How to Plan/Have a Successful Trip

I would talk with my hunting buddies and get them to commit to a trip sometime during November, December, or January.  Kodiak sits in the Gulf of Alaska and is known for winter storms-because of this I would plan to be here for 6-7 days.  Although you can never predict the weather, if you give yourself a week you will likely get at least a few days to really get after it.  If you can't swing a week, plan for as many days as your schedule will allow.  Once I have my dates (or potentially beforehand), I would secure a boat and decoy rentals, buy plane tickets, reserve lodging, and reserve a vehicle.  After this I would gather as much intel as I could (I am offering a service to help you on this front if you would like)  Once you get to Kodiak, spend a few hours driving around, checking things out, and coming up with a plan. 

For decoys, at a minimum I would have a dozen scoters, a dozen decoys with white on them (longtail, bluebill, goldeneye, eider, or bufflehead), six harlequins, and a spinning wing decoy on a float pole at my disposal.  Since decoy rental will be a small fraction of the total trip cost, personally I would rent 2-3 dozen scoter decoys, at least a dozen of each species that you are wanting to target (realistically only need six for harlequin) and two spinning wing decoys.  However, it is your trip and that is just my suggestion on what I would do if I were in your shoes. 

Outside of the TDB and 20’ duck boats, if there are more than two in your group, I would highly recommend using the boat to transport yourself and gear to a spot on shore (main shore, island, or rockpile) and hunt from there while having easy access to the boat to move decoys with the tide and chase cripples.  Ideally, you would have a couple people hunting from shore with one person in the boat at the ready to pick up birds and dispatch cripples.  However, you are welcome to use the equipment how you would like to hunt-the beauty of DIY is you can do things how YOU want.