Viking I am DEFINITELY gonna take your advice!

Got a new anchoring system today - thanks to help from Len (Family Trapper) and some guys hanging out at the Gear Shed. I'm excited to put it to work. I'm pretty sure things can only get better with this new system. I've got good confidence in it. We will find out Wednesday - my next chance to get out.

Thanks to everyone who is helping me get acquainted around here, and those who have PM'ed me. I really appreciate it. Hope the stars line up and you catch something really, really cool!

Glad to hear you found your boat safe and sound and were able to get to it. Never a good feeling having the anchor slip. Thankfully mine has only done that with me sleeping in it. Though there was that one goat hunt....

I have no experience with salt water and tides........

That said, I think this experience would convince me to use a skiff that will handle rough water........rather than the canoe.

Glad it ended well !

This was my fourth time in six years losing my boat. More than I care to admit. It's broke. Time to fix it. To expect different results doing the same stuff??? Sometimes I'm a slow learner, and it takes something like this to "wake me up." Well, I'm "so over it..." now (this is the way my daughter talks haha).

Having said that, I am out there ALOT. I have moored my boat with many, many successes. We get lured into thinking it is ok. Well - it's not ok, esp. in the winter. My legs and lower back are still trying to recover from 90 minutes of kneeling in a canoe without interruption, white-knuckling it. NO MORE!!! UNCLE!!!

Yeah thats too many times for me to lose my boat. Spent a lot of time on Alaskan waters and never lost mine but have had it drift away with me in it a couple of times. Glad to hear you are onto a better anchoring system. The tide and the wind(even more so with canvas tops) cause big issues up here.

Working on building my line.Setting some boundaries with work so i am able to get out at least three full days a week - which has been really good. It is slow going. Trying to set on sign, and sign is not abundant. Snow is gone, so it makes sign harder to find and read. Other things happen. I get sidetracked, and get a late start. We live on a hill, which can be glare ice - and I got the boat jack-knifed one am and it took me a couple hours to get unstuck. Heck - I even hit the guardrail one am on the way down the hill, on a switchback after a freezing rain - while pulling the boat. Got the boat stranded again too - just got excited, jumped out to look at some fresh tracks, and waited one minute too long with the tide going out. Lesson learned. Seems I am learning all kinds of lessons these days. Water taxi says he makes a living rescuing people like me. That made me feel better haha.

No catching going on YET. But I feel I am tightening the noose. They just don't know it yet. What I DO have to share is a bunch of pictures.

Hey - a Lynx came through. First Lynx track I have ever seen in my life. Looks like our Minnesota Boat - only bigger. Lynx appear to be pretty scarce on the peninsula. People say I should have been here six or seven years ago. Maybe this is a sign of things to come.




Happiness is a new pile of snares. I've been getting boxes of treasure on a regular basis. It is costing me a small fortune!


Working up a sweat - hiking a lot, hauling gear, hauling bait, scouting, working boat and canoe adjusting for big tides, and so on. It's good for me.


The interesting things you discover in winter. I have driven by this half-buried cabin so many times, but have never seen it until I scouted the beach for a spot to put a wolverine cubby on the beach. The cabin is long since buried by landslide, caved in on the top and sides, and overgrown with Alders. But there is some critter sign around it, and perhaps I will catch something.


The otter toilet I couldn't resist. I don't really care to catch them. Have done it plenty in MN, and I only have so many 330 conibear - BUT, when I saw this, I just couldn't resist. Seemed like a no-brainer. Perhaps an otter will be my first critter trapped in AK? Waiting for them to return.

Trying to load several of my other photos, but they won't. It says the files are too large. I think it likes to do that with photos that have more detail. These are my wolverine cubby sets, and my snares that are set up in the brush. I have 8 wolverine cubbies now. Some are on the salt edge. Some are up the drainages a ways. Most are using natural areas - like holes in the bank, or root systems of spruce trees that are washed out. I have 9 wolf snares on spots that previously had wolf tracks - but they are melted off now. Waiting for them to return. Also have LOTS of coyote sign, and have been laying in some snares and footholds for them too.

Some change would be good. A little cold or snow I'd appreciate. Too much snow, not so much. Hopefully will return soon with a catch. Heading out to check some sets, and make a few more - tomorrow.

Just got some more treasure in the mail today. Two "NO BS WOLF TRAP", and two of JR's "ALASKA #9." Looking for the perfect place to give them a whirl.

I might have figured out this picture resizing thing. I just used PIXLR. Lets see if this works. It wouldn't load previously, when all of my other photos did (iPhone photos). This is a wolverine set in a hollow tree root cubby on the beach. I really like this set. Just need mr. wolverine to come in the neighborhood. Baited with moose hide, and Gusto.


Another wolverine cubby far up a drainage.


This trail had fresh wolf tracks on it 2+ weeks ago when there was snow. I hung a bunch of snares on the trails they used, but they haven't returned.


Same as above. A critter trail that had coyote tracks on it not long ago. waiting patiently. Who's gonna return, and whats gonna produce???

Hope you connect! What kind of loc's are you running on your snares?

Your wolverine cubbies look good. Trap some beaver, if you can. My favorite bait.

In the picture of you, the timbered slopes in the back-ground: do you have marten sets, just inside the tree line/beach fringe?

AV - I am told there are no marten here, by the local biologists, and local trappers too. Seems for some reason they stay up on the other side of Lake Tustamena - that's where the trappable population of Marten begins. Well, thats about 90 minutes from me. Someday, I will get me some Marten - even if I have to go remote for awhile. Anybody have input on this? It's like theres an invisible barrier or something.

My brother ives in central British Columbia. LOTS of Marten there. Some winter, I am going to go hang with him.

Beaver. My favorite bait in MN too. Very few beaver down by Homer. I literally have not see any sign, or a hut. Closest, again, is in the freshwater lakes up by Sterling.

So I've just been using moose carcass remains that the local troopers and wildlife biologist put me onto.

I've got sets along about 25+ miles of shoreline now, and some deeper back in. I just need something to come through this territory.

HFT AK looks like this...

Snares built by Rally Hess in MN.

I am learning this whole deal. Gotta keep them away from the salt. And Bait. It really takes a system of being clean and organized.

I have no idea what these predators are eating? The only thing I see is the occasional weasel track, or squirrel track. Ducks and crows. And I suppose, some sea life - starfish and crabs and oysters and such. But there really is not much else. No rabbits. No grouse or ptarmigan to speak of. Any moose sign is singles, and old. Last time out, I saw a half dozen mountain goats on a steep wooded sidehill. That's the only good eating I've seen for wolf! Based on that, I wouldn't come around very often either.

Cool stuff. Thank you for sharing your adventures.

One of the things to remember, courtesy of an old forum member. The best bait for wolverine is the one that caught that time. Fish, bear fat, bear meat (outside of salvage requirements) *my favorite*, and big bones from moose, and yes the old half a beaver. They all will work. You just have to find where, not what.

Those old potsts were from Wolverinebait.

Great pics Wolverinehunter,I'm sure you will connect with some fur before too long.

Those tree locks on the ends of Rally's should work just fine.

I use the old Thompson tree locks on my 1/8” cable anchors for wolf and wolverine. Haven’t found anything better for the bitter end.