Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Chitina/copper river

that river is no joke the one time I dipnetted it was in a 24 foot Wooldridge boat even then it was hairy ride I thought.

http://www.adn.com/article/20151002/remains-fisherman-who-disappeared-copper-river-found-hunters

In the mid '80s I got to the river as AST helicopters were running up and down the river, flying just above the water and flying an obvious grid...

A rocket scientist father had tied a line around his waist and handed the other end to his very young son while he waded out. Kid lacked the strength to hold him when he went down...

Another time friends were dipping in mid-river when a charter boat hit them right in the middle, sinking their boat. One friend stayed in the water for a while before he could be hauled out.

Charter operator immediately went back to his place and "started" drinking...

A nasty river for sure and the sockeyes are managed "dumbly".

I don't care for the dipnetting for my 30? sockeyes because of the dangers and every year or two we lose a dipnetter to the river.

I don't want so many salmon that I would build a fish wheel and go through the effort of tending one.

So if were to go up river a ways and angle for a much smaller limit, I'd be cited if I foul hooked one of those fish. Duh?

Yeah I have to really rethink going again it is not worth dying over a salmon.. Even though chances of dying/getting hurt are small on that river all it takes is one mistake and you are done.

Forget about it. Every year more than 65,000 people come to Chitina with about 50 percent dipnetting. It is safer than going to the Holiday gas station in South Cush or going to the Carrs in Midtown.

that's cars in midtown whew is a bad one...

like most outdoor related stuff, youse gots to pay attention and use your head.


sometimes that ain't good enough, but it's the best you can do


or stay at home


F that

Are you serious? 32,500 people come to one village to dip net? What a rodeo.

Back in the early '70s there were hardly any people dipnetting. Nowadays hunting and fishing is a combat. We call it combat fishing and hunting

That sounds like no fun at all.

Do I want to ask what/where combat hunting is?

No matter how much you plan and train you'll never be 100% ready to take on Mother Nature, she always has the upper hand. I do a lot of solo stuff and I always prepare for the worst and leave a detailed itinerary with several people that I trust. I don't go off that itinerary, if things go sideways and I'm laying in the mountains with a broken leg I would like to be found by a ranger, and not because of the vultures circling my body. When people hassle me about safety precautions whether it be work or play I always tell them the same thing, "I don't want to die and deserve it".
It sounds like the guy in the story was old enough that he probably had a bit of experience. He was smart enough to have his life jacket on. Sometimes [bleep] just happens. I hope that he lived and died doing something that he loved.

Combat hunting: Surrounded by other hunters everywhere you go.
Combat fishing: just about the same, of fishing shoulder to shoulder with others.

Years ago you could drive not too far from Fairbanks and not see another hunter sometimes for days or weeks. Nowadays you have to fly or boat your way to some isolated place

And generally a large number of those you do see do nothing positive for one's safety margin while out there...

Good point. Even at the firing range you have to keep an eye on others for your own safety.

Yes, on the public ranges, for sure.

I couldn't help commenting on the other part after spending the last two days of the local seasons in the swamps, sloughs and small channels near the headwaters of some of the small rivers hereabout. Robo hunters in shiny metal, overpowered jet boats abounded, and most would lay back when they came upon our gas-sipping 19 foot canoe. T'was all good. It was all different, no real surprise, when we headed back in the day after the close, with a very amply loaded, waddling craft for which we would have happily traded several beers or a $10 bill to ensure we had a cushion of gas - by a gallon or so. Needless to say, the single boat that overtook us - and obviously saw the peril our freeboard put us in in their wake- they roared right on without missing a beat. Idiots abound. That's perhaps the thing I most dislike about hunting where there are lots of people from all over. People do look out for other when you get way away.

Disregard for your own wake is a seriously stupid issue, and the more folks that own boats the worse it gets at times.

Where combat hunting is: anywhere on the road system that you can tow an atv or boat trailer and access via atv or boat or within a couple hundred yards of those roads.

That's nothing, which is why more people need to go there instead of the KP.

I used to work with a woman whose husband (educated too, a pathologist) had an uber boat. Bragged about the flotation, steering, power, etc. Actually bragged about putting it into one of the Copper's whirlpools and killing the power. spun, and restarted it and powered out. I guess it was "awesome".

I was too ascared to even look at his boat let alone get in it.

Maroon!

Exactly right.

I much prefer dipping the Copper to the Kenai. You know going in the Copper(the canyon) is nasty and if you don't believe it before you see it for the first time standing on a rock watching the current will make you a believer. If you fall in, the next stop is the flats. It is essential you treat the river with respect and dip with that in mind. Good footing, life jacket and tie off for starters. In my opinion the experience far surpasses any other dipping spot.

Thank you from Kenai!

No, thank you!

I prefer the Copper, too. Copper reds are nothing but tasty. Only Yukon salmon come close to Copper salmon.

Hell I'd have waved if I'd known it was you Mark.

what Ray said, those Copper River Reds are tasty, one of my very favorite fish.


worth risking your life for? guess so.


I've heard some great stories about the guy that ran a charter in competition with the Heyms for a few years.

they had some real back and forth


culminated in the one guy's boat getting burned to a crisp in his back yard.


good tales only told over an open fire with a cold beer or hot toddy

Those exaggerated anatomical pleasuring gestures weren't waving? (That lil' dude head on the power-sluicing platform brag rack had only his eyebrows going for him. )

There ya have it.

The tastiest sockeyes and fewer people.

THAT'S the place to go!