Break up 33 miles north of the Arctic Circle!

[northwestalaska]

Well boys its break up time in NW Alaska and the Sea Ice is still holding on. Spring Goose hunting is in full swing with lots of fat birds being taken. Up here we hunt animals when they arrive because regular seasons that you see in the lower 48 don’t fit. In the fall the birds are gone by mid September most years because its is getting to be a lot like winter and any bird still north of the Arctic Circle will soon be dead! We are able to take duck, Snow Geese, Canadian Geese, cranes, swans and just about anything else that flies or honks!

We are now fishing for the last of the Sheefish as they are chasing Tomcod and Herring that have returned to the Kotzebue Sound in anticipation of the melt. I stopped by the rotting ice on Front Street today to watch to guys sitting on buckets not 20 yards off of shore on ice that was almost black! Really rotten ice! But they had a pile of Sheefish that was in excess of 8oo pounds or about 25 fish! Sheefish tip the scale between 25-50 pounds with most about 35-40 pounds and 35 inched in length. Good eating and a blast to catch!

Caribou:

The caribou are just beginning to drop calves and begin the trip over the Brooks Range for the North Slope. Most of WACH animals summer around Point Lay Alaska and will return in early September but last year we had a early fall that the critters came over in mass around mid August! I bagged 2 fat bulls August 20th and this was the first time ever that early. Take them when they arrive!

I have a group of birders coming up in August to spend 6 days up the Noatak chasing a rare Chickadee. I guess it is only found here in Noatak National Park and over in Siberia so it is quite the find! I will be outfitting the entire group and this is a great direction for my business as they only take pictures! I guess I will not ask them how they taste! Ha!!

Well with any luck we will be free of ice and ready to start raftng in about 7 weeks. Winter refuses to leave these parts some years!

Take care!

Walt
www.northwestalaska.com
your best bet in camps, canoes and rafts for all of NW Alaska

[jplonghunter]

northwestalaska
I've been told chickadee taste like chicken! oh by the way,what's the difference between sheefish and heefish?

jplonghunter

[northwestalaska]

No idea so fill me in.

[skeet]

I think that was a joke..At least I hope so..Is dere a Heefish?? I doesn't wanna ketch one...