Not kayak - Dipnetting Kenai River Sockeyes

So it's not kayaking but this is what allows me to go kayaking.  Filling my parent's and my freezers full of salmon with red salmon so I can "sportfish" without the pressure to provide calories!  85 fish in about three hours.  The boat without me the previous day landed 103!

Hoping the Coho run is infinitely better than the Chinook run!  I need to get out!!!!

wtf, that's legal?

wtf, that's legal?

yuup

Never seen that before...wow that's a lot of fish.  Understand the need up there though....

I suppose some explanation is required.  The State of Alaska allows for what is called a "personal use" fishery for state residents.  25 fish per head of household  and an additional 10 salmon per additional household member.  There are 4 to 5 areas you can get personal use salmon.  This was the Kenai River.

They were projecting a total run size of 4 million sockeyes with an escapement goal of upto 1.4 million.  Due to the terrible returns on Chinook, they shut down a lot of the commercial setnetters.  Now there is a massive wave of sockeyes moving up river.  So now its open 24 hours a day and even the sportfishing limit was bumped from 3 per day to 6 per day.

So while we have had a dismal chinook return, the sockeyes in the state seem to be very strong. The numbers on the graph are PER DAY!

That's just awful!!!!

Your poor drysuit and PFD are a mess.  I hope you soaked them right away!

Now, send me one of those fish. 

-Spot-

The run is still coming in strong and steady. I plucked 33 from the shore today in about five hours. Kenai sunbathing today -- just gorgeous.

Dip netting, alaska's best kept secret until now! Those are some good numbers. Living in Fairbanks I always envied people down by the coast. 6 or 7 hr drive to get to the good spots. My buds this year got their limits, but took quite a bit more time per day than you spent. Nice catch.

That's pretty interesting! Looks like fun!

thats pretty awesome.. so one person can catch all the fish and distribute it throughout, as well as another house? since it's a resident only deal, do you need license or is a cable bill valid? haha.  it seems more work than it is fun, though. but I wouldn't mind having a freezer full of kenai river sockeye (:

thats pretty awesome.. so one person can catch all the fish and distribute it throughout, as well as another house? since it's a resident only deal, do you need license or is a cable bill valid? haha.  it seems more work than it is fun, though. but I wouldn't mind having a freezer full of kenai river sockeye (:

For the most part, the person dipping is just dipping for his house only. You can get a proxy permit for a disabled person or elderly and catch their fish. And yes a special permit Is needed. You just show your resident fishing license to get the permit. And your right it's a ton of work. I don't participate in the dip fishery. We don't eat that much salmon, plus throug out the summer I usually manage about 20 or so salmon anyway which between that and halibut is plenty for my small family. Then as a backup the neighbors always catch too much and then give it away!

My buddy from Vermont just flew back from visiting his brother in Kodiak. In Vermont they only lock their cars in August for fear a neighbor will leave a basket of zucchini on the front seat. Maybe a similar situation with sockeye in Alaska in July.

I absolutely love the personal use dipnet fishery on the Kenai River.  Sure, there's a lot of work associated with processing our household's harvest of 35 fish this year -- cleaning, packaging fillets, smoking a bunch, canning a bunch more, curing some for lox...  But in a few days of labor, we've got our cupboard full.  We'll use every bit of it; good thing we like salmon.

We also share our take with our elderly neighbors.  We don't bother to get their proxy.  Our household can get 35, and we've learned over the years that we fully utilize 25 fish annually.  The next ten go to our friends. That's it -- no waste. 

These are gorgeous fish -- at their best right out of the salt.  Here's one of the bigger ones we harvested.  I promise, I'll do right by that fish as he brings us nourishment this year. 

Alaskans are just too cool! Keep these posts coming!

I picked up my Vermont buddy at PDX on his way home from Kodiak Thursday night. The amount of frozen fish on that flight was amazing. One guy I talked to had 150 pounds.


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That is so cool!  I fish to fill the freezer/smoker with tasty protein, it would be awesome to get the chore of stocking the larder out of the way quickly and then be able to relax and pursue other fisheries or hobbies without the guilt of letting the supply of smoked salmon run low.