Friend has Brown Bear on his bucket list, which is estimated to expire within the year, and the one hunt he is looking at is in Unit 17B. Can anyone give me an idea of what to expect and if one can expect better than average success in this area?
Trip means more about going, but still would like to pick the right area

17B is a very good area, The bear population has been increasing for the last 10 or so years.
Is your friend a resident wanting to do a self guided hunt or will he need a guide?

If he's chooseing a guide be sure he gets referances, 17 B is state land and with only a DNR permit is open to anyone with a guide license.

PM me if you want more info on the area I have guided there for 30 years. I'll give the good guides a thumbs up but if the guy is less than honerable I'll just not comment you'll have to infer what you want from that. I also would rather not make any offers for my sevices here I just think thats tacky and belongs on outfiiters board or in PM.

If your friend is hunting with you or another friend the best advice I can give is to plan the hunt away from the rivers and stay in the high country. 17 B dosn't have a heavy enough salmon run that you can count on finding the bears consentrated on the streams. This means you might need to plan on flying out with a supercub from Iliamna. There are a couple air taxis offering cubs in Iliamna and maybe Dillingham as well.

I would have thought there'd be plenty of salmon to attract bears since 17B encompasses the upper Wood and Nushagak River systems.

It should be noted that all of 17 has abundant bears so there should be some consideration made by the hunter to look at 17C and 17A.

I've got a pretty poor record on bears but were I to seriously focus a hunt for one I'd think a float hunt that incorporated hunting water for fishing bears and hill sides for berry picking bears would be productive.

17B should provide well for your friend but I believe he should accept an 8' and up bear and not hold out for a 10'.

Scott -your right about when you get as far west as wood river you would probably see more bear fishing activity. That area also has state park and U.S.F&W. lands so they are more tied up in respect to guide access.
The Nushagak tributarys although they have strong summer runs of salmon are played out by hunting season. I have hunted on and flown over the Koktuli and Stuyahok for decades and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen a bear fishing there.

You're also right that 17B is a big area and I have never hunted west of Dillingham, It may be totally differant there.

One of those few times I did see a bear on the river was just down streem from Ekwok when a fairly big bore tried to occupy the same spot in the middel of the river as our boat. we got real close before the guy driving saw the bear. I was in the bow and we passed by not more than a couple of feet.

That info on the Koktuli is interesting! I'd have thought the bears would be fishing full throttle. I have never actually been up that way. The Mulchatna's proximity to other communities hunting pressure, the long trip from here and the wealth of opportunities close to home have kept me out of the real upper Nushagak. I guess I have been to the mouth of the Mulchatna but no further.

The last time I hunted 17B we saw good bear sign on Lake Beverley and killed a smallish one.

I'm just not going to because moose and waterfowl hunting are a bigger priority for me, but if I was interested I'd really favor camping in one of those arms of the Wood lakes that has a salmon stream feeding into it and spot and stalking a big bear. I think a backpack size camp that allows good mobility for a week could help get a hunter over the top of a nice trophy.

I have thought that our bears size and skull size should increase because of the generations of healthy salmon returns in the Wood River system but perhaps it'll be a much longer process than I'll ever see.