This outfitter offers a boat-based brown bear hunt out of Wrangell in southeastern Alaska. He produces a good success rate on bears averaging about 8 1/2 feet square and ranging between 7 1/2 and 10 feet square.

The bears here don't get as big as they do on Kodiak or the Alaska Peninsula, where the bears genetically tend toward larger heads.

The outfitter operates from a 53-foot boat that offers lots of room and greater range to reach remote areas. He has a 26-foot jetboat and two 14-foot skiffs you'll use to reach shore. Hunting is mainly by glassing.

His brown bear hunts are operated with one hunter per guide. He has a quota of seven brown bear hunters a year. The outfitter said an 8 to 8 1/2-footer is realistic. He said he typically gets one or two over nine feet each year for half a dozen hunters but seldom gets a bear less than 7 foot square. The biggest he has taken squared 10 foot.

On the early hunt that starts in April, most of the bears tend to be bigger boars. Hunters usually don't see sows and cubs on the early hunt.

This area is known for producing large black bears. Most hunters take a black bear squaring at least seven feet and seldom less than 6 1/2 feet. The biggest so far was 7'9". Most hunters see eight to 15 black bears in the brown bear area. The most so far was 28. Once the brown bear tags are filled, you'll be moved to an island where there are more black bears, and there it's common to see 30 to 75 blackies in a week.

You can fish, and your fishing gear will be provided. But you won't waste a lot of time looking for fish because the primary purpose of the trip is to fill bear tags. In the spring there are king salmon, halibut, rockfish and other bottomfish. You might fish during the middle of the day, perhaps bottom-fishing for halibut or ling cod or trolling for king salmon. Most of the salmon range between 20 and 35 pounds but commonly reach 40 to 50 pounds. In the spring those fish are spawners. The best king salmon fishing of the year occurs during the brown bear season.

Fall hunts and spring hunts are usually equally productive unless a big fall rainstorm flushes the fish out of the streams. Then the bears spread out and feed on roots and berries.