Dipnetting - for residents only!

Maria tried her hand at dipnetting up on the Kenai, but only got one fish.  I wanted to get a picture of her up there, because it was interesting - but I forgot my phone and my camera in the truck and I was too lazy to walk back and get it.  When dipnetting in a large river, you wade out around high tide, and hope that the fish will come in thick enough to swim into your net - which has gill-net type material that they get stuck in.  This is a crowed affair (reminds me of Daytona Beach), especially on a busy July weekend this close to Anchorage.  Maria had not dip- netted in the Kenai before, and she didn't necessarily like it.  The bank was muddy and steep, and kind of hard to negotiate.  We saw one woman loose her footing and went down.  Not super dangerous, but cold, wet, and a good way to lose an expensive net.  The net Maria uses in the big rivers is much much bigger than my biggest musky net, and the handle is about 14 feet long.  When the fish come in thick, you feel them hit the net.  Then, you flip the net handle 90 degrees to trap them, and then you wade back into shore, where someone like me assists with the head bashing, gill slicing, and cleaning.  Around here, locals carry clubs tied to their waists for the fun work of beating fish to death. Maria prefers to dip-net in smaller rivers with a gravel bottom - like the Kasilof - which is closer to Homer.  Maybe we can get back there during the week when more fish come in and it is not so crowded.

Above, Maria tries dip-netting last night at the "China Poot" - a small river that flows down out of the mountains across the bay from Homer.  There's a small population of wild Sockeye that enter this river, and at times, the action can be fast and furious - but your timing has to be just right.  This is a small area that can only take so many people.  Maybe a couple hundred salmon will come up during the night - so the first people there can do well.  They get packed into little pools like this, and you just scoop them out.  Again, only residents can do this - so I had to just sit and watch Maria.  No luck today, but people had been there before us and cleaned the fish out.  We will keep an eye on it...