Redneck Fishing

While many anglers were debating which streamer to use on the Russian River, and the purists were choosing between their eight or nine weight fly rod, a few Alaskans were looking for other ways to stock the salmon section of the freezer.

For them the Kasilof set net fishery was just the ticket last week.  The ten day long season closed June 24th.  For this old gillnetter it sounded like an efficient way to collect a few red salmon.

It did turn out to be a good way to fish, but I was also intrigued by the culture.  You don’t see many shiny subarus on this beach…a rusted out 79 chevy 4X4 is more like it.  

The beach is lined with camps of almost every type.  But I didn’t see any motorhomes.  Here is our camp, I’m returning real estate calls during a break.

It’s amazing what you can do with a couple tarps and a little ingenuity.  This one had a well stocked kitchen inside.

One camp was called Grumpy Geezers Getaway. Several were flying the stars and stripes from spruce flag poles. .

Picking the nets and filleting several dozen fish every few hours is back breaking work. 

It’s nice to have a comfortable resting place…drag the sofa out to the beach, can’t beat the view.

Little informal parties seemed to start up between neighboring camps while people waited for the tide to turn so that they could pick their nets

Photos courtesy of Charlene Moss and Mark Van Diest…I can’t seem to find my camera since our return, haven’t had time to look for it while taking care of 80 filets.