Bethany man makes trip to Alaska to hunt for Kodiak brown bears

Rick Botchlet of Bethany will not call his spring trip to Alaska to hunt Kodiak brown bears the trip of a lifetime.

The 57-year-old retired masonry contractor hopes he has hasn’t taken that trip yet.

But in May, Botchlet did what few hunters get to experience, hunting brown bears on rugged Kodiak Island, off the south-central coast of Alaska.

Kodiak brown bears are the largest bears in the world, a sub-species of brown and grizzlies. A large male can stand more than 10-feet tall when on its hind legs and weigh 1,500 pounds.

Kodiak brown bears live exclusively on the islands in the Kodiak Archipelago and have been isolated from other bears for 12,000 years.

There are about 3,500 Kodiak bears and the population is healthy and productive, which is why Alaska allows limited hunting through tightly controlled regulations. Baiting is illegal.

Hunters kill about 180 Kodiak bears each year. About 5,000 Alaskans apply each year for the chance at the 496 bear permits that are available to them.

Hunters who are not residents of Alaska must hire a professional guide to hunt Kodiak brown bears, and the trip can cost as much as $25,000.

The success rate for Alaskan residents is 35 percent, while guided hunts are 75 percent.

Botchlet waited more than two years to hunt with professional guide, Jeff Hirsch, who had been recommended to him by Cabela’s.

Hirsch is limited to guiding only four hunters during the month-long spring bear season, and Botchlet had to wait in line for the opportunity.

When it came this year, Botchlet flew to Anchorage then Kodiak, then took a float plane to Karluk Lake, where he would raft down the salmon-filled Karluk River for the 15-day hunt.

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