A few buddies and I are planning to go to Kodiak for Sitka Blacktails. How's the winter so far? I know that March can bring plenty of snow, but we are trying to lock in dates and an air transporter (any recommendations?) dates as soon as possible. Would you do a late August velvet hunt or a late Sept to early October hunt? We'd like to do a bit of freshwater fishing while we're there too. No particular fish species, just to mix up the days.

The one year that we had planned to go, severe storms caused a major deer die-off, so we're holding out for a few good years of milder weather for older age class bucks and more sightings.

Please feel free to pm me with any feedback or suggestions too.

For clarification, our group are U.S. Citizens and U.S. permanent residents so we would be in compliance with AK laws to use an air transporter for deer hunting.

We had not so great luck in previous years trying to organize hunts up there (PWS/Kodiak); I think it was 2006-2007 and around 2012? when we planned to go and were told to wait a few years each time because those winters had much higher winter kill.

I don't know about the winter, but we saw plenty of deer at the end of last November around Uyak Bay. Several nice deer every day.

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Originally posted by CanadianLefty:
For clarification, our group are U.S. Citizens and U.S. permanent residents so we would be in compliance with AK laws to use an air transporter for deer hunting.

We had not so great luck in previous years trying to organize hunts up there (PWS/Kodiak); I think it was 2006-2007 and around 2012? when we planned to go and were told to wait a few years each time because those winters had much higher winter kill.

I haven't been to Kodiak for 20 yrs, PWS has been great the last 4-5 yrs

Give ADF&G Kodiak a call 907-486-1825 talk to the deer biologist. Real people!