Elk hunt on eastern Afognak

[jnalaska]

Has anyone here hunted elk out of the public use cabin on Laura Lake in north east Afognak? It is just west of Seal Bay. This October will be my first time to Afognak, My brother and I drew for a party hunt and that is where we will be hunting. If anyone has tips for this area or has storys of succsess or failures I would love to hear them.
Thanks in advance

[jnalaska]

Elk?

I guess no hunters on the east side. Has anybody done Afognak Elk in General? How was the hunt? Did you use calls at all? Any thing you would do differently if you went back?
thanks in advance
Jason

[countryboy]

huntin for elks

well as far as herd wherabouts , i really can't help you there , but your best bet is when flying into the lake convince your pilot by whatever means necessary, (beer is a great currency) to fly the area so you can get a fix on atleast one herd. I have never hunted that herd specifically but roosevelt elk for the most part are unresponsive to bugling, they're not as vocal as rocky mountain elk. Your best bet is to grab a hoochie mama and a diaphragm call and target the cows to locate the bulls. looking at the regs it looks like "one elk" either sex. if your looking for meat the lead cow is the biggest animal on most occasion, and as an added bonus if you are hunting with somebody else, you take out that lead cow the rest of the herd has nobody to follow cause their leader just disapeared, they'll go just over the next rise and start feeding, so you get an easy second elk. If you could when you are over there can you see about how many deer your encountering? I am headed to letnik bay area in late november and want to see what the deer herd is lookin like. well good luck and if you want any more info let me know, be glad to help you out.


jesse

[TBinKodiak]

I hunted the west side 2 years ago. We had a group of 9 in our valley with a nice 5x5. Managed to get within 150 yards of them on the 2nd day but my hunting buddy had one shot and clipped an alder branch instead of the bull. Thatexcitment ran the herd over the next mt. and no more elk spotted the remaining 3 days. Not much for deer where we were either a few forks and only one 3x3 that was decent but we were hunting elk so passed him up. That's Kodiak though, the deer are pretty sparce in most areas, and thick as fleas in others. On a side note one of the bios was camped down the lake from us and said our valley had 120 elk in it when they did their counts 2 weeks before. He was also hunting elk and they saw a couple cows and also missed a spike. Hit or miss is the name of the game on Afognak. Good luck.

[jnalaska]

thanks

thanks for the info. I will give a full report on the deer and the elk hunt when I get back from the hunt.

[WinMag]

Afog Elk

Went as a packer/deer hunter with a permit holder a few years back... Sea Hawk air put us down on Laura Lake. (our choosing) We did not use the cabin but rather packed camp further east from Laura Lake. We spent 9 days hiking the logging roads looking for elk. LOTS of sign but never connected. One day we heard some across the waters of Seal Bay well out of our walking range.

The logging roads make for EASY travel.

Lots of deer... AND BIG BEARS...

If at all possible try to schedule some scouting time with your pilot. An hour of flying may put you on some bulls... We flew about 30 minutes but did not find any. Of course on the pick up we lifted off Laura Lake and as we turned to head south saw a couple of nice bulls... They were several miles east of where we had been hunting so really no harm/no foul... Could'nt have really hunted them anyway... To far out... and make sure of your boundries... You don't want to trespass...

good luck.. It is an awesome place...

Ps.. The idea to camp was a good one.. However, we were blessed with 7 days of good weather out of 9 days of hunting... Out of the other two days one was a normal windy rainy day... BUT one day was MONSOON season... It rained harder and longer than anything I've ever seen... WIND!!!! OH my GOD WIND!!! The rain sounded like 5 gal buckets being thrown on the tent... I had to climb out in the middle of the night and wrap plastic tarps around our tents just to keep from drowning in the night... The plastic tarp is your friend...

It was after this trip we decided to buy new tents and always take a tarp...

Ended up with lots of deer meat and wonderful memories...

[WinMag]

A picture's worth 1000 miles

One thing that could help you... As you fly over take lots of digital pictures and/or video.. Transfer the logging roads and major topo features onto your topo map.. It can make a world of difference.

There was a tall hill/hump on the south end of Laura Lake. It had been logged so it stuck out like a sore thumb.. We used it as our reference for locating the roads and lake...

I started doing this on all my hunts.. It can really help out... Things look different from the ground.

How does the saying go....? A picture is worth a thousand words...
Well in our world it's worth a thousand miles...

[jnalaska]

East or West?

WinMag,
When I talked to the bioligist in Kodiak he said that it was logged out to the west of Laura but no logging at all to the east. Was he mistaken? are there logging areas east and west? thanks for the info it is very helpful.

[WinMag]

Here's some

Might be worth looking into some sat photos...

As for my recollection. When we landed on the south end of Laura Lake we pulled into a small cove on the east side. As for the hunt. We headed further east off the lake and traveled the logging roads. As for actual logging.. There were areas cleared out but plenty standing as well.

I'll try to attach photos but if they don't attach shoot me an email with your email and I'll send what I have.

[WinMag]

Laura lake

a few more

[WinMag]

Logged area

Logged area around Lake.

[WinMag]

Last ONE

Hope this helps some..

[jnalaska]

sweet!

thanks for the pics it is nice to see the terrain.

[ucohokie]

Thank for the help as well

All those who responded to this thread you helped more than just jnalaska, I also drew a tag and rather than populate the forum with additional requests, I just kept up reading this one.

I talked to Rolan at Seahawk Air. He felt it didn't make much difference either way on the spotting the elk from the plane on your fly in day as they move around so much. He also noted that guys who hunted the native corporation land seemed to have more success than those who didn't mainly due to the larger clear cut areas. Land access fee of $125 seemed reasonable put then they told me it was additional $300 if hunting elk, which seemed extreme to me considering its a public herd drawn through a state lottery but hey it's their land: I'm just not going to use it.

The calling of Roosevelt Elk: same vocalizations as Rocky Mountain? Anyone? Not much on the topic I can find, but right now I trying to nail down dates and transportation, so I haven't looked very hard yet.

ucohokie

[Mkay]

Afognak

We are going over in late October to an area known as Baramanof Creek? Anyone been in that area?
Thanks