Only in Alaska

Alaskan residents every year flock to the mouths of rivers in the summer to go fishing.  Specifically dip netting, or sustenance fishing.  We are allowed to catch 25 salmon for the head of household and 10 additional salmon for each additional member of your family.  We weren't allowed to go last year since we weren't residents yet, so I was not about to miss out this year, even though I had to do all the work since my manual labor specialist is currently unavailable.  We went with 4 other families from our ward and had an amazing time dip netting in the Kenai River.  The first day I trudged down to the beach with my waders on.  I was cutting a zip tie off my dip net with my brand new fillet knife and luck would have it that I sliced open the top of my thumb.  The cut wasn't really bad, but bad enough that I couldn't get it to stop bleeding because every time I moved my thumb it would pull the cut open again.  So I trudged back to my car and bandaged my thumb up, so well that I couldn't bend it, which made the bleeding stop.  By the time I got back to the beach it was high tide, super windy, and humongous waves kept each and every fisher out of the water.  I took this as a sign that I should just go and make dinner and call it a night.  We had a lovely camp in a gravel parking lot.  This particular area was a working beach, not a prime camping area, so Ila and I slept in the back of our minivan to keep warm and to save the effort of putting up a tent on an over crowded beach.  It worked out very nicely and we were quite comfortable.

Here's our deluxe camp kitchen nestled in between our car and our friends suburban.  Ila helped me cook dinner and do the dishes afterwords. 

Ila fell down and scraped her left thumb, just like I did!  We had matching thumb injuries, but Ila made sure to tell me that hers was not as bad as mine.  So true.  Hers didn't even bleed, but you know that band aides always make things better. 

Behind us is the mouth of the Kenai river.

Ila filled her time by playing in the sand.  The other moms that came with us were so kind to watch Ila for me so I could fish.  There's no way I would have been able to get any fishing done if these sweet ladies didn't help me.

The second morning we got up and after eating breakfast trudged back down to the beach to see if we could make it through the day without hurting ourselves.  I retrieved my net and headed into the water.  I asked one of the guys I was standing by for a quick lesson on how to dip net, he kindly gave me some tips and within two minutes of getting in the water I caught my first fish!  I was elated to say the least!  You have to stand in the water, holding your 5 foot hoop net, with a 15 ft pole, perpendicular to the ground, so that a fish can swim into it.  When you feel a fish in your net you flip the net so it traps the fish, then you drag your net with it parallel the ground until you are out of the water.  When you get out of the water you have to whack the fish on the head to kill it.  Kindof graphic I know, but it has to be done.  Before we went fishing Jon bought Ila her very own fish whacker, and knowing that he couldn't be there with us, he assigned Ila the job of whacking the fish.  She was very happy to help out in that way and luckily was there on the beach when I caught my first and second fish.

We are officially fisherwomen!  Ila did great!  I had to help her but she was so excited that we caught a fish.  She also filled in as my personal cheerleader.  She has many talents.

Waiting for the next lucky fish to swim into my net.

All in all I caught 8 sockeye salmon in 2 hours.  That's amazing!  The best part of all was the bragging rights I earned.  In our group of five families, I tied one guy with 8 caught that day, the rest of the guys caught less than I did, which I made sure they knew.  I was just a tad proud of myself.  May I remind you that I was 4 1/2 months pregnant at this time, there without a husband to do all the hard work, and I caught more fish than most of them!  I was also warned by one of these gentlemen that this was the hardest work he had ever done and by the end of the conversation I felt like he was trying to scare me into not going.  I was so mad when I got off the phone, and even more determined to go and show him that I could do this, and well! 

In all reality I had a few factors that gave me an advantage.  My net was nice and big, bigger than some of the other ones, and that makes a big difference.  I am also taller than all of these other men, (big surprise there) and I could go into the water farther than they could without water filling my chest waders.  So I had less competition in getting my net to a place that wasn't blocked by another net.  Many Alaskans refer to this as combat fishing.  You are so close to other people, at peak fishing times we were elbow to elbow.  It was insane! 

I also cleaned two of my fish by myself, successfully with out gagging.  My gag reflex is very strong when I am pregnant, so this was a feat all by itself.  I was painfully slow at cleaning my fish, so one of the men in our group offered to do it for me, which I gratefully accepted.  He did a much nicer job and had my six other fish cleaned and filleted in the time it took me to do one. 

Ila hung out with these girls for most of the time.  She had fun playing in the sand and mud with them.

After we got home and I processed all my fish I ended up with 27 1/2 pounds of salmon fillets that are individually packaged to a perfect size for my little family.  It will make 53 meals for me and Ila.  Our freezer is full and I am so happy to be able to experience the unique things that Alaska has to offer.  I can't wait for next year when Jon can come with me.  I will happily watch from the sidelines and cheer him on.