In 1995, I had the opportunity to guide for Brown bear an old client of a company on Chichagof Island , He was 70 years old at that time and very experienced and well traveled, he told me that he had hunted 96 countries by that time and had some amazing stories… We hunted hard, and the bears were hesitant in their cooperation, so we had some spare time on our hands and took the opportunity to do some fishing while watching the flats one evening, two rods dragging a herring from a 18 foot Lund skiff, there was some

Three days in the Wilson arm drainage, wrath of the gods rain thus far…and then the sun came out! We needed to kill 2 black bears and one of them was with a bow, so off we went…Myself, Dave, Jason and Dennis, together in the 18 foot Lund, flat calm water and partly cloudy skies, gave us hope and a view that the day before would not have made possible… there are a number of salmon streams in the drainages of Behm canal, I chose the west side to hunt so our chances of encounters with Brown bear be more

It had been 14 years since he had hunted with me, my oldest son Mason; he was coming to visit this last summer and was able to spend three weeks with us here in Ketchikan. My wife, Diane, and I had extra room and were looking forward to the visit; he brought along his best friend, Wilson, from Chicago, who had never been here as well… I picked them up at the airport, and the next three days were spent primarily fishing saltwater from a boat loaned to us by my brother at Baranof sportfishing. It went well! Both Mason

A beautiful fall day and no deer seen while hunting in the muskegs by kah shakes cove, so Dave and I decided to do a little bit of exploring. With the sun shining and no wind on the water, the visibility displayed all moving below us in the shallows by snail rock…as I searched for movement, a presence became visible, slender yet powerful…a ling cod! Twenty feet below us, with no plans to fish that day, we were without any fishing poles in the skiff, and as often happens when necessity meets opportunity, with some digging around, I was able

There are many hunts I have experienced with others, and one that stands out in memory was a September evening with a young couple that wanted to hunt black bear…We arrived at a salmon stream that I knew well, the stream was busy, gulls and eagles were present in numbers to make their cries and movements the dominant sensory experience around us… Then the bears started showing up, a sow with two cubs along with a couple of smaller bears, were working the stream below and above us with about 150 yards of distance open to our view, we sat

September 1982, myself, my brother and three others had the opportunity to hunt a lake near the Canadian border on Portland canal, it took two trips in the Cessna 180 and we all made it there with plenty of time to still climb the ridge…Johnny and his father Chester, chose to hunt the opposite side of the lake and my brother Chuck, my brother in law mike and myself took the other ridge… I was 19 years old and in amazing shape, which became evident to Chuck and Mike as we climbed the slope and after about 45 minutes of

I spent 6,1/2 years working in Aviation, the industry had its share of characters and many stories, one of the stories I witnessed was the return of a pilot ferrying a Cessna 206 from Seattle to Ketchikan… Terry was a great coworker and wonderful pilot, yet not the most practical fellow when it came to basic hands on type working with things or equipment… He picked up the plane and began the flight back north with an overnight stop in the Canadian coastal town of Bella Bella… Apparently, the cabin that he was lodged in had an oil stove for