07-19-2011, 07:59 AM
Just got back from the Kenai River, spent the weekend dipnetting. This was my first time productively dip netting. It is certainly a unique method of harvesting fish. 20' aluminum handle, 5' diameter hoop, minimum of 37" 'depth' on the net. Garb up in chest waders and whatever top is appropriate to the weather, and wade in, and stick the pole out in the river. If you're timing it right the tide is not extreme enough that the net won't stay put, and you wait.. and one of the thousands of sex-crazed piscine delicacies attempts to pass through your net.. Give the handle a good moderate-sharp tug, which will usually entangle the fish enough to prevent escape, and turn around (you can combine these into a single maneuver )once you get to 'dry' land (glacial silt deposit.. treacherous nasty sticky yuck), you hand-over-hand the net further up, dragging the fish with it. Once the _fish_ is on land, and far enough away from the water that you feel confident, you pull the fish out of the net, which is an untangle job, sometimes it's a surgery job (they are called 'gill' nets with good reason), then either brainstab the fish yourself with your brainstabbing knife, clip the tails (I have no clue either, but the fish and game dept. demands it), slash the gills, and get the fish somewhere on the bank in a safe spot, head down so the blood drains.
turn around and wade through the mud and do it again.
I scored 15 fish in 2 hours from 6am to 8am saturday. In this same timeframe, a three-person team working out of a boat harvested 120 fish.
I have passed beyond filthy into the realms untraveled by sane men. I have glacial silt in places that it really shouldn't be. (my socks, in case you were wondering).
Sunday evening I biffed a turn in the horrid mud and wrenched my knee, which was instrumental in my first fish monday morning being a case of 'whonk', turn, step, step, knee give, sploosh. Face down in the mud. Went over the top of my chest waders, spent the next few hours with one of my legs full of water.
It was when I realized I was about to change into my last dry clothing that I decided to go home..
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies
turn around and wade through the mud and do it again.
I scored 15 fish in 2 hours from 6am to 8am saturday. In this same timeframe, a three-person team working out of a boat harvested 120 fish.
I have passed beyond filthy into the realms untraveled by sane men. I have glacial silt in places that it really shouldn't be. (my socks, in case you were wondering).
Sunday evening I biffed a turn in the horrid mud and wrenched my knee, which was instrumental in my first fish monday morning being a case of 'whonk', turn, step, step, knee give, sploosh. Face down in the mud. Went over the top of my chest waders, spent the next few hours with one of my legs full of water.
It was when I realized I was about to change into my last dry clothing that I decided to go home..
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies