Mid-July in Alaska

So you can definitely tell it's mid-July in Alaska. Traffic is backed up, tourists are running all over the roads and rivers, and Fred Meyer's Parking lot looks like an RV park. I think it is so funny that all these tourists come to Alaska in their RV's to experience Alaska and they end up camping in a grocery store parking lot. I guess with the price of gas, staying in a free parking lot seems like the best option. Anyway, along with mid-July comes the second run of red salmon  in the rivers. Along with getting paid to live here with our PFD's, we locals also have the privilege to fill our freezers come dip-netting time. Our family qualifies for 85 fish, not that we could ever eat that many, but we headed out on the river to dipnet anyways.

My sweet husband took the girls (Bex, Pepper, and I) out the other night to try our luck. What fun we had. We slayed the fish, ending up with 80 in about 5 hours. Bex had never dip-netted before and Pepper has only done it from the beach, so watching these two girls was quite entertaining. We eventually got the system down, and ended the night soaking wet, covered in fish scales, and laughing all the way home.

If you have ever dip-netted before, you know the fun part is the catching...not the cleaning and storing. We eventually made it to bed somewhere around 4 am and did it all again the next day when my parents came down to fill their freezers. We ended up with 48 that trip. Needless to say, the smokers and caners have been going full steam ahead for the last 2 days. A huge thanks to my mom for running the caners and my dad for skinning all those fillets. 

How lucky we are to live in a place where we can step outside our door, drive 15 minutes to the river, and put food on the table that night. There is nothing better than fresh salmon hot off the grill, but after smelling fish for the last few days straight, I might need to go back to chicken for a little while. Happy fishing all!!