Combat fishing
Valentina Baklanov waits with a sockeye salmon while Maria and Kate Prokosheva and Alexy Prokoshev clean other fish on the bank of the Kenai River in Alaska. The Prokoshev family drove 10 hours from Delta Junction in the state’s interior just to fish. (M. Scott Moon / For the Times)
Dan Greenwood of Anchorage picks a sockeye salmon out of his dip net on the bank of the Kenai River in Kenai, Alaska. The dip-net opening is for state residents only, and many families use it to fill their freezers with salmon. “It’s a great way to get fish,” Greenwood says. (M. Scott Moon / For the Times)
Dip-netters line both banks of the mouth of the Kenai River near downtown Kenai, Alaska, where the river drains into Cook Inlet. For several weeks each summer, the area takes on a carnival atmosphere as residents come from across the state to stock up on sockeye salmon. (M. Scott Moon / For the Times)
Residents fish the mouth of the Kenai River in Alaska. They are allowed to use the nets, which trap fish by their gills, in the Kenai River and nearby Kasilof River for several weeks to fill their freezers and canning jars with sockeye salmon. Occasionally somebody wanders too far out in the frigid water and has to be helped back in. (M. Scott Moon / For the Times)
Chris Hanna of nearby Soldotna, Alaska, takes a break from dip-netting to accept a free hot dog from Sherri Gerdanc of Girard, Ill., at the Chugach Baptist Assn.’s Salmon Frenzy missionary outreach tent at the mouth of the Kenai River. Missionaries from around the U.S. handed out more than 10,000 hot dogs among other acts of volunteerism during the fishery, organizer Brenda Crim said. (M. Scott Moon / For the Times)
A commercial set-net fishing crew motors past dip-net fishermen in the Kenai River in Alaska. Some Cook Inlet commercial fishermen and upstream sports fishermen are unhappy that residents catch so many salmon in the personal-use dip-net fishery. (M. Scott Moon / For the Times)
Andy Podems of Palmer, Alaska, strums his guitar in front of his tent. A temporary tent city springs up on the banks of the Kenai River’s mouth every July for the dip-net salmon fishery. “I’m 43 now, so I only want to spend three or four hours in the water,” Podems joked. “I wait until when the high tide drains and the fish move.” (M. Scott Moon / For the Times)
