Dickinson Family: Dipnet at the Chitina

We finally got a chance to go dip-netting for the first time! For those of you who don't know, dip-netting is something only Alaska residents get to do, you get a giant net on a really long pole and dip into the river to catch the salmon. It's not nearly as easy as it sounds. There are three main ways of doing it as I understand, one is sweeping the shore, you put your net out as far as you can and drag it along the bottom along the shore, the second is finding a place where the current runs in the opposite direction because the fish will go there when they get tired of swimming against the current so they can get a rest. You can also dip directly from a boat. We did a thunder run (driving down, fishing, and driving back, no real sleeping time other than when someone else is driving) down to the Chitina river where it connects with Obrien Creek. We left North Pole friday night at 6:00pm and arrived just after midnight, it was SO cold and windy, we weren't expecting that, we packed for warm weather! We parked right on the beach and had started to unpack the gear when Jessie's mom slipped out of the back of the truck. She was ok but very sore. While she rested Mark started sweeping the shore, Jessie and Anthony took turns helping him and waiting in the nice warm car. After a few hours of having no luck and watching everyone else around him catching lots of fish, Mark finally asked one of the natives if there were any tricks he needed to know, the man informed him that his pole was too short, he was missing the fish by 2-3ft! So... Nap time it was. At 4:30am we were getting ready to hike to places you can get further out into the water so our net would reach, but we quickly realized mom was far too sore to make the hike, and there was no way any of us would let Anthony get that close to the RUSHING river, so we decided instead we'd just send Mark on a charter on his own to get our fish. The charter costs a little money, but its really nice because they take you to proven good fishing spots with tie offs ready for you to use, then they come pick you up when you're done AND help you haul your fish to your vehicle with their quad. Mark left on the charter at 6:30am and was able to get our allotment (each household is allowed a certain number each year) of 30 fish by about 2pm and back at 3pm. We loaded up the fish and headed home!

We got home just before 11pm, dropped off Mom and Anthony and picked up Caleb and Carson from our friends house before heading home. We had only been home about 10min when our friends, Joey and Kjari Hart came to help us gut and clean the fish! (They have really been a wealth of information and were the ones who took us to Minto for our visit and introduced us to everyone there, Joey's dad used to be the missionary pastor in Minto years ago, so Joey grew up there.) We finally got finished gutting and cleaning up the mess, took showers and were in bed at 2:30am Sunday morning... QUITE the thunder run! Next season we plan on making it a camping trip and spending a couple nights there with the kids, but it was a great first experience! We learned a lot and will definitely be better prepared next year. We're really loving all our new experiences here in Alaska, the last frontier!

First driver... Pretty excited!