It was my first time to Chitina for dipnetting. I'd been to that part of the state several times before but to visit McCarthy/Kennicott.
Thousands of people flock to the banks of the Copper River from June thru September to net Reds (Sockeye), Kings(Chinook) and Silvers(Coho). To fish, all you need is a sports fishing license for $25, a free permit for the dipnetting and a big net. You are allowed 15 fish per person for the season, but in times of abundant runs, a supplemental limit is allowed, 10 extra fish per person.
To better your odds it is helpful to monitor several websites. There is a fish counter/sonar about 70 miles downstream that can tell you if a large number of fish are on their way up the river. It takes about 2 weeks for those fish to reach the fishing area but that depends on the water level of the river. The Copper River is glacially fed so on hot sunny days the river runs high and lower on cloudy days. High water levels mean the fish take more time to come up the river. Low levels mean the fish might by-pass some of the eddies and stay in the main channel more of the time. So it can be a crap shoot but I think your odds are improved by monitoring the conditions.
The spot you pick to fish can also make a big difference. When we were there many people caught very few fish whereas we nearly limited out altho it did take us 15 hours. Last year Lee and 3 others caught 115 fish in about 5 hours. With 3 nets in the water there was rarely one without a fish in it. Talk about a run of fish!!
A quick stop in Delta for some deep fried Halibut burgers had us witnessing a torrential downpour that lasted a good 15 minutes. 5 miles out of town the road was dry. Talk about localized.
We got into Chitina, 310 miles away, around 10 pm. Lee and I proceeded to unpack the car and load up her garden cart with 3 huge coolers, my backpack and two big fish nets. Lee got to haul her backpack in while I pulled the cart. She would help push the cart up the hills and act as a break with me down the hills.
At around midnite we were ready to walk along the old railroad bed to the fishing holes. The railway was the supply route in and out of the rich copper deposits at Kennicott. The rails and ties have been removed. Some bridge tressels still remain but are not usable except on some parts of the road to McCarthy.
A few years ago you could still drive along the railroad bed with your car but the last few years heavy rains have washed out a bridge at O'Brian Creek and created some mud/rock slides that have made the "road" into an ATV(4-wheeler)/walking trail only.
We walked in about 3 miles to a place on the river that Lee had fished once before and thought might prove to be a good spot again. In the past she had fished a few miles further along but with the late hour and the prospects of walking out with full coolers of fish we decided to stop at the nearest spot.
The tent was set up along the trail by about 3:30 am and we got about an hour of sleep before we had to get up and get down to the river by 5 am in order to secure our spot. Lee had done some scouting when we got there a few hours before and saw some people sleeping at the spot we wanted to fish. Because there was no 4-wheeler or other mode of transportation up along the trail we figured these people had been dropped off by one of several charter outfits that drop people off at the good fishing holes along the river and then pick them up when they get their limit of fish. Some folks fish thru the nite and get picked up the next day. The fishing charters start delivering/picking people up at 5 am, so that is why we wanted to be down at the river so that we could secure that fishing spot before someone else was dropped off.
By 6 am we were fishing. The method is pretty simple. You take a very large fishing net, one that measures several feet across, and place it in an eddie where the current is not as strong and fish hang out/rest a bit before swimming into the main channel on there way up the river. In some eddies you can allow the river current to hold your net in place but in other places it is easiest to tie the net to some rock/tree to hold the net. But you still need your hand on the pole to feel when the fish gets into net because if you do not twist the net and pull it in quickly the fish can turn around in the net and be gone.
A few years ago you could still drive along the railroad bed with your car but the last few years heavy rains have washed out a bridge at O'Brian Creek and created some mud/rock slides that have made the "road" into an ATV(4-wheeler)/walking trail only.
We walked in about 3 miles to a place on the river that Lee had fished once before and thought might prove to be a good spot again. In the past she had fished a few miles further along but with the late hour and the prospects of walking out with full coolers of fish we decided to stop at the nearest spot.
The tent was set up along the trail by about 3:30 am and we got about an hour of sleep before we had to get up and get down to the river by 5 am in order to secure our spot. Lee had done some scouting when we got there a few hours before and saw some people sleeping at the spot we wanted to fish. Because there was no 4-wheeler or other mode of transportation up along the trail we figured these people had been dropped off by one of several charter outfits that drop people off at the good fishing holes along the river and then pick them up when they get their limit of fish. Some folks fish thru the nite and get picked up the next day. The fishing charters start delivering/picking people up at 5 am, so that is why we wanted to be down at the river so that we could secure that fishing spot before someone else was dropped off.
By 6 am we were fishing. The method is pretty simple. You take a very large fishing net, one that measures several feet across, and place it in an eddie where the current is not as strong and fish hang out/rest a bit before swimming into the main channel on there way up the river. In some eddies you can allow the river current to hold your net in place but in other places it is easiest to tie the net to some rock/tree to hold the net. But you still need your hand on the pole to feel when the fish gets into net because if you do not twist the net and pull it in quickly the fish can turn around in the net and be gone.
After about 6 hours we had about 12 fish, not exactly hot fishing but better than nothing. The was a small eddie that the folks before us had had good luck in but it was when the water was higher and the eddie more defined. After Lee went up to sleep for a few hours I decided to try the little eddie because I was falling asleep while sitting and tending the tied off net and not catching anything.
Within 5 minutes I had a fish and after an hour I had 6. I "ran"/climbed up to the tent to let Lee know that the fishing was picking up.
Within 5 minutes I had a fish and after an hour I had 6. I "ran"/climbed up to the tent to let Lee know that the fishing was picking up.
From the videos you can see that the river is running pretty strong so tying yourself off to a tree/rock is definitely the safe thing to do, as well as wearing a life jacket. The water temp. is not much warmer than freezing.
Like I said you can feel the fish bump the net when they pass by it or when they are in it. We would pull the net up and bonk the fish on the head with a piece of wood before taking it out of the net. Then the fish were taken over to where we had a rope stringer in the water where we cut the gills before putting the fish on the stringer.
Here is an 18 pound King Salmon, my second of the day. The first one got away. I had it up on the rocks, the same place Lee posed with her Red Salmon. It was a monster, around 50 lbs. A log, I tell you! The net I was using was not deep enough to hold it. I was so excited about having landed it that I was not really sure what to do. My mind was also racing as to how I was going to subdue this behemoth. The little log that we had been knocking off the 4 to 10 pound Reds with, did not seem adequate enough for this one. Needless to say, I set the net ring down and the fish did a few flops and was out of the net. I pounced on it, banging my knees on the rock, but it was too slippery and slid down the rock into the river. I was pretty upset, having lost a huge King on the Gulkana River after an hour fighting it back in the summer of 1990 when my family was up here on vacation. My comment to Lee, "I'm not meant to get a King!"
In the end I think it was a good thing we didn't have a 50 lb king along with 49 Reds. It would have made our load out much too heavy. And I don't particularily like the taste of King. I much prefer Red. The 18 pounder was plenty of King meat.
Here is about 25 of the 49 fish. We had been fishing where you can see the folks in the background. They had been fishing where I am standing and getting only a few. So when we had our 49 fish plus the king we decided to hang it up and relenquish our spot to those folks. Because the trail back up to the tent was easier from this spot, we lined the fish over and left them in the water overnite while we got some badly needed sleep.
The killer teeth of the King!
The next day we hauled the fish up the trail from the river to the railroad bed and our coolers. The trail was about 50 -60 yards and very steep/wet. We lined our backpacks with two trash bags. These fish are incredibly slimy. 6 to 10 fish was a good load.
Here we are nearly at the end of the trail. This is the configuration we had for a good part of the haul out, except for when we had steep down/up hills and the 4 landslides to navigate. At those times we would walk our backpacks, drop them, come back and unload the cart so that only one cooler was in it, walk/push it over the goat trail, drop it, and come back for the next load, which would be the other full cooler and the 2nd cooler that was very light with some gear and food. It took us 8 hours to walk out on the trail that had taken us 3 hours to walk in.
Cutting boards for the cleaning of the fish.
The butcher shop. Lee was house-sitting for some friends that have running water so this is where we processed our fish for 3 days.
Lee with a fine fish and her fillet method.
Nice Job!
some beautiful red fillets
I cut up 5 fish to smoke and can, Lee did 9. The fish is first cut to lengths to fit into the jars and then soaked in a brine of water,salt and brown sugar for about an hour. Then the fish is put on racks and into the smoker that has a heating element on the bottom and a pan that sits on it full of wood chips. We used Alder chips. The fish was smoked for 30 to 60 minutes depending on its thickness.
Here is the fish in the jars before putting the lids on and into the pressure cooker. The fish is cooked for nearly 2 hours. Yummy goodness!!
Cutting up the King.
Nice fillet. About 5 pounds.
Both Lee and I are looking forward to a year of eating lots of salmon and sharing it with friends and family. We are grateful to live in such a beautiful place where bountiful, natural harvests like this one are still possible. Thanks so much Lee for a wonderful trip and showing me the ropes of dip netting at Chitina!!
