Dipnetting.

Summer is such an amazing time in Alaska. It doesn't get dark! You have to force yourself to go to bed and to stay asleep, you freak out when it is light at 2am because you think you've missed your alarm and are late for work, and you learn that stores/restaurants don't extend their hours just because it is light out. How would you spend your days if you had 24-hour daylight?

Well, we are past the summer solstice and the days are getting shorter. It is sad, really. Don't get me wrong, I love love LOVE winter, but we are losing 5-6 minutes of light each day. In fact, it is getting dark at night! Give me about a month and I will be afraid of the dark - I don't think I am alone in saying that I "see" things while driving during September. After that, my eyes/brain are used to the dark and I no longer hallucinate. :)

Anyway, we are still trying to enjoy the summer here when we have a day(s) off. A couple Fridays ago we got off of work at 2pm and decided we were going to go down to the Kenai to fish. Let's rewind real quick: our tour left Denali at 7am that Friday morning and arrived in Anchorage at noon (they are about 240 miles apart). The tour ended at 2pm and we were on our way to Kenai (another 180 miles away). As if we don't already live a whirlwind life, we had to stop at the bank, the grocery store, Costco, our storage unit, our friend's house to get gear, home, a fast-food restaurant, and the gas station. We were on the road about three hours later. We arrived in Kenai at 9pm or so and quickly explored since we had never been there. We made a quick stop at Walmart and then headed out to where the ocean meets the mouth of the Kenai River.

These pictures are STRAIGHT off of my camera - NO color enhancement whatsoever. Oh man, it was such a beautiful day!

Kiteboarders on the Turnagain Arm.

WOW!

Yep, that's about all I could say on the drive down.

I tried to get a picture of everything thrown into the back of our truck. We had no time to plan, we just grabbed - tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, blankets, food (a very random assortment, might I add), dipnet poles, coolers, hotdog roasting sticks, an axe, waders, a filet knife, a fish bat, and the list goes on.

So, let me tell you about dipnetting. It is only open to Alaskan residents and you have to obtain a special (free) permit for your family. The head of each household is allowed 25 salmon and can catch 10 more for each dependent which means we could legally dipnet 35 salmon this year. Dipnetting is unlike any other fishing I have done. You stand out in the ocean in your waders and hold a dipnet which is a large net (up to 5' in diameter) attached to a pole waiting for a fish to swim into and get caught in your net. My pole was about 10' long and my net about 4.5' in diameter; Andy used a much shorter pole where the net "frame" was practically in his hands. I feel like I am making no sense...you can see the poles in the pic below. Annnnnyway, you also have to fish with the tides. It is difficult to fish when the tide is going out and at low tide, but the fishing is "better" when the tide is coming in (it helps the fish move upstream, more or less). The tides on the day we went were anything but convenient - they were at 4 am (I like to be sleeping at that time) and at 5pm (we needed to be headed back to Anchorage by 3pm).

We paid our camping fee and were told to "just drive out there on the beach and find yourself a spot!" That we did.

Is this not amazing? It was awesome.

The sun was beginning to set upon our arrival and it was getting a bit chilly.

(This is the Cook Inlet aka Pacific Ocean and the taller peaks in the background are volcanoes.)

We found our spot on the beach and decided we ought to get out and fish! This was at 9 when we got there - look at how many people are out in the water! Soooo, we whipped out our gear and walked blindly out into the water = basically we had no clue what the heck we were doing.

Here are my hillbilly waders. We got them from a friend and they were great, until the second time I got into the water...there was a hole somewhere and water quickly filled the waders up one leg and down the other and then up to my stomach and chest!

They also don't have any sort of suspenders to hold them up, so we used nylon rope and made our own...reminds me of the time I tied a rice bag and freeze packs around my face after I got my wisdom teeth out.

Definitely not a glamour shot, but I caught the first fish! I also caught the second fish...and then we called it a night. We were exhausted! (Hahahahha this picture is disgusting! WHAT A HILLBILLY! I am laughing now...wow. Time for a haircut! Anyway, there I am with my fish!)

A pic of our "campsite" on the beach...

This is out of order, but this was how dark it was when we went to go fish again (after I'd caught one fish, we had dinner, and decided we might as well give it another try). Andy opted not to wear waders this time and got a little wigged out when the fish would hit him in the leg (amongst other places hahahaha)! We also saw what we thought (and hoped!) was a seal swimming along who quickly dipped its head under water not to be seen again...it was a little eerie!

Now fast forward to 1:00am when we decided to call it a night. We got all of our stuff put away the best we could and got into the tent. Because my waders had a hole in them and because Andy didn't wear waders the second time, we went to bed with cold feet. D-U-M-B. Sometimes I think we try to be super-people and do too much in a short amount of time (we've all been-there-done-that, right??). We were hurrying hurrying hurrying to get to bed so we could get up early and fish...probably would have been smarter to get in the truck or start a fire to warm up a little. We both slept miserably!

At about 3:50am we both were awake and could hear the waves crashing pretty loudly nearby. I was honestly a bit nervous to look out the tent door because the water sounded so close! I ended up checking and the water was about five or six feet from our tent door! It was really funny, actually. I sat and stared out the tent door, too cold to go out and move anything. I prayed that the water would not come up further as I watched every minute tick by; the tide was to turn at 4:23. At about 4:15 I went back to sleep, assuming that in 8 minutes the water was not going to rise enough to touch the tent. Thankfully I was right.

I took this picture the next morning:

You can see the water line touching our poles. Next time I will camp a little further back!

At about noon our friends Gly and Cory met up with us. Coincidentally, they were in Homer shooting a wedding (check out their site!) and stopped in to fish on their way home. Between the two of them they only caught one salmon so we sent one of ours home with them. We caught 8 total salmon and 4 flounder (like halibut but smaller).

We had to get home to pack for our next tour (and leave the next morning at 6) so we booked it home. Andy fileted fish while I did laundry, vacuum packed fish, packed our cooler, vacuum packed fish, and packed our bags. Vacuum packing takes forever...but I should be thankful for fresh fish, right?

We never got a picture of all of our fish - we were in that much of a hurry! They were sure pretty. :)


The end.