We spent the weekend in fishing spot discovery mode due to the lack of fish in the local rivers. Ken and I drove from Ninilchik to Soldotna, Sterling and over to the town of Kenai. We stopped near Kenai to watch the locals dip netting for salmon in the Kenai River.
Alaskan state law allows residents of Alaska to dip net for salmon during the month of July during the Sockeye Salmon run. The head of household is allowed to keep 25 with an additional 10 more per family member. These nets are about 5 feet in diameter attached to a handle anywhere from 6-15 long. They hold these nets in the river perpendicular to the rapid current and wait for a fish to swim into the net. Once a fish is in the net, they turn it down and drag it and the fish to shore and club them with a miniature baseball bat. Sometimes they get multiple fish in the nets so this is not a sport for the weak.
While we were watching the fishing, an Alaskan resident walked up and started telling us about how this is all accomplished. Imagine Grizzly Adams (remember the TV show?) with really greasy hair, equally greasy, long beard, chain smoking cigarettes and teeth that looked like they hadn’t seen a dentist in years, yet alone a toothbrush. If he ever wanted to have braces he would need to use a crow bar to close the gaps.
Ken asked him how they preserve the fish. They put 3 pounds of salt in 5 gallons of water. Bring to a boil then let cool. Put fish in brine and refrigerate. If you don’t have a refrigerator, use 5 pounds of salt. When you want some salmon, remove fillets, wash (thoroughly, my comment) and bake, broil or grill. Sounds yummy? We didn’t see any fish caught.
He also told us what the call people from Anchorage or Fairbanks, “anchors and bankers”. People from Anchorage are not real Alaskans, just tourists.
As reported earlier, I spent Saturday doing minor repairs on the RV and Abby sun bathed. Saturday afternoon an Alaskan family (real Alaskans not transplants) stopped at the fish cleaning tables and unloaded 65 Sockeye Salmon and took several hours to process them. They vacuum pack.
During the night the salmon had started their annual migration up the Kenai River. The Alaskan Fish and Game Department uses sonar to count the fish entering the river. Early Saturday 31,000 salmon entered the river. Famine one day, feast the other.
Sunday, Abby went to the local Methodist Church and Ken and Debbie went to Soldotna to fish the Kenai. After church Abby and I went fishing on the Ninilchik River and Deep Creek where we had seen the Pink (Humpy) Salmon the day before. The best I can say is we learned the 2 rivers for future reference for the Silver (Coho) Salmon run.
Ken, however, came back from the Kenai with his limit of 3 Sockeye. He said it was fantastic fishing.
Sockeye Salmon is hands down, the best tasting salmon. I can see why the locals look down their nose at the pinks.
The flesh is bright red and firm and very, very tasting. We put the fillets on the grill, joined with potatoes, coleslaw and wine, an enjoyable meal by far. The only thing that would make it better would be an accompanying sunset. I can’t stay awake until 11:30.
Monday we all drove to the Kenai River in the “yellow banana” (Abby’s jeep with the Kayak on top) for salmon fishing. The jeep earned its moniker during the trip north when on occasion we would split up. We were highly visible in parking lots and it made for easy navigation when leaving a store.
Ken, Abby and I headed down to the river for “combat fishing” and Debbie Kibitzed.
We had a great day and we each limited out for a total of nine. Abby had a ball.
Ken and I headed to the cleaning tables to fillet the days catch.
Then it was back to the RV to vacuum seal the fish before going in the freezer.
This is a 5 gallon bucket of salmon fillets.
Today we drove back to the same spot in the river for some more "combat fishing".
After a couple of hours we were approaching out limit when disaster almost struck.
Abby hooked the biggest Sockeye of the day just upstream from me. Ken was upstream of her and I was closest to the net. I grabbed the net and headed towards Abby and her fish. Just as I got there, Abby's fly rod (my favorite rod) snapped in two. I grabbed the line and managed to control the fish long enough to get it in the net. As soon as I got the hook out of the mouth of the fish, Abby slipped and fell into the river up to her head! Her fishing waders filled up and was dragging her down. The current is extremely fast and the river is deep just 3 feet from shore. Abby was being swept away in the current!
This picture shows the width of the river. At least 150 yards.
Some of you may recall the Yul Brynner movie "That others may live". It is a story about Air Force Search and Rescue. One scene there is a single hand reaching out of the water for help. That was Abby except her head was still visible and she simply said "help me". Luckily I was close enough to grab her by her wrist and managed to pull her into shallow water. She was soaking wet and shivering like a wet dog but otherwise ok.
In case you are wondering, Abby held onto the fly rod, and I held onto the fish.
We called it quits and walked back to the parking lot where Abby stripped out of her wet clothes and wrapped herself in blankets.
I thank God the events turned out positively. Interestingly, not one of the people fishing attempted to help. Sad commentary.
Saturday we will be going into the Cook Inlet and hopefully catching Halibut much larger than these that were caught today.
