26/02/2023
Hello waterfowlers and fisherman! I hope that everyone's winter season is treating you well.
The time has come for me to let you know that I'm not going to be guiding the 2023 season for Waterfowl hunting or fishing for salmon/rockfish.
There's a list of reasons why I won't hunt next season but the top 3 are: 1) Hunting Pressure, 2) Work commitments, and 3) I want to enjoy more time with friends and family hunting and fishing.
Last season's hunting pressure in PWS for sea ducks is more than I like to see. I don't feel it is right for me to keep hunting them with clients in attempt to make a profit. Between the waterfowl guides and the locals learning the sport it has affected how the birds roost and feed in PWS to a certain extent.
Reason 1) I'm responsible for adding hunting pressure to the area and while I can't go back in time and change facts I can back off and stop contributing. Even with backing off to hunting only Fridays through Sundays last season the hunters that I took out harvested a total of 446 ducks last season. I always say that dead hens don't lay eggs! Last season my hunters shot a total of 121 Goldeneye hens, 11 harlie hens, 2 oldsquaw hens, 11 bufflehead hens, a couple surf and common scoter hens and 2 mergie hens.
It isn't right in my mind to continue so I'm going to stop.
Reason 2) I started Best Shot Alaskan Adventures because I was slow in winning construction projects to Engineer and Manage and I needed to keep busy. I'm very fortunate that I now have enough work in the construction industry to keep me plenty busy if I want to be.
Reason 3 is self explanatory - time with family on the water is important to me.
Posting this is very bitter sweet. I'm not much of a quitter and it's hard for me to quit something that I love doing even more so. In guiding we really don't get to spend a lot of time actually hunting (at least with the way I do it for waterfowl) but I did get to spend a lot of time with like-minded folks who live for the experience and the hunt - and that has proved to be very rewarding for me. Sharing the experience and providing opportunity for others who may not have the means or capability to pursue the animals is major and very rewarding part of this work. All of the people that I have hunted with (and fished with) over the last 4 years have been more like friends than clients to me and I've met so many new friends in this endeavor that I truly feel blessed.
Thank you all for being a part of Best Shot Alaskan Adventures, LLC
Until we meet again,
Captain Randy
