Salmon Fishing

This is the dip net.

Eric trying his hand at dip netting at the mouth of the Kenai River.

Karen displaying her fillet of red salmon. Eric catches them, and I cut em!

Eric is fishing for silvers in Bird Creek, about 20 miles south of Anchorage.

Here are some picures of our fishing adventures. Eric and I went to Bird Creek to fish for silvers. There were lots of people out, as well as brown bears. The brown bears hang out just up the creek, but usually stay away from the fishermen.

There is a technique to fishing, and we were trying to learn as much as we could. One guy helped us learn how to correctly cast among so many fishermen, so that was helpful. He was getting a bit cocky though, as he "caught" a young girl in the ear. Not many girls are out on the creek, so I was talking to another female fisherman, and as we chatted, the guy's hook caught her right in the ear! She ended up going to the ER to get the hook removed. I've heard that the ER is full of people with hooks stuck in various body parts during the summer months!

We then headed down to Kenai to try dip netting. This is only for Alaska Residents. You take a large dip net to the mouth of the Kenai, and scoop reds out of the water. It was a blast. A family is allowed 50 fish per year. The beach had thousands of fish heads along the shore. This is one of the largest salmon runs in Alaska. More than 1 million fish swim through those waters during the summer. It's amazing!

It took Eric an hour or so to get the hang of dip netting, but once he got it down, he was nailing them. We ended up with a cooler full of fresh salmon. YUM! Thousands of people set up "fish camp" along the shores. The dip netting season is very short, so people camp out. We had a great time, and can't wait to do it again next summer.