Outfitter contacted me to let me know that from what he is seeing spring warmth is earlier than typical and he is already seeing bear movement around town(Today is March 23).
He said we could move the hunt earlier if it worked for us. But the only dates available are during the second half of April.
For you guys that have hunted SE Alaska a decent amount, given what looks like an early spring, would you move back to the second half of April or keep the hunt the first week of June?
Thanks.
If you don' trust him, I wouldn't have booked with him!! Always listen to the guide!!!
Why would you question him? it's my understanding that the male/ bigger bears are always the first out of hibernation... Please correct me if I am wrong on this as I am not a bear hunter! If my guide called me and said come early, I probably would.
Just my worthless two cents... I hope you go and have an amazing hunt!! Good luck and God Bless!
His other available dates are pretty early and I wanted to know what others had experienced between those two times.
Switching everything may be possible but will take some shuffling because the earlier dates are less than a month away and all involved have flights, vac time, hotels, rental car etc, already booked.
For the first ten years or so I hunted Southeast all I did was spot and stalk beaches. Back then it was easy to get up to a half dozen stalks every night between two of us. We had pretty good success in early May. I never did hunt the last week of April.
Since I switched to bait hunting, I start baiting around the first week of May and my baits are usually hit within three days. I think the best bear activity is the third week of May until the end of May.
Two things happen the end of May, boars start looking for sows and fawns start dropping. I think older boars have learned to seek fawns and will leave a bait for those choice nuggets laying around on the two-track log roads.
I’ve had good boars on cameras at a bait and they disappear around June 1st. Whether they leave for fawns or sows I don’t know. If I have a bait that’s being pounded by sows, I start hunting there the first week of June. More than one old board has been killed at one of those baits the first time he’s showed up there.
Cazador is correct, way more big boar movement in June than in April. In April I’d look where grass greens up earliest because that’s where boars will be.
I should mention this is a boat based, spot and stalk hunt.
Thanks for all the info guys. I am leaning towards keeping it in June. I haven’t really heard anything that makes it seem worth it to change the flights, vacation time( if work is even ok with it) etc. for that early in April.
I will follow up on here after the hunt to let you guys Know how we did.
