Chitna dipnetting

It’s time for another update on the ankle joint replacement situation. I’ve finished my second full week of physical therapy (PT) and beginning my eighth week post-surgery. The PT is doing fine, and my therapist tells me I’m doing okay. Since this is my eighth week post-surgery, I can begin to put significant weight on the ankle while wearing the walking boot and using crutches.

My therapist tells me I’ll be doing limited walking, in therapy, without the boot in the next week or two. I’m scheduled to see the surgeon next week. I expect he’ll order x-rays to see how the joint is seating and I’m told, will order a lace-up brace to replace the walking boot. So far, everything seems par for the course.

I still haven’t gotten out to fish or do much of anything outside. However, the time is rapidly approaching when I can. I was catching up on my emails the other day and came across a link to a set of four ADF&G online videos about dipnetting on the Copper River. These may be the same videos Andy Couch referenced in his fishing column this week.

I had dipnetted the Copper River for several years with a couple of guys I worked with in Fish and Game. Larry had done some of the “hang off the cliff” style dipnetting when he first started going, but when he and I began making the dipping trip together, he skipped that approach. I refused to even try that type of fishing.

We would usually bring an inflatable raft and outboard along on the trip and would motor to the opposite shore from the road along the river. We found a couple of good spots and for a few years, caught all our fish (or as many as we needed) in a couple of trips across the river.

Tom, our third dipper, joined us for the last two or three years we dipnetted the Copper. We were still using the raft, but one year, Larry towed a riverboat down and we started experimenting with dipping from a boat. We had tried using the raft, but it just wasn’t stable enough in the fast Copper River currents. We were just starting to get the hang of dipping from a boat when Larry was killed in a small plane crash. Things just weren’t the same after that and I never went back to the Copper River.

One fun story from our days on the Copper River happened the second to last year the three of us went. We were camped on the opposite shore from the road. Tom and Larry decided to take the raft upriver to a couple of our old dipping spots and try their luck. I stayed in camp because my shoulder had been bothering me.

The shore in front of our camp was a shallow sandy beach running into the river. Not expecting much, I figured I’d hang my net out in the water just to see what would happen. Even with my net handle fully extended, my net hoop still stuck about a quarter of the hoop diameter out of the water.

I was enjoying the sunshine when, suddenly, a fish stuck the net. I was more surprised than the fish was. After landing the fish and starting a stringer to hold my catch, I stretched the net back out into the water. I was landing sockeyes at a steady rate, nothing fast, just steady.

About an hour later, Larry and Tom were coming back down the river. As they came into view, I asked how they had done. I think it was Larry who said they had caught four fish between them for the afternoon. They could see that I had my net out and, as they were asking if I was having any luck, I had a fish hit the net. I pulled it into shore and told them that was number 21!

They couldn’t get to shore fast enough and, after spreading out along the shoreline, started dipping like I was doing. I was done in another ten minutes or so, and both Larry and Tom had all their fish in less than two hours. Then the work began!

I would normally just head, gill, and gut my fish before packing them in a cooler of ice. Larry would fillet all his fish before icing them. I don’t remember what Tom did, but I suspect he filleted his fish too.

I miss those days!