The Reds are Running!

When we were first considering moving to Soldotna, I registered with the Chamber of Commerce to get information on the area. Everything I got back involved some aspect of fishing....places to stay close to the river and with fishing access, stores to buy fishing gear, fishing excursions, tour guides to take you to the best fishing spots, even a local theater that was putting on a production about,,,you guessed it, fishing. I kinda thought maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration. Not so much. People here are REALLY into fishing. On the first day we got here, Matt and I stopped by the clinic. We ran into one of the docs, Matt introduced me, and after a few pleasantries, he declared, "The reds are running, man!". Huh? This means that the red salmon are running upstream en masse, unsuspecting, ready to be caught. Here are some pictures from what happens in Soldotna when the reds are running:
The first  two pics are a scene from the river mouth in Kenai, a town about 15 minutes away. Notice all the people standing in the river in the background, and the size of the net in the forefront. People at this part of the river do what is called "netting": they use these nets and simply stand in the river, waiting for salmon to swim right into the nets. We saw piles of salmon- people can catch tons of fish this way. The limit for this type of fishing is 25 per day per head of household, and 10 per additional household member per day. Wow!


A church group came in from Texas to volunteer and provide childcare, water, coffee, hot cocoa, and coffee for all the fishers. Here's Jen standing in front of an inflatable playground set-up to occupy kids while their parents work on catching fish!

It was super windy when we went to check it out. People come from all over and stay right on the beach. The wind was practically blowing the tents away that day!