Dipnetting for sockeye salmon
Dipnetting for sockeye salmon thrives in the City of Kenai Alaska. One of Alaska's ultra unique yet highly controversial traditions, dipnetting on the beaches at the mouth of the Kenai River might just be the most popular form of fishing in all of Alaska, Alaska Residents Only. Need lodging for the dipnetting season? See Kenai River Cabins and Kenai Cabin Rentals for some added options.
What is Kenai River Dip Netting? Well, it's a form of subsistence fishing commonly referred to as a Personal Use Fishery. Open to Alaska residents only, people are allowed to collect 25 salmon per head of household and an additional 10 salmon per each family member to help in feeding them through the year. Dipnetting is broken down into two common styles of fishing, first are those engaged in bank fishing, (the most common), and then there are the boaters that drift with the current dragging their nets in the water and gathering up the salmon as they navigate their way up the river.
Alaska has a long standing tradition of subsistence fishing and hunting, and as crude as this fishery is often cast to be, it is an essential part of many Alaskan's lifestyles. We have personally taken part in this fishery a number of times and feasted upon incredible canned salmon all through the winter. Aside from filling the freezers of Alaska's residents, visitors marvel at the sight of so many people catching so many salmon, all in the most unimaginable spectacle of combat fishing ever witnessed.
Grab some sandwich fixings, a bottle of wine and head for a day on the bluffs overlooking the mouth of the river. Be sure to bring a camera, binoculars, wind breakers and
Video on the 2016 Kenai River Dipnetting going on at the mouth of the river. It gets kind of crazy here around the 16th to 31th of July.