Drift net fishing on the Kuskokwim

Drift net on the Kuskokwim River

Our catch from the drift net.

Yes, those fish are on the kitchen floor. Don't worry, we cleaned up.....

Holding a nice King salmon from the Kuskokwim River.
Tonight, the Doug, Janna, Kelly, Tammy and I went out on the river for some dutch oven cooking, and fishing. Eric was in St. Mary's, so he missed out on the fun. We packed up our dutch ovens, and camp chairs and took the boat up river. It was a bit windy out, which was nice since wind keeps the mosquitoes down. Kelly and Tammy just bought their boat, so they were excited to take us out on the river. Kelly found a nice spot for us to have dinner, so the boys dropped the girls off to make dinner while they tried out the drift net.

The boys were gone for a little over an hour, so we got the coals going and started cooking dinner. Tammy made some chicken, and I made biscuits and a dessert. The boys came back after a while, and had no luck using the drift net. After a yummy dinner, we packed everything back on the boat and went back out to try the net again.

Since we are Alaska residents and live in the bush, we can participate in subsistence fishing. That means, we can drift net as well as rod and reel. Using a drift net is pretty tricky. One person must steer the boat, while another person feeds the net out into the water. The person steering the boat, must keep it straight so the boat doesn't get caught in the net. While the net is in the water, fish (hopefully) swim through it, and their gills get caught in the holes. The net will bob up in down in the water when we have fish, then 2 people pull the net in. Kelly and I pulled the net in, and killed the fish that were in the net. We tried this for a few hours and only came up with 6 king salmon and 2 silvers. Not very good. It was still fun trying.

We came back to Bethel, cleaned up the boat and headed over to the Kelly's to clean the fish. Tammy was freaking out that we were going to put the dead fish on her kitchen floor, but we all promised we would clean up. After a few hours filleting the fish, we were all covered in blood and fish guts. Yummy! There is a right way to fillet a fish, and I'm getting the handle of it. It helps to have a nice sharp fillet knife. We then divided up the fish, and cleaned up our mess. By the time I drove home it was almost 3 am, and the sun was still out on the horizon. I love the summer sun.