Rod and reel fishing is fun but dipnetting fills the freezer …

Outdoors in Alaska, by Howard Delo

Larry, Tom and I had religiously participated in the Chitna dipnet fishery for several years. We usually went mid-week around the third week of July if the Miles Lake weir counts from two weeks prior indicated a good number of sockeyes were in the Copper River.

We last went to Chitna in 2001. Larry and I both still had fish in the freezer when we started thinking about the 2002 trip. Tom had recently undergone some life-altering surgery, so we canceled the trip. Unfortunately, Larry was killed in a plane crash later that summer and Tom still hasn't recovered to where he is comfortable making the trip.

If I wanted to go dipnetting this year, I needed to make alternate plans.

The Copper River is one of the most dangerous rivers I have boated on in Alaska. The current is very swift, the waters are heavily silt-laden, and the river itself is narrow and deep in the areas open to dipnetting. The torrid current can change the depth of the water on the rocky bank ledges by as much as three feet between surges. With the road closed below O'Brien Creek, the only way to access our usual haunts near Haley Creek, at the southern end of the dipnetting area, was by riverboat.

Larry was a master at running a riverboat, but he is gone. I talked with some other friends, but nobody was comfortable running a riverboat on the Copper River. I probably have seen the last of Chitna.

We normally dipnetted from the shore at Chitna, but not from the "cliff-hanging" positions you often see pictured in stories about that fishery. We had tried dipnetting from a boat, but never had any luck.

I avoided the Kenai River dipnet fishery because I had heard stories of the frequently inconsiderate crowds dipnetting from the beach and, oftentimes, the lack of fish to justify the cost of driving down. I hadn't even thought about using my riverboat on the Kenai.

My hunting partner, Doug, and his family were planning to be in the Sterling area on vacation about the time I was thinking of trying the Kenai option. Doug had talked with folks in the area and had gotten some ideas on how to rig a boat to more easily dipnet fish. Doug conveyed those ideas to me and I began thinking about towing my riverboat down and using it to dipnet from, rather than pursuing the bank-dipping alternative.

I packed my Chitna dipnet and other gear and met Doug in Sterling on the agreed date. He had borrowed a Kenai dipnet from a friend and we planned to meet again at the city of Kenai boat launch later that Wednesday evening to take advantage of the late high tide and try dipnetting from my riverboat.

That evening, the wind was blowing southwesterly to 25 knots. Fish were jumping everywhere amidst the white-capping waves. I watched several fish being landed by nearby shore dippers while waiting for Doug to arrive. We decided to cancel the trip because of the rough water conditions and try again on the next high tide.

The following morning dawned with broken overcast and calm wind conditions and we were out on the river shortly after 6 a.m. Doug's youngest son, Luke, was along as the second dipnetter.

We cruised upriver to about a mile below the bridge and started dipping while slowly moving downstream close to the south bank of the river. We had that stretch of river to ourselves. Doug had dipnetted two fish before we really got going, so we hoped for good things until we figured out what we needed to do.

The short version: In two hours, we had 65 fish on board -- all the fish our two families needed for the season. My all-time Chitna best had been 30 fish in a little over two hours, so I think we have found a new dipnetting option.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist living in Big Lake. Send your comments and ideas to editor@frontiersman.com, or call (907) 352-2268 and leave a message for Howard.