I'd heard and read about Chitina dip net fishing. Only
Alaska residents are allowed to fish that way, and they have to get a special
permit. And its only allow right around Chitina. I wanted to
see how it was done, so drove over there.
Rev. 08/19/01
Alaska & beyond - continued 8/18 - 8/20
Valdez again
Yesterday, when fishing over at Winnebago Point, I got to talking with the guy next to me. He'd been down at Chitina dip net fishing, but he said it'd been slow, so he and his wife came over here to have some fun.
I'd heard and read about Chitina dip net fishing. Only
Alaska residents are allowed to fish that way, and they have to get a special
permit. And its only allow right around Chitina. I wanted to
see how it was done, so drove over there.
Chitina is on the Copper River. I'd been down on the Copper River delta a few weeks ago when I was at Cordova. From there up to Chitina there is no road, no railroad for about seventy-five miles along the Copper River -- only a foot trail.
There is a very poor dirt road that goes down about 3 miles below Chitina. It gives access to where O'Brian Creek, one of the mayor dip net fishing areas, comes in to the Copper River. From what I saw, it looks like that road gets washed out every year and has to have major repairs.
I drove down as far a O'Brian Creek to watch the guys dip net fishing. The nets I saw them use had a four or five foot square mouth and were five to six feet long. They were mounted on about a fifteen foot pole. I've read that salmon tend to gather along the shore, just below where creeks or rivers come into the main flow. They seem to be trying to determine if it is their natal stream. Each guy would walk up to a point just below the mouth of O'Brian Creek There he would put his net in the water, about as far out from shore as he could reach. Then slowly walk the net down a hundred feet or so. Pull it in, put the pole over his shoulder, walk back up stream, and repeat the process.
People
in Alaska and northwestern Canada do eat a lot of salmon. It seems
everyone I met cans and smokes fish. The limit allowed by dip netting
is thirty salmon per family.
In the early 1900's they did bring a railroad down as far as
Chitina. When they closed the railroad, the right-of-way was used for
a road going east up the Chitina River. The narrow road was the railroad
grade cut into the town, and was never widened. It is one lane through
that section -- and they do mean one lane.
When I got back to Valdez, the fog had rolled in. Anchored right in front of me was the mother ship, the Arctic Eagle. I could barely see the outline of her in the fog, and all night long hear the mornful cry of her fog horn, sounding about once a minute. Once or twice there was a response of a horn with a slightly different note -- another boat, cautiously creeping in to port in the night.