down, but he just stood there after I shot. My gun was empty and my extra shells were three layers down in a pocket. I frantically dug until I found a shell. I loaded it, pulled up. . .I took my time and leaned on my snow-go handle bars. . ."BANG." He just stood there! So I did some more digging, found another shell, loaded it, and . . . He looked hurt so I paused for a second, then he laid down. I got him!!

This all lasted for about 10 minutes of me shooting, digging for shells, waiting for him to show himself, all the while our snow-goes were still running. Ron said that he would have passed this bull up because of our trapping plans, but there is no way I was going to pass up an opportunity at a nice bull. In a way I hope we don't see another bull moose this December, but Ron still has a tag so I guess I would settle for seeing one just a bit smaller!!

My moose measured 53 inches wide, which I think is pretty good. Ron said that he thinks it is an older bull, which I think is also good. I guess I would say that I am happy.

Ron went to get Mike to help us haul out the meat and I began butchering. One of my students came by and helped while I waited for Ron to get back. It took us a couple hours, but when we were done there was nothing left but a few organs and the back bone. I skinned out the head and hung it at the dump for the birds to clean it up. Now comes the real fun. . .Cutting up hundreds of pounds of meat ready for the dinner table!

There are a lot of pictures of my moose added to our pictures site if you would like to see more.

Fishing Trip!!!!

Alright, we are picking up where we left off after "Where to Begin." I will do my best to take you through our day to day fishing.

Day 1:
We fished off the beach and caught lots of grayling. They are a lot of fun to catch, but it is even more fun watching these guys try to get good pictures of them. They are a bit slimy and squirmy sometimes! That evening we went down to Cranberry creek where we caught a few rainbow trout a small king salmon and a few chum/dog salmon. It wasn't quite what we hoped for, but an OK start.
Day 2:
I may be off by a day, but I think today we went back to Cranberry creek where we caught a bunch of dog salmon, a dolly varden/arctic char, and some more rainbows. We made a fire on a beach and ate dog salmon with butter and seasonings all wrapped in aluminum foil (not tin foil). Yum!! We also caught several grayling from the beach. . .They are still fun to catch, but the fun is beginning to fade.
Day 3:
I think today was the day we went up river with Molly and Vince (our dog). . .I give up on the days.

One day we went up river and we found spots where the kings were jumping. Tim lost a really nice king in one spot, but we were all thinking that the possibility of catching kings was not likely. While having a shore dinner with Molly and Vince, Dad hooked up on a 20 pound king in the current, which we had to chase down the river in the skiff! Being the brilliant guide that I am, I went back into a slough to fish where I caught three smallish kings in about five casts. . .Booyah! After eating we all went to this spot and caught more than 40 kings between us. The largest in here were around 15 pounds. It was a blast! Finally, around 12:30 am we decided to go back home.

Our pattern turned into a sleep really late, tour the village, hang around, and fish from the beach for the early afternoon. Then fish until midnight each night. We went back to this spot several times and each time we caught more fish. It was a great find!

On the last full day we traveled up into the Nuyakuk River, ate lunch at a cabin, and the went way up the Nushagak River. We saw a large bull moose and several cows, caught a bunch of rainbows, a red salmon, some dog salmon, and a couple king salmon. We did find a couple good spots to fish, but they are a long drive up. Our last day ended with a couple of 20 pound kings caught in our spot.

Thrown in to each day, we caught dogs, reds, kings, dolly vardens/arctic char, lots of rainbows, even more grayling (Grandpa is a grayling king by the way!), Tim caught some nice pike, and Dad caught a whitefish.

The day they had to leave the weather was bad and no planes were flying so they missed their connecting flights and had to do a lot of rearranging. . .Welcome to Alaska!

For a better rendition of the facts and excitement from the trip, talk to my grandpa, dad, or brother.

World Class Summertime Fishing

I have been asked by a few die-hard fishermen to post the salmon runs in case they, or anyone else for that matter, can work out the funding to come up on a fishing trip. I would be more than happy to play the role of guide and help someone catch some salmon, trout, or pike.

Here are my guiding guarantees:

1. You will go fishing.
   
2. You will get something to eat.
3. You will be bitten by many mosquitoes and other biting insects.
4. You will see beautiful scenery.
5. You will be given a place to sleep.
6. You will enjoy my company while fishing.
   
7. You might go for a walk, get lost, survive in the wilderness alone for a few months, get rescued (fly in a helicopter!!), write a book, and become famous. Maybe even rich!
   
8. You might have fun.
9. You might see cool wildlife (bears, caribou, moose, salmon, etc.)
10. Lastly, I might even let you catch a fish or two.

Based on number seven, visiting us up here should be considered an investment! Anyway, I am looking into getting a boat. . .I think I have it squared away already. . .so I will be able to travel up and down the river to the good fishing holes and be able to go camping out in the wilderness!

Here are the general guidelines for seasons in Koliganek, Alaska. Keep in mind that I have not been here in the summer yet and am basing everything off of what I have heard and researched.

Rainbow Trout - As soon as the ice melts up to the time it freezes again. . .There are highs and lows.
Grayling - As soon as the ice melts up to the time it freezes again. . .There are highs and lows.
Northern Pike - As soon as the ice melts up to the time it freezes again.
Chum Salmon - Mid June to mid July
King Salmon - Mid June to mid July
Silvers - Early August through the end of August
Pink Salmon (even years only) - Late July through mid August

Berry Picking (blue berries, salmon berries, high and low bush cranberries) - Mid July through mid September

There you have it. I have been hearing of catching rainbow trout that are larger than 36 inches!!! I can't wait to get a line in the water! Depending on when school starts for me it sounds like mid August provides some of the best all around opportunities with berry picking and fishing for silvers. The end of June would be great except Molly and I will be in Wisconsin this June. . .Maybe next summer!

Do not worry if you can't make it up to fish with me this summer. . .I will post pictures!

Wolverine!!!!

I caught my first wolverine yesterday!!! Check out the picture in the picture archive.

Ron and I have been focusing on an area where we have seen many wolverine and wolf tracks. We have a few traps out that we have very high hopes for and finally yesterday. . .they didn't catch anything, but the set we put out almost two weeks ago with no success had a wolverine! Luckily for me he got caught in a snare on his way into the bait and then put his foot in a wolf trap. Between the two traps he wasn't going anywhere. I have been told how mean and wild they can be when in a trap, but I didn't quite realize how wild until I saw what he did to me snare. The individual wires were breaking from being twisted and chewed on. . . If he hadn't stepped in the wolf trap I may have lost him.

I have come to find that what takes Ron 5 minutes to do will take me at least 20! In terms of skinning anyway. I spent 3 hours skinning this wolverine last night and only because of Ron's help did I get to where I did! I just need more practice. Next time I will have to save him until a weekend so I can spend all day working.

So far I have caught 1 wolverine, 1 porcupine, 1 marten, 1 fox, 1 spruce grouse, and 1 ptarmigan! I am doing well with the variety factor!

Caribou Hunting!

I got to go caribou hunting yesterday!! Maybe I should call it caribou looking for and not finding because we didn't see any, but it was still fun. A friend in the village stopped by in the morning and told me he heard that a heard of caribou were moving our way and he wanted to go shoot a few. Of course I said that I would love to come too! He told me to bring my rifle and a thermos of something hot and to be ready in half an hour. We drove to the Mulchatna River and followed it for miles and miles, but found no caribou. We were looking for a heard of around 1000 caribou so I think they would be hard to miss if they were near. I did roll the snow-go over while trying to get up on a large drift. It wasn't very eventful. . .just a slow motion roll over which popped some screws out of my windshield. Other than that nothing is broken. I also got to see another 30 miles of country I hadn't seen before which was great and there is just something very manly about driving around with a rifle slung across your back!!

The season closes very soon so I hope I get the chance to go out again. . .This is a subsistence hunting season.

More Trapping Adventures!

Ron and I have been doing a bit of exploring lately and been thinking up great plans for next years season since this year is nearing its end. On one such exploration trip I found a den of some sort back in the brush. It seemed to big to be a fox den, not big enough to be a wolf den, and maybe the size of a wolverine den. In any case, I was going to find out and catch whatever it was! The den was oval in shape and the very interesting part about this den was that there was frozen strings of pee all over the trail coming out of the den. This critter did not stop to go, it just went as it moved and the pee froze on top of the trail! The day after finding the den Ron and I went back to set some wolf snares, wolverine traps, and one trap in this den.

I gave the set three days and when I returned I walked up to the trap cautiously because I didn't want to be surprised by a live wolverine or something like that. When I could see the trap I thought, "yeeessssss, I got a wolverine! Wait a second, something looks a bit funny. . .A PORCUPINE!!?? I was expecting a wolverine and the porcupine with his winter coat looked very similar until you touch him or look at his head. I guess I can say I am an expert porcupine trapper now! Apparently porcupine is very good to eat, but I didn't want to eat this one because he had been caught, killed, and left laying for up to three days. I also didn't find out about porcupine meat until I left him sitting in the shop for a day and a half, which isn't going to help the meat at all.

I am doing a pretty good job of catching one of each creature out here. . .I still think I will get a wolf and wolverine yet this season!

Ptarmigan and Spruce Grouse

While out trapping I carry the .22 pistol Ron let me borrow to put down animals and shoot ptarmigan and spruce grouse. Both birds are just like ruffed grouse we have back home, but a bit smaller. Spruce grouse spend a lot of time up in the trees and seem to be more solitary, while ptarmigan are always on the ground and in small groups. Ptarmigan are neat because they are almost entirely white during the winter and soon they will begin changing back to brown for summer.

I shot my first spruce grouse while snow-shoeing with Molly. There are always bird tracks all over the place and we were following fresh ones hoping to find them to shoot. I had given up on the tracks and said we should probably be going, but it was at that same moment that Molly said, "Brian, there is a bird right next to me in that tree." Sure enough, there was a spruce grouse about 15 feet from her in a tree just sitting there. Being the expert marksman I am, I shot six times, reloading and continued shooting until it finally fell out of the tree. I thought I was just a very bad shot, but it turns out that I actually hit it most of those times! I don't know how it stayed up there, but it was one tough bugger! I wanted to eat it, but being shot so many times made it only good for trapping bait. . .Which I needed badly.

The ptarmigan I shot was even more exciting! Checking traps with Ron I saw a few fly up as I drove by a patch of spruce trees. I stopped and drew my pistol at the sight of several ptarmigan walking around on the snow. With the first shot I hit it, but like the spruce grouse it somehow managed to keep going and proceeded to run away from me. I continued shooting as I chased it through the trees and across a crick before I caught up with it. I made a diving leap, grabbed it, and fell through about two feet of hollow ice on the creek! The important thing is that I got my first ptarmigan! I really need to get a shotgun up here!

Marten Trapping

I caught a marten!! If you are not sure what a marten looks like check out the picture in our pictures archive. They are basically like a really large squirrel except they eat meat rather than nuts. Although most of our snow disappeared during the warm spell, Molly and I went snow-shoeing a couple of times in the trees along a creek where the snow still ranges from one to eight feet deep. We found marten tracks all over the place! I told Ron about them so we set out to trap martens.

Here's how it works. In the area where I found several sets of tracks we looked for a leaning tree. Ron set one trap and I set another about 30 yards away. We set and wired the traps to our trees, put a ptarmigan higher in the tree, added some marten lure (very smelly), and hung a wing with fishing line to add some motion to the set. Simple! The next day Ron had a marten in his trap and the day after that I had one in mine! My marten was bigger of course and I claim the title of a marten trapping guide because I picked the spot. I wish everything else was this easy to trap. It's been almost two weeks since this and we didn't see another marten track until the day we had to pull out the traps because marten season is closed now.

Maybe I shouldn't have given away my marten trapping secrets, but as long as nobody plans to come trap them from Koliganek, I guess it is OK. Ron and I already have big plans for trapping martens next year because we have come across several areas with a lot more tracks. Last year a marten fur brought in around $80, this year only $30, so we are hoping the price jumps back up for next year.

Trapping

I caught a fox! I can't really claim much credit because I caught it with Ron's trap, in a spot that Ron always has this trap, and with Ron's lure. . .But I was the one that set the trap! I also skinned, stretched, and fleshed the fox. We will freeze the hide until the end of trapping season and then Ron is going to teach me how to tan the hides. Hopefully I Will have many more pelts to tan by then.

This weekend Ron and I plan to set a lot of traps for marten, wolf, fox, and lynx so I hope to catch more soon.