Having lived in the desert of Arizona for the past 30 or more year and born and raised in Upstate New York, I had absolutely no concept of what "dip net fishing" was all about. Gary, Jordan and Justin drove up from Anchorage on Thursday - arriving around 230am - to go dip net fishing in Cook Inlet at Kenai Thursday morning. After grabbing just a few hours of sleep, we helped Gary load up the gear and one of the dip nets in the back of his truck. We had to put the largest (probably 5 feet in diameter) net on top of the shell on the truck and hook it onto the frame with bungee cords. We headed out about 845am in order for them to get to Kenai and get set up before the tide came in at 1130am.
The salmon come into the inlet on the tide to work their way into the mouth of the Kenai river to travel to their spawning grounds. Gary and the kids parked on the beach and we met them there after parking the truck in the "nearly full" parking lot. I think we got the last space. There were people already lined up all along the beach, practically elbow to elbow. Gary and Jordan got into their neoprene waders and were ready to go. The dip nets are on long poles that are pushed into the ocean from the beach. You hold the net upright and the fish swim into them. In the mean time, the tide is coming in, the waves are pushing you around and you are trying to maintain your balance and keep the net upright. Quite a feat. Jordan has been
doing this since she was 10 years old and she was determined to get the first fish. She was dressed and in the water before her dad. Patience is a necessity in this situation and since it was windy, cold just for me standing on the shore, I gave Jordan and Gary a lot of credit for being out there. We snapped a picture of Gary pulling in one salmon, but just as he got it to shore, it managed to get out of the net. What a disappointment. People all around them were pulling in fish left and right but they were not having much luck. The only thing they managed to do was get hit by waves and water running down the inside of the waders. They both had to come out and strip the waders off and empty the water out - teeth chattering. I would have given up but they were real troopers and just headed
back in. We were standing next to a gentleman from Phoenix, who also has a home in Alaska. He and his friend were trying their hand at dip net fishing and they managed to catch 4 good size salmon while we were there. You can only dip net fish in Alaska if you are a reside of Alaska. We stood and watched for about 3 hours, and unfortunately Gary and Jordan did not have any luck during that time. We headed off to do some grocery shopping and received a call from Jordan that they had managed to catch one salmon and were calling it a day. They were cold, wet,discouraged and heading back to the chalets. They arrived back shortly after we did and invited us over for a salmon dinner.
We had a very enjoyable evening, delicious dinner with fresh salmon cooked on the grill, and good company. They headed back to Kenai on Friday morning to do more fishing and we found out later in the day that they had caught 18 more fish. That was much less than their quota, but they were happy with what they had. Gary told Bob that he had heard that there were 50,000 salmon recorded entering the Kenai river from the ocean on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - that is each day!!! That does not include the number of fish caught by the commercial fishermen in the ocean or the dip netters on the beach. It is difficult to imagine that many fish traveling north to spawn each day.
Having lived in the desert of Arizona for the past 30 or more year and born and raised in Upstate New York, I had absolutely no concept of what "dip net fishing" was all about. Gary, Jordan and Justin drove up from Anchorage on Thursday - arriving around 230am - to go dip net fishing in Cook Inlet at Kenai Thursday morning. After grabbing just a few hours of sleep, we helped Gary load up the gear and one of the dip nets in the back of his truck. We had to put the largest (probably 5 feet in diameter) net on top of the shell on the truck and hook it onto the frame with bungee cords. We headed out about 845am in order for them to get to Kenai and get set up before the tide came in at 1130am.
The salmon come into the inlet on the tide to work their way into the mouth of the Kenai river to travel to their spawning grounds. Gary and the kids parked on the beach and we met them there after parking the truck in the "nearly full" parking lot. I think we got the last space. There were people already lined up all along the beach, practically elbow to elbow. Gary and Jordan got into their neoprene waders and were ready to go. The dip nets are on long poles that are pushed into the ocean from the beach. You hold the net upright and the fish swim into them. In the mean time, the tide is coming in, the waves are pushing you around and you are trying to maintain your balance and keep the net upright. Quite a feat. Jordan has been 
doing this since she was 10 years old and she was determined to get the first fish. She was dressed and in the water before her dad. Patience is a necessity in this situation and since it was windy, cold just for me standing on the shore, I gave Jordan and Gary a lot of credit for being out there. We snapped a picture of Gary pulling in one salmon, but just as he got it to shore, it managed to get out of the net. What a disappointment. People all around them were pulling in fish left and right but they were not having much luck. The only thing they managed to do was get hit by waves and water running down the inside of the waders. They both had to come out and strip the waders off and empty the water out - teeth chattering. I would have given up but they were real troopers and just headed
back in. We were standing next to a gentleman from Phoenix, who also has a home in Alaska. He and his friend were trying their hand at dip net fishing and they managed to catch 4 good size salmon while we were there. You can only dip net fish in Alaska if you are a reside of Alaska. We stood and watched for about 3 hours, and unfortunately Gary and Jordan did not have any luck during that time. We headed off to do some grocery shopping and received a call from Jordan that they had managed to catch one salmon and were calling it a day. They were cold, wet,discouraged and heading back to the chalets. They arrived back shortly after we did and invited us over for a salmon dinner. 
We had a very enjoyable evening, delicious dinner with fresh salmon cooked on the grill, and good company. They headed back to Kenai on Friday morning to do more fishing and we found out later in the day that they had caught 18 more fish. That was much less than their quota, but they were happy with what they had. Gary told Bob that he had heard that there were 50,000 salmon recorded entering the Kenai river from the ocean on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - that is each day!!! That does not include the number of fish caught by the commercial fishermen in the ocean or the dip netters on the beach. It is difficult to imagine that many fish traveling north to spawn each day.
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