Anita's Notebook

Alaska dipnetting is something that’s only open to local residents at a certain part of the year. It’s a huge deal for some families because they can stock up on fish for the whole winter. Most camp on the beach…

…some go all out with the super hardcore camp setup…

…our group just had a bunch of tents set up with a common eating area on the side facing the water.

Getting ready to go fishing. If your gear has a problem duct tape will fix it!

The club Linda’s holding is a fish bonker, more on that later.

Half of Alaska is held together with duct tape.

Jennifer and Linda securing the float for the dipnet.

“Why’s everybody taking so long? Let’s go!”

The key piece of equipment for AK dipnetting is a big ass net.

About a bazillion (rough estimate) people are crowded onto the beach. Many are just spectators, families of the people out in the water.

A lot of people use four wheelers ’cause it’s a pain to haul everything to and from camp across the sandy ground.

So the first step is to wade out into the cold cold water…
 

…as far out as you can.
 

Brrrr.

Then find a spot in line, a lucky spot…
 

…then you wait.

And when someone gets a fish everybody stares at them enviously.

Or they stare at the person taking lots of pictures :D.

When you get a fish you twist the pole and drag it back to shore where the it’s promptly bonked on the head…
 

…untangled from the net…
 

…and taken to the nearest cooler.

If you don’t have a fish bonker ready then a rock works too.

Lots of people just stand around taking in the day.

Somebody drug a sled with a dead bloody fish right in front of us and just abandoned it there. So I had a bloody fish eyeballing me the whole time. o_0

This was the view from my spot on the beach (minus the bloody fish head). Click the picture to see a much better version of this.

There were people going around inviting others to come and get ‘free’ hot dogs and sodas at a tent down the beach at a certain time. Turns out that it was a religious service, no such thing as a free lunch I guess lol. I assumed the people were from this beautifully placed church that was perched over the area.

This is the point that a camera that I’d had for years and years started to die. It had survived all kinds of abuse all the while taking great photos and videos but it finally said enough was enough after being subjected to the mix of cold, sand, water, and wind. RIP.

Bringing up water to process fish.

Jennifer taking pictures for some friends of ours.

The girl in the yellow life vest’s name is Fallon and she was with our group. She’s very much a person that cares for animals so I was wondering how she’d react to the whole fish bonking thing.

But actually she went around helping everybody knock out their fish.

Whenever somebody drug a fish in she’d go right up and ask if they wanted help.

This guy caught a lot of fish and would process them right in the water.
 


 

Not squeamish at all, who knew?

Random picture of a boat.

Brenda (middle with the brown hat) braved the icy water in jeans and a sweatshirt.
 

We’d just randomly yell out her name and she’d be like ‘Wtf?’
 

‘Oh it’s you bastards again!’

Got one.

This was Fallon and her mother’s first dipnetting trip.
 

…and she wanted to help her mother.
 

This is what she had been practicing for the whole time.
 

Awww.

Jennifer loved loved loved this four wheeler.

This guy (can’t remember his name for the life of me) was from our group, this was his first dipnetting trip too.

So the last day of the trip it got very windy out. This is a bathroom tent (yes they do sell those apparently) in a neighboring camp twisting in the wind. Literally a shit storm waiting to happen.

This is Jennifer’s and my tent which was about to take flight.

There it goes! I have video of this somewhere, maybe I’ll post it later.

Some people are hardcore and can make homemade apple pies in cast iron pans…over a campfire…on the beach…at the last minute.
 

It was good, we happily ate it while waiting for our stuff to be hauled back to our cars.

Packing up one of the last loads. I had a great time but by the end of the trip the drizzly cold conditions had wore me down. I looked forward to getting back home to Anchorage and spending some quality time sipping hot cocoa in a cozy warm bed.

The end :)