Alaskans Only

Salmon fishing chaos. In official terms, "dipnetting" is a 2 week  fishing frenzy for Alaskans only. The purpose is for subsistence or filling the freezer for the winter. People use long handles (8-10 feet), stand in the ice cold water, and hopefully dip the salmon out as they swim into the Kenai River from Cook Inlet. These are Sockeye, or red salmon that are heading for their spawning beds far up the river and off into small side creeks. On the weekend there will be thousands of people on both sides of river at this spot, many of them from Anchorage. When we came here 40 years ago, we would be the only two on the beach. Now we don't even go near there!