Alaska's Most Prized Salmon | Dipnetting the Copper River

[Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] falcon [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you we made it down to the beautiful Copper River Valley Eric and I are excited to be here we didn't know if we were going to be able to take this trip but we are here and grateful to be able to do it we are down here dip netting or harvesting salmon this is our fourth year coming down here two of which have been successful and we hope to have another successful trip this time when we first get here we really like to just go at it and get our fish and then kind of explore the area the plan was actually to do the opposite today but it's a little bit windy so we got lucky and we picked out an awesome campsite we're gonna get all set up and then we'll figure out when we're going to do our fishing gotta get the dogs tied up so we can unload Bandit decided to take off after a fox this morning at our house so he's on the cable from now on [Music] we brought the six-wheeler again this year she's running good we have our dip Nets we bought two this year uh these are both our three foot Nets we brought two big ice chests and we brought a tent this year foreign should it go under those or over them so I'm pretty sure last time Eric and I took these out was when we tried to go moose hunting and our trailer our little Rat Pack trailer kept flipping and it got drug in the mud and completely full with water and mud remember that I was saying half red there's one more for you man home sweet home for the next couple days looking to be a couple of good days weather-wise so I think it's going to be about 75 today and about 68 tomorrow there is wind there's always wind here we're staking down the tank because we don't want to come back and have it be on the other side of the road foreign has surely kicked up and we have appropriately changed our outfits we're ready to head into the canyon uh Eric and I I don't think we mentioned it before we are in chitna Alaska so that's the little Community here this is the Copper River the trail is it's a few miles long I think it's close to eight miles long and I don't quite know where we're gonna be fishing I don't quite know how good the fishing's Gonna Be So the plan is we're dressed warm in case we're out there all night we were taking Bandit with us and this time we were leaving Beau back at Camp I think he will have a lot more fun snoozing we're gonna hop on the side by side and go see if we get some fish ready he stands there and whines it is so windy okay we got the trailer look at this thing it's windy I hope you brought your kite [Music] why it's not so windy here we made it down the hill we got our iced coffee and it is even windier down here so we're at O'Brien Creek there's usually a big beach right here you can go out there and you can Dip Net but the warm weather we're having has caused a lot of snow melt and this river is the highest we've ever seen it I'm sure it's been higher but we've never seen it like this it is rushing it's rapid and we're gonna go in let's see what we can do let's hit the bridge thank you say five o'clock oh my gosh there's like long long slowing down low here yes [Music] yeah it's not really it's a nice Shoreline right there I don't know if you can just get down to that one though oh wait do you want to just go try it by yourself real quick for the minute I can go stick the net in there for a couple minutes see what happens what do you think not a lot of action out here we haven't seen too many folks but we found a spot that looks pretty good and a lot of times if we come here we'll be on kind of a cliff this one is more like a well it's still pretty steep but it's not that bad so I'm gonna go down and I'm gonna check it and we're gonna see if I can get a fish in the net real quick that's like a huge fish though well yeah no oh look at that Sandy Beach over across one foreign [Music] it's a little less windy in the canyon unfortunately we forgot something back at Camp so Eric went back and hooked the trailer I'm hanging out with Bandit he said that that spot was a no-go he didn't like it he didn't catch fish within the first few minutes so I think we're gonna head down a little bit deeper where the river is a little bit thinner and the fish are kind of like have to go through that smaller area and it increases your chances of getting fish [Music] it's extremely Dusty I can tell okay I made it it's really dusty oh my gosh I can't see I looked back every time we took us hat no it took us longer half an hour had to foreign spot number two we're gonna give this spot a go we fished here two years ago and did really well but the water down there is so high it is just crazy so I'm gonna go down there I'm gonna bring the rope and stuff like that it's a pretty steep slippery Bank I'm gonna rope off and we'll see if we could get some fish well you're gonna lose your hat man no I got it backwards it doesn't fall off and you got it backwards no yeah I wasn't aware of that you'll learn something this will be more than sufficient top of that middle spot around the other side okay well here's the report on the Copper River today uh people aren't catching much so there's a couple guys down there I think they've been here for a while they caught one king salmon one sockeye salmon and it's just been slow so I was down there for probably about an hour just walking the shoreline trying different spots the water seemed pretty good I was getting in the back Eddies and my net was pushed out but nothing I might have felt one bumped my net but I can't confirm that so we're gonna head deeper into the canyon we're gonna give it a give it another shot we want to eat some sockeye salmon so let's go we're not that far till the end really the ends that much further I'm gonna give it a go aluminum [Music] um well it didn't go as planned at all uh it's been a few hours Eric hasn't caught anything um we didn't really have a plan B I was really planning on catching fish we don't even have one for dinner which is kind of sad I'm not gonna complain we're gonna go back and kind of I don't know I don't know what we're gonna do we're gonna figure out something because the fish just clearly aren't running up right now the water is just way too high and unfortunately it's only probably gonna get higher the next few days which is not good so we've gotta climb up this steep hill now okay this is not a fun one though it's long and how the heck did you actually get down there no I had one I was talking it's like I'll see you in there he was you know what they call that Eric and yeah dinner well I know we said we were going back to Camp to figure things out but we were already so far out here we decided to drive further into the canyon and I mean I guess it paid off we got that one right there that I caught and then I caught one that was about 10 inches so we let that one go and maybe we got a good spot here I caught him after about two minutes of having my net in the water see I've been in for about six minutes so we'll see if we catch some more 10 13. I wanted to give it till 10 20. that's 15 minutes of being here usually you can catch something in 15 minutes I want another baby dang it here get that little guy back in the little Sockeye little baby goodbye little baby back to the river you go that's a good one 15 minutes three fish two two three I caught the little one but um do you need a big rock or something do you want me to talk to you sooner it's a big one he's a male he is a girlfriend I know oh no no three hours in and you dropped him I believe that was the only one I've ever dropped that yeah oh that was a nice fatty that was a fat one yeah back to camp and then we have to make dinner so nice fish on yeah look at those really hard for those couple nice Copper River red sockeyes I guess I could have had three if that big one didn't just jump out of the net on me but we are gonna cook up this little one tonight that looks like a female and it's 10 49 p.m right now I believe it's gonna take us about an hour to get back to the campsite we gotta go pretty slow with that little trailer and everything bump it in there so let's hike up this hill we're gonna loaded up head back and at least we know of a good spot to come back to so this is semi-productive I think we fished for less than an hour and we got a couple fish so let's head up that was a really good job honey you climbed up like 10 Hills nutrition how many hours are you for sure thank you that's delicious we haven't had fresh chocolate in there in a while pretty amazing we harvested a lot of fish and we've never actually cooked them up this close after harvesting them so this is an under two hour fillet fish that we're eating here Eric had some salt and pepper we had some butter with chives in it and then just some lemon on top so really simple absolutely delicious it's good dip it in that Grill is this cooked yet dip it in this though probably because of my excitement over here why are you yelling because it's so freaking good Eric okay I think we're ready for round two of fishing I believe everyone slept well here but I haven't been up long enough to ask everybody and the good news is it's not raining the bad news is it's still windy so hopefully we catch some fish not even good way to start the morning she ain't looked pretty right now but these are just some of the best tasting fish I'm still thinking about that one we ate last night so we're down very close to where we were fishing last night I think we're like uh I mean I could see it from here and there's some people fishing there so we tried this new spot and I think it's going to be a good spot let's see if we can make up for lost time and catch some fish oh yeah good job baby okay that makes four fish I think we found a good hole this is a little bit of a windy spot but beyond that it's a really safe spot so we're gonna both get set up rope off and we'll probably both dip that here and see how many fish we can catch foreign guys you see the other one the fish are in baby just put it up in the thing and I'll take care of them [Music] you got one felt them in there I'd keep it yeah what do you mean that's a nice one okay okay guys you're coming with me sorry about this oh my gosh you got a key give it a stick give it a stick y that's a nice one oh my gosh whoa I got the net good job honey don't drop it that is so heavy oh it feels like a bag of concrete oh yeah yes [Music] that's a fatty what a monster I mean it is I have never seen a fish has been in my life oh my gosh it's heavy isn't it it's my baby don't slip I won't oh my gosh I feel like I'm holding a live animal oh how much for me it weighs uh under 20 like honestly like 12 what oh my gosh yeah King Salmon not something you get to experience every day oh the fish was backwards did you notice that's why it dropped out because I tried to flip them out and I was like wait I didn't even know I had one yeah nice I can't feel this current is so strong that I can't feel these fish I just have to pull it up every once in a while that's a beauty good thing I wore my chidna pants from last year you get really dirty out here Eric's doing a lot of the hard work it's you have to be pretty strong to hold the net down there hole seems fairly productive we don't know what time it is we forgot our watch back at Camp I'm guessing it hasn't been over three hours since we've been here and we are up to 20 fish so far so pretty good [Music] whoa that is gonna be fun okay we've got seven fish I'm gonna try to take them up the hill it's not too bad it's deep but um it's not the worst one by any means I think I think I can do this I'm gonna come back and get more I think you're gonna find it surprisingly not not as challenging I'll try it I'll try and keep this fish so you're just deep in that hole yeah not that deep oh my gosh yeah it's a canyon it's a canyon full of chunky oh my God oh my gosh do you think you could do it okay catch this fish oh this is so much better than holding them by hand look at this good luck hun I think I got a baby on my back go work like 10 year old kid clear his neck it's barely holding together it's like crazy windy well that's gonna do it that's a wrap for the 2023 season out here for us and we're leaving with 32 sockeyes and one huge King Salmon pretty unexpected that we got our fish this trip but I'll take it another awesome year here we go okay so I can officially lift that amount of weight because I use my knees I use my thighs that was under all my thighs their lips are back I'm a vegeter I really got this thank you we did it oh my gosh Eric actually did all the rest of the other fish this is nine I want to challenge myself and see if I could do it um I did it which is really cool let's get these to the ice chest I'm pretty sure we're at full capacity is gonna do a little bit but no let's I think two to three in there that backpack is something you don't bring to school the next day rest of the system the system brought this Nifty backpack and we lined it clearly it needs to be washed but it worked amazing the fish I know you were probably just getting the hang of us cutting the back fins the permit that Eric and I have this year requires us to cut the anal fin so it's just a little bit of a different permit and that is why we are cutting a different part of the fish seems confusing probably because it is but that's just the way that the state can identify what you catch so it's a marker system so to speak we're gonna head down the road a little bit we're gonna try and see if we can process these fish because they're clearly a need at Haley Creek foreign oh my gosh it's missing all the way back here made it down here to the waterfall at Haley Creek and the water's a little too turbid and high so we can't get down there to clean our fish and what we're gonna do is we're just gonna gut them this time and put them on ice but what we're going to do is we're going to take the Polaris all the way back to the beginning of the trail that's called O'Brien Creek and we're going to clean our fish there all right sir oh he's dead oh yeah I'll take two of them oh no your body yeah that's what I like to do after all day is bend over in a creek thank you nice Cut nice color on me girl tons of eggs and a skiing salmon it turned out to be a female and they each have two sacks of eggs like this so we're bringing all the eggs home this trip can I grab it by a sink thank you still heavy thank you that's four on that one okay that'll keep you cold back at Camp our fish are cleaned up and on ice and Eric and I are whipping up some delicious hash we have some local pork sweet potato potatoes onion and some of our peppers from last year going in there let's see if this works oh yeah that's enough food for me thank you come back later for vengeance oh yeah no what the best yes I just ate a pizza and our Broken Backs no I'm gonna tell you right now I've said it before I'll say it again my back feels better sleep in that tent that doesn't wear mattress awesome hash the sweet potato in here that is amazing so we're gonna finish up this and it's getting pretty late in the evening we're gonna hit the sack we got a bunch of packing to do in the morning and we're taking off we're heading back home and we'll see you guys at the cabin no Joe that's good thank you oh we made it back from the wild Copper River it was a spectacular trip as always that place is truly amazing and I know that the water doesn't really quite translate through the camera as intense as it is in person but it's so scary when you're right there on the edge of it the color of it is from glacial silt so it runs off from the glaciers and that's how it gets that kind of murky color you really can't even see more than what like a you can't even see it all into the water and that's part of what makes that River so dangerous they say that the silt knit will weigh you down if you for some reason were to go floating down it which I imagine no one wants to that's why we rope off and we wear life vest so it was a good trip happy we're successful we're back home now yeah it's a typical trip for us we get there we don't really catch our fish right away and it seems like the tactic that works the best for us is moving around so if you're at a spot give it 10 15 20 minutes if you're not catching anything move around and it seems like every time we go there the further Downstream we go the better we always do but we got our fish we did great this trip let's get them cleaned up we got about 30 to do or anything we want to clean when I get some really nice looking like hands or something or something really well because what could we use the stuff for his base so it's a pretty easy process today these fish are already gutted we did them out there in the river so all I'm doing right now is I'm taking fillets out of these I think on a few of them we're also going to do some steaks which is just like big chunks will cut out of the fish we did that last year and we really liked eating those ones and a couple years ago I started using these rubber gloves I don't use them because I don't like touching fish the only reason I use them is the cold water so if you have like 37 fish you're processing and you're down in a Creek in Alaska rinsing them off it is extremely cold or if you're using water straight out of our well it's extremely cold so these keep your hands a lot warmer it makes the process go a little easier for me oh my gosh this is a huge filet yes I'll save some big ones like that's a fillet right there man it's all fat right now I was saying that one had a lot of belly she's a lady yeah I mean we first tried the salmon bellies sometime last year and decided that we loved them so that's where they carry the most fat and these fish in particular have a lot of fat on them you can see the little white ribbons running down their bodies especially the belly area we've kind of changed how we processed them over the years I think it really just depends on how like we gutted them this time yeah so it's obviously easiest to do it the slice method how you're doing but I don't think that's normally how how you process them huh do you uh well we learned the butterfly method last year which is a really cool method because you keep the two fillets connected to the belly and then you can slice out the belly in like one big chunk so you got two nice fillets and a big belly piece that's a really awesome way to do it but like Ariel said we already cut the belly straight down so we're leaving the belly attached to the fillets and that's the belly down there you can see it's like a it's got more white in it it's got more white between the meat so this is what I'm doing over here I am just running along the body with a little ice cream scooper we've been doing that for years you get this lovely meat out of it which is is awesome for really anything you can chop it up make it into Patties or just have ground fish meat this is going to be a different year for us because we don't have a smoker anymore we took apart our smoker last year we took apart a smoker it was kind of done for and we knew we knew we were going to need to build a new one here but we just haven't had time yet so in the future we hope to do that we still have a lot of canned salmon so we usually get our salmon and can it for like a year in advance so we're good to go on that and this most of this meat is going to be going into the freezer for us to have refresh eating this summer the carcasses either go in the compost or they go to the chickens and we usually make we call it Chum we usually make like a fish soup for our dogs but with Santa's new diet I'm only going to be making a little bit this year for Beau but there's just so much you can do with these carcasses and with all the parts of the fish I couldn't imagine leaving it behind at the river so we take them home a nice little female right here you know how much longer that would take if you process them at the river too like a filet that's why this sometimes people are there lipstick look at this I mean come on let's go just get thrown in with the blaze because oh why was I thinking I had to hey this is what we are left with out of one side get that little fin off there of the salmon so you got these two absolutely massive fillets I don't know if there's a taste difference at least that I can uh detect in these but this one is the body and you will have to pick the bones out of that with some tweezers that's a nice thick piece of meat but the tail piece that is my absolute favorite there's no bones in here just absolutely beautiful pure meat we got a bucket full foreign I always forget we get quite a bit of packages of this stuff too you know to add on to the meals I never never factor in the meals from this yeah that's true turned into quite a rainy day out here so Eric and I have saved quite a few of the fish heads and some tails for like a soup we're gonna be making we have made fish stocks before but I don't know why it just wasn't up our alley it just wasn't something we found that we used so I don't know if we'll try it it was a little too fishy maybe we used too much fish and you need just one one head I never made a meal and I was like this could use more fishy flavor so we didn't really use it very much my feet are the only thing that are warm because I have wool socks and boots on I got canes and socks yeah I don't know about that I'm not cold this is the last Sockeye and she is a big Beauty and then we're moving on to the king salmon we she said that to me she's slippery maybe we could eat some skin off this one well you have yeah sure you can do it this is officially the biggest fish I've ever fled look at the tail oh you're just going for it you're wild what else would I do uh take your time but I mean guess why not what are you like putting next to me for comparison that's huge Eric said we've never had a king salmon we've actually never even really targeted them so this is a real I guess treat we'll say it is we're excited to cook some up that's what we're going to be doing is cooking up a fillet not a whole Floyd no that is that is the biggest filet I think I've ever seen in person I think it's awesome it's huge we know those are different yeah I have to tell you right now if I was going to make like a sugar sugary it looks better there you have it Eric did a great job processing all these fish that's the difference between a Sockeye filet a pretty large one too and a king salmon fillet I think it was a pretty big king salmon but I know they get a lot bigger than that and this is what it looks like chopped up or cut into a little section and you can see the ribbons of fat these fish are just super rich in oil they have a huge cultural and culinary significance in Alaska and probably even around the world I know people like to cook these fish up we've been able to fish the Copper River for a few years and these fish really are amazing they just have so much flavor they say it's because of the fat that's stored in their body for their super long journey it's like 300 miles for some of them and I think that river is just gnarly so they really have to be prepped to do that Journey we're gonna get these packaged up and then hopefully we can get some on the grill foreign I think it's official this is the most salmon we have ever vacuum packed at one time because we usually can a lot of it so we weighed the buckets and we had like 85 pounds of just fillets and some of these are just looking like absolutely gorgeous so what we're going to do now is we're going to cook up some king salmon for dinner foreign [Music] to go fire up the grill and it just started raining quite a bit more so we were like after we cleaned up let's just wait until it's a nice day we had a nice day today we've been working around the yard getting a lot of stuff done and it's time to try king salmon king salmon and we got one belly right here off of the Sockeye a big piece we're gonna enjoy that and we did some fresh ground pink Himalayan sea salt and pink peppercorn so this is just salt and pepper on here we're gonna cook this up in some coconut oil we're gonna do it kind of like on a high heat and we're gonna put a nice Char on it look at this filet though I mean this is just it's one of the most beautiful fillets I've ever seen and this is the king salmon let's throw her in I really love when Eric Cooks it in the coconut oil because it's just really mild yeah and simple you don't have that flavor of butter that pink peppercorn is really they taste like Fruity and it's I mean it's oh yeah like obviously different way different and we're gonna have an iceberg salad uh it is iceberg lettuce of course some celery Gorgonzola cheese and cucumbers all right time to eat yes which one's yours so the big piece and the belly those just finished but the tail finished the first so we got that on there we're going for the tail first taste of king salmon yeah five years in Alaska this is our first one let's do it together surprised but there's and these are Copper River King sandwich this is as good as it gets oh I'm sorry well we've got a we gotta formulate our opinions eating fresh salmon and summer every night I don't know why it just doesn't get old it hasn't gotten old for me and you because when we were we don't have any salmon left over be on hand and to have fresh fillets to just eat now every night is I'm really really thrilled about it it's like my favorite way to cook it just light it's crispy yeah it's crispy it's got this gorgeous coating and that's absolutely delicious it's salty it is salty that pink Himalayan sea salt if you've ever had that it's for some reason in my opinion it's a little saltier than like kosher salt which is which we always use kosher salt so we did a lot of salt and pepper on there it's salty it's crispy the flavors delicious it's like juicy is it the fat it is absolutely delicious I snuck a bite earlier and I was gonna say to me this tastes I can't say it's similar but we fished for silver salmon on a river last year and I don't know what it was about those salmon because they don't travel a long distance but they appeared they seemed really like oily and fatty to me and silver salmon usually don't carry I believe that much fat in comparison to king salmon and sockeyes but would you remember those tasted really good it had a flavor yes this these tastes I don't know if this one has a flavor it just tastes really uh really fresh and mild and delicious now obviously no fishy flavor at all it's so fresh and the texture it's a hair softer than sockeyes it is a little a little softer but not mushy this soft guy always has that real gorgeous salmon color that we know um and I mean it still pulls through when it's cooked it's still more orangey but they're both very good what do you think I like them both well that's the belly that's like the best part right there the Sockeye I'm gonna say I still like Sockeye the best [Music] this particular one Copper River you know what they're yeah I don't know they're both really good I kid you not when Eric and I were cleaning up where we processed the king salmon there was actual oil in the water and I've never seen that before when I'm cleaning our fish off so there was oil coming secreting out of the fish into like an oil spell it was pretty amazing almost like when you spill gas or something on the ground you see the little Rainbow in there the fish was putting off that oil so it's obvious that we were very excited about this fish very grateful for the experience and we are not sure if we're going to be able to fish anymore this year hopefully we'll be able to get back out there and do some other Adventures but I know we've got to get back to work on the Quonset hut so we do but that was an awesome trip we didn't catch the fish at first we ended up catching them I'm really excited to have this fish I'm pretty excited on the king salmon that was awesome and we're gonna get cleaned up we might need that extra piece of fish and we'll see you guys next time well there's a there's a lot more salad inside I don't know try it here another salad try this by right here wait till you're done was that close your eyes and just enjoy tell me what you think about that like greasy oily fatty delicious we've got to talk about how you can get that good of a crust from the oil in the cast iron and the fish but what do you think about that I just don't even believe it's salmon it just it still doesn't taste like real sandwich it's like some other mixture of creatures because it's so rich

Channel: Simple Living Alaska

Views: 424,066

Keywords: off grid living, living in alaska, cabin life, tiny house alaska, fishing in alaska, cabin living, off grid living alaska, off grid cabin, alaska fishing, garden alaska, homestead alaska, alaska salmon fishing, fishing salmon alaska, smoking salmon, preserving salmon, canning fish, canning smoked fish, red salmon alaska, sockeye salmon alaska, copper river alaska, dipnet fishing, copper river reds, dip net fishing alaska, dipnetting alaska, copper river sockeye salmon

Id: 0OXe63jxeek

Length: 54min 12sec (3252 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 22 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/olkuma]

Beautiful king! What part of Alaska did you guys build your cabin?