Alaska offers many opportunities for filling a freezer and one of my favorites is dip netting red salmon on the cooper river near Chitina. Each family is allowed 30 fish.
Yesterday I had an amazing experience with my friend Manus. We left Fairbanks at 7:00 PM Friday evening and made it to the river six hours later.
This fishery is in a part of the river that goes through a canyon. You can take four wheeler down the old railroad and climb down a very steep bank or pay a charter $100 to be dropped off at a site in the canyon. We chose the latter. The boat dropped us off at 8:00 AM .It was at a difficult spot with strong currents . You can sweep but I like to find a spot in an eddy that the salmon use to propel themselves up the river. After five hours the boat came and moved us to a much easier spot to fish. At 3:30 the boat came again to check on us and we only had 15 fish. With only a few hours left we were moved to another spot. In a little over an hour we caught the remaining 45 fish that we were allowed. As fast as the net went into the water a fish was caught. Many times there were two. These late run fish are larger and averaged close to ten pounds each. It is a good feeling to know we will have over 100 pounds of fillets of this fine fish in our freezer. My friend is older than I am but he put me to shame. Here are a few photos of him dipping and the results of our day.
Yesterday I had an amazing experience with my friend Manus. We left Fairbanks at 7:00 PM Friday evening and made it to the river six hours later.
This fishery is in a part of the river that goes through a canyon. You can take four wheeler down the old railroad and climb down a very steep bank or pay a charter $100 to be dropped off at a site in the canyon. We chose the latter. The boat dropped us off at 8:00 AM .It was at a difficult spot with strong currents . You can sweep but I like to find a spot in an eddy that the salmon use to propel themselves up the river. After five hours the boat came and moved us to a much easier spot to fish. At 3:30 the boat came again to check on us and we only had 15 fish. With only a few hours left we were moved to another spot. In a little over an hour we caught the remaining 45 fish that we were allowed. As fast as the net went into the water a fish was caught. Many times there were two. These late run fish are larger and averaged close to ten pounds each. It is a good feeling to know we will have over 100 pounds of fillets of this fine fish in our freezer. My friend is older than I am but he put me to shame. Here are a few photos of him dipping and the results of our day.
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