Quick update on fishing in Alaska! Ginger and I took the dogs, two friends (Karen and Joey) and the motorhome over to Kasilof River on the Kenai Peninsula to go dipnetting for sockeye (red) salmon this past weekend. We were out at the river from about 10:30am till 9 pm on Saturday. We caught 8 fish total. Not a large amount considering we had 2 to 4 nets in the water at any one time. People were catching but nobody was limiting (25 per head of household plus 10 per family member) out.
We did have a good time and met some nice, some weird, and some interesting people. One guy makes his own nets and loaned us two. He uses copper pipes which are heavy but the size of the net is effective. Although 12 feet long, our new nets still aren't quite big enough (diameter) so Ginger plans to make use of the shop at school to construct some bigger nets for us this winter to use next year.
There was some excitement when two people caught king salmon in their nets. The kings have to be released since it is illegal to catch and keep them when dipnetting. The first was probably a 20# fish but the second was the size of a miniature horse or at least a goat (60 to 70#). Imagine having the animal swim into your net (you feel the hit at the end of the net) and than pulling it out of the water and up onto the beach. Wow! The guy who caught it worked really fast to get it out of the net and back in the water. Even if he wanted to keep it, I am sure it was too big not to be conspicuous.
The weather cooperated and we actually had some blue sky and we all came home with sunburnt faces. (yes, even in Alaska). We are planning another motorhome camping trip with the boat over Labor Day to a place outside of Anchorage called Big Lake. The lake has rainbow trout, silver salmon and the evil northern pike which tends to eat the other fish and take over. So we will see how good the fishing is.
Rainy in Anchorage today but I'm back to work so who cares. Everyone is complaining that we aren't having much of a summer but the weather forecasters are saying this is more on the normal side, cloudy, rainy, etc. rather than 70 degree days Anchorage had last year. What I find is activities like bicycling, baseball, softball that when it rains, would stop people in So. Calif., folks here just keep on going. Otherwise we might never get outside to play if we wait for the rain to stop! Those of you who have visited know what we mean. Those of you who haven't visited, get your bums up here.
Ok folks that's it for now. Back to work, lots to do...!
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We had so much fun. Dip netting is good fun to watch. Everyone has a "proven" technique: the only "proven" thing to me was that you could not predict when or if the fish would hit...or where. Several fish brushed (goosed) both myself and Ginger.
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