Dipnetting for sockeye salmon in the Copper River at Chitina, Alaska

The Copper River is often over a mile wide, but the dipnetting almost all takes place in this narrow canyon below the confluence with the Chitina River. Here the river squeezes into a deep, fast, turbulent rapids that funnels fish through a narrow area and forces them to hug the banks where anglers can reach them.

Here's part of my final catch, though many more fish are hidden in the turbid glacial water. There are 40 salmon in all. The limit for a household dipnetting permit is normally 30, but this year the sockeye run greatly exceeded expectations, so the Alaska Department of Fish & Game increased everyone's limit by 10 for several weeks.

I spent twelve hours holding this net in the river, often in fast current. The key is to hold it in an eddy, so it billows out upstream and can catch the salmon that are all swimming in that direction. The eddies along the bank attract salmon because it's easier for them to run upstream with the current than against it. The best eddies are the narrow ones where the rest of the river is flowing fast downstream most of the salmon hug the bank.

Dipnetting to fill the freezer with salmon is not as tidy as catch & release fly fishing. Here's the process: 1. Beat the salmon as hard as you can between the eyes with a club, several times if needed, while it's still in the net. This makes it stop flopping so you can remove it from the net. 2. Cut the base of the gill arches on one side with scissors, severing major arteries that send blood spurting out of the unconscious fish's body, quickly killing it and assuring ideal flavor. 3. Thread the stringer in through one of the gills and out the mouth, and stick the fish back in the glacial river to keep cool.

After whacking ten or fifteen fish in the same spot, the riverbank looks like it warrants a CSI team.

I was at a popular spot for dipnetting, and this little rodent (a vole, I think?) hit the jackpot with an earlier angler's leftover snack.