Dipnetting 2012

me...gettin' silly with the fish!

Last year was our first year of dipnetting.  We had so much fun!  This year however, was even more fun!  We got home from Washington on Monday night, got *mostly* unpacked on Tuesday and the packed up again Tuesday night for a trip to the Kenai river.  The fishing was HOT, HOT, HOT while we were there!  Last year we were thrilled at our 13 fish.  This year we pulled in 54!!!!!  We are planning to do a lot of fish smoking in the coming days!

4 in hand, 50 in the sand!

This year there were 3 of us manning two nets.  The fish were running so thick that you could feel them bumping your legs and they would often jump right in front of you!  Several times we netted one on our way back out into the water before even getting the net all the way out.  Once a friend of ours even netted two at once, something we saw happening here and there up and down the beach.  After the run slowed down, we headed and gutted our pile of fish.  And I made a quick run to WalMart to grab another cooler and some ice.  We thought our huge cooler was big enough, but we had two of them jammed by the end of the day!

me, pulling one in

When we arrived back in Whittier we were blessed to be met by Scott.  What a great guy I married!  He doesn't even like salmon, but he met us at the dock with all of our fish, ready and willing to help us fillet.  We were even further blessed when T, a local deckhand happened by.  He so kindly filleted all 54 of our fish for us.  In 30 minutes!!  Scott and Stephanie hauled them all back up to our place while I helped the girls get showered and off to bed, then the three of us worked until 11:30 trimming all of those fillets and packaging them for freezing.  All 131 pounds of it!  I fell into bed at midnight...exhausted, but happy!

some of the cleaned fish

some of the fillets

exhausted me, napping on 131 lbs of filleted sockeye

The kids had a great day as well!  Some friends came along who kept all three kiddos (my two and Steph's one) happily occupied.  They played in the sand, with the fish, in the water and with bubbles.  They were a sandy, happy, tired mess by the end of the day.  Stacy managed to stay awake long enough to eat 2.5 chicken nuggets before crashing in the car on the way home!

once Kelsey held one she wanted to hold them all!

meanwhile, Stacy poked the fish head eyes with scissors...yes, I am saving for her therapist!

the sand bed they created

It was truly a wonderful day!