Hunting & Fishing Aniakchak Crater raft/fish/hunt trip. tips?

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Been lurking for a hot minute, finally have something that I hope isn't stupid to add to the discussion-

Me and a bunch of my buddies from my last unit are planning a rafting trip in Aniakchak National Monument next year. As it stands now, we want to fly into Surprise Lake, tool around in the crater for a day or so, then inflate the rafts, head through "The Gates", get some fishing in while we head down the river (hunting is legal there, and we're bringing our rifles anyways, so thats an option open too)to a pickup in Aniakchak Bay.

I've seen several postings from Alaskan hunting guides here, so I'm hoping you gentlemen have some info/wisdom to impart in regards to the local weather conditions(I hear they are crazy from third and fourth-person sources here in the park service, but I don't know anybody who has been out on the Peninsula), good charter pilots willing to head into the crater and do a coastal pickup, the feasability of a coastal pickup in the bay... really anything that'll give 5 guys a good chance at having a blast for a few weeks instead of dropping in unprepared, stupid, and on the way to gettin dead.

I've asked in a previous forum post, but apparently I jumped in right as everybody went to the fridge to get a beer.

Thanks ahead of time

 

[45.308]

Re: Aniakchak Crater raft/fish/hunt trip. tips?

Hiring a service? or just kit?

Do you have all the required kit? That will cost a medium fortune to get it there and back.

What time of year?

Fly to King and hire a bush from there. It will not be cheap for 5 plus kit. Otter or Beaver when I flew was around $1200 per hour but I cannot say with any authority what it cost now....flight time to Surprise.

Hunting bullwinkle and bo? That would be a load for a raft trip there.

Should take between 4 and 7 days depending on you.

Its not for the weak or inexperienced. Life saving boat skills and aid is a must.

I carried an Icomm VHF radio with one button guard freq, mayday mayday to reach any and all over flying planes from bush to commercial to military.

Weather, you are at the start of the Aleutian Range, can and will make their own weather. Can snow and sleet every month of the summer when surrounding area is nice but June tends to have the most stable weather in Alaska. As approaching fall the toilet bowl can swirl up driving low pressure up across the penn and arm.

Good adventure, light fly or spinning. Rossi Matched or Trifecta for small game; 22LR and 410 maybe 243win barrel. Me, no moose or caribou, I would make that a stand alone trip but that is me.

Have fun!!

 

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Re: Aniakchak Crater raft/fish/hunt trip. tips?

Thanks for the heads up! I was kind of skeptical about getting all of our stuff, plus a big dead critter back at the end, but I'll definitely take the combo gun along.

We're thinking of making the run next August, and spending this year training up, and getting our gear. So we're probably going to just be hiring the flight in and out, unless you suggest otherwise.
Good thing I saved all of the cash I made on my last deployment!

 

[45.308]

Re: Aniakchak Crater raft/fish/hunt trip. tips?

Run the lions head, upper little su but its extreme, more suited for kayaks so put in a little down stream, six mile but beware of the waterfall that has a sucker hole, all for training.

That is a load of kit to get from Anchorage to King to Surprise and back. I would look into freighting your kit to King, not as luggage on air. There maybe an easier way with some effort.

There are couple bush jockeys out of King, not real familiar with any of them. You might want to check into a bush jockey out of Homer. Done right, kit and people could fit into a Beaver or Otter. This may be the easier and cheapest method.

I do believe there is one guide service out of King who may or may not hire their kit.

Back to the Icomm, a good way to comms with your bush jockey if and when they do a fly over check and the day they come to pick you up. All the airways have set freqs to monitor and comms. Had one pilot with Geeting who would drop off pizzas doing his checks.

You could bone out a bou for less weight but there is quite a bit a bear activity there so take the 12ga or 338 and a shortgun too, at least I would and would not want to mess with meat.

Aug prob a good time, summer time melt should mean higher water, temps OK but snow.

Wish I was going, have fun

 

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Re: Aniakchak Crater raft/fish/hunt trip. tips?

sweet deal, thanks for all of your help. just went out to moose creek this morning to test out some shotshells out of the Marlin I'll be taking along, really sweet pattern for birds, which coincidentally will be in season when we go. we're all rolling with 45/70 or 12 guage.

I've been looking at handheld radios for the past few days, and to be honest I haven't the slightest clue when it comes to these civilian contraptions. Are there any frequency ranges that I should be looking for specifically? Here's one of the radios I've been looking at-
http://www.landfallnavigation.com/icomm92d.html

It's got a lot of fancy crap on it like GPS that I probably won't use, but 5 watts... I understand five watts. Thing I'm kind of worried about is that on an Army radio, five watts means I can talk to somebody only a few kilometers away, and 20 watts can barely push as many kilometers. Is this power level okay, or should I consider getting a PowerAmp?

sorry for asking such off-the-wall commo questions, if it's a bother, just swat me upside the head and send me off to chat with the pilots. Again, thank you, your contribution to our planning is amazing.

 

[45.308]

Re: Aniakchak Crater raft/fish/hunt trip. tips?

Here is my radio, its an avionics handheld used as a back up in the plane and on the ground.

http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/avionics/handheld/a24/default.aspx

Airband VHF range, 118 to 137 cycles. 121.5 is guard which is monitored by all aircraft. Military 30-88 or something like that. The one you list is a marine and not sure on their freqs but its higher than airband use. You want an airband handheld VHF. Power output not that important, line of sight a few watts can find a flyer at 35000 feet. Someone may have more beta than I, I just know how to use them in the bush and I forgot most of this once I retired 2001.

A little story to go with it is, a partner of mine was leading a trip over in the Wrangells. Dropped off by Paul Claus. One of his got hurt and freaked out, found the radio, not hard as everyone has access to it for just this reason, called safety. Anyway, he hit the guard button and started yelling mayday. A NW commercial jet flying over on its way to Minneapolis picked up the mayday, relay to center who contacted the troopers who contacted the SAR commode post who contacted Paul who flew there, took about an hour and a half to when Paul touched down.

We would use it to comms our jockey for information as they did a fly over check. Weather, sports, news, change in pick up date or location, etc. The flyways have set freqs for jockeys to comms each other for flight safety, mostly landing and take offs. I programmed these into the radio for the area I went. Someone will prob bring up its illegal but out in the bush.....

GPS? follow the river

for nav. I used them a little when I was on active, trained and all but never put much thought into one, I have a compass, but now that I have one, how did I ever get by without one. Look up the waypoint, punch it in and away I go nav.

Which moose creek?

I prefer a 12ga with brenneke slugs mostly due to I have one and can run some 7.5 for grouse and such that is kind of hard with the 45-70gvt.

 

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Re: Aniakchak Crater raft/fish/hunt trip. tips?

wow yeah, I was way off base. good to know help's not out of reach.
sorry, the Moose creek just north of Palmer, really good four wheelin trails, I found this sweet spot on the south ridgeline about a kilometer in that has some really good backstops for 25-50 meter shooting, and in the winter there's a perfect firing lane across the valley with some decent places for targets at 5 and 600 meters.
Me, I love GPS, but I don't like relying on the system too much, since my garmin sucks batteries dry as quick as you can load them. That good old compass and map never runs out of batteries, plus terrain association is just plain fun.

Moose and a lot of other streams are starting to look good again after all of this melt. Almost pulled out my flyrod when I stopped there yesterday, ran up to Long Lake instead and holy crickets the rainbows and dollies were going nuts on mosquitoes and roostertails.